Anthony Chute ( fl. 1590s – 1595) was an English poet and pamphleteer. Very little is known about him.

Life

Chute appears to have been a protégé of

Gabriel Harvey Gabriel Harvey (c. 1552/3 – 1631) was an English writer. Harvey was a notable scholar, whose reputation suffered from his quarrel with Thomas Nashe. Henry Morley, writing in the ''Fortnightly Review'' (March 1869), has argued that Harvey's Lati ...

. 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 The English Armada ( es, Invencible Inglesa, lit=English Invincible), also known as the Counter Armada or the Drake–Norris Expedition, was an attack fleet sent against Spain by Queen Elizabeth I of England that sailed on 28 April 1589 during ...

expedition to

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

.Robert J. Kane, "Anthony Chute, Thomas Nashe, and the First English Work on Tobacco", ''The Review of English Studies'', 1931, p.151-159. 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 Elizabeth "Jane" Shore (née Lambert) (c. 1445 – c. 1527) was one of the many mistresses of King Edward IV of England. She became the best-known to history through being later accused of conspiracy by the future King Richard III, and compelle ...

, 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 (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,'' ...

. ''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 (13 September 15204 August 1598) was an English statesman, the chief adviser of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign, twice Secretary of State (1550–1553 and 1558–1572) and Lord High Treasurer from 1 ...

, applying for the position of pursuivant of arms, describing himself as a "poor gentleman and a scholar". In 1595, Chute published ''Tabaco'', the first English discussion of the merits of

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

. 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, 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. Gab ...

'' (1596), in which Nashe states that Chute's poetry is so bad it would never have even been published if he had not been Harvey's yes-man. He also says that Chute died of

dropsy Edema, also spelled oedema, and also known as fluid retention, dropsy, hydropsy and swelling, is the build-up of fluid in the body's tissue. Most commonly, the legs or arms are affected. Symptoms may include skin which feels tight, the area ma ...

"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''.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chute, Anthony 16th-century English poets 16th-century births 1595 deaths English pamphleteers Deaths from edema English male poets