The passing of the centuries can be cruel or kind to reputations .....
Take Elizabethan John Taylor .... Who? I almost hear you think.
Well, during his lifetime, this poet enjoyed considerable success, and was at least as famous as Ben Johnson and one William Shakespeare, who were his contemporaries, as he was one of the most widely read poets in Stuart England.
But now .... well unless your a specialist in the subject of Elizabethan poets, then he is virtually unknown ... in fact I would suggest, totally unknown.
He was born in Gloucester, August 1578, and although records were lost during the English Civil War, its clear that his parents well well enough off to send him the local Grammar School (like Shakespeare), but he failed his Latin, and was taken out. He left home and moved to London (probably Southwark), and apprenticed as a waterman (a disreputable occupation, ferrying passengers across the Thames). As an adult he briefly served in the English Navy, taking part in the Anglo-Spanish War (1585- 1605), in the Capture of Cadiz in 1596.
However, for the majority of his life, he was working on the Thames in the guild of boatmen, and became the guilds clerk, and a member of the ruling oligarchy of the guild. This allowed him to chronicle the watermen's disputes of 1641–42 (in which an attempt was made to democratise the leadership of the guild), in the pamphlets Iohn Taylors Manifestation ... and To the Right Honorable Assembly ... (Commons Petition), and in John Taylors Last Voyage and Adventure of 1641.
But the work of becoming the Guild clerk didn't stop him working, and his fares had included ferrying many actors, playwrights and patrons across the Thames to the Bankside theatres. This introduced him to all the major literary figures of the day. However the move of many theatres from the south bank to the north, took a huge toll on Taylor's and other watermen's incomes, and he had campaigned vigorously against it with a pamphlet The True Cause of the Watermen's Suit Concerning Players of and as he was a member of the company of the King's Watermen, he actually petitioned the King himself (to no avail).
However he also wrote on other subjects, such as the life of coachmen and other events and social history of the time, and in all he had over one hundred and fifty publications in his lifetime. He also holds a small Shakespeare footnote as the first poet to report the death of William Shakespeare in print, in his 1620 poem, "The Praise of Hemp-seed". Shakespeare had died four years earlier. Such was his fame at the time that many of his poems were gathered into the compilation All the Workes of John Taylor the Water Poet.
He died in London in December 1653 aged 75, which is a good old age now, and was a very old age in the age of Cromwell, who became 'Lord Protector' in that year. Then history forgot him.
 |
| John Taylor "The Water Poet" |
Take Elizabethan John Taylor .... Who? I almost hear you think.
Well, during his lifetime, this poet enjoyed considerable success, and was at least as famous as Ben Johnson and one William Shakespeare, who were his contemporaries, as he was one of the most widely read poets in Stuart England.
But now .... well unless your a specialist in the subject of Elizabethan poets, then he is virtually unknown ... in fact I would suggest, totally unknown.
He was born in Gloucester, August 1578, and although records were lost during the English Civil War, its clear that his parents well well enough off to send him the local Grammar School (like Shakespeare), but he failed his Latin, and was taken out. He left home and moved to London (probably Southwark), and apprenticed as a waterman (a disreputable occupation, ferrying passengers across the Thames). As an adult he briefly served in the English Navy, taking part in the Anglo-Spanish War (1585- 1605), in the Capture of Cadiz in 1596.
However, for the majority of his life, he was working on the Thames in the guild of boatmen, and became the guilds clerk, and a member of the ruling oligarchy of the guild. This allowed him to chronicle the watermen's disputes of 1641–42 (in which an attempt was made to democratise the leadership of the guild), in the pamphlets Iohn Taylors Manifestation ... and To the Right Honorable Assembly ... (Commons Petition), and in John Taylors Last Voyage and Adventure of 1641.
But the work of becoming the Guild clerk didn't stop him working, and his fares had included ferrying many actors, playwrights and patrons across the Thames to the Bankside theatres. This introduced him to all the major literary figures of the day. However the move of many theatres from the south bank to the north, took a huge toll on Taylor's and other watermen's incomes, and he had campaigned vigorously against it with a pamphlet The True Cause of the Watermen's Suit Concerning Players of and as he was a member of the company of the King's Watermen, he actually petitioned the King himself (to no avail).
 |
| John Taylor Pamphlet ..... |
However he also wrote on other subjects, such as the life of coachmen and other events and social history of the time, and in all he had over one hundred and fifty publications in his lifetime. He also holds a small Shakespeare footnote as the first poet to report the death of William Shakespeare in print, in his 1620 poem, "The Praise of Hemp-seed". Shakespeare had died four years earlier. Such was his fame at the time that many of his poems were gathered into the compilation All the Workes of John Taylor the Water Poet.
He died in London in December 1653 aged 75, which is a good old age now, and was a very old age in the age of Cromwell, who became 'Lord Protector' in that year. Then history forgot him.
No comments:
Post a Comment
All comments are welcomed, or even just thanks if you enjoyed the post. But please make any comment relevant to the post it appears under. Off topic comments will be blocked or removed.
Moderation is on for older posts to stop spamming and comments that are off topic or inappropriate from being posted .... comments are reviewed within 48 hours. I don't block normal comments that are on topic and not inappropriate. Vexatious comments that may cause upset to other commentators, or that are attempting to espouse a particular wider political view, are reviewed before acceptance. But a certain amount of debate around a post topic is accepted, as long as it remains generally on topic and is not an attempt to become sounding board for some other cause.
Final decision on all comments is held by the blog author and is final.
Comments are always monitored for bad or abusive language, and or illegal statements i.e. overtly racist or sexist content. Spam is not tolerated and is removed.
Commentaires ne sont surveillés que pour le mauvais ou abusif langue ou déclarations illégales ie contenu ouvertement raciste ou sexiste. Spam ne est pas toléré et est éliminé.