Henry Lok (Lock, Locke) (1553?-1608?) was an English poet.

Life

He was third son of Henry Lok, a London mercer (d. 1571), by his wife

Anne Vaughan Anne Vaughan may refer to: *Anne Locke Anne Locke (Lock, Lok) (c.1533 – after 1590) was an English poet, translator and Calvinist religious figure. She has been called the first English author to publish a sonnet sequence, ''A Meditation of a ...

, the poet.

Michael Lok Michael Lok, also Michael Locke, (c.1532 – c.1621) was an English merchant and traveller, and the principal backer of Sir Martin Frobisher's voyages in search of the Northwest Passage. Family Michael Lok was born in Cheapside in London, by his ...

the traveller was the poet's uncle, and Sir William Lok was his grandfather; Michael Cosworth was his cousin. According to Anthony Wood, Lok spent some time in Oxford between his sixteenth and twenty-first year, but he does not seem to have matriculated in the university, and took no degree. On leaving Oxford he went to court and found a patron. Lok had some dealings with the

Duke of Lennox The title Duke of Lennox has been created several times in the peerage of Scotland, for Clan Stewart of Darnley. The dukedom, named for the district of Lennox in Dumbarton, was first created in 1581, and had formerly been the Earldom of Lenno ...

and the

Earl of Bothwell Earl of Bothwell was a title that was created twice in the Peerage of Scotland. It was first created for Patrick Hepburn in 1488, and was forfeited in 1567. Subsequently, the earldom was re-created for the 4th Earl's nephew and heir of line, F ...

and in November 1590 he was in Edinburgh, In 1591 he contributed a

sonnet A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's invention, ...

to the ''Essayes of a Prentice'', by

James VI of Scotland James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until hi ...

and in May he reported on the

North Berwick Witch Trials The North Berwick witch trials were the trials in 1590 of a number of people from East Lothian, Scotland, accused of witchcraft in the St Andrew's Auld Kirk in North Berwick on Halloween night. They ran for two years, and implicated over seventy ...

Cecil Cecil may refer to: People with the name * Cecil (given name), a given name (including a list of people and fictional characters with the name) * Cecil (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) Places Canada *Cecil, Alberta, ...

. A persistent petitioner, early in 1597 Lok was, according to his own account, encouraged by the Countess of Warwick to apply to

Sir Robert Cecil Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, (1 June 156324 May 1612), was an English statesman noted for his direction of the government during the Union of the Crowns, as Tudor England gave way to Stuart rule (1603). Lord Salisbury served as the ...

for a pension to tide him over. Lok's miscellaneous appeals resulted in his obtaining confidential employment in 1599 in

Bayonne Bayonne (; eu, Baiona ; oc, label= Gascon, Baiona ; es, Bayona) is a city in Southwestern France near the Spanish border. It is a commune and one of two subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine re ...

and the Basque country, collecting political gossip. He was skilled in ciphers, but indiscreet, and at one time his life seems to have been in danger. A year later he was living in the Strand, and Cecil did not employ him again. In March 1606 he was imprisoned as an insolvent debtor in the

Westminster Gatehouse Gatehouse Prison was a prison in Westminster, built in 1370 as the gatehouse of Westminster Abbey. It was first used as a prison by the Abbot, a powerful churchman who held considerable power over the precincts and sanctuary. It was one of the pri ...

, and in May 1608 he was similarly situated and friendless in

the Clink The Clink was a prison in Southwark, England, which operated from the 12th century until 1780. The prison served the Liberty of the Clink, a local manor area owned by the Bishop of Winchester rather than by the reigning monarch. As the Libe ...

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

. Lok married Ann Moyle of Cornwall, and had two sons, Henry, born in 1592, and Charles.

Works

Lok's works, like those of Thomas Hudson, are described in ''The Returne from Parnassus'' (1601) as fit 'to lie in some old nooks amongst old boots and shoes', and later

Thomas Warton Thomas Warton (9 January 172821 May 1790) was an English literary historian, critic, and poet. He was appointed Poet Laureate in 1785, following the death of William Whitehead. He is sometimes called ''Thomas Warton the younger'' to disti ...

was scathing. In 1593 Richard Field obtained a license to print a work entitled ''The first Parte of Christian Passions, conteyninge a hundred Sonnets of Meditation, Humiliation, and Prayer.'' No copy of this book is now extant. In 1597 Richard Field printed Lok's verse rendering of ''

Ecclesiastes Ecclesiastes (; hbo, קֹהֶלֶת, Qōheleṯ, grc, Ἐκκλησιαστής, Ekklēsiastēs) is one of the Ketuvim ("Writings") of the Hebrew Bible and part of the Wisdom literature of the Christian Old Testament. The title commonly use ...

''. The whole work is dedicated by Lok to Queen Elizabeth. An address to the reader, in which he refers to earlier paraphrases of ''Ecclesiastes'' by

Theodore Beza Theodore Beza ( la, Theodorus Beza; french: Théodore de Bèze or ''de Besze''; June 24, 1519 – October 13, 1605) was a French Calvinist Protestant theologian, reformer and scholar who played an important role in the Protestant Reformatio ...

, Tremellius, and others, is followed by

commendatory verse The epideictic oratory, also called ceremonial oratory, or praise-and-blame rhetoric, is one of the three branches, or "species" (eidē), of rhetoric as outlined in Aristotle's ''Rhetoric'', to be used to praise or blame during ceremonies. Origin ...

s, including some in Latin, by

John Lyly John Lyly (; c. 1553 or 1554 – November 1606; also spelled ''Lilly'', ''Lylie'', ''Lylly'') was an English writer, dramatist of the University Wits, courtier, and parliamentarian. He was best known during his lifetime for his two books '' Eu ...

, and others in English by 'M.C.,' i.e. Michael Cosworth, Lok's cousin. With it are printed ''Sundry Psalms of David, translated into Verse as briefly and significantly as the scope of the Text will suffer.'' Lok's sonnets are introduced by a separate title-page in the ''Ecclesiastes'' volume. Two hundred and four treat of the Christian passions, and these are succeeded by 102, entitled ''Sundry Affectionate Sonets of a feeling Conscience'', and the same theme is pursued in a further sequence of twenty-two, entitled ''Peculiar Prayers.'' Some copies contain an appendix of sixty secular sonnets, addressed to personalities of Elizabeth's court.

Alexander Balloch Grosart Alexander Balloch Grosart (18 June 182716 March 1899) was a Scottish clergyman and literary editor. He is chiefly remembered for reprinting much rare Elizabethan literature, a work which he undertook because of his interest in Puritan theology. ...

. reprinted all these sonnets, together with the one prefixed to James VI's volume.In his ''Miscellanies of the Fuller Worthies' Library'', vol. ii. 1871. Lok also contributed commendatory verses to Michael Cosworth's rendering of the ''

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...

''.

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lok, Henry 1550s births 1608 deaths 16th-century English poets 17th-century English poets 17th-century English male writers Writers from London People imprisoned for debt English male poets