Thomas Campion
Encyclopedia
Thomas Campion (12 February 1567 – 1 March 1620) was an English composer, poet and physician. He wrote over a hundred lute song
s; masque
s for dancing, and an authoritative technical treatise on music.
, the son of John Campion, a clerk of the Court of Chancery
, and Lucy (née 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, dying soon afterwards. His step-father assumed charge of the boy and sent him, in 1581, to study at Peterhouse, Cambridge
as a "gentleman pensioner"; he left the university after four years without taking a degree. He later entered Gray's Inn
to study law
in 1586. However, he left in 1595 without having been called to the bar.
On 10 February 1605 he received his medical degree from the University of Caen.
Campion is thought to have lived in London, practicing as a physician, until his death March 1620 - possibly of the plague
. He was apparently unmarried and had no children. He was buried the same day at St Dunstan-in-the-West
in Fleet Street
.
He was implicated in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury
, but was eventually exonerated, as it was found that he had unwittingly delivered the bribe that had procured Overbury's death.
's Astrophel and Stella
, which appeared in 1591. In 1595 "Poemata, a collection of Latin panegyrics, elegies and epigrams", was published, winning him a considerable reputation. This was followed in 1601 by a songbook, "A Booke of Ayres", with words by himself and music composed by himself and Philip Rosseter
. The following year he published his "Observations in the Art of English Poesie", "against the vulgar and unartificial custom of riming," in favour of rhymeless verse on the model of classical quantitative verse
. Campion's theories on poetry were refuted by Samuel Daniel
in "Defence of Rhyme" (1603).
In 1607, he wrote and published a masque
for the occasion of the marriage of Lord Hayes
, and, in 1613, issued a volume of "Songs of Mourning: Bewailing the Untimely Death of Prince Henry
", set to music by John Cooper
(also known as Coperario). The same year he wrote and arranged three masques, "The Lords' Masque" for the marriage of Princess Elizabeth
, an entertainment for the amusement of Queen Anne
at Caversham House
, and a third for the marriage of the Earl of Somerset
to the infamous Frances Howard, Countess of Essex
. If, moreover, as appears quite likely, his Two Bookes of Ayres (both words and music written by himself) belongs also to this year, it was indeed his annus mirabilis.
In 1615, he published a book on counterpoint
, A New Way of Making Fowre Parts in Counterpoint By a Most Familiar and Infallible Rule, a technical treatise which was for many years the standard textbook on the subject. It was included, with annotations by Christopher Sympson, in Playford
's "Brief Introduction to the Skill of Musick", and two editions appear to have been published by 1660.
Some time in or after 1617 appeared his Third and Fourth Booke of Ayres. In 1618 appeared the ayres that were sung and played at Brougham Castle on the occasion of the King's entertainment there, the music by George Mason and John Earsden, while the words were almost certainly by Campion. In 1619 he published his "Epigrammatum Libri II. Umbra Elegiarum liber unus", a reprint of his 1595 collection with considerable omissions, additions (in the form of another book of epigrams) and corrections.
period it was practically extinguished. The vogue of the song-books was even more ephemeral, and, as in the case of the masque, the Puritan
ascendancy, with its distaste for all secular music, effectively put an end to the madrigal
. Its loss involved that of many hundreds of dainty lyrics, including those of Campion, and it was due to the work of A. H. Bullen
(see bibliography), who first published a collection of the poet's works in 1889, that his genius was recognized and his place among the foremost rank of Elizabethan lyric poets restored.
Campion set little store by his English lyrics; they were to him "the superfluous blossoms of his deeper studies," but we may thank the fates that his ideas on rhymeless versification so little affected his work. 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, his ability to compose both words and music gave rise to a metrical fluidity which is one of his most characteristic features.
Rarely are his rhythms uniform, while they frequently shift from line to line. His range was very great both in feeling and expression, and whether he attempts an elaborate epithalamium
or a simple country ditty, the result is always full of unstudied freshness and tuneful charm. In some of his sacred pieces he is particularly successful, combining real poetry with genuine religious fervour. Some of Campion's works could also be quite ribald - such as "Beauty, since you so much desire".
