Thomas Campion was a gifted pioneer in the polished and sophisticated seventeenth-century lyric that freed English poetry from the adoration of conventional sonnet mistresses. But the significance of his contribution is obscured when his authentic work is weighted down with the worn-out motifs and frequently slipshod workmanship of the poems appearing in Part ii of A Booke of Ayres. This songbook was brought out in 1601 by Philip Rosseter, lutenist, later King's Musician and Manager of the Children of the Queen's Revels, and Campion's lifelong friend. It was divided, as Rosseter took pains to make clear, into two parts, the first consisting of twenty-one songs by Campion, the second of twenty-one more—“the rest of the Songs contained in this Booke, made by Philip Rosseter.” No one has denied to Rosseter the musical settings of this second part, several of them among the most charming of the period; but almost everyone has kidnaped the lyrics from those settings and presented them as a free gift to Campion, who, I think, might not greatly relish the honor.