“Colour and light were crucial in the masque. [Frances] Bacon said that the colors to wear were those that ‘shew best by candlelight . . . white, carnation, and a kind of Sea-Water Greene, and Oes or Spangs.’. . . It is not clear how far a sustained system of colour symbolism, as described in late medieval manuals of heraldry, which associated colours with virtues and vices, existed in masque design. . . . Some colours, however, were constantly used and presumably “read” correctly—black for grief or melancholy; white for humility, hope and purity; red for courage; green for love and joy; blue stood for peace and honour, and was a courtly colour, as was carnation. The masque had elaborate and sophisticated lighting, both as part of the stage mechanics and as produced by the torch-bearers, which reflected off the costume with its gold and silver fringes, its sequins or spangles (what Bacon calls “Oes or Spangs”), the shining silk of dress and embroideries, floating gauzy veils and rich jewellery. The masquers’ main purpose was to look stunning and to dance well. . . .”

—Aileen Ribeiro, quoting Bacon’s Of Masques and Triumphs, 1597, in Fashion and Fiction: Dress in Art and Literature in Stuart England, 2005.