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See also: English poet and musician, was See also: born in See also: London on the 12th of See also: February 1567, and christened at St Andrew's, See also: Holborn
.
He was the son of See also: John Campion of the
See also: Middle See also: Temple, who was by profession one of the cursitors of the See also: chancery See also: court, the clerks " of course," whose duties were to draft the various writs and legal See also: instruments in correct See also: form
.
Hismother was See also: Lucy Searle, daughter of Laurence Searle, one of the See also: queen's serjeants-at-arms
.
Upon the See also: death of Campion's See also: father in 1576, his See also: mother married Augustine Steward and died herself soon after
..
Steward acted for some years as See also: guardian of the See also: orphan, and sent him in 1581, together with See also: Thomas
See also: Sisley, his stepson by his second wife See also: Anne, relict of See also: Clement Sisley, to Peterhouse, Cambridge, as a gentleman pensioner
.
He studied at Cambridge for four years, and See also: 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 See also: work
.
In See also: April 1587 he was admitted to See also: Gray's
See also: Inn, possibly with the intention of adopting a legal profession, but he had little sympathy with legal studies and does not appear to have been called to the See also: bar
.
His subsequent movements are not certain, but in 1591 he appears to have take,. See also: part in the French expedition under See also: Essex, sent for the assistance of See also: Henry IV. against the
See also: League; and in 16o6 he first appears with the degree of See also: doctor of physic, though the See also: absence of records does not permit us to ascertain where this was obtained
.
The rest of his See also: life was probably spent in London, where he practised as a physician until his death on the 1st of See also: March 162o, leaving behind him, it would appear, neither wife nor issue
.
He was buried the same
See also: day at St See also: Dunstan's-in-the-West, See also: Fleet Street
.
The See also: body of his See also: works is considerable, the earliest known being a See also: group of five See also: anonymous poems included in the Songs of See also: Divers Noblemen and Gentlemen, appended to Newman's surreptitious edition of See also: Sidney's Astrophel and Stella, which appeared in r5g
.
In 1595 appeared under his own name the Poemata, a collection of Latin panegyrics, elegies and epigrams, which evince much skill in handling, and won him considerable reputation
.
This was followed in 16or by A Booke of Ayres, one of the See also: song-books so fashionable in his day,the See also: music of which was contributed in equal proportions by himself and See also: Philip Rosseter,while the words were almost certainly all written by him
.
The following
See also: year he published his Observations in the See also: Art of English Poesie, " against the vulgar and unartificial See also: custom of riming," in favour of See also: rhyme-less verse on the See also: model of classical quantitative See also: poetry
.
Its appearance at this stage was important as the final statement of the crazy See also: prejudice by one of its sanest and best equipped champions, but the challenge thus thrown down was accepted by Daniel, who in his Defence of Ryme, published the same year, finally demolished the See also: movement
.
In 1607 he wrote and published a masque for the occasion of the See also: marriage of See also: Lord Hayes, and in 1613 he issued a See also: volume of Songs of Mourning (set to music by Coperario or John See also: Cooper) for the loss of
See also: Prince Henry, which was sincerely lamented by the whole English nation
.
The same year he wrote and arranged three masques, the Lords' Masque for the marriage of Princess See also: Elizabeth, an entertainment for the amusement of Queen Anne at Caversham
See also: House, and a third for• the marriage of the See also: earl of See also: Somerset to the infamous Frances See also: 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 annul mirabilis
.
Some See also: time in or after 1617 appeared his Third and See also: Fourth Booke of Ayres; while to that year probably also belongs his New Way of making Foure Parts in See also: Counter-point, a technical See also: treatise which was for many years the See also: standard text-See also: book on the subject
.
It was included, with annotations by Christopher Sympson, in Playf air's Brief Introduction to the Skill of Musick, and two See also: editions appear to have been bought up by 166o
.
In 1618 appeared The Ayres that were sung and played at See also: Brougham See also: Castle on. the occasion of the See also: king's entertainment there, the music by
See also: Mason and Earsden, while the words were almost certainly by Campion; and in 1619 he published his See also: Epigram-taciturn Libri II
.
See also: Umbra Elegiarum See also: liber onus, a reprint of his 1595 collection with considerable 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 sank into See also: complete oblivion
.
No doubt this was due to the nature of the See also: 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 with the See also: Rebellion it was practically extinguished
.
The vogue of the song-books was even more ephemeral, and, as in the See also: case of the masque, the Puritan ascendancy, with its distaste for all secular music, effectively put an end to the See also: madrigal
.
Its loss involved that of many hundreds of dainty lyrics, including those of Campion, and it is due to the enthusiastic efforts of Mr A
.
H
.
Bullen, who first published a collection of the poet's works in 1889, that his See also: genius has been recognized and his place among the foremost See also: rank of Elizabethan lyric poets restored to him
.
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 See also: 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 See also: uniform, while they frequently shift from See also: line to line
.
His range was very See also: great both in feeling and expression, and whether he attempts an elaborate epithalamium or a See also: 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
.
(P
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