The new Muslim influence brought with it certain changes to the dance form: what had been a largely devotional practice now became more a courtly entertainment.

In 16th and 17th centuries grotesque dances were often presented as an anti-masque, performed between the acts of more serious courtly entertainments.

Former courtly entertainments, such as jousting, often also survived in children's games.

Not all of Tommaso Francini's mechanisms for courtly entertainments were garden features.

Opera, as a musical and theatrical genre, began to emerge during the early part of Monteverdi's career, initially as a form of courtly entertainment.

Ranging from courtly entertainments to lusty dances derived from the form known as commedia dell'arte, it reflected 18th-century ideas about the world.

First developed at the Jesuit college Pont a Mousson in 1588, it developed into an erudite courtly entertainment by the seventeenth century.

The Marechal of Richelieu had a "folly" built there, to an extravagant architectural design, where he held courtly entertainments.

"The poignant second movement Adagio moves the string quartet even farther from the concept of courtly entertainment," writes Miller.

Reading aloud was another courtly entertainment.