Tottel's Miscellany
Encyclopedia
Songes and Sonettes, usually called Tottel's Miscellany, was the first printed anthology
of English poetry
. It was published by Richard Tottel
in 1557, and ran to many editions in the sixteenth century.
Richard Tottel
was an English publisher with a shop at Temple Bar
on Fleet Street
in London. His main business was the publication of law textbooks but his biggest contribution to English literature would come in the form of the anthology of poetry. He also gave the public Surrey
's translation of the second and fourth books of Virgil
's Aeneid
, which is the earliest known example of English blank verse
. He is responsible too for the first edition printed of Cicero's De Officiis
in 1556 by Nicholas Grimald
, who would later contribute to the poetry anthology.
Tottel also published Thomas More
's Utopia
and another collection of More's writings, John Lydgate
's translations from Giovanni Boccaccio
, and books by William Staunford
and Thomas Tusser
. The majority of his publications were legal treatises, including a legal history of the reign of Richard III
, and legal yearbooks covering parts of the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI.
(1593).
Most of the poems included in the anthology were written in the 1530s but were only published in the first edition in 1557. Many of them were published posthumously.
There are in total 54 actual sonnets in the anthology. These include nine from unknown authors, three from Grimald, 15 from Surrey, and 27 from Wyatt.
The incorporated poetry had numerous comments on religion, covering Catholicism
, Protestantism
, and the English Reformation
. Later editors of the early modern period then took out many of these religious references.
. Both were heavily influenced by Italian poetry
, although Wyatt's meter would be adapted to conventional English iambic stress by Tottel.
The star poet of Tottel's Miscellany, the Earl of Surrey, created the English sonnet form by modifying the Petrarchan sonnet. If the English sonnet is also called the Shakespearean sonnet, that can be attributed to Shakespeare's fame. The form which Surrey created (three quatrain
s in alternate rhyme and a concluding couplet
) is easier to write in English than the Petrarchan form, with its more complex rhyme scheme.
Surrey and Wyatt's inclusion in Tottel's Miscellany would mark the first time either poet's work was printed. Other contributors include Nicholas Grimald
, Thomas Norton
, Thomas Vaux, John Heywood
, Edward Somerset and other uncertain or unknown authors. Among these unknown authors, it is believed that Geoffrey Chaucer
wrote at least one of the poems, titled in the anthology as, "To leade a vertuous and honest life." Although some of the wording has been altered slightly, this poem appears to be "a somewhat mutilated copy of Chaucer's ballad on "Truth.""
This is a sample of a poem found in the text by Sir Thomas Wyatt:.
(This poem refers to Elizabeth I's mother, Anne Boleyn
. Wyatt wisely withdrew from the chase in favor of a more heavyweight suitor. Both had the problem of being already married, but the other suitor, Henry VIII, eventually solved that one).
The first edition of Tottel's Miscellany (1557) featured forty poems by Surrey, ninety-six poems by Wyatt, forty poems by Grimald, and ninety-five poems written by unknown authors. Tottel made note that of those anonymous poems, the authors were sure to include Thomas Churchyard
, Thomas Vaux, Edward Somerset, John Heywood and Sir Francis Bryan. It has been decided definitely that of those ninety-five poems, two were written by Vaux, one by John Heywood, and one by Somerset. The only first edition left is in the Bodleian Library
in England. A reprint, which was limited to sixty copies, was edited by John Payne Collier
in 1867.
The second edition was also published in 1557; thirty of Grimald's poems were removed but thirty-nine additional ones were added to the "uncertain authors" category with a final tally of 281 poems. There are only two copies of this work in existence left, one in the Grenville Collection at the British Museum
, the other at Trinity College, Cambridge
.
The next seven editions were all printed between 1558 and 1586, with the final ninth edition being published in 1587.
took the throne.
Shakespeare uses some of its verses in The Merry Wives of Windsor
and Hamlet
, and directly quotes the anonymous poem, "Against him that had slaundered a gentlewoman with him selfe", in The Rape of Lucrece
:
Songes and Sonettes is also known as the most important English poetic collection in the 16th century and inaugurated a long series of poetic anthologies in Elizabethan England.
Anthology
An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...
of English poetry
English poetry
The history of English poetry stretches from the middle of the 7th century to the present day. Over this period, English poets have written some of the most enduring poems in Western culture, and the language and its poetry have spread around the globe. Consequently, the term English poetry is...
. It was published by Richard Tottel
Richard Tottel
Richard Tottel was an English publisher and influential member of the legal community. He ran his business from a shop was located at Temple Bar on Fleet Street in London...
in 1557, and ran to many editions in the sixteenth century.
