Thomas Watson (1555–1592) was an English poet and translator, and the pioneer of the English madrigal. His lyrics aside, he wrote largely in Latin, also being the first to translate
Sophocles
Sophocles (; grc, Σοφοκλῆς, , Sophoklễs; 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. is one of three ancient Greek tragedians, at least one of whose plays has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or co ...
's ''Antigone'' from Greek. His incorporation of Italianate forms into English lyric verse influenced a generation of English writers, including Shakespeare, who was referred to in 1595 by
William Covell
William Covell (died 1613) was an English clergyman and writer.
Life
He was born in Chadderton, Lancashire, England, and proceeded MA at Queens' College, Cambridge in 1588.
In the 1590s Covell took part in the controversy about how far the ne ...
as "Watson's heyre" (heir). He wrote both English and Latin compositions, and was particularly admired for the Latin. His unusual 18-line sonnets were influential, although the form was not generally taken up.
Early life
Thomas Watson was born in mid-1555, probably in the parish of
St Olave, Hart Street, London, to a prosperous London couple,
William Watson William, Willie, Bill or Billy Watson may refer to:
Entertainment
* William Watson (songwriter) (1794–1840), English concert hall singer and songwriter
* William Watson (poet) (1858–1935), English poet
* Billy Watson (actor) (1923–2022), A ...
and Anne Lee. His father's death in November 1559 was followed by his mother's in 1561, and Watson and his older brother went to live with their maternal uncle in Oxfordshire. From 1567, Watson attended
Winchester College
Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of the ...
in Westminster, and later attended
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
without gaining a degree. Sometime after his uncle's death in April 1572, Watson went to Europe, spending seven-and-a-half years in Italy and France, according to the preface of his version of ''Antigone''. While there he was already gaining a reputation as a poet. When he returned he studied law in London. Though he often signed his works as "student of law", he never practised law, as his true passion was literature. However, Roger Fisher has noted that "Watson's early legal training and associations have been downplayed by biographers in favour of his later image as a literary wit and reckless rake," but that he associated "with many well-known barristers in his day and frequented the Inns of Court."
Watson's ''De remedio amoris'', perhaps his earliest important composition, is lost, as is his "piece of work written in the commendation of women-kind", which was also in Latin verse. His earliest surviving work is a 1581 Latin version of ''
Antigone
In Greek mythology, Antigone ( ; Ancient Greek: Ἀντιγόνη) is the daughter of Oedipus and either his mother Jocasta or, in another variation of the myth, Euryganeia. She is a sister of Polynices, Eteocles, and Ismene.Roman, L., & R ...
'' dedicated to
Philip Howard, 20th Earl of Arundel
Philip Howard, 13th Earl of Arundel (28 June 155719 October 1595) was an English nobleman. He was canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1970, as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. He is variously numbered as 1st, 20th or 13th Earl of Arund ...
. It also contains an appendix of Latin allegorical poems and experiments in classical metres.
English poetry
The following year Watson appears for the first time as an English poet in verses prefixed to
George Whetstone
George Whetstone (1544? – 1587) was an English dramatist and author.
Biography
Whetstone was the third son of Robert Whetstone (d. 1557), a member of a wealthy family that owned the manor of Walcot at Barnack, near Stamford, Lincolnshire. Geor ...
's ''Heptameron'', and in a far more important work, as the author of the ''Hekatompathia or Passionate Centurie of Love'', dedicated to
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, who had read the poems in manuscript and encouraged Watson to publish them. Also entitled ''Watson's Passion'' the work, published in 1584, contains over 100 poems in French and Italian sonnet styles, including a number of translations. The technical peculiarity of these interesting poems is that, although they appear and profess to be
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, ...
s, they are written in triple sets of common six-line stanza, and therefore have eighteen lines each.
Watson was recognised for his poetic "Methods and motifs", which occurred between 1580 and 1590. He was held in high regard by his contemporaries, even though his style was very similar to those of his late 15th and early 16th-century Italian predecessors
Sannazaro
Jacopo Sannazaro (; 28 July 1458 – 6 August 1530) was an Italian poet, Renaissance humanism, humanist and epigrammist from Kingdom of Naples, Naples.
He wrote easily in Latin language, Latin, in Italian and in Neapolitan language, Neapolitan, ...
and Strozzi. He openly drew from
Petrarch
Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists.
Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited w ...
and
Ronsard
Pierre de Ronsard (; 11 September 1524 – 27 December 1585) was a French poet or, as his own generation in France called him, a "prince of poets".
Early life
Pierre de Ronsard was born at the Manoir de la Possonnière, in the village of ...
, with what
Sidney Lee
Sir Sidney Lee (5 December 1859 – 3 March 1926) was an English biographer, writer, and critic.
