A Queen and a Masque. Samuel Daniel’s The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses as a Mirror of Anne of Denmark’s Political Aims

Samuel Daniel’s The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses as a Mirror of Anne of Denmark’s Political Aims

Abstract

This study focuses on the role played by Anne of Denmark in the English court during the first years of the reign of James I and on her creative use of the masque to convey, in both symbolic and allegorical ways, the idea of herself as a subject endowed with a peculiar political identity.

From this perspective, the article analyses The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses (1604) by Samuel Daniel - the first masque commissioned by the Queen - interpreting it as an attempt on Anne’s part to appear as the center of a power that, though subordinate to the King's authority, demands its own autonomy and a function complementary to that of the sovereign.