Beaumont and Fletcher (with Shakespeare)

Monkeys also appeared in another Palatine wedding masque, Francis Beaumont’s The Masque of the Inner Temple and Gray’s Inn and in an adaptation of this as inset performance in Shakespeare and Fletcher’s The Two Noble Kinsman. These works are discussed in the light of recent criticism which foregrounds both the political import and the structural sophistication of the masques. The chapter demonstrates how masques integrate influences from, for example, commedia dell’arte and morris dancing and shows how new readings and metaphors were appropriated and integrated into seemingly ancient native folk ritual.