Robert Tofte
Robert Tofte was an English poet and translator, born in London and baptized on January 15, 1562. He was the son of a fishmonger and is believed to have had a private income that allowed him to travel and engage in literary pursuits. Tofte is noted for his significant contributions to English pastoral poetry, particularly through his cycle of Petrarchan sonnets published in 1597 under the title "Laura," which focused on themes of love and lamentation. He also translated works from Italian literature, including "Orlando innamorato" and a satire by Torquato Tasso, though his translation of the latter was notably burned due to regulatory issues of the time. Tofte's later works, including "The Bachelor's Banquet," garnered attention for their controversial themes and reflections on gender. Despite his literary endeavors, much about his early life remains obscure, and while he left behind a substantial body of work, his overall impact has been limited. He passed away on January 24, 1620, and was buried in Holborn, leaving behind a considerable estate with unclear origins, leading to speculation about his possible noble lineage.
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Robert Tofte
Poet
- Born: January 15, 1562 (baptized)
- Birthplace: London, England
- Died: c. 1620
Biography
A man named Robert Tofte was baptized at St Magnus the Martyr, London, on January 15, 1562, the younger son of William Tofte, a fishmonger, and his wife Mary, née Cowper, whose father was also a fishmonger. It is possible that this was not the same Robert Tofte who matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford University, in 1581, or the Robert Tofte who was recorded as carrying letters on behalf of Sir Edward Stafford, the ambassador to France, in 1590, or Robert Tofte the writer, but if the writer was none of these individuals, nothing at all is recorded of his early life, even though his literary works have survived in some quantity.
Robert Tofte the writer seems to have had a private income of some sort. He certainly traveled in Italy from 1591 through 1594 because he became involved in a legal dispute thereafter with his banker, whose letters of credit had not been honored. He cultivated a strong interest in Italian culture, although he remained a Protestant. He became familiar with the conventions of Italian pastoral poetry, of which he became a significant English practitioner. He returned to England after having begun work on the cycle of Pertrarchan sonnets published in 1597 as Laura. He published Two Tales Translated out of Ariosto in the same year. He was living in the Inns of Court at the time but took rooms in Mistress Goodall’s house in Holborn in 1598, and he seems to have remained there until he died, never having married.
Tofte’s second poetry collection, Alba, is a cycle of lamentations on the subject of unrequited love; it is dedicated to Anne Herne, the wife of Sir Edmund Herne, but it seems more likely that the poems were inspired by Mary Caryll, who married Richard Molyneaux, later Viscount Molyneaux of Mayborough. It was swiftly followed into print by Tofte’s translation of Matteo Maria Boiardo’s Orlando innamorato, the work in which the hero is driven mad by love that Ludovico Arisosto completed as Orlando furioso. Tofte’s misfortunes were compounded when his translation of a satire by Torquato Tasso was burned at Stationer’s Hall in 1599 under the provisions of an oversensitive statute. It did not stop him writing a satire of his own, The Bachelor’s Banquet, but that work’s targets were much safer and it only succeeded in cementing his reputation for misogyny. He was outraged when some of his satires were plagiarized by Gervais Markham in 1608, and he probably injected extra venom into his translation of Benedetto Varchi’s Blazon of Jealousie, issued in 1615.
Tofte continued to translate and write poetry until he died, leaving a considerable amount of work for assembly in the 1994 edition of The Poetry of Robert Tofte, 1597-1620 compiled by Jeffrey Norman Nelson, but his work made little further impact. His death date is unknown but he was buried on January 24, 1620, in Holborn. He left a considerable estate, which could not possibly have been earned by his writing and seems unlikely to have been generated by the fish trade, but its source remains stubbornly unclear. The suspicion that he might have been the illegitimate son of a nobleman must remain purely conjectural.