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theatrical excess where Renaissance nobles played gods, then danced with the audience.
royal budgetsingle performances cost thousands of pounds in 1600s money
poe's nodThe Masque of the Red Death borrows the term directly
disguise rootshares ancestry with mask and Italian maschera
jonson and jonesBen Jonson scripted them, Inigo Jones built the spectacle
audience danceended with performers pulling spectators into the revels