Aubrey's Brief Lives

by Aubrey, John; Dick, Oliver Lawson; Wilson, Edmund

• ISBN13: 9781567920635
• ISBN10: 1567920632
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-05-01
• Publisher: David R Godine Pub

Summary

The whole ferment of the Elizabethan age and the vigor of the century that followed come alive in these "brief portraits" that have been looted by scholars for centuries. Here are Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Thomas More, Shakespeare, Milton, Marvel, and countless others, who in these pages become not abstract names from a history book, but flesh and blood characters. Brief Lives was written by John Aubrey (1626-1697), the greatest gossip columnist of the seventeenth century: a hanger-on among the rich and famous who left posterity a sprawling collection of notes, anecdotes, and morsels of gossip that the editor has sutured together into a series of unforgettable portraits. These men ¿ flawed, vain, ambitious, vulnerable ¿ are more alive and kicking in these pages than in any formal history. As Edmund Wilson writes in his introduction, "I have never read anything else that makes me feel in quite the same way what it must have been like to live then."

Table of Contents

Foreword	xv
The Life and Times of John Aubrey	xxi
George Abbot	3	(2)
Thomas Allen	5	(1)
Lancelot Andrewes	6	(2)
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St. Albans	8	(9)
Isaac Barrow	17	(4)
Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher	21	(2)
Sir John Birkenhead	23	(2)
Sir Henry Blount	25	(3)
Edmund Bonner	28	(1)
Caisho Borough	29	(2)
James Bovey	31	(3)
Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork	34	(2)
The Hon. Robert Boyle	36	(2)
Henry Briggs	38	(2)
Elizabeth Broughton	40	(2)
Thomas Bushell	42	(3)
Samuel Butler	45	(3)
William Butler	48	(3)
William Camden	51	(2)
William Cartwright	53	(2)
Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland	55	(3)
Sir Charles Cavendish	58	(1)
Charles Cavendish	59	(2)
Thomas Chaloner	61	(2)
William Chillingworth	63	(2)
George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland	65	(2)
Sir Edward Coke	67	(2)
Jean Baptiste Colbert	69	(1)
John Colet	70	(1)
Thomas Cooper	71	(1)
Richard Corbet	72	(3)
Abraham Cowley	75	(2)
Sir Charles Danvers	77	(3)
Sir John Danvers	80	(2)
Edward Davenant	82	(3)
Sir William Davenant	85	(4)
John Dee	89	(2)
Sir John Denham	91	(3)
Rene Descartes	94	(2)
Sir Everard Digby	96	(1)
Sir Kenelm Digby	97	(3)
Venetia Digby	100	(2)
Desiderius Erasmus	102	(2)
Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Baron Fairfax	104	(1)
Carlo Fantom	105	(2)
Sir William Fleetwood	107	(1)
John Florio	108	(1)
Francis Fry	109	(4)
Thomas Goffe	113	(1)
John Graunt	114	(2)
Edmund Gunter	116	(1)
John Hales	117	(3)
Edmund Halley	120	(2)
William Harcourt	122	(1)
Thomas Hariot	123	(1)
James Harrington	124	(4)
William Harvey	128	(6)
Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury	134	(2)
George Herbert	136	(2)
Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke	138	(3)
William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke	141	(3)
William and Philip Herbert, 3rd and 4th Earls of Pembroke	144	(3)
Thomas Hobbes	147	(13)
William Holder	160	(2)
Wenceslas Hollar	162	(2)
Robert Hooke	164	(4)
John Hoskyns	168	(4)
Henry Isaacson	172	(1)
David Jenkins	173	(1)
Sir Leoline Jenkins	174	(3)
Ben Jonson	177	(4)
Ralph Kettell	181	(7)
Richard Knolles	188	(1)
Sir Henry Lee	189	(2)
William Lee	191	(1)
Richard Lovelace	192	(1)
Henry Martin	193	(3)
Andrew Marvell	196	(1)
Thomas May	197	(1)
Sir Hugh Middleton	198	(1)
John Milton	199	(5)
George Monk, 1st Duke of Albemarle	204	(5)
Sir Jonas Moore	209	(2)
Sir Robert Moray	211	(2)
Sir Thomas More	213	(2)
Sir Thomas Morgan	215	(1)
Robert Murray	216	(1)
Richard Napier	217	(2)
John Ogilby	219	(3)
William Oughtred	222	(4)
John Overall	226	(3)
John Pell	229	(5)
William Penn	234	(3)
Sir William Petty	237	(5)
Katherine Philips	242	(1)
Sir William Platers	243	(2)
Sir John Popham	245	(2)
Francis Potter	247	(3)
William Prynne	250	(2)
Eleanor Radcliffe, Countess of Sussex	252	(1)
Sir Walter Raleigh	253	(8)
Mary Rich, Countess of Warwick	261	(2)
Charles Robson	263	(1)
Walter Rumsey	264	(1)
Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset	265	(2)
Sir Henry Savile	267	(2)
Sylvanus Scory	269	(2)
John Selden	271	(3)
William Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset	274	(1)
William Shakespeare	275	(2)
Olive Sherington	277	(1)
Sir Philip Sidney	278	(3)
Sir Henry Spelman	281	(1)
Edmund Spenser	282	(2)
Thomas Street	284	(1)
Thomas Stump	285	(2)
Sir John Suckling	287	(4)
Thomas Sutton	291	(1)
Silas Taylor	292	(2)
John Tombes	294	(2)
Nicholas Towes	296	(2)
Thomas Triplett	298	(2)
William Twisse	300	(1)
Thomas Tyndale	301	(2)
Henry and Thomas Vaughan	303	(2)
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford	305	(2)
William de Visscher	307	(1)
Edmund Waller	308	(3)
Seth Ward	311	(4)
Walter Warner	315	(2)
John Whitson	317	(2)
John Wilkins	319	(2)
John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester	321	(1)
Thomas Wolsey	322	(3)
Bibliography	325	(11)
Glossary of Persons	336	(52)
Index	388