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Thomas Wyatt (poet)

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Sir
Thomas Wyatt
Depiction byHans Holbein the Younger
Born
Thomas Wyatt

1503
Allington Castle,Kent, England
Died11 October 1542 (aged 38–39)
Clifton MaybankHouse, Dorset, England
Resting placeSherborne Abbey,Dorset
Alma materSt John's College, Cambridge
Occupation(s)Statesman, poet
Known forFirst modern English writer
TitleAmbassadorof England
High Sheriff of Kent
Knight of the shirefor Kent
SpouseElizabeth Brooke
ChildrenSirThomas Wyatt the Younger
Henry
Francis
Edward
Parent(s)Sir Henry Wyatt
Anne Skinner
Writing career
LanguageEarly Modern English
PeriodHigh Renaissance
Genres
Literary movementEnglish Renaissance,Petrarchism

Sir Thomas Wyatt(1503 – 11 October 1542)[1]was a 16th-century English politician, ambassador, andlyric poetcredited with introducing thesonnetto English literature. He was born atAllington CastlenearMaidstonein Kent, though the family was originally fromYorkshire.His family adopted the Lancastrian side in the Wars of the Roses. His mother was Anne Skinner, and his fatherHenry,who had earlier been imprisoned and tortured byRichard III,[2]had been a Privy Councillor ofHenry VIIand remained a trusted adviser whenHenry VIIIascended the throne in 1509.

Thomas followed his father to court after his education atSt John's College, Cambridge.Entering the King's service, he was entrusted with many important diplomatic missions. In public life, his principal patron wasThomas Cromwell,after whose death he was recalled from abroad and imprisoned (1541). Though subsequently acquitted and released, shortly thereafter he died. His poems were circulated at court and may have been published anonymously in the anthologyThe Court of Venus(earliest edition c. 1537) during his lifetime, but were not published under his name until after his death;[3]the first major book to feature and attribute his verse wasTottel's Miscellany(1557), printed 15 years after his death.[4]

Early life

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Thomas Wyatt was born atAllington,Kent, in 1503, the son ofSir Henry Wyattand Anne Skinner, the daughter of John Skinner ofReigate,Surrey.[5]He had a brother Henry, assumed to have died an infant,[6]and a sister,Margaretwho married SirAnthony Lee (died 1549) and was the mother ofQueen Elizabeth'schampion,Sir Henry Lee.[7][8]

Education and diplomatic career

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Wyatt was over six feet tall, reportedly both handsome and physically strong. In 1515, Wyatt entered Henry's service as 'Sewer Extraordinary' and the same year he began studying atSt John's College, Cambridge.[9]His father had been associated withSir Thomas Boleynas constable ofNorwich Castle,and Wyatt was thus acquainted with Anne Boleyn.[10]

Following a diplomatic mission to Spain,[10]in 1526, he accompanied SirJohn Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford,to Rome to help petitionPope Clement VIIto annulHenry VIII's marriage toCatherine of Aragon,in hopes of freeing him to marryAnne Boleyn.Russell being incapacitated, Wyatt was also sent to negotiate with theRepublic of Venice.[10]According to some, Wyatt was captured by the armies of EmperorCharles Vwhen they captured Rome and imprisoned the pope in 1527, but he managed to escape and make it back to England.

From 1528 to 1530, Wyatt acted as high marshal atCalais.In the years following he continued in Henry's service; he was, however, imprisoned in theTower of Londonfor a month in 1536, perhaps because Henry hoped he would incriminate the queen.[10]He was knighted in 1535 and appointedHigh Sheriff of Kentfor 1536.[11]At this time, he was sent to Spain as ambassador to Charles V, who was offended by the declaration ofPrincess Mary'sillegitimacy;he was her cousin and they had once been briefly betrothed. Although Wyatt was unsuccessful in his endeavours, and was accused of disloyalty by some of his colleagues, he was protected by his relationship with Cromwell, at least during the latter's lifetime.[10]

Wyatt was electedknight of the shire(MP) for Kent in December 1541.[11]

