The Complete Works of Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder

Volume One: Prose

Edited by Jason Powell

The first complete authoritative edition of Wyatt's prose
Extensive annotation provides readers with a clear understanding of Wyatt's meaning and references
Provides full bibliographical descriptions offering readers a clear guide to the circulation of Wyatt's work in manuscript form
Headnotes and introductions provide historical and bibliographical context

The Complete Works of Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder

Volume One: Prose

Edited by Jason Powell

Description

Thomas Wyatt (1504?-42) may have written the first sonnet in English. His translation from Plutarch's Moralia was the first publication of a classical moral essay in English. He introduced continental forms such as ottava rima to the language, and his paraphrase of the Penitential Psalms sparked a century of popular psalm translations. Yet while decades of criticism have centered on a handful of his best-known poems, many others are poorly understood, in part because we lack an authoritative edition. This volume--the first in a planned two-volume collection of Wyatt's complete works--comprises scholarly editions of 35 letters or memoranda, Wyatt's Declaration from the Tower and his Defence speech against treason charges. It also includes the first scholarly edition of The Quyete of Mynde. Each text is extensively annotated, each letter has a prefacing headnote, and each grouping of texts is separately introduced. The recipient of one letter is identified here for the first time from new archival discoveries. Two letters of instruction from Henry VIII are included along with four appendices containing related documents. Biographical entries (totalling 17,000 words) identify and introduce 64 persons related to Wyatt's diplomatic service, including every known member of Wyatt's diplomatic household.

The Complete Works of Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder

Volume One: Prose

Edited by Jason Powell

List of Illustrations
Sigla
The Calendar
The Organization of Texts
Wyatt's Abbreviations
Editorial Principles
Relevant Dates
Part I: The Quyete of Mynde
Introduction
The Quyete of Mynde
Dedicated at Alington, 31 December 1527
Part II: Fatherly Letters
Introduction
Wyatt to his Son Thomas, Paris, 15 April 1537
Wyatt to His Son Thomas [Spain, Summer 1537?]
Part III: Diplomatic Correspondence
Introduction
(Instructions A) Henry VIII to Thomas Wyatt [England, 12 March 1537]
Wyatt to Viscount Lisle, Barbastro, 16 October 1537
Wyatt's Memorandum for Dudley [Barbastro?, on or just after 10 November 1537]
Wyatt to Viscount Lisle, Barcelona, 7 February 1538
Wyatt's Memorandum for Henry VIII [England, early June 1538?]
Wyatt to Cromwell, Hythe, 21 June 1538
Wyatt to Bonner, Valladolid, 22 September 1538
Wyatt to Henry VIII, Toledo [9 November 1538]
Wyatt's Memorandum for Hoby [Toledo, early December 1538]
Wyatt to Cromwell, Toledo, 2 January 1539
Wyatt to Bonner, Toledo, 23 February 1539
Wyatt to Bonner, Toledo, 3 March 1539
Wyatt to Cromwell, Toledo, [mid-March]-18 March 1539
(Instructions B) