Thomas Watson
Thomas Watson was an English poet and translator born around 1555 or 1556 in London. He attended Winchester College and claimed to have studied at Oxford University, where he asserted connections with notable writers like John Lyly and William Camden. His literary career flourished after spending several years in France and Italy, during which he pursued law and poetry, reportedly with the support of Sir Francis Walsingham. Watson is best known for his publications, including *Hecatompathia*, a collection of poems, and *Amyntas*, a poignant work that reflects themes of love and loss. His writings, influenced by classical and contemporary sources, contributed to the literary landscape of the late 16th century. Watson's interactions with fellow playwrights, such as Christopher Marlowe, were significant, especially following an incident in which he defended Marlowe in a violent confrontation. He married Anne Swift in 1585 and died in 1592, leaving behind works that would posthumously contribute to English poetry, including a collection of sonnets. His legacy is marked by his connections to other literary figures and the complexities of his life and relationships.
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Thomas Watson
Scholar
- Born: c. 1555
- Birthplace: London, England
- Died: 1592
Biography
Thomas Watson was born in 1555 or 1556 in the parish of St Helen’s, Bishopsgate, in London; his parentage is unknown, the information being based on the records of Winchester College, which he entered in 1567. He claimed to have been at Oxford University, although no record survives, and to have made such acquaintances as writers John Lyly and William Camden there while neglecting his studies in favor of “poetry and romance.” He also claimed, much more plausibly, to have spent seven years in France and Italy, pursuing similar interests while notionally studying law. He might have been supported during this time by Sir Francis Walsingham; he certainly returned to England in 1581 carrying letters from Walsingham’s Paris embassy to William Cecil, principal adviser to Queen Elizabeth I. Lodged in St Helen’s, Watson began writing in both Latin and English, publishing a Latin version of Sophocles’ Antigone in 1581.
In 1582, Watson published Hecatompathia: Or, Passionate Centurie of Loue, a collection of one hundred poems called sonnets (although unlike traditional sonnets, they were eighteen, not fourteen, lines long) modeled on classical, French, and Italian sources, including some translations. His most famous work, Amyntas, issued in 1585, consists of eleven lamentations addressed by an Arcadian shepherd to his lost love, climaxing in the narrator’s suicide. Watson continued to issue translations and also produced a notable book in 1585 on the art of memory, partly inspired by the sojourn in London of Giordano Bruno, the great popularizer of mnemonic techniques. Watson married Anne Swift on September 6, 1585.
In 1587, Watson moved his lodgings to Norton Folegate, where he made the acquaintance of a group of young playwrights, including Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Kyd, and Robert Greene. One day in 1589 he allegedly discovered Marlowe being attacked by an armed man, William Bradley, and came to his rescue; he killed Bradley, supposedly in self-defense, after sustaining a serious sword cut himself. In 1590, he issued his historically significant The First Sett, of Italian Madrigals Englished and a eulogy to his former patron, Walsingham. When he died in 1592, he left two works in preparation for publication, the Latin pastoral Amyntae gaudua and The Tears of Fancie, a collection of sixty English-language sonnets inspired by Petrarch and Pierre de Ronsard. The Tears of Fancie was included in a collection of Watson’s poetry published in 1870.
Watson’s work was known to William Shakespeare, although the direct influence is slight, and he was represented as Amyntas in Edmund Spenser’s poem “Colin Clouts Come Home Againe,” but he probably performed his greatest service to literature by prolonging Marlowe’s life (though not by much). Had he not died when he did he would have been implicated in a scandal that was exposed the following year, having unwisely involved himself in a plot by his wife’s younger brother, Thomas Swift, to blackmail William Cornwallis by means of a secret betrothal to his daughter. He might have been duped, but he does not give the impression of having been the most trustworthy of men.