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© Copyright 2008
Thomas Watson: English Poems
Transcribed from original prints and edited by Albert Chatterley
Book cover
Thomas Watson was a pioneer of the craft of poetry in the last two decades of the reign of Elizabeth I, and his verse was reprinted in contemporary anthologies, and was known and sometimes revered by his literary contemporaries Nashe, Greene, Marlowe and the young Shakespeare. But he has never been properly accorded modern recognition for his achievements in either English or Latin verse. This volume presents all his existing poetry in English in a modernised form, including the early sonnet sequence Hekatompathia, his Eclogue upon the Death of Sir Francis Walsingham, a later sonnet sequence The Tears of Fancy and the English lyrics he wrote specially for a volume of Italian madrigals with one by William Byrd. Also included is an assessment of the likelihood of his involvement in The Honourable Entertainment at Elvetham which was presented to Elizabeth on progress in 1591, and an abridged version of the contemporary account.

Each work is provided with useful line-by-line editorial notes and references, and accurate citations of the classical and French and Italian authors he quoted from, with translations. The original title page of each work is reproduced, and the editor has provided a forty-page critical essay discussing the nature and methods of his approach, and outlining the particular problems which presented themselves to a poet at this relatively undeveloped stage in the history of the English language.

About the editor: In this volume, its companion Thomas Watson: Latin Poems and the musical publication Thomas Watson: Italian Madrigals Englished (Musica Britannica vol. 74) Albert Chatterley has provided modern editions of the whole of Watson's output. He has also written extensively on this and associated subjects in scholarly journals.

Publisher: Marion Hopkins, Norwich / 2003
ISBN: 0954477405
Style: Paperback limited edition
Price: UK£38.50 per copy excluding postage
Postage: UKŁ3.50 per copy / other destinations please enquire
To order: Mail order from Albert Chatterley, 472 Unthank Road, Norwich NR4 7QJ, England
Email: albert.chatterley@bnc.oxon.org
Please make your payment, in pounds sterling, to Albert Chatterley
Delivery:Please allow up to 28 days for delivery in Europe