Early dictionary writers, such as Fétis saw Campion as a theorist. It was much later on that people began to see him as a composer. He was the writer of a poem, Cherry Ripe
, which is not the later famous poem of that title but has several similarities.
(BBC2), where his works are used as the inspiration for a young man trying to serenade a female colleague. This segment was referenced in the second series of the programme as well.
Music:
Lute song
The lute song was a generic form of music in the late Renaissance and very early Baroque eras, generally consisting of a singer accompanying himself on a lute, though lute songs may often have been performed by a singer and a separate lutenist...
s; masque
Masque
The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment which flourished in 16th and early 17th century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio...
s for dancing, and an authoritative technical treatise on music.
Life
Campion was born in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, the son of John Campion, a clerk of the Court of Chancery
Court of Chancery
The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid the slow pace of change and possible harshness of the common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over all matters of equity, including trusts, land law, the administration of the estates of...
, and Lucy (née Searle - daughter of Laurence Searle, one of the queen's serjeants-at-arms
Serjeant-at-Arms
A Sergeant-at-Arms is an officer appointed by a deliberative body, usually a legislature, to keep order during its meetings. The word sergeant is derived from the Latin serviens, which means "servant"....
). Upon the death of Campion's father in 1576, his mother married Augustine Steward, dying soon afterwards. His step-father assumed charge of the boy and sent him, in 1581, to study at Peterhouse, Cambridge
Peterhouse, Cambridge
Peterhouse is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is the oldest college of the University, having been founded in 1284 by Hugo de Balsham, Bishop of Ely...
as a "gentleman pensioner"; he left the university after four years without taking a degree. He later entered Gray's Inn
Gray's Inn
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...
to study law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
in 1586. However, he left in 1595 without having been called to the bar.
On 10 February 1605 he received his medical degree from the University of Caen.
Campion is thought to have lived in London, practicing as a physician, until his death March 1620 - possibly of the plague
Bubonic plague
Plague is a deadly infectious disease that is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, named after the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. Primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death...
. He was apparently unmarried and had no children. He was buried the same day at St Dunstan-in-the-West
St Dunstan-in-the-West
The Guild Church of St Dunstan-in-the-West is in Fleet Street in London, England. An octagonal-shaped building, it is dedicated to a former bishop of London and archbishop of Canterbury.-History:...
in Fleet Street
Fleet Street
Fleet Street is a street in central London, United Kingdom, named after the River Fleet, a stream that now flows underground. It was the home of the British press until the 1980s...
.
He was implicated in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury
Thomas Overbury
Sir Thomas Overbury was an English poet and essayist, and the victim of one of the most sensational crimes in English history...
, but was eventually exonerated, as it was found that he had unwittingly delivered the bribe that had procured Overbury's death.
Poetry and songs
The body of his works is considerable, the earliest known being a group of five anonymous poems included in the "Songs of Divers Noblemen and Gentlemen", appended to Newman's edition of Sir Philip SidneyPhilip Sidney
Sir Philip Sidney was an English poet, courtier and soldier, and is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan Age...
's Astrophel and Stella
Astrophel and Stella
Likely composed in the 1580s, Philip Sidney's Astrophel and Stella is an English sonnet sequence containing 108 sonnets and 11 songs. The name derives from the two Greek words, 'aster' and 'phil' , and the Latin word 'stella' meaning star. Thus Astrophel is the star lover, and Stella is his star...
, which appeared in 1591. In 1595 "Poemata, a collection of Latin panegyrics, elegies and epigrams", was published, winning him a considerable reputation. This was followed in 1601 by a songbook, "A Booke of Ayres", with words by himself and music composed by himself and Philip Rosseter
Philip Rosseter
Philip Rosseter was an English composer and musician, as well as a theatrical manager. From 1603 until his death in 1623 he was lutenist for James I of England. Rosseter is best known for A Book of Aires which was written with Thomas Campion...
