Background
His mother was Lucy Searle, daughter of Laurence Searle, one of the queen's serjeants-at-arms.
Upon the death of Campion's father in 1576, his mother married Augustine Steward and died herself soon after.
(In this series, a contemporary poet selects and introduce...)
In this series, a contemporary poet selects and introduces a poet of the past. By their choice of poems and by the personal and critical reactions they express in their prefaces, the editors offer insights into their own work as well as providing an accessible and passionate introduction to the most important poets in our literature. Thomas Campion (1567-1620) was born in London and educated at Cambridge. He studied law at Gray's Inn, and was both a poet and composer - a contemporary not only of Shakespeare, Drayton, Marlowe and Jonson, but also of Byrd, Morley, Gibbons and Dowland. Campion wrote over one hundred lute songs, published between 1601 and 1617 in four Books of Ayres, as well as a treatise on The Art of English Poesie, and a number of masques. His work was not rediscovered until the nineteenth century; since then, whoever dreams of a poem where language begins to resemble music thinks of Campion.
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His mother was Lucy Searle, daughter of Laurence Searle, one of the queen's serjeants-at-arms.
Upon the death of Campion's father in 1576, his mother married Augustine Steward and died herself soon after.
He was the son of John Campion of the Middle Temple, who was by profession one of the cursitors of the chancery court, the clerks " of course, " whose duties were to draft the various writs and legal instruments' in correct form.
He studied at Cambridge for four years, and left the university, it would appear, without a degree, but strongly imbued with those tastes for classical literature which exercised such powerful influence upon his subsequent work.
His subsequent movements are not certain, but in 1591 he appears to have take, , part in the French expedition under Essex, sent for the assistance of Henry IV against the League; and in 1606 he first appears with the degree of doctor of physic, though the absence of records does not permit us to ascertain where this was obtained.
His rhymeless experiments are certainly better conceived than many others, but they lack the spontaneous grace and freshness of his other poetry, while the whole scheme was, of course, unnatural.
He must have possessed a very delicate musical ear, for not one of his songs is unmusical; moreover, the fact of his composing both words and music gave rise to a metrical fluidity which is one of his most characteristic features.
Rarely indeed are his rhythms uniform, while they frequently shift from line to line.
Campion contributed the first 21 songs and a prose exposition on music theory.
He wrote in the preface to Book of Ayres, "what Epigrams are in poetrie, the same are ayres in musick, then in their chief perfection when they are short and well seasoned. "
His musical contributions to the volume include "Though You Are Young and I Am Old; " "Come, Let Us Sound with Melody, " a rendering of Psalm 19 in Sapphic meter; and "I Care Not for These Ladies.
"Observations in the Art of English Poesie, Campion's treatise on poetry, was published in 1602.
In it he denounced rhyming verse as facile and inartistic and advocated instead the use of classical, quantitative meters, that is meters based on quantity—determined by duration, or the time it takes to express a syllable—rather than on accent.
As an example of his theory, he exhibited "Rose-Cheekt Lawra:" "Rose-cheekt Lawra, come / Sing thou smoothly with thy beawties / Silent musick, either other / Sweetely gracing.
"During this same period Campion went abroad to pursue medical studies at the University of Caen in Normandy.
Depicting the resolution of a disagreement between Diana and the knights of Apollo through the intervention of Hesperus, the masque reflects the symbolic union of Scotland and England in the nuptial occasion and the actual union of the countries under James's rule. Campion returned to theoretical writing with A New Way of Making Fowre Parts in Counter-point, published circa 1610.
The first of these was a production mounted for the entertainment of Queen Anne as she traveled between London and Bath in April 1613, making a stop in Reading.
Campion, though questioned and cleared during the investigation, had unknowingly collected the bribe that secured the silence of tower guards in the matter. In addition to the masques composed during 1613, Campion also published Two Books of Ayres.
"The second part of the volume comprises love songs, including "The Peaceful Western Wind" and "There Is None, O None but You, " both of which critic Thomas MacDonagh characterized in 1913 as "masterpieces of melody. "
MacDonagh praised the collection for presenting "an ever new variety of rhythm and rime and colour, " citing such works as "Thrice Toss These Oaken Ashes in the Air" and "Now Winter Nights Enlarge, " which concludes, "The Summer hath his joyes, / And Winter his delights; / Though Love and all his pleasures are but toyes, / They shorten tedious nights.
Elegiarum liber unus, Campion's final work, was published in 1619.
This work enlarges and revises his earlier Latin poetry, including Ad Thamesin, and presents a number of new epigrams on medical subjects and elegies on love and faithfulness.
Umbra narrates the tragic story of Iolde and her son Melampus.
According to Dana F. Sutton, "the poem deals with destructive dreams and beguiling false visions" and through its subtext suggests that "physical beauty, and the love it engenders is a destructive snare and delusion.
"Campion died in London on March 1, 1620, and was buried at St. Dunstan's in the West, Fleet Street. In the century following his death, Campion's reputation diminished as new styles of music and poetry evolved.
Interest in his compositions was revived during the early twentieth century with the publication of Campion's Works, edited by Percival Vivian in 1909.
A later estimation, advanced by Anthony Burgess in 1970, holds that "Campion is possibly unique in possessing a total mastery of both crafts … and a precise knowledge of the relationship between them.
Of his dramatic works, biographer David Lindley has noted in the Dictionary of Literary Biography that "Campion's masques are significant examples of their kind.
(In this series, a contemporary poet selects and introduce...)
(Introduction by John Hollander. Selected and prefaced by ...)
(Works. 500 Pages.)
In both he was not merely an inspired empiric but a powerful theorist.
He was apparently unmarried and had no children.