ABSTRACT
Massinger’s masques-within function very differently from the plays-within of The Roman Actor. The latter allow the playwright to examine the dynamics of his own medium and defend it at the same time; they are a theatrical manifesto, presented at the beginning of his new position as house playwright with England’s leading theatre company. In contrast, Massinger’s masques-within are neither as innovative nor as central to his practice. Few are spectatorial in the same sense as the plays-within; they are rarely given extended attention by their onstage audiences. In some cases it seems, as Martin Garrett says of the masque-within of The Duke of Milan (1621), that “it does not matter … whether the masque is there or not” (149).1 Although Massinger’s plays contain six masques-within, making this his largest category of metatheatrical inset, his use of them seems to reflect the popularity of the masque-within rather than personal interest.2
