The Masque of Blackness Essay Questions

How does The Masque of Blackness flatter both King James I and the English populace as a whole?

Niger's daughters are seeking a "cure" for their blackness, which was seen as a symbol of corruption and impurity during the time this masque was written. The moon goddess Aethiopia appears to them and gives them advice as to how they can rid themselves of this curse: traveling to a far-off land called Britannia and allowing its leader to purge them. This leader, of course indirectly referring to King James I, who was in attendance during the play, is described as a sun: bright, regal, majestic, and so brilliant that he has the ability to "salve the rude defects of every creature." This generous portrait of James I was likely to tickle his ego. The description of Britain would also flatter the entire populace of the nation: Aethiopia describes Britannia as "a world divided from the world" and as the diamond in the ring of the world, the center of everything beautiful and desirable that can be had on earth.

Explain Niger's comparison of the myth of Phaëton with the event causing his daughters' condition.

In the Greek myth of Phaëton (Phaethon, in many versions) recounted by Ovid, Phaëton is the son of Helios, the god of the sun. He goes to Helios and demands the opportunity to fly the chariot of the sun across the earth one day, and despite several warnings, his father acquiesces. On his flight, Phaëton loses control and flies too close to the sun, searing deserts into Africa and scorching the Africans' skin black by bringing all their blood to the surface. Before this, the Africans had skin as fair as that of any other continent's people.

Niger compares this to the actions of the poets, who have spread the valuation of light skin over dark skin when assessing beauty. This new scale makes Niger's daughters, who have dark skin, feel self-conscious and ugly. By cursing Africans with dark skin and setting them apart from the rest of the world, both Phaëton and these poets have done terrible harm to the African people.

What were some of the criticisms about the masque when it was first performed?

Though The Masque of Blackness is in general considered to have been a successful performance, critics of the play often pointed to two major elements. First, people were dismayed that Queen Anne and the other noble ladies on stage did not use masks to portray dark skin but instead used face paint to appear in blackface (a term that had not yet developed in early modern English vernacular). Rather than perceiving blackface as insensitive, however, these critics instead argued that the ladies were ruining their own image by painting their faces instead of covering them. Furthermore, the elaborate stage setting crafted by Inigo Jones was notably lavish, and critics accused the court of spending too much money on the entertainment, thereby casting doubt on King James I's financial habits.

Why do some scholars interpret the masque as satirical?

While most agree that the masque's primary objective is to flatter King James I and the people of England, some maintain that the masque is actually an ironic criticism of certain English ideals. This is likely because the playwright, Ben Jonson, is known for his satirical city comedies in which he pokes fun at virtually every element of English society. But within the play itself, Niger notes that the concept of whiteness as superior has been invented and spread by "brain-sick" poets who have praised "painted beauties." These comments can be read as Jonson's own critique of his contemporaries, courtly love poetry, and arbitrary notions of desirability.

Why are the daughters not transformed by the end of the play?

The main conflict in The Masque of Blackness is that Niger's daughters wish to be rid of their dark skin and transformed to fair-skinned women about whom the Western poets sing. When Aethiopia presents them with the solution – bathing in the British sea once a month for a year – the moment is rather anticlimactic, as the audience never gets to see the transformation take place. This is likely due both to limitations of the early modern stage – it would have been difficult to remove black face paint from the actresses in front of an audience – and the fact that Jonson followed up the masque with The Masque of Beauty three years later. In this performance, the daughters are finally transformed, and the flattery of King James continues.