Richard Tottel
Richard Tottel
Richard Tottel was an English publisher and influential member of the legal community. He ran his business from a shop was located at Temple Bar on Fleet Street in London...
was an English publisher with a shop at Temple Bar
Temple Bar, London
Temple Bar is the barrier marking the westernmost extent of the City of London on the road to Westminster, where Fleet Street becomes the Strand...
on Fleet Street
Fleet Street
Fleet Street is a street in central London, United Kingdom, named after the River Fleet, a stream that now flows underground. It was the home of the British press until the 1980s...
in London. His main business was the publication of law textbooks but his biggest contribution to English literature would come in the form of the anthology of poetry. He also gave the public Surrey
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
Henry Howard, KG, , known as The Earl of Surrey although he never was a peer, was an English aristocrat, and one of the founders of English Renaissance poetry.-Life:...
's translation of the second and fourth books of Virgil
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...
's Aeneid
Aeneid
The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is composed of roughly 10,000 lines in dactylic hexameter...
, which is the earliest known example of English blank verse
Blank verse
Blank verse is poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the sixteenth century" and Paul Fussell has claimed that "about three-quarters of all English poetry is in blank verse."The first...
. He is responsible too for the first edition printed of Cicero's De Officiis
De Officiis
De Officiis is an essay by Marcus Tullius Cicero divided into three books, in which Cicero expounds his conception of the best way to live, behave, and observe moral obligations.- Origin :...
in 1556 by Nicholas Grimald
Nicholas Grimald
Nicholas Grimald , English poet, was born in Huntingdonshire, the son probably of Giovanni Baptista Grimaldi, who had been a clerk in the service of Empson and Dudley in the reign of Henry VII....
, who would later contribute to the poetry anthology.
Tottel also published Thomas More
Thomas More
Sir Thomas More , also known by Catholics as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was an important councillor to Henry VIII of England and, for three years toward the end of his life, Lord Chancellor...
's Utopia
Utopia
Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...
and another collection of More's writings, John Lydgate
John Lydgate
John Lydgate of Bury was a monk and poet, born in Lidgate, Suffolk, England.Lydgate is at once a greater and a lesser poet than John Gower. He is a greater poet because of his greater range and force; he has a much more powerful machine at his command. The sheer bulk of Lydgate's poetic output is...
's translations from Giovanni Boccaccio
Giovanni Boccaccio
Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian author and poet, a friend, student, and correspondent of Petrarch, an important Renaissance humanist and the author of a number of notable works including the Decameron, On Famous Women, and his poetry in the Italian vernacular...
, and books by William Staunford
William Staunford
Sir William Staunford was an English jurist and was appointed a judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1554.In 1557 Staunford published the first textbook of English criminal law; Les Plees del Coron. In 1561 his An Exposicion of the Kinges Prerogative was published...
and Thomas Tusser
Thomas Tusser
Thomas Tusser was an English poet and farmer, best known for his instructional poem Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, published in 1557. It contains the lines...
. The majority of his publications were legal treatises, including a legal history of the reign of Richard III
Richard III of England
Richard III was King of England for two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty...
, and legal yearbooks covering parts of the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI.
Songes and Sonettes
The first edition of this work appeared on June 5, 1557 with the title Songes and Sonettes Written By the Ryght Honorable Lord Henry Howard, late Earle of Surrey, and other. The volume consisted of 271 poems, none of which had ever been printed before. Songes and Sonettes was the first of the poetic anthologies that became popular by the end of the 16th century, and is considered to be Tottel's 'great contribution to English letters', as well as the first to be printed for the pleasure of the common reader. It was also the last large use of sonnet form for several decades, in published work, until the appearance of the sequence Astrophil and Stella (1591) and the anthology The Phoenix NestThe Phoenix Nest
The Phoenix Nest was an anthology of poetry by various authors which was "set foorth" by an as-yet unidentified "R. S. of the Inner Temple Gentleman", in 1593...
(1593).
Most of the poems included in the anthology were written in the 1530s but were only published in the first edition in 1557. Many of them were published posthumously.
There are in total 54 actual sonnets in the anthology. These include nine from unknown authors, three from Grimald, 15 from Surrey, and 27 from Wyatt.
The incorporated poetry had numerous comments on religion, covering Catholicism
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
, Protestantism
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
, and the English Reformation
English Reformation
The English Reformation was the series of events in 16th-century England by which the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church....
. Later editors of the early modern period then took out many of these religious references.
Contributors
The collection comprises mostly the works of Henry Howard Surrey and Thomas WyattThomas Wyatt (poet)
Sir Thomas Wyatt was a 16th-century English lyrical poet credited with introducing the sonnet into English. He was born at Allington Castle, near Maidstone in Kent – though his family was originally from Yorkshire...
. Both were heavily influenced by Italian poetry
Italian poetry
-Important Italian poets:* Giacomo da Lentini a 13th Century poet who is believed to have invented the sonnet.* Guido Cavalcanti Tuscan poet, and a key figure in the Dolce Stil Novo movement....
, although Wyatt's meter would be adapted to conventional English iambic stress by Tottel.
