Thomas Tusser

Thomas Tusser: 1557 Floruit: His Good Points of Husbandry. London: Country Life, 1931. Courtesy Abe Books.

Thomas Tusser (?1524 - May 3, 1580) was an English poet and farmer.

Life

Overview

Tusser, a versifier on agriculture, was an Essex man. Having a good voice he was trained in music, and was a chorister in St. Paul's, and afterwards in Norwich Cathedral, and held the post of musician to Lord Paget. He tried farming at different places, but unsuccessfully, which did not, however, prevent his undertaking to instruct others. This he does with much shrewdness and point in his Hundreth Goode Pointes of Husbandrie (1557), expressed in rude but lively verse; thereafter he added Hundreth Goode Pointes of Husserie (Housewifery). The 2 joined, and with many additions, were repeatedly reprinted as Five Hundredth Pointes of Goode Husbandrie; united to as many of Goode Huswifery. Many proverbs may be traced back to the writings of Tusser, who, in spite of all his shrewdness and talent, died in prison as a debtor.

Youth and education

Tusser was born at Rivenhall, near Witham in Essex, the 4th son of William Tusser and of Isabella, a daughter of Thomas Smith of Rivenhall (Visitations of Essex, 1558, 1612, Harl. Soc. 1878, xiii. 117, 304–5). Fuller says he came of an ancient family, and he himself claims to have been of gentle birth, but the family cannot be traced back further than to his grandfather.

The date of Tusser's birth is uncertain. Dr. Mavor places it in 1515, on very slender grounds. This date is, however, supported by the entry in the register of the church of St. Mildred, which makes Tusser about 64 at his death, and the tablet in the church at Manningtree, which makes him 65. If we accept the tradition referred to by R.B. Gardiner (Admission Reg. of St. Paul's School, p. 463), that he was at St. Paul's School when Lily was headmaster, we should have to place the date of his birth even a few years earlier. As, however, Tusser was elected to King's College, Cambridge, in 1543, and as he would have been ineligible at the age of 19, the date of his birth is more probably about 1524.

At an early age he was sent as a chorister to "Wallingford College," i.e. the collegiate chapel of the castle of Wallingford in Berkshire, where, as would appear from his own account, he was ill-treated, ill-clothed, and ill-fed. He was hurried from 1 place to another "to serve the choir, now there, now here," by people who had license to press choristers for the royal service. At last, through the influence, it would appear, of some friends, he became a chorister in St. Paul's Cathedral, under John Redford, organist and almoner, "an excellent musician." From there he passed to Eton, where he studied under the famous Nicholas Udall, of whose severity he complains in some well-known lines. (Harwood, Alumni Etonenses, p. 160, erroneously gives his name as William, and the date of his entry as 1543.)

After leaving Eton Tusser stayed for some time in London, and then went to Cambridge. Though he does not mention the fact in his autobiography, he was elected to King's College in 1543 (Hatcher, MSS. Catalog. Præpos. Soc. Schol. Coll. Regal. Cambr.) He switched to Trinity Hall, and has recorded the happy life he passed there among congenial companions. Sickness compelled him to leave the university.

Career

Tusser joined the court as "servant" to William Paget, 1st baron Paget of Beaudesert, in the character of musician. This is conclusively proved by his own words in the dedication of his Hundreth Points (1557) to that nobleman: "A care I had to serve that way," and he contrasts his life at court with his subsequent labors: "My music since hath been the plough." In the service of Lord Paget, who was "good to his servants," Tusser spent 10 years, and then leaving the court — against the wishes, it would seem, of his patron — he married and settled down as a farmer at Cattiwade in Suffolk.

At Cattiwade he composed a Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie. He also introduced into the neighborhood the culture of barley. But his wife fell ill, and "could not more toil abide, so nigh sea side," so Tusser moved to Ipswich, where she died. About the name and the family of this 1st wife we know nothing; she left Tusser no children. Shortly after her death he married Amy, daughter of Edmund Moon, a marriage which it may be conjectured was not very successful, for Tusser laments the increased expenditure in which "a wife in youth" involved him. By this wife he had 3 sons — Thomas, John, and Edmond — and s daughter, Mary.

Tusser then settled down at West Dereham in Norfolk; but in 1559 on the death there of his patron, Sir Robert Southwell, he moved to Norwich. There he found a new protector in John Salisbury, dean of Norwich, through whose influence he got a living, probably as singing-man in the cathedral. Sickness, however, forced him again to migrate, this time to Fairsted in Essex, the tithes of which place he farmed for some time with little success.

It has been customary to contrast the shrewdness of Tusser's maxims with the apparent ill-success of his life; this idea is dwelt on in Peacham's Minerva (1612), in an epigram which also appeared in a terser form as follows:

Tusser, they tell me when thou wert alive

Thou, teaching thrift, thyself couldst never thrive;

So, like the whetstone, many men are wont

To sharpen others when themselves are blunt.

The same idea runs through Fuller's account in his Worthies of England: "This stone of Sisyphus could gather no moss;" "He spread his bread with all sorts of butter, yet none would stick thereon;" "None being better at the theory or worse at the practice of husbandry."

Later years

He then came to London, and his 3rd son, Edmond, was baptized at St. Giles's, Cripplegate, on 13 March 1572-73. But the plague which raged in London during 1573 and 1574 forced Tusser to take refuge once again in Cambridge, where he matriculated as a servant of Trinity Hall, at what date is not certainly known.

