"Songs of baser alloy": Jonson's Gypsies Metamorphosed and the Circulation of Manuscript Libels

Abstract

James Knowles examines the nature of a developing national political culture in the 1620s by focusing on the staging (on three occasions) of Ben Jonson’s masque Gypsies Metamorphosed, the texts it generated, and the circulation of those texts. The essay examines a wide range of extant manuscript material associated with the masque, especially libelous poems written in opposition to Buckingham. By considering the ways in which such material circulated, and therefore the ways in which it was read, the essay demonstrates that masque texts, so often perceived as straightforwardly celebratory, become embedded in a wider culture of political debate. appendix overleaf gypsies metamorphosed and manuscript libels 173 69. Neptune’s Triumph, in Jonson: Complete Masques, lines 115–18. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.113 on Wed, 05 Oct 2016 04:43:09 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

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