Edmund Gayton

, or de Speciosa villa, as he intitled himself, Son of George Gayton of Little Brittaine in London, was born there, elected scholar of S. Johns Coll. from Merchant Taylors School in the year 1625, aged 16, became afterwards Fellow of that house, Master of Arts, superior Beadle of Arts and Physick of this University, in the place of Joh. Bell deceased, an. 1636, Bachelaur of Phys. actually created, by vertue of a dispensation from the Delegates 1647, turn’d out of his Beadleship in the year following by the Parliamentarian Visitors, lived afterwards in London in a sharking condition, and wrote trite things meerly to get bread to sustain him and his wife. After the Kings return in 1660, he was restored to his place by the Kings Commissioners, but having got an itch in scribling, followed that sometimes, but more the Vices of Poets, of which number he pretended to be one, and one eminent he might have been, had he not been troubled with the faculty of too much lifting. He hath written some good, others most vain and trashy, things, as you may partly see by the Catalogue following, which according to method must be here set down, tho rather fit to be buried in oblivion.

Epulae Oxonienses: or, a jocular Relation of a Banquet presented to the best of Kings, by the best of Prelates, in the year 1636 in the Mathematick Library at S. Jo. Bapt. Coll.—This is a song, and musical notes are set to it, in two parts, with this beginning, It was (my stuff upon’t) in thirty six, &c.

Chartae scriptae: or, a new Game at Cards, called, Play by the book.—Printed 1645 qu. Written, if I am not mistaken, in verse.

Pleasant notes upon Don Quixot. Lond. 1654. fol. Written in prose, mix’d now and then with verse; which is accounted our Author’s Master-piece.

Hymna de febribus. Lond. about 1655. qu. in lat. verse.

Will. Bagnals Ghost: or, the merry devil of Gadmunton, in his perambulation of the prisons of London. Lond. 1655. qu. Written mostly in verse, the latter end in prose. The title is in imitation of Shakespear’s Comedy, called The merry Devil of Edmonton, which last word was changed into Gadmunton because it comes near the Authors name.

Wit revived: or, a new excellent way of divertisement, digested into most ingenious Questions and Answers. Lond. 1660. in tw. Published under the name of Asdryasdust Tossoffacan.

Poem upon Mr. Jacob Bobards Yew-men of the Guards to the Physick garden, to the tune of the Counter scuffle. Oxon. 1662, on one side of a sh. of paper. He also was, (if I mistake not) Author of A ballad on the Gyants in the Physick garden in Oxon, who have been breeding feet as long as Garagantua was teeth. Ox. 1662. on one side of a large sh. of paper.

Diegerticon ad Britanniam. Ox. 1662, on one side of half a sh. of paper.

Poem written from Oxon to Mr. Rob. Whitehall at the Wells at Astrop. Oxon. 1666, in half a sh. of paper on both sides. To which Robin made an Answer, but ’twas not printed. The said Edm. Gayton did also collect and publish Harry Martens Familiar letters to his lady of delight, &c. with other things of that Author, not without some enlargements of his own, which hath made many to suppose that they were not written by Marten, but devised by Gayton, who also wrot a buffooning answer to a letter called A copy of Henry Martens letter in vindication of the murther of King Charles: Which answer is printed with the letters before mentioned. At length this our vain and impertinent Author Gayton dying in his lodgings in Catstreet near the publick Schooles, on the 12 day of Decemb. in sixteen hundred sixty and six (having had verses of his composition published but 7 days before) was buried in S. Maries Church in Oxon. near to the entrance thence into the lower part of the Steeple,1666. or near to the tomb of Edm. Croston, with monies given for that purpose by the Vicechancellor. Three days after his death there was a Convocation for the election of his successor in the Beadleship: In the beginning of which the said Vicechancellour (Dr. Fell) stood up and exhorted the Masters in a set speech to have a care whom they should choose, and desired them by all means that they would not elect a Poet, or any that do libellos scribere, adding withal that the late Beadle (Gayton) was such an ill husband, and so improvident, that he had but one farthing in his pocket when he died, &c. But notwithstanding this exhortation, which was just, the Black-pot-men, or such who are called Boon Blades, who, (with shame be it spoken) carry all before them in elections, did instead of electing a Master of Arts (for there were two that stood) to that beneficial place, (which hath been done time out of mind) did choose a Yeoman-Beadle (Solad. Lichfield) who had formerly kept a publick inn, and was good for nothing but for eating, drinking, smoaking, and punning.