Songs From Poetry Wars Of The Shakespearean Age
Close The Musicians In Ordinary’s 2007-08 Season May 17 

Thomas Campion (1568-1620) and Samuel Daniel (1562-1619) represented opposing theoretical viewpoints in the polemical pamphlet wars that raged in Shakespearean England’s poetry scene.　 Campion wrote a pamphlet on The Art of English Poesie, advocating that his contemporaries imitate Latin and Greek verse in their poetry.　 He believed that English was best reserved for light, lyrical verse.

As Edwards recounts, "Sam Daniel replied in his In Defence of Ryme that English poets had been getting along very well for centuries without the constraints of a foreign system, thank you very much."　 Ironically, he notes, "It’s only Campion’s lyric verse that we remember now.　 There are not that many consumers of his Latin poems any more.

"Almost all of Campion’s English poems are set to music by himself," adds Edwards, "and sometimes, because they are so good, by other composers too. 　The Daniel poems that survive as songs are mainly in his brother John’s songbook. In fact, at least one critic considered John Danyel (1564-1626), as second only to the great John Dowland as composer of the lute air."

Edwards marvels that Campion managed to write lasting poetry and music: "Northrop Frye points out that Campion was a soldier, physician, literary critic, musician and playwright as well as a poet and songwriter. 　So it’s hard to imagine that he really had the time to sit around being lovelorn about Laura or Corinna or whoever he claims has broken his heart in this or that song."