Poets Laureate

Appointed.

Buried.

Ben Jonson

1615–6

Westminster Abbey.

Sir Wm. Davenant (!)

1638

Westminster Abbey.

John Dryden

1670

Westminster Abbey.

Thomas Shadwell (!)

1688

Nahum Tate (!)

1692

1715

Westminster Abbey.

Lawrence Eusden (!)

1718

Colley Cibber^*

1730

William Whitehead (!)

1757

Thomas Warton^*

1785

1790

Robert Southey

1813

Wm. Wordsworth

1843

1850

Westminster Abbey.

The following are sometimes included, though not appointed by letters patent:—Chaucer, Gower, John Key, Bernard, Skelton, Rob. Whittington, Richard Edwards, Spenser, and Sam. Daniel.

(!) Five of the fourteen known only by their names. ^*Three others quite third-rate poets. The remaining five were distinguished men.

⁂ A poet laureate is one who has received a laurel crown. There were at one time “doctors laureate,” “bachelors laureate,” etc.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.