Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/257

 Grimald copied Garnier or Garnier copied Grim is not certain, but the former is more probable. Grim was dead before Herbert of Bosham finished his work on St. Thomas, i.e. by 1186, or at latest 1189.

[Materials for History of Archbishop Thomas Becket, vols. i-iv. ed. Robertson (Rolls Ser.) Grim's Life of St. Thomas is printed in vol. ii. and also in Giles's Sanctus Thomas Cantuariensis, vol. i. (Oxford, 1845; reprinted in Migne's Patrologia Latina, vol. cxc.), from three manuscripts in the British Museum.]  GRIMALD, GRIMALDE, or GRIMOALD, NICHOLAS (1519–1562), poet, born in Huntingdonshire in 1519, was probably son of Giovanni Baptista Grimaldi, a clerk in the service of Empson and Dudley under Henry VII, and grandson of Giovanni Grimaldi of Genoa, a merchant who was made a denizen of England in 1485. His mother, on whose death he wrote a poem rich in autobiographic detail, was named Annes. He says that he spent his youth at a place called 'Brownshold.' He was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he proceeded B.A. in 1539-40. But he soon removed to Oxford, where he was elected probationer-fellow of Merton College in 1541 (, Memorials of Merton Coll. p. 259). On 22 March 1541-2 he was incorporated B.A. at Oxford, and two years later graduated M.A. there (Oxf. Univ. Reg., Oxf. Hist. Soc., i. 203). In 1547, on the reconstruction of Christ Church, Grimald was 'put in there (writes Wood) as a senior or theologist (accounted then only honorary),' and read public lectures in the refectory. He subsequently became chaplain to Bishop Ridley. On 2 Jan. 1551-1552 he was licensed as a preacher at Eccles by Richard Sampson, bishop of Lichfield, and on 18 Nov. 1552 Ridley wrote to Sir John Gates and Sir William Cecil, recommending him for preferment. In the early part of Mary's reign, Ridley, while in prison, directed Grimald, whom he held in high esteem, to translate Laurentius Valla's 'book … against the fable of Constantine's donation, and also Æneas Sylvius's "De Gestis Basiliensis Concilii," &c.' Ridley moreover sent Grimald copies of all that he wrote in prison. Grimald accordingly fell under the suspicion of Mary's government, and was sent to the Marshalsea in 1555. But he abandoned protestantism after Dr. Weston had conferred with him, and was pardoned. 'I fear me he escaped,' Ridley wrote to Grinclal, 'not without some becking and bowing (alas) of his knee unto Baal' (, Works, Parker Soc., p. 391). He is doubtfully said to have recanted secretly and to have acted as a spy upon protestant prisoners during the later years of Mary's reign. Foxe reports that a protestant martyr, Laurence Saunders, while at St. Albans, on his way to the stake at Coventry, met Grimald, 'a man who had more store of good gifts than of great constancy.' Saunders is said to have given Grimald 'a lesson meet for his lightness,' which he received with 'shrugging and shrinking' (, Actes, vi. 627). Grimald did not long survive Elizabeth's accession. His friend Barnabe Googe [q. v.] wrote an epitaph or elegy on Grimald before May 1562. This was published in Googe's 'Eclogs, Epytaphes, and Sonettes,' 1563, and is the sole clue to the date of Grimald's death.

Grimald is best remembered by his contributions of English verse to Tottel's 'Songs and Sonettes,' 1557. The first edition, issued 5 June 1557, contained forty poems by him, with his name attached to them. Henry Howard, earl of Surrey, supplied exactly the same number. In the second edition, issued 31 July 1557, thirty of Grimald's forty poems were suppressed, and the ten poems that remain have Grimald's initials only, not his name, appended to them. The cause of this change is difficult to understand. Grimald's verse is inferior to that of Howard and Wyatt, but is equal to most of the verse of 'uncertain authors' which is substituted for his own in Tottel's second edition. One of his pieces, 'The Death of Zoroas, an Egyptian astronomer, in the first fight that Alexander had with the Persians,' which appears in both editions, is an interesting venture in blank verse, and is stated to be from the Latin of Philip Gualtier. Four copies of English verse by Grimald are prefixed to Turner's 'Preseruatiue or Triall agaynst the Poyson of Pelagius,' 1551, 8vo.

As a Latin dramatist Grimald presents points of interest. He published 'Christus Redivivus Comœdia Tragica Sacra' at Cologne in 1543 (printed by Martin Gymnicus): one copy is in the library at Wolfenbiittel; a second is at Berlin; a third belongs to Prof. J. M. Hart of Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Prof. Hart reprinted his copy in the publications of the Modern Languages Association of America, 1899. His 'Archi-propheta, tragœdia iam recens in lucem edita,' probably written for academical representation, deals with the story of St. John the Baptist. Composed in 1547, it was printed, with a dedication to Richard Cox [q. v.], by Martin Gymnicus at Cologne in 1548. A manuscript of it is at the British Museum (Royal MS. 12 A, xlvi.) There is lyric power in the choruses, and a classical flavour throughout. Grimald's friend Bale probably arranged for the two pieces' publication at Cologne. (cf., Grundriss, § 113, No. 30; , Lit. Relations of England and Germany, p. 113). Bale ascribes to Grimald two comedies, entitled respectively 'Fama' and 'Troilus ex Chaucero,' but nothing is