Cambridge would seem, from Tusser's own account, to have been his favorite residence, but he did not settle there, returning to London, where he died on 3 May 1580, a prisoner for debt in the Poultry counter. He was buried in the church of St. Mildred in the Poultry, and his epitaph is recorded by Stow (T. Milbourn, History of the Church of St. Mildred, 1872, 34; Stow, Survey of London, ed. Strype, bk. iii. 31).

Writing

The earliest germ of Tusser's work was the Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie, imprinted by Richard Tottel, the third day of February, An. 1557. In the same year (1557) John Daye had license to print the Hundreth Poyntes of Good Husserie (Register Stationers' Hall, A. fol. 23 a). In 1561 Thomas Hacher had license for a "dyalogue of wyvynge and thryvynge of Tusshers," a poem which was later incorporated with the Husbandry. Editions of the Hundred Points are also thought to have appeared in 1562 and 1564.

In 1570 the Husbandry section was published separately as A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandry, lately maried unto a Hundreth Good Poyntes of Huswifery. In 1573 both secions were amplified to 500 — Five Hundreth Pointes of Good Husbandry united to as many of Good Huswifery — and to this edition was prefixed an autobiography in verse, which was amplified in succeeding editions.

The 1573 edition was reprinted in 1574 (Brit. Mus.), an edition strangely overlooked by the modern editors, Mavor and Herrtage. Further reprints appeared in 1577, 1580, 1585, 1586, 1590, 1593, 1597, 1599 (twice, both by Peter Short in London, and Waldegrave in Edinburgh), 1604, 1610, 1614, 1620, 1638, 1672, 1692. All these 16th- and 17th-century editions are in black letter.

In 1710 appeared Tusser Redivivus, a reprint of the more practical part of Tusser's work in monthly issues. In this Tusser was brought up to date, and explained in a commentary (by one Daniel Hillman) inserted at the end of each stanza. Another edition of Tusser Redivivus appeared in 1744.

In 1810 the incorrect 1599 edition by Short of Tusser's Five Hundred Points was reprinted in Sir Walter Scott's edition of the Somers Tracts (iii. 403–551). At the same time a reprint of the Hundred Points appeared as part of Sir Egerton Brydges's British Bibliographer, vol. iii. sub fin.; this edition was also reprinted separately in a neat thin quarto volume. In 1812 appeared Mavor's standard edition; in 1834 the Hundred Points were again reprinted from the private press of Charles Clark of Great Totham, Essex; in 1848 a selection was printed at Oxford; in 1878 appeared the English Dialect Society's edition, edited by W. Payne and S.J. Herrtage. This consists of a reprint of the Five Hundred Points from the issue of 1580 and of the Hundred Points from that of 1557.

Tusser's works also appear in Southey's Select Works of the British Poets, from Chaucer to Johnson, 1831, pp. 143–199.

Southey, who appears to have been a careful student of Tusser (see Commonplace Book, 1851, i. 171–4, 497, 498, ii. 325, 331, iv. 290), speaks of him as a "good, honest, homely, useful old rhymer." His verses are not without practical agricultural value, and he has even been styled "the British Varro" (Davy). "There is nowhere to be found," says Sir Walter Scott, "

excepting perhaps in Swift's Directions to Servants, evidence of such rigid and minute attention to every department of domestic economy.... Although neither beauty of description nor elegance of diction was Tusser's object, he has frequently attained, what better indeed suited his purpose, a sort of homely, pointed and quaint expression, like that of the old English proverb, which the rhyme and the alliteration tend to fix on the memory of the reader.

Quotations

Tusser is known for an early written version of the proverb "A fool and his money are soon parted," which appears in his 1557 instructional poem Fiue Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie:

A foole and his monie be soone at debate,

which after with sorrow repents him too late.

"It is indeed surprising," noted the Dictionary of National Biography in 1899, "how many English proverbs can be traced back to Tusser." Other notable examples:

• "Sweet April showers do spring May flowers"
• "It is an ill wind turns none to good"
• "Naught venture naught have" [nothing ventured, nothing gained]
• At Christmas play and make good cheer / For Christmas comes but once a year."

Publications

• A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandry: Lately maried vnto a hundreth good poynts of huswifery. London: [Henry Denham?], for Richard Tottell, 1570.
• Fiue Hundreth Points of Good Husbandry; vnited to as many of good huswiferie,. London: Richard Tottell, 1577; London: Henry Denham, 1585; London: Richard Yardley & Peter Short, 1593; London: [Robert Waldegrave?], for the Companie of Stationers, 1604:
  • (edited by W. Payne). London: Trǔbner, 1878.
  • Some of the Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry. Oxford, UK: J.H. Parker 1848
  • Thomas Tusser 1557 floruit: His good points of husbandry (edited by Dorothy Hartley). London: Country Life, 1931.
• The last will and testament of Thomas Tusser ...; to which is added, his metrical autobiography &c. Great Totham, Essex, UK: Charles Clark's Private Press, 1846.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

Poems by Thomas Tusser

1. Nicholas Udall

See also

Christmas Cheer by Thomas Tusser (poetry reading)

• List of British poets

References

•  Clarke, Ernest (1899) "Tusser, Thomas" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 57 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 379-381  . Wikisource, Web, Mar. 14, 2018.
• W.J. Thoms (Ed.), Survey of London written in the year 1598 by John Stow. A new edition (Chatto and Windus, London 1876) (Based on 1798 edition).

External links

Poems

• "Christmas Cheer"
• Thomas Tusser at PoemHunter (7 poems)

Books

• Full text of A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie
• Edition of Five Hundred Points
• Thomas Tusser at Amazon.com

About

• Thomas Tusser 1524-1580 at the Poetry Foundation
• Tusser, Thomas in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica

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: Tusser, Thomas