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JOHN TAYLOR (158o-1653)

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 471 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JOHN See also:TAYLOR (158o-1653)  , See also:English pamphleteer, commonly called the " See also:Water-Poet," was See also:born at See also:Gloucester on the 24th of See also:August 1580 . After fulfilling his See also:apprenticeship to a waterman, he served (1596) in See also:Essex's See also:fleet, and was See also:present at See also:Flores in 1597 and at the See also:siege of See also:Cadiz . On his return to See also:England he became a See also:Thames waterman, and was at one timecollector of the perquisites exacted by the See also:lieutenant of the See also:Tower . He was an See also:expert in the See also:art of self-See also:advertisement, and achieved notoriety by a See also:series of See also:eccentric journeys . With a See also:companion as See also:feather-brained as himself he journeyed from See also:London to See also:Queenborough in a See also:paper See also:boat, with two stockfish tied to canes for oars . The Pennyles See also:Pilgrimage, or the Moneylesse Perambulation of See also:John See also:Taylor . . . how he travailed on See also:foot from London to Edenborough in See also:Scotland . . . 1618, contains the See also:account of a See also:journey perhaps suggested by See also:Ben See also:Jonson's celebrated undertaking, though Taylor emphatically denies any intention of See also:burlesque . He went as far as See also:Aberdeen . At See also:Leith he met Jonson, who See also:good-naturedly gave him twenty-two shillings to drink his See also:health in England . Other travels undertaken for a See also:wager were a journey to See also:Prague, where he is said to have been entertained (162o) by the See also:queen of Bohemia, and those described respectively in A very merry, wherry See also:ferry voyage, or See also:Yorke for my See also:money, and A New See also:Discovery by See also:sea with a Wherry from London to See also:Salisbury (1623) .

At the out-break of the See also:

civil See also:war Taylor began to keep a public-See also:house at See also:Oxford, .but when his See also:friends the Royalists were obliged to surrender the See also:city he returned to London, where he set up a similar business at the sign of " The See also:Crown " in See also:Phoenix See also:Alley, See also:Long See also:Acre . At the See also:time of the See also:king's See also:execution he changed his sign to the See also:Mourning Crown, but the authorities objected, and he substituted his own portrait . He was buried in the See also:churchyard of St See also:Martin's-in-the-See also:Fields on the 5th of See also:December 1653 . Taylor gave himself the See also:title of " the king's water-poet and the queen's water-See also:man." He was no poet, though he could See also:string rhymes together on occasion . His gifts See also:lay in a coarse, rough and ready wit, a See also:talent for narrative, and a considerable command of repartee, which made him a dangerous enemy . See also:Thomas Coryate, the author of the Crudities, was one of his favourite butts, and he roused Taylor's See also:special anger because he persuaded the authorities to have burnt one of Taylor's See also:pamphlets directed against him . This was Laugh and be See also:Fat (1615?), a See also:parody of the Odcombian Banquet . Sixty-three of Taylor's " See also:works " appeared in one See also:volume in 163o . This was reprinted by the See also:Spenser Society in 1868-9, being followed by other tracts not included in the collection (187o-8) . Some of his more amusing productions were edited (1872) by See also:Charles See also:Hindley as The Works of John Taylor . They provide some very entertaining See also:reading, but in spite of the See also:legend on one of his title-pages, " Lastly that (which is Rare in a Travailer) all is true," it is permissible to exercise some See also:mental reservations in accepting his statements . Mr Hindley edited other tracts of Taylor's in his Miscellanea See also:Antigua Anglicana (1873) .

End of Article: JOHN TAYLOR (158o-1653)
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