Sir Robert Dallington (1561–1637) was an English courtier, travel writer and translator, and master of the

London Charterhouse The London Charterhouse is a historic complex of buildings in Farringdon, London, dating back to the 14th century. It occupies land to the north of Charterhouse Square, and lies within the London Borough of Islington. It was originally built ( ...

Life

Dallington was born at

Geddington Geddington is a village and civil parish on the A4300, previously A43, in North Northamptonshire between Kettering and Corby. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 1,503, virtually unchanged from 1,504 at the 2001 census. ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

. He entered

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Corpus Christi College (full name: "The College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary", often shortened to "Corpus"), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. From the late 14th century through to the early 19th century ...

, and was there from about 1575 to 1580; from his incorporation at Oxford as M.A. it is deduced that he held that degree from Cambridge, though this is unrecorded. Dallington then became a schoolmaster in

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

. The Puritan Norfolk family of Butts acted as patrons at this period of his life.

Roy Strong Sir Roy Colin Strong, (born 23 August 1935) is an English art historian, museum curator, writer, broadcaster and landscape designer. He has served as director of both the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. ...

, ''Henry Prince of Wales and England's Lost Renaissance'' (2000), pp. 16-17. In 1594 he contributed a gratulatory poem to

Lewes Lewkenor Sir Lewes Lewknor (c.1560–1627) was an English courtier, M.P., writer, soldier, and Judge who served as Master of the Ceremonies to King James I of England. M.P. for Midhurst in 1597 and for Bridgnorth 1604–10. His career has been describ ...

's ''The Resolved Gentleman''. After a few years, Dallington set out on a leisurely journey through France and Italy: a

Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...

, and in fact the first of two, one in 1595 to 1597, followed by another in 1598 to 1600. On his return he became secretary to Francis Manners; they had been in Italy together on the second tour, and the party then may have included the young

Inigo Jones Inigo Jones (; 15 July 1573 – 21 June 1652) was the first significant architect in England and Wales in the early modern period, and the first to employ Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmetry in his buildings. As the most notable archit ...

. The first tour was with

Roger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland Roger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland (6 October 1576 – 26 June 1612) was the eldest surviving son of John Manners, 4th Earl of Rutland and his wife, Elizabeth ''nee'' Charleton (d. 1595). He travelled across Europe, took part in military ca ...

, elder brother of Francis. Dallington was from 1605 a gentleman of the privy chamber

in ordinary ''In ordinary'' is an English phrase with multiple meanings. In relation to the Royal Household, it indicates that a position is a permanent one. In naval matters, vessels "in ordinary" (from the 17th century) are those out of service for repair o ...

Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales (19 February 1594 – 6 November 1612), was the eldest son and heir apparent of James VI and I, King of England and Scotland; and his wife Anne of Denmark. His name derives from his grandfathers: Henry Stuar ...

(on the recommendation of the Earl of Rutland) and in receipt of a pension of £100. Anthony Wood says that he filled the same office in

Prince Charles Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to ...

's household. In 1624, on Prince Charles's recommendation, Dallington was appointed master of Charterhouse in succession to

Francis Beaumont Francis Beaumont ( ; 1584 – 6 March 1616) was a dramatist in the English Renaissance theatre, most famous for his collaborations with John Fletcher. Beaumont's life Beaumont was the son of Sir Francis Beaumont of Grace Dieu, near Thrin ...

; and to Charles he probably owed the knighthood which was conferred on him 30 December in the same year. As early as 1601 Dallington had been incorporated at St. John's College, Oxford; but though he was now Forty years-old he was still only in

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Churc ...

's orders, and at the same time the governors resolved that no future master should be elected under forty years of age, or who was not in holy orders of priesthood two years before his election, and having not more than one living, and that within thirty miles of London. While master, Dallington improved the walks and gardens of Charterhouse, and introduced into the school the custom of versifying on passages of scriptures. In 1636 Dallington had grown so infirm that the governors appointed three persons to assist him in his duties of master. In the following year he died, seventy-six years old. Two years before his death Dallington had, at his own expense, built a schoolhouse in his native village, Geddington; he also gave the great bell of the parish church and provided for the poor.

Works

While occupying a teaching position he edited and published ''A Booke of Epitaphes made upon the Death of Sir William Buttes'' (by R. D. and others, edited by R. D.). Eight of these epitaphs, some in English, the others in poor Latin verse, were composed by Dallington himself. Also as R. D. he translated into English the ''

Hypnerotomachia Poliphili ''Hypnerotomachia Poliphili'' (; ), called in English ''Poliphilo's Strife of Love in a Dream'' or ''The Dream of Poliphilus'', is a book said to be by Francesco Colonna. It is a famous example of an incunable (a work of early printing). The wor ...

'' of Francesco Colonna.

regards the connection of Dallington with the court of Prince Henry as significant as a filiation of Italianate taste. He wrote an account of his travels. ''A Survey of the Great Duke's State of Tuscany, in the yeare of our Lord 1596,'' which appeared in 1605, and was followed the next year by ''A Method for Travell: shewed by taking the view of France as it stoode in the yeare of our Lord 1598''. Both of these volumes are travelogues-cum-guide-books, the first being a particularly sophisticated critique of the Medici regime, concluding with the punning motto: 'qui sub Medici vivit, misere vivit'.

Edward Chaney Edward Chaney (born 1951) is a British cultural historian. He is Professor Emeritus at Solent University and Honorary Professor at University College London (School of European Languages, Culture and Society (SELCS) – Centre for Early Modern ...

, 'Robert Dallington’s Survey of Tuscany (1605): A British View of Medicean Tuscany,' ''The Evolution of the Grand Tour: Anglo-Italian Cultural Relations since the Renaissance'', rev. ed. (London: Routledge, 2000), pp. 143-60 In addition to the works mentioned above, Dallington published in 1613 a book entitled ''Aphorismes Civill and Militarie, amplified with authorities, and exemplified with historie out of the first Quaterne of F. Guicciardine (a briefe inference upon Guicciardine's digression, in the fourth part of the first Quaterne of his Historie, forbidden the impression and effaced out of the originall by the Inquisition)''. A second edition of this book contained a translation of the inhibited digression.

References

;Attribution

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dallington, Robert 1561 births 1637 deaths 16th-century male writers 17th-century English male writers 17th-century travel writers 16th-century English translators 17th-century English translators People from Geddington Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Alumni of the University of Oxford Schoolteachers from Northamptonshire 16th-century English educators 17th-century English educators Knights Bachelor English travel writers