Theatrical

Arnold, J. 1993. ‘Costume for masques and other entertainments, c.1500-1650’, Historical Dance, 3(2), 1-18.

The author describes some costumes worn in masques of the period, and notes which features were seen in ballet costumes until the late eighteenth century.

Britland, K. 2006. Drama at the Courts of Queen Henrietta Maria. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Drama at the Courts of Queen Henrietta Maria considers Queen Henrietta Maria’s patronage of drama in England in the light of her French heritage. The author challenges the common view of Henrietta Maria as a meddlesome and frivolous woman whose actions contributed to the outbreak of the English civil wars by showing how she was consistent in her allegiances to her family and friends, and how her cultural and political positions were reflected in the plays and court masques she sponsored. This book considers the queen’s upbringing at the French court and her later exile in France during the English civil wars, and is therefore able to challenge received notions about her activities in England during the 1630s. The author combines discussions of literary texts with historical and archival research and discussions of art, architecture and music.

Finkel, A. 1988. ‘‘A true and perfect mirror…’: costumes for Charles Kean’s revivals of Shakespeare’s plays, 1852-1859’, Dress, 14, 4-16.

Discusses Kean’s use of historically accurate dress for Shakespeare’s plays. Illustrated with contemporary photographs.

Green, R. 1994. The Wearing of Costume: The Changing Techniques of Wearing Clothes, from Roman Britain to the Second World War. London, Safira Publications.

Aimed primarily at those in the theatre. The first section discusses the management of certain types of garment (e.g. skirts and cloaks). The second section offers a history of costume with emphasis on the poise and posture adopted by the wearers.

Hunnisett, J. 1986. Period Costume for Stage and Screen: Patterns for Women’s Dress, 1500-1800. London, Bell & Hyman.
Jefferys, T. 1757 and 1772. A Collection of the Dresses of Different Nations, Ancient and Modern. London, Thomas Jefferys.

‘A collection of the dresses of different nations, ancient and modern. Particularly old English dresses. After the designs of Holbein, Vandyke, Hollar, and others. With an account of the authorities … and some short historical remarks … to which are added the habits of the principal characters on the English stage …’

Kelly, F. M. 1970. Shakespearian Costume for Stage and Screen. London, Black.

Originally published in 1938. The 1970 edition is completely revised by Alan Mansfield.

Levine, L. 1994. Men in Women’s Clothing: Anti-Theatricality and Effeminization, 1579-1642. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Linthicum, M. C. 1972. Costume in the Drama of Shakespeare and his Contemporaries. New York, Hacker Art Books.
MacIntyre, J. 1992. Costumes and Scripts in the Elizabethan Theatres. Edmonton, University of Alberta Press.
Milhous, J. and Hume, R. T. C. 2001. ‘The tailor’s shop at the Pantheon Opera, 1790-1792’, Costume, 35, 24-36.

Documentary evidence allows for a reconstruction of the tailor’s room and its operations at the Pantheon Opera, London, in the late 18th century. From February 1792, the theater held a season of opera seria, opera buffa, and ballet, for which scenery and costumes were made from scratch. The venture did not thrive, however, and the second seasons’ offerings were restricted to the cheaper endeavors of ballet and opera buffa. A fire destroyed the theater to the ground on Janaury 14, 1972, but many surviving costume-related documents, including a wardrobe book that records in detail the production of the theater’s costume shop from the first season and lists of dressers from both seasons, allow for a very full reconstruction of the process of making, developing, and caring for costumes at the theater. Following an outline of the evidence for the physical spaces devoted to the tailor’s shop, the writer discusses the staff involved in the creation of costumes and examines examples of the shop’s work and its schedule.

Nunn-Weinberg, D. 2006. ‘The matron goes to the masque: the dual identity of the English embroidered jacket’, Medieval Clothing and Textiles, 2, 151-173.

The author considers the 100 or so portraits for women wearing embroidered jackets and divides them into two groups, one of these being masque costume. She then dissects the painting of Elizabeth Vernon and concludes it shows her dressing for a masque.

Orgel, S. and Strong, R. C. 1973. Inigo Jones. The Theatre of the Stuart Court. London & Berkeley, Sotheby Parke Bernet,.

Includes the complete designs for productions at court, for the most part in the collection of the Duke of Devonshire, together with their texts and historical documentation.

Ravelhofer, B. 2006. The Early Stuart Masque: Dance, Costume, and Music. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

This book studies the complex impact of movements, costumes, words, scenes, music, and special effects in English illusionistic theatre of the Renaissance. Drawing on a large amount of documentary evidence relating to English productions as well as spectacle in France, Italy, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire, the book elucidates professional ballet, theatre management, and dramatic performance at the early Stuart court. Individual studies take a fresh look at works by Ben Jonson, Samuel Daniel, Thomas Carew, John Milton, William Davenant, and others, showing how court poets collaborated with tailors, designers, technicians, choreographers, and aristocratic as well as professional performers to create a dazzling event. Based on extensive archival research on the households of Queen Anne and Queen Henrietta Maria, special chapters highlight the artistic and financial control of Stuart queens over their masques and pastorals. Many plates and figures from German, Austrian, French, and English archives illustrate accessibly-written introductions to costume conventions, early dance styles, male and female performers, the dramatic symbolism of colours, and stage design in performance.

Ribeiro, A. 1978. ‘The exotic diversion: the dress worn at masquerades in eighteenth-century London’, Connoisseur, 791 (January).
Ribeiro, A. 1984. The Dress worn at Masquerades in England, 1730 to 1790, and its Relation to Fancy Dress in Portraiture. New York & London, Garland.
Richards, P. and Munns, J. eds. 1999. The Clothes That Wear Us: Essays on Dressing and Transgressing in Eighteenth-Century Culture. Cranbury, New Jersey, University of Delaware Press.

The contributors to this volume offer a wide range of topics, perspectives, and approaches as they explore issues of gender and cultural cross-dressing. The meanings inherent in theatrical costuming; the ways in which novels, journals, and prints disseminated ideas about fashion, status, and gender; and present case studies of cultural practices relating to clothing are examined. The ways in which dress articulates transformations in the economic conditions, social relations, and ideological constructions of the culture of the eighteenth century are also traced.

Simpson, P. and Bell, C. F. 1924. ‘Designs by Inigo Jones for masques and plays at court’, Walpole Society Annual, XII, 41-43.
Stuart, A. 2005. ‘Court masques: tableaux of modernity in the early 17th century’. In: C. Breward and C. Evans. eds. Fashion and Modernity, Oxford, Berg.
Twycross, M. and Carpenter, S. 2002. Masks and Masking in Medieval and Tudor England. Aldershot, Ashgate.

Part of the series Studies in Performance and Early Modern Drama. Draws on published sources with additional material from selected manuscripts mainly of the 15th and 16th centuries.

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