The masque was controversial in its day, in part for the production's use of body paint instead of masks to simulate dark skin. One observer, Sir Dudley Carleton expressed his displeasure with the play as such:
- Instead of Vizzards, their Faces, and Arms up to the Elbows, were painted black, which was a Disguise sufficient, for they were hard to be known; ... and you cannot imagine a more ugly Sight, than a Troop of lean-cheek'd Moors.[14][15]
Carleton also made a topical joke, comparing the huge sea-monsters that flanked the shell that housed the nymphs with an unusual sighting of a seal in the Thames at Isleworth, "it came in company with the Sea-fish that drew in our Lady-Moors, and carried a Waiting Gentlewoman and some baggage!".[16]
Another writer described the masque dancers' appearance and the expense; "the Queen and some dozen ladies all paynted like Blackamores, face and neck bare, and for the rest strangely attired in Barbaresque mantells to the halfe legge, having buskins all to be sett with jewells, ... it took the King betweene 4 or £5,000 to execute to Queen's fancy".[17]
A poem, perhaps by John Donne or Henry Goodere, was addressed to one of the masquers, possibly Lucy, Countess of Bedford. It begins, "Why chose shee black; was it that in whitenes, She did Leda equall".[18]
The make-up used could not be quickly removed, so a metamorphosis from black to white was not staged.[19] Anne of Denmark's apothecary John Wolfgang Rumler is known to have devised a more easily removeable blackface make-up for a masque in 1621, The Gypsies Metamorphosed.[20]
The masque was expensive, costing £3000. It caused consternation among some English observers due to the perceived impropriety of the performance. Controversy also stemmed from the predominant role of female actresses playing what were considered traditionally male roles.[21]
The texts of The Masque of Blackness and The Masque of Beauty were published together in quarto form in 1608, by the bookseller Thomas Thorpe; they were reprinted in the first folio collection of Jonson's works in 1616.