Marriage and issue

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In 1520, Wyatt marriedElizabeth Brooke(1503–1560).[12]A year later, they had a sonThomas(1521–1554) who ledWyatt's rebellionsome 12 years after his father's death.[13]In 1524, Henry VIII assigned Wyatt to be an ambassador at home and abroad, and he[clarification needed]separated from his wife soon after on grounds of adultery.[14]

Wyatt's poetry and influence

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Wyatt's professed object was to experiment with the English language, to civilise it, to raise its powers to equal those of other European languages.[15]His poetry may be considered as a part of thePetrarchismmovement withinRenaissance literature.[16][17]A significant amount of his literary output consists of translations and imitations of sonnets by Italian poetPetrarch;he also wrote sonnets of his own. He took subject matter from Petrarch's sonnets, but his rhyme schemes are significantly different. Petrarch's sonnets consist of an "octave"rhymingabba abba,followed by a "sestet" with various rhyme schemes. Wyatt employs the Petrarchan octave, but his most common sestet scheme iscddc ee.Wyatt experimented in stanza forms including therondeau,epigrams,terza rima,ottava rimasongs, and satires, as well as with monorime, triplets with refrains, quatrains with different length of line and rhyme schemes, quatrains with codas, and the French forms of douzaine and treizaine.[18]He introduced thepoulter's measureform, rhyming couplets composed of a 12-syllable iambic line (Alexandrine) followed by a 14-syllable iambic line (fourteener),[19]and he is considered a master of theiambic tetrameter.[20]

Wyatt's poetry reflects classical and Italian models, but he also admired the work ofGeoffrey Chaucer,and his vocabulary reflects that of Chaucer; for example, he uses Chaucer's wordnewfangleness,meaning fickleness, inThey Flee from Me.Many of his poems deal with the trials of romantic love and the devotion of the suitor to an unavailable or cruel mistress.[21]Other poems are scathing, satirical indictments of the hypocrisies and pandering required of courtiers who are ambitious to advance at the Tudor court.

Wyatt's poems are short but fairly numerous. His 96 love poems appeared posthumously (1557) in a compendium calledTottel's Miscellany.The noteworthy are 31 sonnets, the first in English. Ten of them were translations from Petrarch, while all were written in the Petrarchan form, apart from the couplet ending which Wyatt introduced. Serious and reflective in tone, the sonnets show some stiffness of construction and a metrical uncertainty indicative of the difficulty Wyatt found in the new form. Yet their conciseness represents a great advance on the prolixity and uncouthness of much earlier poetry. Wyatt was also responsible for the important introduction of the personal note into English poetry, for although he followed his models closely, he wrote of his own experiences. His epigrams, songs, and rondeaux are lighter than the sonnets, and they reveal the care and the elegance typical of the new romanticism. His satires are composed in the Italian terza rima, again showing the direction of the innovating tendencies.

Attribution

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TheEgerton Manuscript[22]is an album containing Wyatt's personal selection of his poems and translations which preserves 123 texts, partly in his handwriting. Tottel's Miscellany (1557) is the Elizabethan anthology which created Wyatt's posthumous reputation; it ascribes 96 poems to him,[23]33 not in the Egerton Manuscript. These 156 poems can be ascribed to Wyatt with certainty on the basis of objective evidence. Another 129 poems have been ascribed to him purely on the basis of subjective editorial judgment. They are mostly derived from the Devonshire Manuscript Collection[24]and the Blage manuscript.[25]Rebholz comments in his preface toSir Thomas Wyatt, The Complete Poems,"The problem of determining which poems Wyatt wrote is as yet unsolved".[26]However, a solution was already at hand and is now in place. Rebholz adopted the canon of 285 poems ascribed to Wyatt in his edition wholesale from the 1969 edition by Kenneth Muir and Patricia Thomson. This was the third edition of Wyatt issued by Muir (the first in 1949, the second in 1963), to each of which he added scores of poems derived principally from the several hundred anonymous poems included in the Devonshire Manuscript and then the newly discovered Blage Manuscript – poems ascribed to Wyatt on no other basis than Muir’s own judgment or whim. Already in the early 1970s Joost Daalder produced an edition (Oxford 1975) which attempts and partly succeeds in renovating the Wyatt canon to accord with documentary facts, and also in that year Richard Harrier published his magisterial philological study of the manuscript evidence,The Canon of Sir Thomas Wyatt’s Poetry(Harvard University Press 1975). On the basis of a meticulous scientific study of the documentary evidence Harrier establishes a fact-based canon of Wyatt’s poems. Later studies by other scholars (Helen Baron, 1989 and 1994, and Jason Powell, 2009) confirm the outlines and tenor of Harrier’s analysis. On the basis of Harrier’s analysis, 101 of the 285 poems included in Rebholz’s edition are demonstrated to be not Wyatt’s work. Harrier's researches establish that another 33 poems from other sources (besides The Egerton Manuscript and Tottel's) can be ascribed to Wyatt on the basis of solid documentary evidence and plausible editorial judgment. A new edition of Wyatt’s poetry reflecting these established facts is needed.

