ABSTRACT
The theater in the opening decades of the century was dominated by dedicated Whig dramatists such as Richard Steele, Joseph Addison, William Congreve, Colley Cibber, Susanna Centlivre, Mary Pix and Charles Johnson. The Masquerade debuted on 6 January 1719, in the middle of a series of Jacobite rebellions from 1715 to 1722. Charles Johnson's The Masquerade certainly does its part in this ongoing Whig project of interpreting the rebellion in ways that reaffirmed George I's right to rule. The Whig's much-vaunted creed of 'liberty', valorizing citizens' right of resistance to a tyrannical monarch, was entirely unsuitable to their present role of suppressing rebellion and supporting status quo. Johnson's play does not compare very favorably with the finely-crafted The Tender Husband, though it offers much humor in its multiple plotlines. Mr Ombre and his wife Lady Frances are a more conventional couple.
