The New International Encyclopædia/Puttenham, George

PUT'TENHAM, (?-c.1590). The reputed author of a treatise entitled The Arte of English Poesie, contrived into three bookes; the first of Poets and Poesie, the second of Proportion, the third of Ornament (1589). The work has also been claimed for his elder brother, (c.1520-c.1601). It was issued anonymously. In his dedication to Lord Burghley, the publisher asserted that he had received the book without the name of the author. In his Hypercritica (1618), Edmund Bolton said that common fame ascribed the work to &ldquo;one of the Queen's gentlemen pensioners, Puttenham.&rdquo; Internal evidence points to one of the brothers as the author; but whether George or Richard is uncertain. The book is the most solid of all the early treatises on poetry in English. Consult the reprint by Edward Arber (London, 1869).