ABSTRACT
One of the defining characteristics of the pre-Civil War Stuart masque, a form that had itself grown out of the semi-theatrical masquerades and balls enjoyed by courtiers and their monarchs during the Tudor era, was the presence of courtly “recreational” performers on stage. Charles I and his queen Henrietta Maria famously assumed the mantle of masquers-in-chief in the grand productions of the 1630s, thereby putting the ultimate seal of approval on this type of activity. But an equally significant component of the form involved the participation of the court’s most youthful denizens, as can be seen, for example, in the masques and “barriers” (masque-like displays of military prowess) created for Henry, Prince of Waleswho appeared in Ben Jonson’s Oberon, the Fairy Prince in 1611, aged sixteen-and his surviving younger brother Charles-whose first masque performance was at the age of seventeen, in Jonson’s Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue in 1618. With the latter man grown to adulthood and (seemingly) securely established on his throne, it was the turn of his own son and heir to lead a troupe of young compatriots onto a court stage. On 12 September 1636, at the tender age of six, the future Charles II took the lead role of Britomart (a possible echo of the female Knight of Chastity in Book III of Spenser’s The Faerie Queene) in a masque-like entertainment at Richmond Palace.1 While modest in comparison with the great Whitehall extravaganzas mounted by Inigo Jones, this anonymous piece not only marked the elevation of the young Charles to his rightful position as Prince of Wales, but also reinforced the place of children as legitimate performers in these types of court entertainments.
