As its title suggests, The Masque of Blackness falls into the dramatic sub-genre of the masque. While they were most popular in England in the sixteenth and seventeen centuries, masques actually developed earlier in Italy before flourishing in other parts of Europe. Masques were short performances that featured dancing, singing, acting, and often elaborate stage design. They are typically associated with amateur actors rather than professional companies, though they were written by respected and popular playwrights (as in the case of The Masque of Blackness, written by Ben Jonson and featuring Queen Anne and her ladies as actresses). Actors were traditionally costumed with masks, which is one of the reasons The Masque of Blackness was criticized during the time of its performance – the performers wore makeup (blackface) rather than masks to cover their faces.
While plays were performed in England for a variety of audiences, masques were typically commissioned and performed exclusively for the court, and often featured royalty or nobility in their casts. As such, one of the conventional themes of courtly masques is the veneration and flattery of whichever monarch sat on the throne at the time of the performance. In the case of The Masque of Blackness, the flattered monarch was King James I, who had succeeded the beloved Queen Elizabeth I just two years earlier when she died in 1603.
At the same time, masques celebrated the court, many have noted that they also contained a great deal of political subtext. Regarding The Masque of Blackness, scholars have compared the anxiety of racial disparity to James I's initiatives to unite the kingdoms of England and Scotland (James I was already King of Scotland when he assumed the English throne, and at the time Englishmen and Scotsmen were considered to be of different races). Furthermore, some critics have noted that the end of Blackness features a rather benign and mild description of transformation – Niger's daughters simply have to bathe in the sea in order to "cleanse" themselves of their darkness. This, some argue, is representative of King James I's relatively benevolent policies toward Africa and English colonization.