The star poet of Tottel's Miscellany, the Earl of Surrey, created the English sonnet form by modifying the Petrarchan sonnet. If the English sonnet is also called the Shakespearean sonnet, that can be attributed to Shakespeare's fame. The form which Surrey created (three quatrain
Quatrain
A quatrain is a stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines of verse. Existing in various forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and China; and, continues into the 21st century, where it is...
s in alternate rhyme and a concluding couplet
Couplet
A couplet is a pair of lines of meter in poetry. It usually consists of two lines that rhyme and have the same meter.While traditionally couplets rhyme, not all do. A poem may use white space to mark out couplets if they do not rhyme. Couplets with a meter of iambic pentameter are called heroic...
) is easier to write in English than the Petrarchan form, with its more complex rhyme scheme.
Surrey and Wyatt's inclusion in Tottel's Miscellany would mark the first time either poet's work was printed. Other contributors include Nicholas Grimald
Nicholas Grimald
Nicholas Grimald , English poet, was born in Huntingdonshire, the son probably of Giovanni Baptista Grimaldi, who had been a clerk in the service of Empson and Dudley in the reign of Henry VII....
, Thomas Norton
Thomas Norton
Thomas Norton was an English lawyer, politician, writer of verse — but not, as has been claimed, the chief interrogator of Queen Elizabeth I.-Official career:...
, Thomas Vaux, John Heywood
John Heywood
John Heywood was an English writer known for his plays, poems, and collection of proverbs. Although he is best known as a playwright, he was also active as a musician and composer, though no works survive.-Life:...
, Edward Somerset and other uncertain or unknown authors. Among these unknown authors, it is believed that Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer , known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey...
wrote at least one of the poems, titled in the anthology as, "To leade a vertuous and honest life." Although some of the wording has been altered slightly, this poem appears to be "a somewhat mutilated copy of Chaucer's ballad on "Truth.""
This is a sample of a poem found in the text by Sir Thomas Wyatt:.
- They flee from me, that sometime did me seek,
- With naked foot stalking within my chamber:
- Once have I seen them gentle, tame, and meek,
- That now are wild, and do not once remember,
- That sometime they have put themselves in danger
- To take bread at my hand ; and now they range
- Busily seeking in continual change
(This poem refers to Elizabeth I's mother, Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn ;c.1501/1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 as the second wife of Henry VIII of England and Marquess of Pembroke in her own right. Henry's marriage to Anne, and her subsequent execution, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that was the...
. Wyatt wisely withdrew from the chase in favor of a more heavyweight suitor. Both had the problem of being already married, but the other suitor, Henry VIII, eventually solved that one).
The first edition of Tottel's Miscellany (1557) featured forty poems by Surrey, ninety-six poems by Wyatt, forty poems by Grimald, and ninety-five poems written by unknown authors. Tottel made note that of those anonymous poems, the authors were sure to include Thomas Churchyard
Thomas Churchyard
Thomas Churchyard , English author, was born at Shrewsbury, the son of a farmer.-Life:Churchyard received a good education, and, having speedily dissipated at court the money with which his father provided him, he entered the household of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey...
, Thomas Vaux, Edward Somerset, John Heywood and Sir Francis Bryan. It has been decided definitely that of those ninety-five poems, two were written by Vaux, one by John Heywood, and one by Somerset. The only first edition left is in the Bodleian Library
Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...
in England. A reprint, which was limited to sixty copies, was edited by John Payne Collier
John Payne Collier
John Payne Collier , English Shakespearian critic and forger, was born in London.-Reporter and solicitor:...
in 1867.
The second edition was also published in 1557; thirty of Grimald's poems were removed but thirty-nine additional ones were added to the "uncertain authors" category with a final tally of 281 poems. There are only two copies of this work in existence left, one in the Grenville Collection at the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
, the other at Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
.
The next seven editions were all printed between 1558 and 1586, with the final ninth edition being published in 1587.
Impact
It was so popular during the Elizabethan era it is considered the most influential of all Elizabethan miscellanies. It is generally included with Elizabethan era literature even if it was, in fact, published in 1557, a year before Elizabeth IElizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
took the throne.
Shakespeare uses some of its verses in The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy by William Shakespeare, first published in 1602, though believed to have been written prior to 1597. It features the fat knight Sir John Falstaff, and is Shakespeare's only play to deal exclusively with contemporary Elizabethan era English middle class life...
and Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
, and directly quotes the anonymous poem, "Against him that had slaundered a gentlewoman with him selfe", in The Rape of Lucrece
The Rape of Lucrece
The Rape of Lucrece is a narrative poem by William Shakespeare about the legendary Lucretia. In his previous narrative poem, Venus and Adonis , Shakespeare had included a dedicatory letter to his patron, the Earl of Southampton, in which he promised to write a "graver work"...
:
- "To me came Tarquin, armed to beguild,
- With outward honesty but yet defiled..."
In the Miscellany the quote is
- "so was the house defiled,
- Oh Collatiue: so was the wife beguilde."
Songes and Sonettes is also known as the most important English poetic collection in the 16th century and inaugurated a long series of poetic anthologies in Elizabethan England.