. The following year he published his "Observations in the Art of English Poesie", "against the vulgar and unartificial custom of riming," in favour of rhymeless verse on the model of classical quantitative verse
Meter (poetry)
In poetry, metre is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse metre, or a certain set of metres alternating in a particular order. The study of metres and forms of versification is known as prosody...
. Campion's theories on poetry were refuted by Samuel Daniel
Samuel Daniel
Samuel Daniel was an English poet and historian.-Early life:Daniel was born near Taunton in Somerset, the son of a music-master. He was the brother of lutenist and composer John Danyel. Their sister Rosa was Edmund Spenser's model for Rosalind in his The Shepherd's Calendar; she eventually married...
in "Defence of Rhyme" (1603).
In 1607, he wrote and published a masque
Lord Hay's Masque
Lord Hay's Masque was an early Jacobean era masque, written by Thomas Campion, with costumes, sets and stage effects designed by Inigo Jones. The masque was performed on Twelfth Night, January 6, 1607, in the Great Hall of Whitehall Palace...
for the occasion of the marriage of Lord Hayes
James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle
James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle was a Scottish aristocrat.-Life:He was the son of Sir James Hay of Fingask , and of Margaret Murray, cousin of George Hay, afterwards 1st Earl of Kinnoull.He was knighted and taken into favor by James VI of Scotland, brought into England in 1603, treated as a "prime...
, and, in 1613, issued a volume of "Songs of Mourning: Bewailing the Untimely Death of Prince Henry
Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales
Henry Frederick Stuart, Prince of Wales was the elder son of King James I & VI and Anne of Denmark. His name derives from his grandfathers: Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley and Frederick II of Denmark. Prince Henry was widely seen as a bright and promising heir to his father's throne...
", set to music by John Cooper
John Cooper (composer)
John Cooper , also known as Giovanni Coprario or Coperario, was an English composer, viol player and lutenist....
(also known as Coperario). The same year he wrote and arranged three masques, "The Lords' Masque" for the marriage of Princess Elizabeth
Elizabeth of Bohemia
Elizabeth of Bohemia was the eldest daughter of King James VI and I, King of Scotland, England, Ireland, and Anne of Denmark. As the wife of Frederick V, Elector Palatine, she was Electress Palatine and briefly Queen of Bohemia...
, an entertainment for the amusement of Queen Anne
Anne of Denmark
Anne of Denmark was queen consort of Scotland, England, and Ireland as the wife of King James VI and I.The second daughter of King Frederick II of Denmark, Anne married James in 1589 at the age of fourteen and bore him three children who survived infancy, including the future Charles I...
at Caversham House
Caversham Court
Caversham Court is a public garden and was a mansion located on the north bank of the River Thames in Caversham, a suburb of Reading in the English county of Berkshire . The park lies within the St Peter's conservation area...
, and a third for the marriage of the Earl of Somerset
Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset
Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, , was a politician, and favourite of King James I of England.-Background:Robert Kerr was born in Wrington, Somerset, England the younger son of Sir Thomas Kerr of Ferniehurst, Scotland by his second wife, Janet, sister of Walter Scott of Buccleuch...
to the infamous Frances Howard, Countess of Essex
Frances Carr, Countess of Somerset
Frances Carr, Countess of Somerset was an English noblewoman who was the central figure in a famous scandal and murder during the reign of King James I...
. If, moreover, as appears quite likely, his Two Bookes of Ayres (both words and music written by himself) belongs also to this year, it was indeed his annus mirabilis.
In 1615, he published a book on counterpoint
Counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
, A New Way of Making Fowre Parts in Counterpoint By a Most Familiar and Infallible Rule, a technical treatise which was for many years the standard textbook on the subject. It was included, with annotations by Christopher Sympson, in Playford
John Playford
John Playford was a London bookseller, publisher, minor composer, and member of the Stationers' Company, who published books on music theory, instruction books for several instruments, and psalters with tunes for singing in churches...
