> as lemmas

1610 B. Jonson Masque of Oberon in Wks. (1616) 982 There Oberon, and the knights dance out the first masque-dance.

1634 Bp. J. Hall Contempl. Hist. New Test. (STC 12640.5) 167 If it were but some mask-house,..neither white staves, nor halberts could keepe you out.

1645 Orig. Jrnls. House of Commons 28 16 July f. 484^v Ordered that the borded Massque howse at Whithall the Masque howse at S^t: James and the Courte of Guard be forthwith pulled downe.

1647 J. Trapp Comm. Evangelists & Acts (Matt. xxiii. 23) Capistranus..got a great deal of respect to his doctrine by putting down..mask-interludes, &c.

1752 (title) A rencounter at a Mask-Ball, between a Princess of the Blood in France and a handsome lawyer's clerk.

1768 G. Baretti Acct. Manners & Customs Italy II. 21 She..had found means in mask-time to get out of the convent.

1788 S. Neville Diary 9 Aug. (1950) xv. 331 Many other tables below in the Billiard room & audit room—in the style of the Pantheon Masque suppers.

1818 Lady Morgan in Passages from Autobiogr. (1859) 286 This fashion in France of profiting by the custom d'intriguer at masque balls.

1895 G. A. Sala Life II. xxxviii. 78 In the evening we went to a grand mask ball at the Opera.

1910 Daily Chron. 10 Feb. 6/1 Jonson..inclined to patronise Shakespeare from the superior heights of an official masque writer sure of steady patronage.

1998 Commerc. Appeal (Memphis, Tennessee) (Nexis) 23 Feb. c5 Max Kauffman last night was awarded first prize for the most handsome costume worn at the Mask Ball.