ere introduced, and by the time of
Louis XIV. "Opera" (_i.e._, the Masque) was in full swing in the early
part of this reign. On the Spanish stage ballets, with allegorical
characters, were known in the sixteenth century; and, in fact,
throughout Europe about this age, and some time previously this
improvised form of Italian Comedy, and the several characters in it,
belonging to the family of Harlequin, had long been familiar subjects.

Returning to England after our little holiday, the Masque in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries had become very popular. The
architect, Inigo Jones, being frequently employed to furnish the
decorations with all the magnificence of his invention. At the Courts of
Elizabeth, James I., Charles I., and up to the time when all plays were
totally suppressed, was it the rage. At the Restoration the Masque was
revived again, and here, borrowing the name from the continent, it is
called "Opera." In proof of this, in Dryden's work, "Albion and
Albanius," 1685, "Opera" is defined as a "poetical tale or picture
represented by vocal and instrumental music, and endowed with machines
and dances."

The dramatic poet and author, Ben Jonson, collaborated with Inigo Jones,
the architect, in devising these Masque plays, Jonson supplying the
words, and Jones the scenic effects, the latter being very gorgeous,
consisting of "landscapes, mountains, and clouds, which opened to
display heathen deities illuminated by variegated coloured lights." Over
these Masques or "Operatic" entertainments Jonson and Jones quarrelled,
as the former's grievance was that he received no more for his
librettos than Jones did for his scenic devices. Ben Jonson thereupon
wrote satires upon Inigo Jones, and in one of his squibs appears the
satirical line, "Painting and Carpentry are the Soul of Masque." Is not
this applicable to many of our present-day Pantomimes, which, as I have
just stated in the previous chapter, the Masque was one of the original
progenitors?

Inigo Jones and Jonson first collaborated in the "Masque of Blackness,"
performed at Whitehall on Twelfth Night, 1603. In our money this Masque
cost some L10,000. Jones and Jonson's quarrel originated because the
poet had, in the "Masque of Chloridia," performed in 1630, prefixed his
own name before that of Jones. In consequence of this "rare old Ben" was
deprived--through Jones' influence--of employment at Court.

Gifford, in his "Memoirs of Ben Jonson," says that