Abstract

The present essay focuses on the role of Queen Anna in the staging of Samuel Daniel's masque "The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses" (1604). Anna's will to affirm her own political identity has been analysed in relation to the particular use that she made of the masque as a means to convey, both symbolically and allegorically, not only entertainment or art, but the idea of herself and her own court. Through various modes of representing her character on stage, she aimed at producing precise reactions and conveying different messages that encouraged both a marked obsequiousness to the King and the affirmation of a new political vision, subtly favouring herself and her son Henry.