ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -And this form of Renaissance Upper class entertainment continued into the Elizabethan era. A Masque was a lavish, dramatic entertainment often spoken in verse, usually performed by masked, disguised players representing mythological or allegorical figures.

Detailed explanation-2: -The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th-and early 17th-century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio (a public version of the masque was the pageant).

Detailed explanation-3: -A masque is “a form of amateur dramatic entertainment, popular among the nobility in 16th-and 17th-century England, which consisted of dancing and acting performed by masked players.” So essentially, it was a play, opera, and dance performance, all together.

Detailed explanation-4: -masque in American English (mæsk, mɑːsk) noun. 1. a form of aristocratic entertainment in England in the 16th and 17th centuries, originally consisting of pantomime and dancing but later including dialogue and song, presented in elaborate productions given by amateur and professional actors.