Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 34.djvu/98

 The whole work is dedicated by Lok to Queen Elizabeth. An address to the Christian reader, in which he refers familiarly to earlier paraphrases of 'Ecclesiastes' by Beza, Tremellius, and others, is followed by commendatory verses, including some in Latin, by John Lyly, and others in English by 'M.C.,' i.e. Michael Cosworth, Lok's cousin. Lok's verse-rendering of 'Ecclesiastes' is very poor, and is quite unreadable, rarely rising above doggerel. With it are printed 'Sundry Psalms of David, translated into Verse as briefly and significantly as the scope of the Text will suffer.' These efforts are no more successful, and justify Warton's description of Lok's as the English Moevius. Lok's works, like those of [q. v.], are described in 'The Returne from Parnassus' (1601) as fit 'to lie in some old nooks amongst old boots and shoes' (ed. Macrey, 11. 86). But Lok's sonnets, which are introduced by a separate title-page in the 'Ecclesiasticus' volume, though prosaic in expression, are full of fervent piety. Two hundred and four treat of the Christian passions, and these are succeeded by 102, entitled 'Sundry Affectionate Sonets of a feeling Conscience, and the same theme is pursued in a further sequence of twenty-two, entitled 'Peculiar Prayers.' Copies of Lok's volume are in the British Museum, the Bodleian Library, Bridgewater House, and in the possession of Dr. Grosart. The three last copies contain an appendix of sixty secular sonnets, addressed to the noblemen and noblewomen, and high officials of Elizabeth's court, including judges and bishops (Whitgift and Toby Matthew of Durham), Dr. Lancelot Andrewes, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir John Norris, Sir Francis Vere, Sir Edward Dyer, and Fulke Greville are also commemorated. The series concludes with a sonnet addressed 'to all other his honourable and beloved friends in general.' Dr. Grosart reprinted all these sonnets, together with the one prefixed to James VI's volume, in his 'Miscellanies of the Fuller Worthies' Library,' vol. ii. 1871. Lok also contributed commendatory verses to Cosworth's rendering of the Psalms, in Harleian MS. 6906. He has been erroneously identified with the author of a poetical volume called 'Of Love's Complaints with the Legend of Orpheus and Euridice,' London, 1597, 12mo. The dedication is signed 'H. L.,' but these initials are those of Humfrey Lownes, the publisher.



LOK, MICHAEL (fl. 1615), traveller, was a younger son of Sir [q. v.] According to memorials presented by Michael Lok in 1576 and on 26 May 1577 (Cal. State Papers, East Indies), he was kept at school until 1545, when he was thirteen. His father then sent him to Flanders and France. After being seven years in Flanders he went in 1552 to Spain, following his business as a merchant, and there and at Lisbon had opportunities of seeing ‘the marvellous great trade of the Spanish West Indies, and the great traffic into the East Indies.’ During twenty-four years ‘he travelled through almost all the countries of Christianity,’ and was ‘captain of a ship of one thousand tons in divers voyages in the Levant.’ He also studied history, languages, and ‘all matters appertaining to the traffic of merchants, and spent more than 500l. in books, maps, charts, and instruments.’ His boast is corroborated by Hakluyt (Divers Voyages to America, Hakluyt Soc., p. 18), who speaks of him as ‘a man for his knowledge in divers languages, and especially in cosmography, able to do his country good, and worthy, in my judgment, for the manifold good parts in him, of good reputation and better fortune.’

In the course of his many voyages he had already made the acquaintance of [q. v.], and in 1576 entered warmly into the scheme for the voyage to the north-west, supplying many of the necessaries at his own cost. When the Cathay Company was formed in March 1577, Lok was appointed governor for six years. The venture, however, entirely failed, and in January 1579 he had to petition the privy council for relief and assistance (Cal. State Papers, East Indies). For the past three years, he wrote, he had taken charge of all the business of Frobisher's voyages; of his own money he had expended some 7,500l., ‘all the goods he had in the world, whereby himself, his wife, and fifteen children are left to beg their bread.’ On this petition 430l. was allowed him in February 1579; but in June 1581 he was again petitioning the privy council, being a prisoner in the Fleet, condemned at the suit of William Borough to pay 200l. for a ship bought for Frobisher's last voyage, ‘which is not the petitioner's debt.’ He was also bound for a debt of nearly 3,000l., ‘still owing by the company of adventurers.’ He was still petitioning in November, when he had been six months in prison (ib. pp. 63, 70). Of his release there is no account; but he does not seem to have recovered his money, and as late as 1614–15 he was still being sued for a debt of 200l. due for stores