CAMPION, THOMAS (1567-162o) English poet and musician, was born in London on Feb. 12, 1567, and christened at St. Andrew's, Holborn. 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. His mother was Lucy Searle, daughter of Laurence Searle, one of the queen's sergeants-at-arms. Upon the death of Campion's father in 1576, his mother married Augustine Steward and died herself soon after. Steward sent him in 1581 to Peterhouse, Cambridge, as a gentleman pensioner. He left the university, it would appear, without a degree, but strongly imbued with those tastes for clas sical literature which exercised such powerful influence upon his subsequent work. In April 1586 he was admitted to Gray's Inn, but he does not appear to have been called to the bar. In 1591 he seems to have taken 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. He practised as a physician until his death in London on March 1, 162o. A group of five anonymous poems by Campion was in cluded in the Songs of Divers Noblemen and Gentlemen, appended to Newman's surreptitious edition of Sidney's Astrophel and Stella, which appeared in 1591. In 1595 appeared under his own name the Poemata, a collection of Latin panegyrics, elegies and epi grams. This was followed in 1601 by A Booke of Ayres, the music of which was contributed in equal proportions by himself and Philip Rosseter, while the words were almost certainly all written by him. 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 clas sical quantitative poetry. The challenge thus thrown down was accepted by Daniel whose Defence of Ryrne was published in the same year.
In 1607 he wrote and published a masque for the occasion of the marriage of Lord Hayes, and in 1613 he issued a volume of Songs of Mourning (set to music by Coperario or John Cooper) for the loss of Prince Henry. The same year he wrote and ar ranged 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 Frances Howard, countess of Essex. If, more over, as appears likely, his Two Bookes of Ayres (both words and music written by himself) belongs also to this year, it was indeed his annus mirabilis.
Some time in or after 1617 appeared his Third and Fourth Booke of Ayres; while to that year probably also belongs his New Way of snaking Foure Parts in Counterpoint, a technical treatise which was for many years the standard text-book on the subject. It was included, with annotations by Christopher Sympson, in Playfair's Brief Introduction to the Skill of Musick, and two edi tions appear to have been bought up by 166o. 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 Mason and Earsden, while the words were almost certainly by Campion; and in 1619 he published his Epigrammatum Libri II. Umbra Elegiarum liber onus, a reprint of his 1595 collection with con siderable omissions, additions (in the form of another book of epigrams) and corrections.
While Campion had attained a considerable reputation in his own day, in the years that followed his death his works were forgotten. The masque was practically extinguished by the Puritan revolution, which also, with its distaste for all secular music, put an end to the madrigal. Its loss involved that of many hundreds of dainty lyrics, including those of Campion, and it was only when Mr. A. H. Bullen published a collection of the poet's works in 5889, that his genius was again recognized.
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 precepts of rhymeless versification so little affected his practice. His rhymeless experiments are certainly better conceived than many others, but they lack the spontaneous grace and freshness of his other poetry. 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. 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.