''Lord Hay's Masque'' was an early Jacobean era

masque The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th- and early 17th-century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio (a public version of the masque was the pageant). A masque ...

, written by

Thomas Campion Thomas Campion (sometimes spelled Campian; 12 February 1567 – 1 March 1620) was an English composer, poet, and physician. He was born in London, educated at Cambridge, studied law in Gray's inn. He wrote over a hundred lute songs, masques for ...

, with costumes, sets and stage effects designed by

Inigo Jones Inigo Jones (; 15 July 1573 – 21 June 1652) was the first significant architect in England and Wales in the early modern period, and the first to employ Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmetry in his buildings. As the most notable archit ...

. The masque was performed on

Twelfth Night ''Twelfth Night'', or ''What You Will'' is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–1602 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play centres on the twins Vio ...

, 6 January

1607 Events January–June * January 13 – The Bank of Genoa fails, after the announcement of national bankruptcy in Spain. * January 19 – San Agustin Church, Manila, is officially completed; by the 21st century it will be the ...

, in the Great Hall of

Whitehall Palace The Palace of Whitehall (also spelt White Hall) at Westminster was the main residence of the English monarchs from 1530 until 1698, when most of its structures, except notably Inigo Jones's Banqueting House of 1622, were destroyed by fire. Hen ...

. It was the premier event at the Stuart Court for the 1606-7 Christmas holiday season.

The marriage

''Lord Hay's Masque'' celebrated the marriage of an important Scottish aristocrat Sir James Hay and a socially prominent English

gentlewoman A gentlewoman (from the Latin ''gentilis'', belonging to a ''gens'', and English 'woman') in the original and strict sense is a woman of good family, analogous to the Latin ''generosus'' and ''generosa''. The closely related English word "gentry" ...

Honora Denny Honora Denny (died 1614) was an English courtier. She was the daughter of Edward, Lord Denny and Mary Cecil, a daughter of Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter. Some sources use the name "Honoria" or "Honor". She married a prominent Scottish-born co ...

, daughter of Edward, Lord Denny. Hay was a favourite of King

James I James I may refer to: People *James I of Aragon (1208–1276) *James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327) *James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu *James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347) *James I of Cyprus (1334–13 ...

, and had been a masquer in ''

Hymenaei ''Hymenaei,'' or ''The Masque of Hymen,'' was a masque written by Ben Jonson for the marriage of Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, and Lady Frances Howard, daughter of the Earl of Suffolk, and performed on their wedding day, 5 January 1606 ...

'' the previous year. The intricate politics of the Stuart Court decreed some key differences between the two events; while the bill for ''Hymenaei'' was paid by King James, the expenses of the masque for Lord Hay were covered by the powerful Howard and

Cecil Cecil may refer to: People with the name * Cecil (given name), a given name (including a list of people and fictional characters with the name) * Cecil (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) Places Canada *Cecil, Alberta, ...

families. The principal masquers were led by Theophilus Howard, Lord Walden, the son and heir of the

Earl of Suffolk Earl of Suffolk is a title which has been created four times in the Peerage of England. The first creation, in tandem with the creation of the title of Earl of Norfolk, came before 1069 in favour of Ralph the Staller; but the title was forfei ...

. James's queen consort,

Anne of Denmark Anne of Denmark (; 12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) was the wife of King James VI and I; as such, she was Queen of Scotland The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional fo ...

, was antipathetic to the Howards and she sat out the masque, claiming illness. Partially as a result, the documentary record on ''Lord Hay's Masque'' is thinner than for some other Court masques of the era.

The masque

Jones's design for the masque had a sylvan theme, centered on a Grove of Diana with nine golden trees, flanked by a Bower of

Flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. E ...

on the right and a House of Night on the left. One scene featured artificial owls and bats flying around the set on wires. The nine gold trees moved and danced and split apart to reveal the nine principal masquers (the trees then sank into the stage below, at a touch from Night's wand). The masquers, dressed in carnation and cloth of silver and initially concealed in green and silver leaves, were nine knights of

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

, and the torchbearers were the nine Hours of the night.

The music

The masque was richly supplied with music, created by several composers – including Campion himself, who contributed two "airs" for songs and a dance. The published text indicates that the music was played by a "consort of twelve," violins with three lutes, a "consort of ten" that included

harpsichord A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism ...

, bandora,

sackbut The term sackbut refers to the early forms of the trombone commonly used during the Renaissance music, Renaissance and Baroque music, Baroque eras. A sackbut has the characteristic telescopic slide of a trombone, used to vary the length of th ...

, and two violins as well as lutes, and a group of

cornet The cornet (, ) is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B, though there is also a sopr ...

s. A few details of the musical arrangements have survived, including the fact that at least one song was sung by a doubled set of voices, with a treble and bass situated near the King and another set of singers on the stage, "so that the words of the song might be heard of all."

Publication

Campion's text was entered into the

Stationers' Register The Stationers' Register was a record book maintained by the Stationers' Company of London. The company is a trade guild given a royal charter in 1557 to regulate the various professions associated with the publishing industry, including print ...

on 26 January 1607 and was published in

quarto Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...

shortly after, printed by John Windet for the bookseller John Browne. Campion's verses conjoin the personal and political, hailing the marriage of Hay and Denny and looking forward to a day when English/Scottish intermarriage will produce a new "British" citizen.

Aftermath

Such political and social import is a heavy load to lay on a new marriage. Within two years the couple were facing difficulties. Honoria was supposedly unfaithful and Hay was jealous; he broke open her cabinets in search of love letters and threatened her servants. Lady

Mary Wroth Lady Mary Wroth (née Sidney; 18 October 1587 – 1651/3) was an English noblewoman and a poet of the English Renaissance. A member of a distinguished literary family, Lady Wroth was among the first female English writers to have achieved an en ...

exploited their troubles in ''Urania,'' her prose

roman à clef ''Roman à clef'' (, anglicised as ), French for ''novel with a key'', is a novel about real-life events that is overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people, and the "key" is the relationship ...

about Stuart high society.Cerasano and Wynne-Davies, pp. 93–4.

References

Sources

* Barroll, John Leeds. ''Anna of Denmark, Queen of England: A Cultural Biography.'' Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001. * Cerasano, S. P., and Marion Wynne-Davies. ''Gloriana's Face: Women, Public and Private, in the English Renaissance.'' Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 1992. * Chambers, E. K. ''The Elizabethan Stage.'' 4 Volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1923. * Leapman, Michael. ''Inigo: The Troubled Life of Inigo Jones, Architect of the English Renaissance.'' London, Headline Book Publishing, 2003. * Lindley, David. ''Thomas Campion.'' Leiden, Brill Academic Publishers, 1986. * Walls, Peter. ''Music in the English Courtly Masque, 1604–1640.'' Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1996.

External links

* {{IMSLP2, work=Masque in Honour of the Marriage of Lord Hayes (Campion, Thomas) English Renaissance plays 1607 plays Masques