Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 32.djvu/36

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Lampe
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Lamphire

for Henry Carey's 'Amelia' (Hawkins states that Carey was a pupil of Lampe's), and in 1737 he set the same writer's burlesque opera, the 'Dragon of Wantley.' The latter work, said to have been a favourite with Handel, and written in imitation of the 'Beggar's Opera,' had an extraordinary success. It was followed in 1738 by a sequel entitled 'Margery, or a Worse Plague than the Dragon.' In 1741 he wrote music for the masque of the 'Sham Conjuror,' and in 1745 composed 'Pyramus and Thisbe, a mock Opera, the words taken from Shakespeare.' He was the composer of many now-forgotten songs, several of which appeared In collections, like 'Wit Musically Embellish'd: a collection of forty-two new English ballads,' the 'Ladies' Amusement,' 'Lyra Britannica,' the 'Vocal Mask,' and the 'Musical Miscellany,' &c. Hawkins attributes to him an anonymous cantata entitled 'In Harmony would you excel,' with words by Swift. He was the author of two theoretical works: 'A Plain and Compendious Method of Teaching Thorough-Bass,' London, 1737. and the 'Art of Musick,' London, 1740. 'Hymns on the Great Festivals and other Occasions' (London, 1748) contains twenty-four tunes in two parts, specially composed by him, to words by the Rev. Charles Wesley. In 1748 or 1749, with his wife and a small company, he went to Dublin, where he conducted theatrical performances and concerts, and in November 1750 he moved to Edinburgh to take up a similar engagement at the Canongate Theatre. He died in Edinburgh on 35 July 1751, and was buried in the Canongate churchyard, where a monument, now in a dilapidated state, was erected to his memory. The prediction of the epitaph that his 'harmonious compositions shall outlive monumental registers, and, with melodious notes through future ages, perpetuate his fame,' has only been partly fulfilled, for, with the exception of the long-metre hymn-tune, 'Kent,' none of his compositions are now heard. From contemporary notices we gather that Lampe was an excellent musician, and a man of irreproachable character. He was greatly esteemed by Charles Wesley, who wrote a hymn on his death, beginning 'Tis done! the sov'reign will's obeyed!' This hymn was afterwards set to music by Dr. Samuel Arnold.

Lampe's wife, Isabella, was daughter of Charles Young, organist of All-Hallows, Barking, and sister of Mrs. Arne, She was noted both as a vocalist and as an actress. Lampe's son, Charles John Frederick, sometimes confounded with his father, was organist of All-Hallows, in succession to Young, from 1758 to 1769.

[Hawkins's Hist. Music. v. 371: Burney's Music, iv. 656; Grove's Dict. Music; Love's Scottish Church Music, its Composers and Sources p. 188, and article in Scottish Church, June 1890; Dibdin's Annals of the Edinburgh Stage. The epitaph in the Canongate churchyard states Lampe was in his forty-eighth year when died.]

J. C. H.

LAMPHIRE, JOHN, M.D. (1614–1688), principal of Hart Hall, Oxford, son of George Lamphire, apothecary, was born in 1614 in Winchester, and was admitted scholar of Winchester College in 1627 (Kirby, Winchester Scholars, p. 172). He matriculated from New College, Oxford, on 19 Aug. 1634, aged 20; was elected fellow there in 1636; proceeded B.A. in 1638, and M.A. in 1641–2. He is apparently the John Lanfire who was appointed prebendary of Bath and Wells in 1641. In 1648 he was ejected from his fellowship by the parliamentary visitors, but during the Commonwealth practised physic with some success at Oxford. Wood in his 'Autobiography' says he belonged to a set of royalists 'who esteemed themselves virtuosi or wits,' and was sometimes the 'natural droll of the company.' He was Wood's physician, and tried to cure his deafness. Lamphire was restored to his fellowship in 1660, and on 16 Aug. was elected Camden professor of history. On 30 October 1660 he was created M.D. On 8 Sept. 1662 he succeeded Dr. Rogers (deprived) as principal of New Inn Hall, and on 30 May 1668 was translated to the headship of Hart Hall. According to Wood he was 'a public-spirited man, but not fit to govern; layd out much on the Principal's lodgings, buildings done there' (Life and Times, Oxf. Hist. Soc, i. 475). He was also a justice of the peace for the city and county of Oxford, and seems to have taken some part in civic affairs, particularly in the paving of St. Clement's and the draining of the town moat. He died on 30 March 1688, aged 76, and was buried on 2 April in the chapel of Hart Hall (Hertford College), near the west door. Walker calls him 'a good, generous, and fatherly man, of a public spirit, and free from the modish hypocrisy of the age he lived in.'

Lamphire had a good collection of books and manuscripts, but some of them were burnt in April 1650 by a fire in his house. He owned thirty-eight manuscripts of the works of Thomas Lydiat [q. v.], which he had bound in twenty-two volumes, and he published one of them, 'Canones Chronologici' (Oxford, 1675), He also published two works by Dr. Hugh Lloyd [q. v,], the grammarian, in one vol., entitled 'Phrases Elegantiores et Dictata,' Oxford, 1654 (Bod-