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Encyclopedia Britannica

BRETON, BRITTON

This article appears in Volume V04, Page 502 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: BOS-BRI

BRETON, BRITTON Or BRITTAINE, NICHOLAS (1545?-1626),
English poet, belonged to an old family settled at Layer-

Breton

BRETON, BRITTON
BRETON, JULES ADOLPHE

, Essex. His father, William

Breton

BRETON, BRITTON
BRETON, JULES ADOLPHE

, who had made a considerable fortune by trade, died in 1559, and the widow (nee Elizabeth Bacon) married the poet George Gascoigne before her sons had attained their majority. Nicholas Breton was probably born at the " capitall mansion

house

" in Red Cross Street, in the parish of St Giles without Cripplegate, mentioned in his father's will. There is no official record of his residence at the university, but the diary of the Rev. Richard Madox tells us that he was at Antwerp in 1583 and was " once of Oriel College." He married Ann Sutton in 1593, and had a family. He is supposed to have died shortly after the publication of his last work, Fantastickes (1626). Breton found a patron in Mary, countess of Pembroke, and wrote much in her honour until 16o1, when she seems to have withdrawn her favour. It is probably safe to supplement the meagre record of his life by accepting as autobiographical some of the letters signed N.B. in A Poste with a Packet of Mad Letters (1603, enlarged 1637); the 19th

letter

LETTER (through Fr. lettre from Lat. littera or litera, letter of the alphabet; the origin of the Latin word is obscure; it has probably no connexion with the root of linere, to smear, i.e. with wax, for an inscription with a stilus)

of the second part contains a general complaint of many griefs, and proceeds as follows: " bath another been wounded in the warres, fared hard, lain in a cold bed many a bitter storme, and beene at many a hard banquet? all these have I; another imprisoned? so have I; another long been sicke? so have I; another plagued with an unquiet life? so have I; another indebted to his hearts griefe, and fame would pay and cannot? so am I." Breton was a facile writer, popular with his contemporaries, and for-gotten by the next generation. His work consists of religious and

pastoral

PASTORAL (from Lat. pastor, a shepherd)

poems, satires, and a number of miscellaneous prose tracts. His religious poems are sometimes wearisome by their excess of fluency and sweetness, but they are evidently the expression of a devout and

earnest

EARNEST (probably a corruption of the obsolete arles or erles, adapted from Lat. equivalent arrha, due to a confusion with the adjective " earnest," serious, O. Eng. eornust, cognate with Ger. ernst)

mind. His praise of the Virgin and his reference's to Mary Magdalene have suggested that he was a Catholic, but his prose writings abundantly prove that he was an ardent Protestant. Breton had little

gift

GIFT (a common Teutonic word, cf. Ger. die Gift, gift, das Gift, poison, formed from the Teut. stem gab-, to give, cf. Dutch geven, Ger. geben; in O. Eng. the word appears with initial y, the guttural of later English is due to Scandinavian influence)

for satire, and his best work is to be found in his

pastoral

PASTORAL (from Lat. pastor, a shepherd)

poetry. His Passionate Shepheard (1604) is full of sunshine and fresh air, and of unaffected gaiety. The third pastoral in this book" Who can live in heart so glad As the merrie country lad "is well known; with some other of Breton's daintiest poems, among them the lullaby, " Come little babe, come silly soule," 1it is incorporated in A. H. Bullen's Lyrics from Elizabethan Romances (189o). His keen observation of country life appears also in his prose idyll, Wits Trenchmour, " a conference betwixt a scholler and an angler," and in his Fantastickes, a

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

of short prose pictures of the months, the Christian festivals and the hours, which throw much light on the customs of the times. Most of Breton's books are very rare and have great bibliographical value. His works, with the exception of some belonging to private owners, were collected by Dr A. B. Grosart in the
1 This poem, however, comes from The Arbor of Amorous Devises, which is only in part Breton's work.
Chertsey Worthies Library in 1879, with an elaborate introduction quoting the documents for the poet's history.
Breton's poetical works, the titles of which are here somewhat abbreviated, include The Workes of a Young Wit (1577) ; A Floorish upon Fancie (1577); The

Pilgrimage

PILGRIMAGE (Fr. pelerinage, Lat. peregrinatio)

to Paradise (1592); The Countess of Penbrook's Passion (MS.), first printed by J. O. Halliwell Phillipps in 1853; Pasquil's Fooles cappe, entered at Stationers'

Hall

in 1600; Pasquil's Mistresse (1600); Pasquil's Passe and Passeth Not (1600); Melancholike Humours (1600); Marie Magdalen's Love: a Solemne Passion of the Soules Love (1595), the first part of which, a prose treatise, is probably by another hand; the second part, a poem in six-lined stanza, is certainly by Breton; A Divine Poem, including " The Ravisht Soul " and " The Blessed Weeper " (1601) ; An Excellent Poem, upon the Longing of a Blessed Heart (1601); The Soules Heavenly Exercise (160,); The Sondes Harmony (1602); Olde Madcappe newe Gally mawfrey (1602); The Mother's Blessing (16o2); A True Description of Unthankfulnesse (16o2); The Passionate Shepheard (16o4); The Soules Immortall Crowne (1605); The Honour of Valour (1605); An Invective against Treason; I would and I would not (1614); Bryton's Bowre of Delights (1591), edited by Dr Grosart in 1893, an unauthorized publication which contained some poems disclaimed by Breton; The Arbor of Amorous Devises (entered at Stationers'

Hall

, 1594), only in part Breton's; and contributions to England's Helicon and othermiscellanies of verse. Of his twenty-two prose tracts may be mentioned Wit's Trenchmour (1597), The Wil of Wit (1599), A Poste with a Packet of Mad Letters (1603). Sir Philip Sidney's Ourania by N. B. (1606); Mary Magdalen's Lamentations (1604), and The Passion of a Discontented Mind (1601), are sometimes, but erroneously, ascribed to Breton.

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