ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that writers of pageants and masques grow out of an inherent system of patronage emanating mainly from the court or the city; these entertainments by their nature serve and please patrons. Prefatory documents in these texts therefore underscore, reinforce, and acknowledge such patronage. Pageants contain both dramatic fictions and historical reality; a real sovereign or mayor passed through the streets and witnessed the various dramatic scenes or tableaux or sat and watched the masque unfold. The chapter analyses the purposes of epistles dedicatory and addresses to readers in masques and pageants and argues for their connection to patronage. Three playwrights can serve as key figures and guideposts for the operation of textual patronage in these texts: Thomas Churchyard, Samuel Daniel, and Thomas Heywood. They highlight the main purposes of these prefaces: social and cultural; political and historical; and textual and interpretive.