Assessment

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Critical opinions have varied widely regarding Wyatt's work.[27]Eighteenth-century criticThomas Wartonconsidered Wyatt "confessedly an inferior" to his contemporaryHenry Howard,and felt that Wyatt's "genius was of the moral and didactic species" but deemed him "the first polished English satirist".[28]The 20th century saw an awakening in his popularity and a surge in critical attention. His poems were found praiseworthy by numerous poets, includingEzra Pound,Marianne Moore,John Berryman,Yvor Winters,Basil Bunting,Louis ZukofskyandGeorge Oppen.C. S. Lewiscalled him "the father of the Drab Age" (i.e. the unornate), from what he calls the "golden" age of the 16th century.[29]Patricia Thomsondescribes Wyatt as "the Father of English Poetry".[27]

Rumoured affair with Anne Boleyn

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Anne Boleyn

Many have conjectured that Wyatt fell in love withAnne Boleynin the early- to mid-1520s. Their acquaintance is certain, but it is not certain whether the two shared a romantic relationship. George Gilfillan implies that Wyatt and Boleyn were romantically involved.[30]In his verse, Wyatt calls his mistress Anna and might allude to events in her life:[30]

And now I follow the coals that be quent,
From Dover to Calais against my mind

Gilfillan argues that these lines could refer to Anne's trip to France in 1532 prior to her marriage toHenry VIII[30]and could imply that Wyatt was present, although his name is not included among those who accompanied the royal party to France.[30]Wyatt's sonnet "Whoso List To Hunt" may also allude to Anne's relationship with the King:[30]

Graven in diamonds with letters plain,
There is written her fair neck round about,
"Noli me tangere [Do not touch me], for Caesar's I am".

In still plainer terms, Wyatt's late sonnet "If waker care" describes his first "love" for "Brunette that set our country in a roar" —presumably Boleyn.

Wyatt's grandsonGeorge Wyattincluded in hisLife of Queen Anne Boleignea story that Thomas Wyatt obtained a jewel belonging to Anne, and that Henry VIII heard of this. The jewel was loose "hanging by a lace out of her pocket", a "tablet" (a kind of locket)[31]which Wyatt took to wear at his neck. Henry VIII recognised the jewel when he played bowls with Wyatt.[32]Anne said that Wyatt had obtained the jewel without her permission. However, the details of the story seem incompatible with courtly behaviour and are unconvincing.[33]

Imprisonment on charges of adultery

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In May 1536, Wyatt was imprisoned in theTower of Londonfor allegedly committing adultery with Anne Boleyn.[34]He was released later that year thanks to his friendship or his father's friendship withThomas Cromwell,and he returned to his duties. During his stay in the Tower, he may have witnessed Anne Boleyn's execution (which took place on 19 May 1536) from his cell window, as well as the executions of the five men with whom she was accused of adultery; he wrote a poem which might have been inspired by that experience.[35]

Around 1537,Elizabeth Darrellwas Thomas's mistress, a former maid of honour toCatherine of Aragon.She bore Wyatt three sons.[36]

Memorial inSherborne Abbey

By 1540, he was again in the king's favour, as he was granted the site and many of the manorial estates of the dissolvedBoxley Abbey.However, he was charged once more with treason in 1541; the charges were again lifted, but only thanks to the intervention of QueenCatherine Howardand on the condition of reconciling with his wife. He was granted a full pardon and restored once again to his duties as ambassador. After the execution of Catherine Howard, there were rumours that Wyatt's wife Elizabeth was a possibility to become Henry VIII's next wife despite the fact that she was still married to Wyatt.[37]He became ill not long after and died on 11 October 1542 around age 39. He is buried inSherborne Abbey.[38]

