Thomas Wyatt

the delight of the Muses and of Mankind, Son of Henr. Wyatt of Allington Castle in Kent Knight and Banneret, by Anne his Wife Daughter of Joh. Skinner of Surrey, was born of an ancient and gentile Family in the said County of Kent, sent to Cambridge to be initiated in Academical Learning, transplanted thence to Oxon purposely to advance himselfe in knowledge by the hearing of the Cardinals Lectures, then lately settled there; but whether he took a Degree with us, or at Cambridge, I find not as yet. Afterwards he being sent to travel, he return’d an accomplish’d Gentleman, and was esteemed by all those that knew him to be a Person adorn’d with the endowments as well of body and mind, as of fortune. By the dayly and unwearied practice of the two former, while he was in his travels, and after his return, he became not only well skill’d in military matters, but also in several Arts and Tongues: And as esteemed strong and valiant in body, so powerful in mind and counsel. At length he with Hen. Haward or Howard Earl of Surrey, (who also had travel’d into Italy, and there tasted the sweet and stately measures and style of the Italian Poesie) being esteemed to be the first refiners of the English Tongue, Wyatt was introduced into the Court, was beloved of K. Hen. 8. who honored him with the Degree of Knighthood, and sent him in several Embassies beyond the Seas, which he very prudently performed with great trust to the honor of his Master. But that which is here to be in a special manner marked, was his admirable skill in Poetry, which in his first Years of reason he expressed in several amorous Songs and Poems: With which, as also his witty jests, the King himself being in an high manner delighted, they were so much admired by the Men of that, and the next Age, (tho I persume they are now lost) that some have not stuck to report, that as Mecaenas, Ovid, Tibullus, &c. have been among the Latins most famous for Elegie; So Sir Tho. Wyatt the elder, Henry Haward Earl of Surrey, Sir Franc. Brian of the Privy Chamber to K. Hen. 8. (and a Traveller in 1528) Sir Phil. Sydney, George Gascoigne Esq &c. have among the English been most passionate to bemoan the perplexities of Love. For his translation also of David’s Psalms into English meeter, and other of his Poetry, Leland the Antiquarian—Poet (a)(a) In Naeniis in mort. Tho. Viati, edit. Lond. 1542. P. 4. Vide etiam in Encomiis suis illustr. virorum, &c. p. 47. forbears not to compare him to Dant and Petrarch thus.

Bellum suo merrito, &c. translated by another hand as followeth.

Let Florence fair her Dantes justly boast,

And royal Rome her Petrarchs numbred feet;

In English Wyatt both of them doth coast

In whom all grateful eloquence doth meet.

In his younger Years, as I have told youbefore, he composed.

Several Songs and Poems—Many of which are in the (b)(b) Printed at Lond. in oct. an. 1565 and 1587. Songs and Sonnets of Hen. Haward Earl of Surrey, Son of that victorious Prince, the Duke of Norfolk, and Father of that learned Howard (sometimes his most lively Image) Henry Earl of Northampton. Which incomparable Earl of Surrey (who entirely loved our Author Sir Tho. Wyatt) hath among other things translated Virgils Aeneids; the first and second Book whereof, he hath admirably rendred almost line for line. Sir Th. Wyatt also in his elder Years translated into English meeter, (1) The penitential Psalms, in one Book. (2) The whole Psaltery of David: in praise of which last, is an Encomium in the Songs (c)(c) Printed at Lond. 1587. fol. 16. and Sonnets of the Earl of Surrey before-mention’d. At length our Author Wyatt being sent by the King towards Falmouth in Cornwall, to conduct Montmorantius sirnamed à Courriers thence to London, (for he came from Spain in an Embassie) did, by endeavouring and labouring to please the King, rather than to consult his own health, make more hast than good speed: For by too much riding (which was not necessarily requir’d) in a very hot season, he fell into a violent Feaver. Whereupon putting in at a Mercate Town call’d Shirebourn in Dorsetshire, was within few days after cut off from among the living in the 38 Year of his Age to the great reluctancy of the King, Kingdome, his Friends, and all that knew the great worth and virtues of the Person. He was buried in the great Church there, 1541 in Summer time, in Fifteen hundred forty and one, and the next Year was a little Book of Verses, published on his death by his great admirer John Leland, entit. Naenia. Before the first page of which, is Sir Thomas’s face, with a long curl’d beard (like to a Man of 80 Years of Age) printed from a wooden cut, engrav’d from his face, which was painted by a Dutchman commonly call’d Hans Holbin. At the same time was an Epitaph made on him by the (d)(d) In the said Songs and Sonnets fol. 84. Earl of Surrey, as it seems, another also by Sir Tho. (e)(e) In lib. suo cui tit. est, De illustrium quorundam encomits, cum Epigram. & Epitaphiis nonnullis. Lond. 1579. qu. p. 358. Chaloner in long and short Verses, and a third, which was a large one in Prose, by his entire Friend Sir Joh. Mason (Chancellor of this University 1553.) a Copy of which I have seen, and in some things do follow it in my aforesaid discourse. This Sir Tho. Wyatt left behind him a Son of both his names, begotten on the body of his Wife Elizabeth, Daughter of Thom. Brook Lord Cobham, who being a Commotioner in the Reign of Qu. Mary, lost his Head, and left issue by Jane his Wife Daughter and Coheir of Will. Hawte of Bourn Kt. a Son named Geor. Wyatt of Boxley in Kent Esq restored 13. Elizab. I find another Tho. Wyatt to have been a Student in Cambridge 1587, in which Year he had a Copy of Verses put into Acadedemiae Cantabrigiensis Lachrymae, tumulo D. Philippi Sydneii sacratae. Published by Alex. Nevill.