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Literary Implications
If the bibliographical details determine that the Astraea/Pallas ending is the corrected one, how does this affect our reading? Is the Astraea/Pallas ending, at the very least, consistent with the arrangement of other parts of the Golden Age Restored? In the first place, there is a great deal of symmetry in the masque, both in its beginning and ending—its "framework"—and within its parts. The masque begins with (stage direction): "pallas in her chariot descending," to explain the implication of events. Jove intends to restore justice to mankind by returning Astraea to the face of the earth. To ready earth (or at least "this happie Ile") for its new Golden Age, in which "burried arts shall flourish," Pallas calls forth the poets "Chaucer, Gower, Lidgate, Spencer."
At the conclusion of the masque, Jove's intention realized, Astraea once more on earth, Pallas ascends. The conclusion can be seen in three parts: (1) We hear Astraea, who is content with her return to earth, observing: "What a change is here! I had not more / Desire to leave the earth before, / Then I have now, to stay;" (2) "pallas ascending calls them" to tell them that they are now to live with the restored Astraea ("them" refers to the celebrants, the members of the audience, who, in effect, represent mankind); (3) finally, for the restoration of the Golden Age, we hear the Quire declaring that "To Jove, to Jove, be all the honour given, / That thankefull hearts can raise from earth to heaven."
Of the symmetries within the masque, the one that bears most on the present argument lies in the various presentations of the Quire. Throughout the masque, the function of the Quire is to moralize ("Let narrow Natures [how they will] mistake, / The great should still be good for their owne sake" [101-102]), to institute action ("Awake, awake, for whom these times were kept" [133]), and to summarize, with the moralizing and summarizing often
Move, move then to these sounds.
And, doe, not onely, walke your solemne rounds,
But give those light and ayrie bounds,
That fit the Genii of these gladder grounds.
That thankefull hearts can raise from earth to heaven.
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