The life and poems of Nicholas Grimald

Grimald was another of the Elizabethan poets who was not collected in The Paradise of Dainty Devices, but this may well have been because of him being a persona non grata. There are 44 poems collected here by Merrill, many of which were included in the very first Tottels miscelleny, but subsequently removed. They are mainly on a par with many of the poems included in Tottel, with a couple being quite outstanding.

Merrill claims that Grimald along with Wyatt and Surrey was responsible for the introduction of the fourteen line sonnet: there are three included in this collection.. He was a student of Greek and Latin and used his knowledge of classical versification to render it into the English language. He was also able to encapsulate his show more ideas into terse sententious expression while making it read well. Perhaps his most important service to poetry was his use of blank verse, there are two good examples here.

“The lover to his dear, of his exceeding love” breaks away from the Courtly Love cliches enabling Grimald to impart some feeling into his poem that is believable:

“Or peeplepestered London lykes thee nought
But pleasant ayr, in quiet countrie sought.”

These are not the rhymes of a Courtier. There is genuine feeling in his poem ‘Of Friendship and even more so in “A funeral song, upon the decease of Annes his mother” The final poem in the collection entitled ‘To the Reder’ is a real gem; Grimald likens the plague to the scourge of the catholic faith, not sparing the reader the horrors of the infection of the plague sufferers

Grimald was appointed chaplain to Nicholas Ridley Bishop of London in 1552 and followed him into prison when Queen Mary I declared war on the heretic protestants. Ridley and his companions were burnt at the stake, but Grimald was set free. Ridley later confirmed that it was likely that he had been betrayed by Grimald who turned apostate to catholicism. Grimald was later despised by his protestant contemporaries.

Merrill’s book contains a lengthy introduction and a life of the poet and playwright. There are also two of his Latin Plays: Christus Redivivus and Archiproheta both in latin with an English prose translation. It was good to be able to read Grimald’s poems and to be able to form an opinion on one of the forgotten Tudor Poets and so a 4 star read. show less