Biography
Lee was born Solomon Lazarus Lee in 1859 at 12 Keppel Street, Bloomsbury, London. He was educated at the City of London School and at ...
describes as "drops of water from Petrarch and Ronsard's fountains," and
Serafino dell'Aquila
The Italian poet and musician Serafino dell'Aquila or Aquilano is alternatively named Serafino dei Ciminelli from the family to which he belonged. He was born in what was then the Neapolitan town of L'Aquila on 6 January 1466 and died of a fever ...
has been identified as the source for twelve later sonnets. Watson seriously desired to recommend his 18-line form to future sonneteers, but it attracted no imitators in that respect, although ''The Oxford Companion to English Literature'' notes that Watson's sonnets "appear to have been studied by Shakespeare and other contemporaries."
The little we have of Watson's prose is highly
euphuistic. He was a friend of
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 '' E ...
at Oxford, and both continued their literary connection in London under the patronage of
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, himself an Oxford alumnus.
Latin poetry
As his reputation grew, Watson's name became associated with such literary powers as
Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe, also known as Kit Marlowe (; baptised 26 February 156430 May 1593), was an English playwright, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe is among the most famous of the Elizabethan playwrights. Based upon the ...
,
George Peele,
Matthew Roydon and
Thomas Achelley. He also gained a following of younger writers like
Barnfield and
Thomas Nashe
Thomas Nashe (baptised November 1567 – c. 1601; also Nash) was an Elizabethan playwright, poet, satirist and a significant pamphleteer. He is known for his novel ''The Unfortunate Traveller'', his pamphlets including ''Pierce Penniless,'' ...
, who regarded him as the best Latin poet in England. In 1585 he published his first Latin epic ''Amyntas'', eleven days of a shepherd's mourning for the death of his lover, Phyllis. Watson's epic was afterwards translated into English by
Abraham Fraunce
Abraham Fraunce (c. 1558/1560 – c. 1592/1593) was an English poet.
Life
A native of Shropshire, he was born between 1558 and 1560. His name appears in a list of pupils of Shrewsbury School in January 1571, and he joined St John's College, Camb ...
, without the permission of the author (1587) and uncredited. Fraunce's translation was highly criticised. "His sins of translation result generally from an excess of zeal rather than a failure to understand his author's intention." Although a relationship to
Torquato Tasso
Torquato Tasso ( , also , ; 11 March 154425 April 1595) was an Italian poet of the 16th century, known for his 1591 poem ''Gerusalemme liberata'' (Jerusalem Delivered), in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between ...
's ''Aminta'' is often supposed, in fact there is none. In the fourth reprint of his English version in 1591 Fraunce also printed his own translation of the Tasso work, and it is this that has given rise to the confusion. To forestall any further sub-standard English translations, Watson published his 1590 poem ''Melibœus'', an elegy on the death of Sir
Francis Walsingham
Sir Francis Walsingham ( – 6 April 1590) was principal secretary to Queen Elizabeth I of England from 20 December 1573 until his death and is popularly remembered as her "spymaster".
Born to a well-connected family of gentry, Wals ...
, in both Latin and English.
Plays
Watson was also a playwright, although none of his plays survive. His employer, William Cornwallis, comments that devising "twenty fictions and knaveryes in a play" was Watson's "daily practyse and his living" (Hall, p. 256). Francis Meres in 1598 lists him as among "our best for Tragedie".
It has been suggested that the anonymous ''
Arden of Faversham
''Arden of Faversham'' (original spelling: ''Arden of Feversham'') is an Elizabethan play, entered into the Register of the Stationers Company on 3 April 1592, and printed later that same year by Edward White. It depicts the real-life murde ...
'' is largely Watson's work with contributions by Shakespeare.
Late and posthumous publications
Related to music, he wrote a laudatory poem about John Case's book ''The Praise of Music'' (1586).
In 1589 Christopher Marlowe had been party to a fatal quarrel involving his neighbours and Watson in
Norton Folgate
Norton Folgate is a short length of street in London, connecting Bishopsgate with Shoreditch High Street, on the northern edge of the City of London.
It constitutes a short section of the A10 road (England), A10 road, the former Roman Empire, ...
; Marlowe was held in
Newgate Prison
Newgate Prison was a prison at the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey Street just inside the City of London, England, originally at the site of Newgate, a gate in the Roman London Wall. Built in the 12th century and demolished in 1904, t ...
for a fortnight.
In 1590 Watson authored ''The First Set of Italian Madrigals''. This was published by
Thomas Este
Thomas East, (also spelled Easte, Est, or Este) (''c.''1540 – January 1609), was an English printer who specialised in music. He has been described as a publisher, but that claim is debatable (the specialties of printer and bookseller/publish ...
and mainly consisted of compositions by the influential
madrigal
A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance music, Renaissance (15th–16th c.) and early Baroque music, Baroque (1600–1750) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The Polyphony, polyphoni ...
composer
Luca Marenzio
Luca Marenzio (also Marentio; October 18, 1553 or 1554 – August 22, 1599) was an Italian composer and singer of the late Renaissance.
He was one of the most renowned composers of madrigals, and wrote some of the most famous examples of the fo ...
