Thomas Newton (poet)

For other people named Thomas Newton, see Thomas Newton (disambiguation).

Thomas Newton (c. 1542–1607) was an English clergyman, poet, author and translator.

Life

The eldest son of Edward Newton of Park House, in Butley, a part of the parish of Prestbury, Cheshire, he was educated first at the Macclesfield grammar school by John Brownsword, a much-praised schoolmaster. Newton went on to Trinity College, Oxford, which he left in 1562 to study at Queen's College, Cambridge,[1] but then returned to his original college.[2]

In 1569 or 1570, he published The Worthye Booke of Old Age. The book's preface was dated "frome Butleye the seuenth of March 1569", and many of his other books before 1583 were dated from the same place. He wrote books on historical, medical and theological subjects, and contributed many commendatory verses in English and Latin to various works, a common practice of the time. For many of his verses and books he styles himself "Thomas Newtonus Cestreshyrius", showing an evident affection for his county of birth.[2]

He may have practiced as a physician in Butley and taught at Macclesfield school. In 1583 he was appointed rector of Little Ilford, Essex, from where most of his later works are dated. His most significant publications were a series of translations of Cicero and of Seneca's tragedies.[3] Atropoion Delion; or, The Death of Delia, a pastoral elegy on the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603 may have been by this Thomas Newton.

According to The Dictionary of National Biography:[2]

"Newton was a skilled writer of Latin verse, in which, Ritson states, he excited the admiration of his contemporaries; while Warton describes him as the elegant Latin encomiast and the first Englishman who wrote Latin elegiacs with classical clearness and terseness. He also wrote English verses with ease and fluency, and translated several works from the Latin. All his books are now very scarce; most of them have very long titles."

Newton was married and the father of two sons, Emanuel (who seems to have died before his father) and Abel. After his death in 1607 (sometime between 27 April, when his will was dated, and 13 June, when it was proved at Canterbury), he was probably buried at Little Ilford.[2]

Bibliography

Each year links to its corresponding "[year] in literature" or "[year] in poetry" article (spelling and capitalisation as in the source material):

Verses published in other works

Newton's poetry in English and Latin appear in more than 20 works from 1578 to 1597,[2] including these:

Notes

  1. ↑ "Newton, Thomas (NWTN562T)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36  Lee, Sidney, ed. (1894). "Newton, Thomas (1542?-1607)". Dictionary of National Biography. 40. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  3. ↑ Oxford DNB, 2004-12.
  4. ↑ Braden, Gordon. "Newton, Thomas". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/20069. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1894). "Newton, Thomas (1542?-1607)". Dictionary of National Biography. 40. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 

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