John Eccles’s setting of Europe’s Revels for the Peace of Ryswick was performed at court and in the theater to mark the successful conclusion of the first part of the negotiations of the Peace of Ryswick (1697). This was an occasion of great rejoicing for the English, and, indeed, for the rest of Europe, as it offered the chance of some political stability after the turbulent events of the Civil Wars.
The action of the piece falls into two halves, within which the ideas are presented in individual scenes or entries reminiscent of a masque. The political messages contained in the work include the role in society for returning soldiers and the superiority of the English on the battlefield, and serious and comic elements which rely on a good dose of national stereotyping and on the understanding of different national traits through dance.
- ISBN: 9781987203066 (1987203062)
