Bartholomew Griffin (1596 fl.) was an English poet.
Elixabethan Song Cycles: Idea by Michael Drayton / Fidessa by Bartholomew Griffin / Chloris by William Smith (edited by Martha Foote Crowe). London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1897. Courtesy Internet Archive.
Life[]
Overview[]
Griffin, of whom almost nothing is known, published in 1596 a collection of 62 sonnets under the title of Fidessa, of which some are excellent.[1]
Biographical details[]
B. Griffin, poet (probably related to the Griffins of Dingley, Northamptonshire), has been identified with a Bartholomew Griffin of Coventry, who was buried on 15 December 1602 at Holy Trinity in that town. From his will (P.C.C., 37 Bolein), proved on 13 May 1603 by his widow Katherine it appears that Bartholomew Griffin left a son called Rice (a frequent family name in the Griffins of Dingley).[2]
His only book, Fidessa, contains an epistle to the gentlemen of the Inns of Court, from which it might be inferred that Griffin himself belonged to an Inn, but no trace of him can be found in the registers. He was more probably an attorney, as he styles himself "gentleman" only. In the same epistle he mentions an unfinished pastoral, which he intended, ‘for varietie sake,’ to have appended to ‘Fidessa,’ but was obliged to postpone it until the next term. No trace of it has been found (Cat. of Huth Library, ii. 630).[2]
Writing[]
Griffin wrote a series of 62 charming sonnets entitled Fidessa: More chaste than kinde, 8vo, London, 1596, of which only 3 copies are at present known, those in the Bodlein, Huth, and Lamport libraries. The dedication is to William Essex of Lamborne, Berkshire.[2]
The 3rd sonnet in Fidessa, commencing "Venus and yong Adonis sitting by her," was reproduced with much textual alteration in the miscellany brought together in 1599 by W. Jaggard, and entitled The Passionate Pilgrime. By W. Shakespeare.[2]
From the copy in the Bodleian Library 100 copies of Fidessa were reprinted by Bliss, 8vo, Chiswick, 1815; and 50 copies by A.B. Grosart in vol. ii. of Occasional Issues, 4to, Manchester, 1876.[2]
Griffin is credited as the originator of the "a la Bartholmew Griffin" verse form. An a la Bartholomew Griffin poem is a short poem of 14 lines or less, in meter or not, in which the same word is used at the end of every line.[3]
Publications[]
Poetry[]
- Fidessa: More chaste than kinde. London: The Widow Orwin, for M. Lownes, 1596
- Fidessa: A collection of sonnets. Chiswick, UK: C. Whittingham, 1815
- Fidessa: More chaste than kind (edited by Frederic Clitheroe). Newcastle, UK: Lymes Press, 1996.
- The Poems of Bartholomew Griffin, Gentleman (edited by Alexander Balloch Grosart). Blackburn, UK: printed by C.E. Simms, Manchester, 1876.
- Elizabethan Sonnet Cycles 3: Idea by Michael Drayton / Fidessa by Bartholomew Griffin / Chloris by William Smith (edited by Martha Foote Crow). London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1897.
Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[4]
Fidessa, Sonnet 37 by Bartholomew Griffin
See also[]
References[]
Goodwin, Gordon (1890) "Griffin, B. (fl.1596)" in Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 23 London: Smith, Elder, p. 225 . Wikisource, Web, Jan. 20, 2018.
Notes[]
- ↑ John William Cousin, "Griffin, Bartholomew," A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature, 1910, 169. Web, Jan. 20, 2018.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Goodwin, 225.
- ↑ A la Bartholemew Griffin, Poetry Forms, Poets Collective. Web, May 28, 2020.
- ↑ Search results = au:Bartholomew Griffin, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Inc. Web, May 28, 2020.
External links[]
- Poems
- Fidessa: More chaste than kind at Shakespeare's Sonnets
- Books
- Works by Bartholomew Griffin at Project Gutenberg
- Bartholomew Griffin at Amazon.com
- About
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen & Sidney Lee). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Griffin, B. (fl.1596)
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