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Courtly Comédiantes: Henrietta Maria and Amateur...
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Courtly Comédiantes: Henrietta Maria and Amateur Women’s Stage Plays in France and England

Abstract

Henrietta Maria, queen consort of Charles I of England, is known to literary and performance scholars primarily for her sponsorship of court masques and plays, spectacles through which she functioned as an “exigent mediatrix of her native culture”. In London prior to Henrietta Maria’s arrival in May 1625, women’s voices had rarely been heard on the stage. The chapter offers new evidence proving that Henrietta Maria did, in fact, act on the French court stage before she crossed the channel to become queen of England. French and English scholars to date have provided little concrete information regarding Henrietta Maria’s acting activities in France. Similar skill in amateur female performance in the French provinces had been attested to earlier by at least one contemporary commentator, and in ways that suggest a relationship between an unmarried woman’s theatrical virtuosity and her class mobility.

Authors

Gough MJ

Book title

Women Players in England, 1500–1660

Pagination

pp. 193-215

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Publication Date

June 4, 2019

DOI

10.4324/9781315233703-9
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