BRITTON

See also:

• BRITTON BRETON
• BRETON, JULES ADOLPHE

BRETON  Or BRITTAINE, NICHOLAS (1545?-1626), English poet, belonged to an old family settled at Layer-Breton, Essex . His father, William Breton, who had made a considerable fortune by trade, died in 1559, and the widow (nee Elizabeth Bacon) married the poet George Gascoigne before her sons had attained their majority . Nicholas Breton was probably born at the " capitall mansion house " in Red Cross Street, in the parish of St Giles without Cripplegate, mentioned in his father's will . There is no official record of his residence at the university, but the diary of the Rev . Richard Madox tells us that he was at Antwerp in 1583 and was " once of Oriel College." He married Ann Sutton in 1593, and had a family . He is supposed to have died shortly after the publication of his last work, Fantastickes (1626) . Breton found a patron in Mary, countess of Pembroke, and wrote much in her honour until 16o1, when she seems to have withdrawn her favour . It is probably safe to supplement the meagre record of his life by accepting as autobiographical some of the letters signed N.B. in A Poste with a Packet of Mad Letters (1603, enlarged 1637); the 19th letter of the second part contains a general complaint of many griefs, and proceeds as follows: " bath another been wounded in the warres, fared hard, lain in a cold bed many a bitter storme, and beene at many a hard banquet? all these have I; another imprisoned? so have I; another long been sicke? so have I; another plagued with an unquiet life? so have I; another indebted to his hearts griefe, and fame would pay and cannot? so am I." Breton was a facile writer, popular with his contemporaries, and for-gotten by the next generation . His work consists of religious and pastoral poems, satires, and a number of miscellaneous prose tracts . His religious poems are sometimes wearisome by their excess of fluency and sweetness, but they are evidently the expression of a devout and earnest mind . His praise of the Virgin and his reference's to Mary Magdalene have suggested that he was a Catholic, but his prose writings abundantly prove that he was an ardent Protestant . Breton had little gift for satire, and his best work is to be found in his pastoral poetry .

His Passionate Shepheard (1604) is full of

sunshine and fresh air, and of unaffected gaiety . The third pastoral in this book—" Who can live in heart so glad As the merrie country lad "—is well known; with some other of Breton's daintiest poems, among them the lullaby, " Come little babe, come silly soule," 1—it is incorporated in A . H . Bullen's Lyrics from Elizabethan Romances (189o) . His keen observation of country life appears also in his prose idyll, Wits Trenchmour, " a conference betwixt a scholler and an angler," and in his Fantastickes, a series of short prose pictures of the months, the Christian festivals and the hours, which throw much light on the customs of the times . Most of Breton's books are very rare and have great bibliographical value . His works, with the exception of some belonging to private owners, were collected by Dr A . B . Grosart in the 1 This poem, however, comes from The Arbor of Amorous Devises, which is only in part Breton's work . Chertsey Worthies Library in 1879, with an elaborate introduction quoting the documents for the poet's history . Breton's poetical works, the titles of which are here somewhat abbreviated, include The Workes of a Young Wit (1577) ; A Floorish upon Fancie (1577); The Pilgrimage to Paradise (1592); The Countess of Penbrook's Passion (MS.), first printed by J . O .

Halliwell Phillipps in 1853; Pasquil's Fooles cappe, entered at Stationers'

Hall in 1600; Pasquil's Mistresse (1600); Pasquil's Passe and Passeth Not (1600); Melancholike Humours (1600); Marie Magdalen's Love: a Solemne Passion of the Soules Love (1595), the first part of which, a prose treatise, is probably by another hand; the second part, a poem in six-lined stanza, is certainly by Breton; A Divine Poem, including " The Ravisht Soul " and " The Blessed Weeper " (1601) ; An Excellent Poem, upon the Longing of a Blessed Heart (1601); The Soules Heavenly Exercise (160,); The Sondes Harmony (1602); Olde Madcappe newe Gally mawfrey (1602); The Mother's Blessing (16o2); A True Description of Unthankfulnesse (16o2); The Passionate Shepheard (16o4); The Soules Immortall Crowne (1605); The Honour of Valour (1605); An Invective against Treason; I would and I would not (1614); Bryton's Bowre of Delights (1591), edited by Dr Grosart in 1893, an unauthorized publication which contained some poems disclaimed by Breton; The Arbor of Amorous Devises (entered at Stationers' Hall, 1594), only in part Breton's; and contributions to England's Helicon and othermiscellanies of verse . Of his twenty-two prose tracts may be mentioned Wit's Trenchmour (1597), The Wil of Wit (1599), A Poste with a Packet of Mad Letters (1603) . Sir Philip Sidney's Ourania by N . B . (1606); Mary Magdalen's Lamentations (1604), and The Passion of a Discontented Mind (1601), are sometimes, but erroneously, ascribed to Breton .