Anthony Chute
Encyclopedia
Anthony Chute was an Elizabethan poet and pamphleteer. Very little is known about him.
Chute appears to have been a protégé of Gabriel Harvey
. Harvey refers to him in his work Pierces Supererogation, saying that Chute was an orator and a herald. He also states that Chute had participated in Francis Drake's 1589 English Armada
expedition to Portugal
.
In 1593 Chute published Beauty Dishonoured, written under the title of Shore's wife, a narrative poem supposed to be the lament of Jane Shore
, whose ghost tells her life story and makes moral reflections. In a dedication he called the poem, "the first invention of my beginning muse" implying that it was his earliest work.
Chute supported Harvey in his literary war against Thomas Nashe
. Pierces Supererogation contains two poems by Chute and letters in which he praises Harvey and lambasts Nashe. Shortly afterwards Chute wrote to Lord Burghley
, applying for the position of pursuivant of arms
, describing himself as a "poor gentleman and a scholar".
In 1595 he published Tabaco, the first English discussion of the merits of tobacco
. The pamphlet lauds the many "health giving" properties of the tobacco leaf, explaining how the application of the leaf to the skin can cure illnesses and that smoking it relieves chest conditions. He asserts that tobacco probably "hath many strange virtues which are yet unknown". In the preface to the work the publisher writes that Chute died before it came out.
Chute is ridiculed in Thomas Nashe's pamphlet Have with You to Saffron-Walden
(1596), in which Nashe states that Chute's poetry is so bad it would never have even been published if he has not been Harvey's yes-man. He also says that Chute died of dropsy "with taking too much of drink".
For a long time Thomas Edwards
' poem Cephalus and Procris was attributed to Chute because of a remark about it in Have with You to Saffron-Walden.
Chute appears to have been a protégé of Gabriel Harvey
Gabriel Harvey
Gabriel Harvey was an English writer. Harvey was a notable scholar, though his reputation suffered from his quarrel with Thomas Nashe...
. Harvey refers to him in his work Pierces Supererogation, saying that Chute was an orator and a herald. He also states that Chute had participated in Francis Drake's 1589 English Armada
English Armada
The English Armada, also known as the Counter Armada or the Drake-Norris Expedition, was a fleet of warships sent to the Iberian Coast by Queen Elizabeth I of England in 1589, during the Anglo-Spanish War...
expedition to Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
.
In 1593 Chute published Beauty Dishonoured, written under the title of Shore's wife, a narrative poem supposed to be the lament of Jane Shore
Jane Shore
Elizabeth "Jane" Shore was one of the many mistresses of King Edward IV of England, the first of the three whom he described respectively as "the merriest, the wiliest, and the holiest harlots" in his realm...
, whose ghost tells her life story and makes moral reflections. In a dedication he called the poem, "the first invention of my beginning muse" implying that it was his earliest work.
Chute supported Harvey in his literary war against Thomas Nashe
Thomas Nashe
Thomas Nashe was an English Elizabethan pamphleteer, playwright, poet and satirist. He was the son of the minister William Nashe and his wife Margaret .-Early life:...
. Pierces Supererogation contains two poems by Chute and letters in which he praises Harvey and lambasts Nashe. Shortly afterwards Chute wrote to Lord Burghley
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley , KG was an English statesman, the chief advisor of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign, twice Secretary of State and Lord High Treasurer from 1572...
, applying for the position of pursuivant of arms
Pursuivant
A pursuivant or, more correctly, pursuivant of arms, is a junior officer of arms. Most pursuivants are attached to official heraldic authorities, such as the College of Arms in London or the Court of the Lord Lyon in Edinburgh. In the mediaeval era, many great nobles employed their own officers of...
, describing himself as a "poor gentleman and a scholar".
In 1595 he published Tabaco, the first English discussion of the merits of tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
. The pamphlet lauds the many "health giving" properties of the tobacco leaf, explaining how the application of the leaf to the skin can cure illnesses and that smoking it relieves chest conditions. He asserts that tobacco probably "hath many strange virtues which are yet unknown". In the preface to the work the publisher writes that Chute died before it came out.
Chute is ridiculed in Thomas Nashe's pamphlet Have with You to Saffron-Walden
Have with You to Saffron-Walden
Have With You To Saffron-Walden, Or, Gabriell Harveys hunt is up is the title of a pamphlet written by Thomas Nashe and published in London in late 1596 by John Danter. The work is Nashe's final shot in his four-year literary feud with Dr. Gabriel Harvey...
(1596), in which Nashe states that Chute's poetry is so bad it would never have even been published if he has not been Harvey's yes-man. He also says that Chute died of dropsy "with taking too much of drink".
For a long time Thomas Edwards
Thomas Edwards (poet)
Thomas Edwards was an English poet who published two Ovidian epic poems Cephalus and Procris and Narcissus. Beyond his name, nothing is known with certainty of Edwards...
' poem Cephalus and Procris was attributed to Chute because of a remark about it in Have with You to Saffron-Walden.