, whose work had become popular in England through ''
Musica Transalpina
''Musica Transalpina'' is a collection of madrigals published in England in 1588. The madrigals had crossed the Alps (hence the name) in the sense that the madrigal form was borrowed from the Italians, and the pieces were mainly by Italians (altho ...
'' of 1588 (also published by Thomas Este). Following the example of the earlier publication, Watson provided the madrigals with English lyrics. He was less literal in his approach to the Italian originals than ''Musica Transalpina'', writing as he put it, "not to the sense of the originall dittie, but after the affection of the Noate". Like the earlier collection, ''The First Set of Italian Madrigals'' contains music by
William Byrd
William Byrd (; 4 July 1623) was an English composer of late Renaissance music. Considered among the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he had a profound influence on composers both from his native England and those on the continent. He ...
, in this case two settings of an original English text, "This sweet and merry month of May", presumably by Watson.
[ Owens, Jessie Ann]
Italian Madrigals Englished (1590)
Notes. Music Library Association The Music Library Association (MLA) of the United States is the main professional organization for music libraries and librarians (including those whose music materials form only part of their responsibilities and collections). It also serves corpo ...
, Inc. 2004.
Of the remainder of Watson's career, nothing is known save that on 26 September 1592 he was buried in the church of
St Bartholomew the Less
St Bartholomew the Less is an Anglican church in the City of London, associated with St Bartholomew's Hospital, within whose precincts it stands. Once a parish church, it has, since 1 June 2015, been a chapel of ease in the parish of St Bartho ...
and that a month later his second Latin epic "Amintae Gaudia" was seen through the press by his friend, "CM," possibly Marlowe. This tells the story of Amyntas' love and eventual winning of Phyllis, and is therefore chronologically the first part of the earlier epic. In the following year, his last book, ''The Tears of Fancie, or Love Disdained'' (1593), was posthumously published under the initials T. W. This is a collection of 60 sonnets, regular in form, so far at least as to have 14 lines each. As in "Hekatompathia", Watson uses the first person throughout ''The Tears of Fancie''. The circumstances of its publication were extraordinary. Watson had ended up in prison for killing a man, apparently in defense of Marlowe in 1589, and so after Watson's death in September 1592, Marlowe repaid his debt by arranging for the publication of the sonnet sequence, shortly before his own death in May 1593.
Spenser is supposed to have alluded to Watson's untimely death in ''Colin Clouts Come Home Again'', when he says: "Amyntas quite is gone and lies full low, Having his Amaryllis left to moan".
Reputation
Watson is mentioned by
Francis Meres
Francis Meres (1565/1566 – 29 January 1647) was an English churchman and author. His 1598 commonplace book includes the first critical account of poems and plays by Shakespeare.
Career
Francis Meres was born in 1565 at Kirton Meres in the par ...
along with Shakespeare, Peele and Marlowe among "the best for tragedie", but no dramatic work of his except the translations already mentioned is extant today. Watson certainly enjoyed a great reputation in his lifetime, and he was not without direct influence on the youth of Shakespeare. He was the first, after an original experiment by
Wyatt
Wyatt is a patronymic surname, derived from the Norman surname ''Guyot'', derived from "widu", Proto-Germanic for "wood".
Notable people with the surname "Wyatt" include
A
* Aaron Wyatt, Australian musician
* Addie L. Wyatt (1924–2012), Amer ...
and
Surrey
Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...
, to introduce pure imitation of Petrarch into English poetry. As Meres puts it, "He shows his inventiveness by his variety of treatment.... It is the number of different ways in which he can introduce these devices in this matter that measures his success as a poet." He was well read in Italian, French and Greek literature.
In modern literature
Watson plays a prominent part in the novel ''
A Dead Man in Deptford'' by
Anthony Burgess
John Anthony Burgess Wilson, (; 25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993), who published under the name Anthony Burgess, was an English writer and composer.
Although Burgess was primarily a comic writer, his dystopian satire ''A Clockwork ...
, in which he is a close friend of Marlowe. In the book, Watson introduces Marlowe to
Sir Francis Walsingham
Sir Francis Walsingham ( – 6 April 1590) was principal secretary to Queen Elizabeth I of England from 20 December 1573 until his death and is popularly remembered as her "spymaster".
Born to a well-connected family of gentry, Wals ...
and contributes to several of Marlowe's plays. He is a key character in ''The Marlowe Papers'' by
Ros Barber
Rosalind Barber (born 1964) is an English novelist, poet and academic.
Education
She has a BSc in Biology, an MA in creative writing, the arts and education, and a PhD in English literature, all from the University of Sussex. She also has an Op ...
.
References
*
*
External links
''The Ekatompathia, Or Passionate Centurie of Love''at Google Books
{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Thomas
1550s births
1592 deaths
16th-century English poets
University Wits
English male dramatists and playwrights
English male poets
16th-century Latin-language writers
New Latin-language poets