Mercury Vindicated from the Alchemists at Court is a Jacobean-era masque, written by Ben Jonson and designed by Inigo Jones.
The masque was significant in the internal politics of the Stuart Court, in that it marked a major step in the ascension of George Villiers as the new favorite of King James.
For several years, Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset had held that wholly unofficial but very powerful position, as well as rising to major official posts such as Lord Chamberlain; but Somerset's role in the 1613 murder of Sir Thomas Overbury was becoming a major scandal.
[6][7] The masques in the 1616 folio appear to be arranged in a consistent chronological order; Mercury Vindicated is second to last in the volume, and TGAR is the final work included.
Recent scholarship tends to rely on the implications of the original text, and treats the two masques as presented in that order.