Chloridia

Chloridia: Rites to Chloris and Her Nymphswas the finalmasquethatBen Jonsonwrote for theStuartCourt. It was performed atShrovetide,22 February 1631, with costumes, sets and stage effects designed byInigo Jones.

The masque

Chloridiawas the second of a duet of 1631 royal masques, the first beingLove's Triumph Through Callipolis,which had been staged six weeks earlier, on 9 January. In the first work, KingCharles Idanced; in the second,Queen Henrietta Mariastarred with her ladies in waiting. Both masques dealt with the theme ofPlatonic love,a concept dear to the Queen's heart.Chloridiadepends on rich imagery of nature, greenery, and the seasons, with figures likeZephyrus,Juno,andIris,along withnaiadsand personifications of "Poesy, History, Architecture, and Sculpture." The anti-masque features dwarfs and macabre figures emerged from Hell; one of the dancers was the dwarfJeffrey Hudson,the Queen's page and jester. The masque was as rich in spectacle as Jones's masques normally were: characters appear in clouds (a "bright cloud" and a "purplish cloud" ) floating in the air.

The rivals

The end of Jonson's career as a masquer for the Court, however, was due not to ill health but to aclash of personalities.Jonson and Jones had been partners in the creation of masques for the Stuart Court sinceThe Masque of Blacknessin1605;but Jonson had long nourished a resentment against Jones, feeling that the architect took and received too much credit for the success of their joint projects. The poet expressed his resentment with thinly veiled ridicule of Jones in his works, starting at least as early asBartholomew Fairin1614— the character Lanthorn Leatherhead in that play being a mockery of Jones.Since Jonson arranged for the publication of the texts of his masques, his name always preceded Jones's in these volumes; but whenChoridiawas published together withCallipolis,in a 1631quartoissued by the booksellerThomas Walkley,Jones's name was omitted entirely.

This was an insult that the very well-connected Jones was not prepared to swallow; he used his powerful Court connections to ensure that Jonson was never invited to write another masque for the Stuart Court. (Jonson's final two masques,The King's Entertainment at WelbeckandLove's Welcome at Bolsoverof1633and1634,were written forWilliam Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle.) WhenChloridiawas reprinted in thesecond folio collection of Jonson's worksin1641(four years after Jonson's death), Jones was appropriately credited.

References

• Leapman, Michael.Inigo: The Troubled Life of Inigo Jones, Architect of the English Renaissance.London, Headline Book Publishing, 2003.
• Orgel, Stephen, ed.Ben Jonson: Complete Masques.New Haven, Yale University Press, 1969.