Women Onstage
English actresses were not yet appearing on the stage in 1632 — though in Italy and France the prejudice against female performers was already in abeyance. (French actresses had appeared in England, to general hostility.) Henrietta Maria took a speaking role in a private 1626 performance of Honorat de Racan's pastoral Artenice, though this was far from a public performance. Tempe Restored was another step in the process of women appearing onstage in England. In the next year, the Queen would take a speaking role in Walter Montagu's masque The Shepherd's Paradise.
The role of women in Tempe Restored has drawn the attention of modern critics. Special notice has been taken of the point in the masque at which Circe dismisses Pallas Athena with the line, "Man-maid, begone!" — because Circe was played by a woman while Athena, in the traditional way, was played by a male performer.
Read more about this topic: Tempe Restored
Famous quotes containing the word women:
“Perhaps ... women have always been in closer contact with reality than men: it would seem to be the just recompense for being deprived of idealism.”
—Germaine Greer (b. 1939)