verse, Campion showed by his Observations in the Art of English Poesy, published in 1602, in which he attacked "the vulgar and unartificial custom of rhyming," and set down his notions as to the manner in which the language might be metrically accommodated to the rules of quantity. His treatise was answered by Daniel in 1603. It proceeds throughout on the false theory first introduced by Gabriel Harvey, but Campion's ear was too good to suffer him to put up with the monstrous combinations of dactyls and spondees which Harvey attempted to naturalise in English; he provided quantities only for the iambus and the trochee. Though he afterwards published several Books of Airs (about 1613 and 1617), Campion made no attempt to pursue his experiments in English quantity, and it is therefore to be presumed that he saw the error of his own reasoning. Besides songs, he wrote masques, three of which survive in outline, one of them being composed on the occasion of the marriage of the Princess Elizabeth, and another for the marriage of the Earl of Somerset and the Countess of Essex. Though he was a member of Gray's Inn, he did not practise (if he was ever called) at the Bar, but supported himself professionally by his work as a physician. In 1615 he was allowed in that capacity to attend his patron, Sir Thomas Monson, when the latter was accused, as Lieutenant of the Tower, of complicity in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury by the Earl of Somerset and Countess of Essex; indeed, the poet-musician was himself examined as a witness at Monson's trial. The third Book of Airs is dedicated to Monson with some lines congratulating him on his pardon and release. Campion died in March 1619-20, and was buried at St. Dunstan's in the West, Fleet Street. By far the greater number of his songs have the characteristics of the older Euphuism-namely, antithesis of words and balance of sententious moral maxims, in "earpleasing rhymes." This style lent itself readily to musical treatment, and in the skilful hands of Campion produced very charming results, of which the following is a good example : Whether men do laugh or weep, Whether they do wake or sleep, Whether they die young or old, All our pride is but a jest ; None are worst, and none are best ; Play their pageants everywhere: Powers above in clouds do sit, And that happy men disdain. The next specimen of his verse might be chosen as a companion to the sentiment of an older Euphuist, Sidney's rival, the Earl of Oxford, "If women could be fair and yet not fond": If love loves truth, then women do not love; Their kindness straight a tempest overthrows. The storm drowns him ere he can drown his cares. But why accuse I women that deceive? Blame then the foxes for their subtle wile : Yet some I grant in loving steadfast grow; O why had Nature power at once to frame Campion, however, was also an extremely good classical scholar. He was well acquainted with all the Latin poets, and had a particular appreciation of the style of Catullus and Martial, which he early exhibited in a collection of Latin epigrams, written by himself, and published in I 594. In his latter days he completely assimilated the Latin genius, and instead of making idle attempts to shackle his native language with long and short syllables, he transferred the elegant simplicity of his models into metres proper to English. The song that follows was written to illustrate a dance of stars, contrived by Inigo Jones for The Lords' Masque in 1613; and it will be observed how far the subtler antithesis of its classical Euphuism has advanced beyond the comparatively mechanical melody of the earlier style :- Advance your choral motions now, This night concludes the nuptial vow, So bravely crown it with your beams As long as Rhenus or the Thames Once more again, yet nearer move Then revel midst your airy bowers Till all the clouds do sweat, That pleasure may be poured in showers On this triumphant seat. Long since hath lovely Flora thrown Rich Ceres all her wealth hath shown, Changed then to human shape, descend, Clad in familiar weed, That every eye may here commend Another poet, resembling Campion in his Euphuistic tendencies, but with a less complete mastery over his art was Sir Henry Wotton, son, by a second marriage, of Thomas Wotton of Boughton Hall, Kent. Born in 1568, he was educated at Winchester, and matriculated at New College, Oxford, on 5th June 1584, whence he migrated to Queen's College, taking his B.A. degree in 1588. At Oxford he began an intimacy with Donne which lasted till the death of the latter in 1631. After leaving the university, he travelled for seven years on the Continent, and made himself acquainted with the language and institutions of the different European kingdoms. Admitted to the Inner Temple on his return to England in 1595, he was employed by Essex as his agent in various foreign negotiations, and after Essex's death he found it advisable to reside abroad till the accession of James I. In 1604 James sent him to Venice, where he remained, off and on, for nearly twenty years, being, from time to time, despatched from this centre on diplomatic errands. It was soon after his arrival in Venice that he inscribed in an album at Augsburg his celebrated definition of an ambassador: "Legatus est vir bonus peregre missus ad mentiendum reipublicæ causa," which he told Walton he would translate : An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country." Elected M.P. for Appleby in 1614, he supported the King's claim to tax imports without reference to Parliament. James appointed him in 1614 his envoy to the Hague to negotiate, together with the French ambassador, respecting the disputed inheritance of the duchies of Juliers, Cleves, and Berg, and he was sent to Vienna to obtain what terms he could from the Emperor on behalf of the Elector Palatine. Wotton finally returned home in 1524, when, having spent almost all his fortune in the public service, he solicited and obtained from Secretary Conway, in the same year, the Provostship of Eton College. In order to comply with the statute regulating this appointment, he took deacon's orders in 1627,1 and spent the remaining portion of his life at Eton in studious 1 See p. 274. retirement. His favourite recreation was fishing in the company of Izaak Walton, who afterwards became his biographer. To Walton, when he felt himself to be in his last illness, which ended in 1639, he sent a copy of verses, enclosed in a letter very characteristic of the calm and serenity of his life and mind: I have in one of those fits endeavoured to make it more easy by composing a short hymn, and since I have apparelled my best thoughts so lightly as in verse, I hope I shall be pardoned a second vanity if I communicate it with such a friend as yourself: to whom I wish a cheerful spirit and a thankful heart to value it as one of the greatest blessings of our good God; in whose dear love I leave you, remaining your poor friend to serve you, H. WOTTON. The verses run : O Thou great Power, in whom I move, No hallowed oils, no grains I need, No rags of saints, nor purging fire, Was worlds of seas to quench Thine ire : And said by Him that said no more, But sealed it with His sacred breath : My life, my strength, my joy, my all! There is in this composition much of the terseness and classical finish which was being aimed at in the reigns of James I. and Charles I. On the other hand, we also observe in it many touches of the Euphuism characteristic of the Court of Elizabeth; and Euphuism pure and simple animates the rhyming echoes of the following poem, which is stated to have been written by Wotton in his youth |