Thomas Campion

Thomas Campion (1567-1620) was one of the great composers of lute songs in the English Renaissance, along with John Dowland, and he was a court composer to Queen Elizabeth I and King James I. In addition to being a composer of airs and masques, Campion was known as a published poet and a trained physician. His music was widely circulated, and the best of it demonstrates a great skill at setting music to the natural rhythms of English. All of Campion's texts were his own, and "Now Hath Flora Rob'd Her Bowers" is one of his most famous songs.