's "Brief Introduction to the Skill of Musick", and two editions appear to have been published by 1660.
Some time in or after 1617 appeared his Third and Fourth Booke of Ayres. In 1618 appeared the ayres that were sung and played at Brougham Castle on the occasion of the King's entertainment there, the music by George Mason and John Earsden, while the words were almost certainly by Campion. In 1619 he published his "Epigrammatum Libri II. Umbra Elegiarum liber unus", a reprint of his 1595 collection with considerable omissions, additions (in the form of another book of epigrams) and corrections.
Retrospective
While Campion had attained a considerable reputation in his own day, in the years that followed his death his works sank into complete oblivion. No doubt this was due to the nature of the media in which he mainly worked, the masque and the song-book. The masque was an amusement at any time too costly to be popular, and during the commonwealthCommonwealth of England
The Commonwealth of England was the republic which ruled first England, and then Ireland and Scotland from 1649 to 1660. Between 1653–1659 it was known as the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland...
period it was practically extinguished. The vogue of the song-books was even more ephemeral, and, as in the case of the masque, the Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
ascendancy, with its distaste for all secular music, effectively put an end to the madrigal
Madrigal (music)
A madrigal is a secular vocal music composition, usually a partsong, of the Renaissance and early Baroque eras. Traditionally, polyphonic madrigals are unaccompanied; the number of voices varies from two to eight, and most frequently from three to six....
. Its loss involved that of many hundreds of dainty lyrics, including those of Campion, and it was due to the work of A. H. Bullen
Arthur Henry Bullen
Arthur Henry Bullen, often known as A. H. Bullen, was an English editor and publisher, a specialist in 16th and 17th century literature, and founder of the Shakespeare Head Press, which for its first decades was a publisher of fine editions in the tradition of the Kelmscott Press.His father George...
(see bibliography), who first published a collection of the poet's works in 1889, that his genius was recognized and his place among the foremost rank of Elizabethan lyric poets restored.
Campion set little store by his English lyrics; they were to him "the superfluous blossoms of his deeper studies," but we may thank the fates that his ideas on rhymeless versification so little affected his work. 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, his ability to compose both words and music gave rise to a metrical fluidity which is one of his most characteristic features.
Rarely are his rhythms uniform, while they frequently shift from line to line. His range was very great both in feeling and expression, and whether he attempts an elaborate epithalamium
Epithalamium
Epithalamium refers to a form of poem that is written specifically for the bride on the way to her marital chamber...
or a simple country ditty, the result is always full of unstudied freshness and tuneful charm. In some of his sacred pieces he is particularly successful, combining real poetry with genuine religious fervour. Some of Campion's works could also be quite ribald - such as "Beauty, since you so much desire".
Early dictionary writers, such as Fétis saw Campion as a theorist. It was much later on that people began to see him as a composer. He was the writer of a poem, Cherry Ripe
Cherry Ripe
Cherry Ripe is an English song with words by the poet Robert Herrick , and music by Charles Edward Horn which contains the refrain,Cherry ripe, cherry ripe,Ripe I cry,Full and fair onesCome and buy.Cherry ripe, cherry ripe,...
, which is not the later famous poem of that title but has several similarities.
In popular culture
Repeated reference was made to Campion in an October 2010 episode of the BBC TV series, James May's Man LabJames May's Man Lab
James May's Man Lab is a British television series presented by James May. The first three part series was aired on BBC Two between 31 October and 14 November 2010...
(BBC2), where his works are used as the inspiration for a young man trying to serenade a female colleague. This segment was referenced in the second series of the programme as well.
External links
Text:- Biography (Poetry Foundation)
- Thomas Campion - Life and works (Luminarium: Anthology of English literature)
- Husoy, Lance. Thomas Campion and the Web of Patronage
Music:
- Midi file arrangements of several songs by Campion (Tony Catalano's Classical Guitar MIDI Page)