The Rival Maids: Anne Killigrew, Anne Kingsmill and the making of the court masque Venus and Adonis (music by John Blow)
The Rival Maids: Anne Killigrew, Anne Kingsmill and the making of the court masque Venus and Adonis (music by John Blow)
James A. Winn’s paper ‘A versifying maid of honour: Anne Finch and the libretto for Venus and Adonis’ (Review of English Studies n.s., lix (2008), pp.67-85) presented an array of evidence enabling him to identify Anne Kingsmill (later Anne Finch, ultimately Anne Countess of Winchilsea) as the likely author of the libretto of Venus and Adonis, an all-sung court entertainment performed before King Charles II probably in 1683. John Blow composed the music. This paper – complementing Winn’s – does not dispute his main findings but does examine additional pictorial evidence suggesting that Anne Killigrew also worked on the court’s Venus and Adonis project, producing several paintings on the Venus and Adonis theme and helping to shape the libretto in a small way. Killigrew and Kingsmill were both serving as Maids of Honour to Duchess Mary of Modena at the crucial time. Signs of rivalry rather than untroubled friendship can be detected. With Killigrew included, a clearer picture of the social world from which Venus and Adonis emerged can be discerned – a world in which the authorship concept had vivid meaning (authors knew who they were), while open acknowledgement of authorship could prove problematic.
Anne Killigrew – Anne Kingsmill-Finch – John Blow – Venus and Adonis – James Winn
631-652
Pinnock, Andrew
a13924a7-d53d-41a6-827c-f91013ea4ee0
November 2018
Pinnock, Andrew
a13924a7-d53d-41a6-827c-f91013ea4ee0
Pinnock, Andrew
(2018)
The Rival Maids: Anne Killigrew, Anne Kingsmill and the making of the court masque Venus and Adonis (music by John Blow).
Early Music, 46 (4), .
(doi:10.1093/em/cay066).
Abstract
James A. Winn’s paper ‘A versifying maid of honour: Anne Finch and the libretto for Venus and Adonis’ (Review of English Studies n.s., lix (2008), pp.67-85) presented an array of evidence enabling him to identify Anne Kingsmill (later Anne Finch, ultimately Anne Countess of Winchilsea) as the likely author of the libretto of Venus and Adonis, an all-sung court entertainment performed before King Charles II probably in 1683. John Blow composed the music. This paper – complementing Winn’s – does not dispute his main findings but does examine additional pictorial evidence suggesting that Anne Killigrew also worked on the court’s Venus and Adonis project, producing several paintings on the Venus and Adonis theme and helping to shape the libretto in a small way. Killigrew and Kingsmill were both serving as Maids of Honour to Duchess Mary of Modena at the crucial time. Signs of rivalry rather than untroubled friendship can be detected. With Killigrew included, a clearer picture of the social world from which Venus and Adonis emerged can be discerned – a world in which the authorship concept had vivid meaning (authors knew who they were), while open acknowledgement of authorship could prove problematic.
Text
The_Rival_Maids_FINAL_PURE
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Submitted date: 2017
Accepted/In Press date: 8 February 2018
e-pub ahead of print date: 8 November 2018
Published date: November 2018
Keywords:
Anne Killigrew – Anne Kingsmill-Finch – John Blow – Venus and Adonis – James Winn
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Local EPrints ID: 421363
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/421363
ISSN: 1741-7260
PURE UUID: ffcb0589-a084-42c9-89ab-a659097b6114
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Date deposited: 05 Jun 2018 16:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 05:17
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