University of Virginia Library

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

coming at the same time. The last portion of the masque—about the last two-fifths of the text, though it must have constituted well over half of the playing time—contains the three dances of the masque and the commentary following them, all celebrating the return of Astraea to earth. The dances and their music are introduced by the Quire: The pattern of the parts which follow is quite consistent. After "The first dance" there are lines spoken or sung by Pallas, Astraea, Age, Pallas, and the Quire. There follows "The maine daunce," then lines spoken or sung by Pallas, Poets, and the Quire, and finally "Dance with ladies," then lines spoken or sung by Astraea, Pallas, and the Quire. The Quire's concluding prayer of thanks is the couplet mentioned above: Which calls attention to one more pattern that suggests one more argument that the Astraea/Pallas ending is the one Jonson intended: all but three of Jonson's masques before The Golden Age Restored end with songs, and all of them that could end with a song do so.[21] Thus, the literary argument that I am suggesting is at the least compatible with the bibliographical one, and, given the strength of the former, may be considered to be compelling.