The Triumph of Peace was a Caroline era masque, "invented and written" by James Shirley, performed on 3 February 1634 and published the same year.
The masque was entered into the Stationers' Register on 24 January 1634 and was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, on the date it was acted, 3 February 1634.
Then came two music chariots; the first held eight lutenists dressed as priests and Sybils, while the second carried singers "who struck picturesque poses in costumes representing the celestial bodies in harmonious motion.
[5] The theme of the masque was relatively simple and straightforward: the spirits of Peace, Law, and Justice descend to honor the English monarchs.
Yet the expression is complex, with seven changes of scene; at one point the moon sets in an open landscape and "Amphiluche," the harbinger of morning, rises in turn.
The costumes were rich and fantastic: "Fancy in a suit of several-colored feathers, hooded, a pair of bat's wings on his shoulders...Jollity in a flame-colored suit, but tricked like a morris dancer, with scarfs and napkins, his hat fashioned like a cone...." Some of the costumes were "wrought as thick with silver spangles as they could be placed."
At one point in the masque, a windmill, a knight and his squire entered – an obvious allusion to Don Quixote — and engaged in a mock combat.
The total cost of the extravaganza was, according to Whitelocke, £21,000, all paid by the Inns of Court (at a time when a squire might earn £100 in a year).