SOURCE: Davis, Walter R. “Masques.” In Thomas Campion, pp. 118-53. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1987.

In the following excerpt, Davis argues that masques bring together Campion's diverse skills, discusses how they were staged, and surveys critical responses to them.

The Lord Hay's Masque

James I and his Revels Office took an old form that had existed in England for at least a century and made it serve a new and intense political purpose, that of solidifying James's kingdom, which, by the Act of Union, was to combine England, Scotland, and Wales into Great Britain. Campion was chosen to compose the masque celebrating the first of the major political weddings James was to sponsor between Scots lords and English ladies; it took place 6 January 1607, it being Twelfth night, and it was between his favorite, James Hay, first earl of Carlisle and Baron Hay, and Honora Denny, daughter of the high sheriff...