Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/40

 which is extant in Cambridge University Library MS. KK. 1. 3, art. 17, and in Baker MS. xii. 107. A treatise entitled ‘Certayne Experiments and Medicines,’ extant in Brit. Mus. Sloane MS. 62, art. 1, is ascribed in an almost contemporary hand to Watson, and his ‘Disputations’ at London in 1553 and at Oxford in 1554 are printed in Foxe's ‘Actes and Monuments.’ The collections on the bishops of Durham, assigned to him by Tanner and extant in Cottonian MS. Vitellius C. ix., are really by Christopher Watson [q. v.]



WATSON, THOMAS (1557?–1592), poet, seems to have been born in London about 1557. According to Anthony à Wood he spent some part of his youth at Oxford, but his college there has not been identified. There was a Thomas Watson, of a good Worcestershire family, who matriculated from St. Mary Hall on 28 May 1580, aged 19 (Oxford Univ. Reg. Oxf. Hist. Soc. ii. 93), but his identity with the poet seems doubtful. At the university, according to Wood, he occupied himself, ‘not in logic and philosophy, as he ought to have done, but in the smooth and pleasant studies of poetry and romance, whereby he obtained an honourable name among the students in those faculties.’ The classics formed his chief study, and he became a classical scholar of notable attainments. But he left the university without a degree, and, migrating to London, addressed himself to the law. He is said to have joined an inn of court, and he usually describes himself in his publications as ‘Londinensis Juris Studiosus’ (or ‘I. V. Stud.’), but his connection with the legal profession seems to have been nominal. His main interests in life were literary. In his early days he was not, he tells us, ‘minded ever to have emboldened himself so far as to thrust in foot amongst our English poets.’ But he designed a series of original poems and translations in Latin verse, and closely studied Italian and French poetry. For the gratification of himself and a few sympathetic friends he turned Petrarch's sonnets into Latin, and he wrote a Latin poem called ‘De Remedio Amoris.’ Other of his early Latin verses dealt with ‘The Love Abuses of Juppiter.’ These pieces were only circulated in manuscript. None were sent to press, and they have disappeared.

In 1581 Watson visited Paris, and his aptitude for Latin verse gained him there the admiration of one Stephen Broelmann, a jurist and Latin poet of Cologne, who was also visiting Paris. In Paris, too, he seems to have met Sir Francis Walsingham, who was there on a diplomatic mission in the summer of 1581. Walsingham showed an interest in Watson's literary endeavours, and after his death Watson recalled how his ‘tunes’ delighted the ears of Sir Francis while both were sojourning on the banks of the Seine. Before Watson left France Broelmann addressed to him some Latin elegiacs, urging him to publish his Latin work. The result was Watson's first publication, a Latin translation of Sophocles' ‘Antigone.’ It was licensed by the Stationers' Company to John Wolfe on 31 July 1581 (, Extracts from Reg. of Stationers' Company, ii. 149, ed. 1849). The title of the published book runs: ‘Sophoclis Antigone. Interprete Thoma Watsono, I. V. studioso. Huic adduntur pompæ quædam, ex singulis Tragœdiæ actis deriuatæ; & post eas, totidem Themata Sententiis refertissima; eodem Thoma Watsono Authore. Londini Excudebat Iohannes Wolfius, 1581.’ The dedication was addressed to Philip Howard, earl of Arundel. There are commendatory verses by Philip Harrison, Christopher Atkinson, and William Camden the antiquary. The ‘Pompæ’ at the end of the volume were allegorical descriptions of virtues and vices of Watson's own invention. The four ‘Themata’ were skilful exercises in different kinds of Latin verse such as iambics, sapphics, anapæstic dimeters, and choriambic asclepiadean metre.

Thenceforth Watson identified himself with the profession of letters, although he always affected something of his original attitude of a gentleman amateur. He became a prominent figure in the literary society of London. In John Lyly, the author of ‘Euphues,’ and in George Peele, the dramatist, he found warm admirers and devoted friends. He once supped with Nash at the Nag's Head in Cheapside, and laughed with the satirist over Gabriel Harvey's pedantries. He contributed commendatory verses to two books issued in 1582: English verses by him in ballad metre prefaced George Whetstone's ‘Heptameron,’ and a decastichon appeared in Christopher Ocklande's ‘Anglorum Prœlia.’ He still maintained close relations with Sir Francis Walsingham, and came to