Thomas Campion
Thomas Campion
Thomas Campionwas an English composer, poet, and physician. He wrote over a hundred lute songs, masques for dancing, and an authoritative technical treatise on music...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionComposer
Date of Birth12 January 1567
dishonest heart life man whose
The man of life upright,/ Whose guiltless heart is free/ From all dishonest deeds/ Or thought of vanity.
hath love pleasures summer tedious though winter
The Summer hath his joys, / And Winter his delights. / Though Love and all his pleasures are but toys, / They shorten tedious nights.
either silent sing smoothly thou thy
Rose-cheeked Laura, come; / Sing thou smoothly with thy beauty's / Silent music, either other/ Sweetly gracing.
accents fall flying follow haste sad
Follow your saint, follow with accents sweet; / Haste you, sad notes, fall at her flying feet.
night men please-me
Fain would I wed a fair young man that night and day could please me, When my mind or body grieved that had the power to ease me. Maids are full of longing thoughtsthat breed a bloodless sickness, And that, oft I hear men say, is only cured by quickness.
grief pride play
All our pride is but a jest. None are worst and none are best. Grief and hope and joy and fear Play their pageant everywhere.
dance answers kind
Kind are her answers, But her performance keeps no day; Breaks time, as dancers. From their own Music when they stray.
sleep night light
My sweetest Lesbia, let us live and love, And though the sager sort our deeds reprove, Let us not weigh them. Heaven's great lamps do dive Into their west, and straight again revive, But soon as once set is our little light, Then must we sleep one ever-during night. See Catullus 200:5.
shadow unhappy sun
Follow thy fair sun, unhappy shadow.
mother maids dies
Yet I would not die a maid, because I had a mother, As I was by one brought forth, I would bring forth another.
men joy secret
The man whose silent daysIn harmless joys are spent,Whom hopes cannot delude,Nor sorrow discontent:That man needs neither towersNor armour for defence,Nor secret vaults to flyFrom thunder's violence.
weather sailing bent
Never weather-beaten sail more willing bent to shore.
beauty love-is without-love
Beauty is not beauty without love.
love beauty prove
Thou shalt prove That beauty is no beauty without love.