have greatly strengthened his case by adducing the following verses1 addressed to the members of Gray's Inn : The words "disjuncti socii" plainly show that Campion had at one time belonged to the society of Gray's Inn. But the legal profession (as we learn from more than one of his Latin epigrams) was not to his taste; and he does not appear to have been called to the Bar. Applying himself to medicine, he took his degree of M.D., and practised as a physician. Dr. Jessopp supposes that his degree was taken abroad; but we have clear evidence to prove that he studied at Cambridge. William] C[lerke] in Polimanteia, 1595, noticing various poets of the time, writes: "I know, Cambridge, howsoever now old, thou hast some young, bid them be chaste, yet suffer them to be witty; let them be soundly learned, yet suffer them to be gentlemanlike qualified." The marginal annotation to the passage is "Sweet Master Campion." But I can find 1 This epigram is not in the first edition (1595) of Campion's Poemata. It is found in the second edition (1619), No. 227 of "Epigrammatum Liber Secundus." 2 The name "Purpulii" has reference to the masque of 1594"Gesta Graiorum; or the History of the High and Mighty Prince Henry, Prince of Purpoole," &c. Gray's Inn was jocularly styled for the occasion "The State of Purpoole." 1377 no particulars about Campion's Cambridge career. He is not once mentioned in Messrs. Cooper's Athenae Cantabrigienses. Among the poems "of Sundrie other Noblemen and Gentlemen" annexed to the surreptitious edition (Newman's) of Sidney's Astrophel and Stella, 1591, was printed anonymously Campion's delightful song "Hark, all you ladies that do sleep ;" and in 1593 he was praised in the prologue to Peele's Honour of the Garter. It is clear that many of his poems had been circulated in MS., according to the custom of the time, among his friends. Peele addresses him as "thou That richly clothest conceit with well-made words.' The reference in Polimanteia is probably to his English poems; and in Harl. MS. 6910, which is dated 1596, three of his songs are found. Doubtless much of his best work was written before the close of the sixteenth century. The first of Campion's publications was a volume of Latin poems, entered in the Stationers' Register 2nd December, 1594 (Arber's "Transcript," 1 ii. 666), and printed in the following year. So rare is the -> edition of 1595 that only one perfect copy, in the library of Viscount Clifden, is known to exist. This collection, with large additions and a dedication to Charles, Prince of Wales, was reprinted in 1619. The I "Richard ffeild Entred for his copie vnder the wardens hands in court a booke intituled THOMA CAMPIANE Poema... vjd." first edition of the Poemata is a 16mo., containing fifty leaves (Title page; verso blank; A 2 "Ad Lectorem," with "Errata" on verso; sigs. B, C, D, E, F, G, each of eight leaves). It was issued by Richard Field, Shakespeare's fellow-townsman and the printer of Venus and Adonis and Lucrece. The first poem is in praise of Queen Elizabeth, "Ad Dianam"; it is followed by poems on the Earl of Essex ("Ad Daphnin ") and on the defeat of the Spanish Armada ("Ad Thamesin "). These three pieces were not reprinted in ed. 1619. The fourth poem, "Fragmentum Umbræ," was afterwards enlarged. Then follows a group of sixteen elegies: 1 In the dedicatory address ("Ad Librum ") to his friends Edward and Laurence Mychelburne, prefixed to the epigrams, Campion thus refers to Field : "I nunc, quicquid habes ineptiarum, (The text gives "Felsidio," but the correction "Feldisio" is made in the list of "Errata.") This dedication was retained in ed. 1619, but-as that volume was printed by E. Griffin-the mention of Field was cancelled, and the opening lines ran : "I nunc, quicquid habes ineptiarum In lucem sine candidam venire Exinde ut fueris," &c. |