§28. Attention paid to the Fine Arts. XIV. Some Political and Social Aspects of the Later Elizabethan and Earlier Stewart Period. Vol. 5. The Drama to 1642, Part One. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature: An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes. 1907

The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume V. The Drama to 1642, Part One.

XIV. Some Political and Social Aspects of the Later Elizabethan and Earlier Stewart Period.

§ 28. Attention paid to the Fine Arts.

The attention bestowed in this period upon the fine arts should not be overlooked, though it cannot be discussed here. The cultivation of music, indeed, was one of the most attractive features of Shakespeare’s age and seems to have been common to both sexes. 116 The subject of Elizabethan and Jacobean architecture has been already touched upon, but cannot here be pursued further. Painting, with the exception of miniature painting, was mainly left in foreign hands. The external conditions of the drama proper were such that it could owe little or nothing to architect, sculptor or painter; the achievements of Inigo Jones belong to the history of the masque. 117

Note 116. As to Elizabethan music, and its association with the drama, see Chap. VI of Vol. IV of this work, cf. also Schelling’s chapter, u.s. “When Music and sweet Poetry agree.” As to the favourite composers of the period between 1589 and 1600, see Lyrical Poems selected from musical publications, 1589–1680, ed. Collier, J. P., Percy Soc. Publ. (1844), vol. XIII. See, also, the note of Rockstro, W., on “The Sixth English School,” ap. Traill, H. D., u.s. vol. III, p. 309. [ back ]

Note 117. “Painting and carpentry are the soul of mask” is Ben Jonson’s sneer in his Expostulation with Inigo Jones. [ back ]