| 释义 |
▪ I. masque|mɑːsk, -æ-|
Also 6–7 maske, 7–9 mask.
[Orig. the same word as mask n.2; the Fr. spelling masque, formerly used indifferently with mask(e in all senses, is now retained to distinguish the senses explained below.]
1. A masquerade, masked ball. [So in Fr.] Now rare.
1514Liber Numer. Scacc. Hen. VIII in Collier Hist. Dram. Poetry (1831) I. 78 note, Johi. Farlyon Custod...apparatuum omnium singulorum jocorum, larvatorum, vocat. Maskes, Revelles, and Disguysings. 1533More Answ. Poysoned Bk. Pref., Wks. 1039/2 Some..full boldlye come daunce in a maske. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VIII 16 The kyng with a .xi. other were disguised, after the maner of Italie, called a maske, a thyng not seen afore in Englande. 1601Shakes. Twel. N. i. iii. 121, I delight in Maskes and Reuels. 1667Milton P.L. iv. 768 Mixt Dance, or wanton Mask, or Midnight Bal. 1719D'Urfey Pills (1872) IV. 146 Lately I went to a Masque at Court Where I see Dances of every sort. 1735Pope Ep. Lady 26 Sappho fragrant at an ev'ning Masque. 1903Smart Set IX. 58/2, I should have liked to go to a ball—a masque would have suited me best.
2. A form of amateur histrionic entertainment, popular at Court and amongst the nobility in England during the latter part of the 16th c. and the first half of the 17th c.; originally consisting of dancing and acting in dumb show, the performers being masked and habited in character; afterwards including dialogue (usually poetical) and song.
1562MS. Lansdowne 5 in Collier Hist. Dram. Poetry (1879) I. 179 The Seconde Night. First a Castell to be made in the haule, called the Courte of Plentye; then the maske after this sorte. 1599B. Jonson Cynthia's Rev. Ind., All the courtiers must prouide for reuels; they conclude vpon a Masque, the deuice of which is [etc.]. 1604(title) The true description of a royal masque presented at Hampton Court upon Sunday-night, being the eighth of January 1603–4. 1621in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. i. III. 122 At the practising of a Maske that is intendid by the Queene to be presented to the Kinge. a1674Clarendon Hist. Reb. xiv. §67 There being a Masque at the Court that the King liked very well, he perswaded the Chancellor to see it. 1791–1823D'Israeli Cur. Lit. (1858) III. 8 The essence of the Masque was pomp and glory. 1827Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) II. viii. 38 The queen..had performed a part in a mask at court. 1879M. Pattison Milton ii. (1880) 21 A Mask was an exhibition in which pageantry and music predominated, but in which dialogue was introduced as accompaniment or explanation. 1898H. A. Evans Eng. Masques Introd. 34.
b. transf. and fig.
1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. v. xvii. 427 His phansie presents him with strange masques, wherein onely Fiends and Furies are actours. a1822Shelley (title) The Masque of Anarchy. 1838Brit. Cycl. Biog. II. 905/1 s.v. Scott, Sir Walter, The splendid masque, ‘Ivanhoe’. 1860Hawthorne Marb. Faun (1879) II. xviii. 185 And now, after a mask in which love and death had performed their several parts, she had resumed her proper character.
3. A dramatic composition intended for the kind of representation described under sense 2.
1605B. Jonson (title) The Qveenes Masqves. The first, Of Blacknesse. 1637Milton (title of Comus) A Maske presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634. 1709Steele Tatler No. 98 ⁋7 A Passage in a Mask writ by Milton. 1865Lecky Ration. (1878) II. 315 The musical dramas known under the name of masques elicited some of the noblest poetry of Ben Jonson and of Milton.
†4. A set of masquers. Obs.
1599B. Jonson Cynthia's Rev. v. iii. Stage direct., The Masques ioyne, and they dance. 1625Bacon Ess., Of Masques (Arb.) 540 Double Masques, one of Men, another of Ladies, addeth State, and Variety.
5. attrib. and Comb.
1634Bp. Hall Contempl. N.T. iv. 167 If it were but some mask-house,..neither white staves nor halberts could keepe you out. 1645Jrnl. Ho. Comm. 16 July IV. 210/1 Ordered that the boarded Masque House at Whitehall..be forthwith pulled down and sold away. 1647Trapp Comm. Matt. xxiii. 23 Capistranus..got a great deal of respect to his doctrine by putting down..mask-interludes, &c. 1768Baretti Mann. & Cust. Italy II. 21 She..had found means in mask-time to get out of the convent. 1903Anders Shakespeare's Bks. 153 Puck and the other fairies give a very masklike performance at the close of Midsummer Night's Dream.
▪ II. masque
obs. form of mask n.2 and v.2 |