Descendants and relatives

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Long after Wyatt's death, his only legitimate son SirThomas Wyatt the Youngerled a thwarted rebellion against Henry's daughterMary I,for which he was executed. The rebellion's aim was to set on the throne the Protestant-mindedElizabeth,the daughter of Anne Boleyn.[39]Wyatt was an ancestor ofWallis Simpson,wife of the Duke of Windsor, formerly KingEdward VIII.[40]Thomas Wyatt's great-grandson was Virginia Colony governorSir Francis Wyatt.[41]

Notes

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  1. ^Cummings, Brian (2006). "Thomas Wyatt". In Kastan, David Scott Kastan (ed.).The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature.Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 346.ISBN9780195169218.
  2. ^Chisholm 1911,p. 861.
  3. ^Huttar 1966
  4. ^Shulman 2011,p. 353
  5. ^Richardson IV 2011,p. 382;Burrow 2004.
  6. ^Burrow 2004.
  7. ^Burrow 2004
  8. ^Chambers 1936,p. 248.
  9. ^"Wyatt, Thomas (WT503T)".A Cambridge Alumni Database.University of Cambridge.
  10. ^abcdeChisholm 1911,p. 862.
  11. ^abMiller 1982
  12. ^Richardson IV 2011,pp. 381–2.
  13. ^Philipot 1898,p. 142
  14. ^Shulman 2011,pp. 227–229
  15. ^Tillyard 1929.
  16. ^Minta, Stephen (1980).Petrarch and Petrarchism: the English and French Traditions.Manchester; New York: Manchester University Press; Barnes & Noble.ISBN0-719-00745-3.
  17. ^Greene, Roland;et al., eds. (2012). "Petrarchism".The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics(4th rev. ed.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.ISBN978-0-691-15491-6.
  18. ^Berdan 1931.
  19. ^Schmidt 1999,p. 133.
  20. ^Rebholz 1978,p. 45.
  21. ^Child 2000.
  22. ^British LibraryEgerton MS 2711
  23. ^Parker 1939,p. 669–677.
  24. ^The Devonshire Manuscript Collection of Early Tudor poetry 1532–41, British Museum
  25. ^Blage MS, Trinity College, Dublin
  26. ^Rebholz 1978,p. 9.
  27. ^abThomson 1974.
  28. ^Warton 1840,pp. 41–51.
  29. ^Lewis 1954.
  30. ^abcdeGilfillan 1858,p. x.
  31. ^Helen Wyld, 'The Mystery of the Fettercairn Jewel', Anna Groundwater,Decoding the Jewels: Renaissance Jewellery in Scotland(Sidestone Press: NMS, 2024), p. 61.
  32. ^Samuel Weller Singer,The Life of Cardinal Wolsey by George Cavendish(London, 1827), pp. 426–427.
  33. ^Retha Warnicke,'Conventions of Courtly Love and Anne Boleyn', Charles Carlton,State Sovereigns & Society in Early Modern England(Sutton, 1998), p. 112.
  34. ^Warnicke, Retha M.(1989).The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn.Cambridge University Press. pp.64–65.ISBN9780521370004.
  35. ^"Wyatt: V. Innocentia Veritas Viat Fides".Luminarium.org.Retrieved6 August2012.
  36. ^"A Who'S Who of Tudor Women (D)".Kateemersonhistoricals.com. Archived fromthe originalon 2 June 2012.Retrieved6 August2012.
  37. ^Hart 2009,p. 197.
  38. ^"Sherborne Abbey: The Horsey Tomb".Archived fromthe originalon 8 November 2007.Retrieved13 July2008.
  39. ^Thomson 1964,p. 273.
  40. ^Vickers, Hugo (2011). Behind Closed Doors: The Tragic, Untold, Story of the Duchess of Windsor. London: Hutchinson. p. 377.ISBN978-0-09-193155-1.
  41. ^Bernhard 2004.

References

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