The faculty of judgment, whether aesthetic, political, or moral, held a central position in the life of eighteenth-century England. This dissertation reveals the political ideologies underlying the aesthetic judgments (made by composers, audiences, and characters) in a repertoire of masque settings of William Congreve's libretto, The Judgment of Paris from 1701 to 1742. / Chapter One provides an introduction to English political history in the early to mid-eighteenth century, in particular the Parliamentary strife which existed between the Whig and Tory parties, and documents the influence of politics on cultural production and aesthetic ideology. Chapter Two outlines the events surrounding the "The Prize Musick" competition including the circumstances of its inception, sponsors, competitors, and outcome. This chapter also discusses Congreve's ties to the Whig party and the structure and content of his libretto. Chapter Three analyses and compares the settings of the original extant settings from the competition by Daniel Purcell, John Weldon, and John Eccles with emphasis on their relative strengths of orchestration, harmonic structure, and motivic content. In Chapter Four new settings of Congreve's libretto, dating from the 1740s, by Giuseppe Sammartini and Thomas Arne are analysed and compared, both to each other and to the earlier "Prize" settings. This chapter also discusses the rise of other dramatic works based on similar "judgment" or "choice" plots such as Handel's The Choice of Hercules. Finally, Chapter Five outlines the historical function of music and aesthetic judgment in maintaining an orderly society and the role of The Judgment of Paris settings in fulfilling this function.

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