1. Thomas Campion 15671620 The Man of Life Upright
2. Background Information 1 Thomas Campion (12 February 1567 1
March 1620) was an English composer, poet, and physician. He wrote
over a hundred lute songs, masques for dancing, and an
authoritative technical treatise on music. Campion was born in
London, the son of John Campion, a clerk of the Court of Chancery,
and Lucy (ne Searledaughter of Laurence Searle, one of the queen's
sergeants-at-arms). Upon the death of Campion's father in 1576, his
mother married Augustine Steward, dying soon afterwards. His
step-father assumed charge of the boy and sent him, in 1581, to
study at Peterhouse, Cambridge as a "gentleman pensioner"; he left
the university after four years without taking a degree. He later
entered Gray's Inn to study law in 1586. However, he left in 1595,
without having been called to the bar. On 10 February 1605, he
received his medical degree from the University of Caen.
3. Background Information 2 Campion is thought to have lived in
London, practicing as a physician, until his death in March
1620possibly of the plague. He was apparently unmarried and had no
children. He was buried the same day at St. Dunstan-in-the-West, in
Fleet Street. He was implicated in the murder of Sir Thomas
Overbury, but was eventually exonerated, as it was found that he
had unwittingly delivered the bribe that had procured Overbury's
death. The body of his works is considerable, the earliest known
being a group of five anonymous poems included in the Songs of
Divers Noblemen and Gentlemen, which appeared in 1591. In 1595,
Poemata, a collection of Latin panegyrics, elegies and epigrams was
published, winning him a considerable reputation. In 1602, he
published his Observations in the Art of English Poesie, in favor
of rhymeless verse. In 1613, he wrote and arranged three masques:
The Lords' Masque for the marriage of Princess Elizabeth; an
entertainment for the amusement of Queen Anne at Caversham House;
and a third for the marriage of the Earl of Somerset to the
infamous Frances Howard, Countess of Essex.
4. Background Information 3 While Campion had attained a
considerable reputation in his own day, in the years that followed
his death his works sank into complete oblivion. No doubt this was
due to the nature of the 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 during the commonwealth period it was
practically extinguished. The vogue of the song-books was even more
ephemeral. Campion set little store by his English lyrics; they
were to him the superfluous blossoms of his deeper studies. Early
dictionary writers saw Campion as a theorist. It was much later on
that people began to see him as a composer. Repeated reference was
made to Campion in an October 2010 episode of the BBC TV series,
James May's Man Lab, where his works are used as the inspiration
for a young man trying to serenade a female colleague.
5. Analysis 1 The man of life upright, Whose guiltless heart is
free From all dishonest deeds Or thought of vanity; The man whose
silent days In harmless joys are spent, Whom hopes cannot delude
Nor sorrow discontent: That man needs neither towers Nor armor for
defence, Nor secret vaults to fly From thunders violence. He only
can behold With unaffrighted eyes The horrors of the deep And
terrors of the skies. Thus scorning all the cares That fate or
fortune brings, He makes the heaven his book, His wisdom heavenly
things; Good thoughts his only friends, His wealth a well-spent
age, The earth his sober inn And quiet pilgrimage. Secret vaults =
hiding places Unaffrighted = unafraid Scorning = feeling contempt
Age = life Sober = (1) not drunk; (2) serious; (3) marked by self-
restraint; (4) free from exaggeration Pilgrimage = (1) a journey to
a sacred place (2) a long journey or search, especially one of
exalted purpose or moral significance THEME: a simple life lived in
piety and in the absence of sin guarantees contentment. The poem is
written in iambic trimeter, with some variations involving
hypercatalexis that may be ascribed to different pronunciations or
poetic license, rather than emphasis. (Note: the lines in question
are bolded.) Alternatively, if one considers the import of each of
the three lines, the break in the regular pattern of the poem
occasioned by the first of these lines may imply that even the
pious err and, therefore, need towers (line 9) for protection
against Gods wrath; as for the other two lines in question, readers
may infer that the Bible does not necessarily act as the sole
reading material for those devoted to religion. Enjambment is
extensively used to show that everything in the poem is
interrelated, that the advantages Campion explores are the natural
result of piety. Even though it is not known whether Campion was
Catholic or Protestant, it is interesting to note that anecdotal
evidence does not show him as devoutly religious. His poems and
songs, however, have been praised for their beautiful rendition of
religious matters. Therefore, it is entirely possible that Campion,
being pressed by the wishes of a patron to produce religious
material, expressed a tongue-in-cheek, sanctimonious viewpoint. The
verb is is omitted, but these are nonetheless metaphors. eye rhyme
eye rhyme The rhyme scheme (abcb) is constant throughout all
stanzas, emphasizing the equal importance of all the
characteristics mentioned in the poem. It should be noted that eye
rhymes occur twice in the poem, although their presence may be
attributed to differences in pronunciation between then and now.
Alternatively, they may likewise be a silent reminder of the fact
that sin can and does sometimes corrupt the lives of the pious, in
which case the individuals in question are barred from the benefits
mentioned by Campion.
6. Analysis 2 The man of life upright, Whose guiltless heart is
free From all dishonest deeds Or thought of vanity; The man whose
silent days In harmless joys are spent, Whom hopes cannot delude
Nor sorrow discontent: That man needs neither towers Nor armor for
defense, Nor secret vaults to fly From thunders violence. He only
can behold With unaffrighted eyes The horrors of the deep And
terrors of the skies. Thus scorning all the cares That fate or
fortune brings, He makes the heaven his book, His wisdom heavenly
things; Good thoughts his only friends, His wealth a well-spent
age, The earth his sober inn And quiet pilgrimage. 1. This man
adheres to moral principles and rejects sin in favor of a simple
life. Vanity (l. 4) refers to both excessive high regard for
oneself and its uselessness. 2. The man lives in anonymity. He is
not ostentatious and is not given to sinful pleasures. As he does
not strive for a higher status, he experiences neither hopes nor
disappointment. 3. As he has done no wrong and, therefore, does not
expect retribution, he does not need protection. Thunder (l. 12)
refers to God and divine judgment, implying that the man has
nothing to fear from God. 4. It is only through this type of lifeas
evidenced by the use of the word only (l. 13), taken to mean that
pious individuals are the sole recipients of untainted peacethat
one can harbor no fear of divine retribution. Once again, nature in
its most extreme formsthe deep (l. 15) refers to seas and oceans,
or, perhaps, to Hellis a representation of God. 5. The man feels
nothing but contempt for the worries and problems brought about by
fate or wealth, presumably because he knows that the material world
has limited importance. The nineteenth line means that he purposely
studies heaven (possibly religion, the Bible), and the last line of
the stanza means that he considers himself wise and regards the
world at large through the filter of piety. 6. The man keeps human
relationships to a minimum, making good thoughts (l. 21) (i.e.,
thoughts about God and religion) his only long-term companions. He
spends his fortune wisely, without undue excess. When he dies, the
earth (i.e., the soil he is buried in) will be his dwelling for a
short period of time, as implied by the word inn (l. 23). Sober (l.
23) suggests that he remains pious to the very end (people usually
drink in inns, but he does not). Quiet (l. 24) identifies his
devotion as deep but not fanatical, and pilgrimage (l. 24) implies
that death represents a journey to heaven.
