ABSTRACT
The interrelation of theatre and court during the Tudor and Stuart periods is an intricate one. It was earlier stressed (pp. 5&-7) that the Stuart court became increasingly involved in theatrical affairs, by the time of Charles exerting considerable pressure on the style of drama and invading the processes of theatre in a variety of ways . Officially, commercial theatre in London was traditionally tolerated only so that a royal taste for theatrical entertainment might be supplied at short notice by expert writers and performers with well-rehearsed plays. At the Caroline court, an art once professed by rogues and vagabonds was being transformed, by way of the specialisation inherent in the developing private theatre, into an aristocratic pursuit. In the masque, Charles and Henrietta Maria could be most themselves by appearing on stage as idealisations of themselves, projecting their image in sublime pantomines.
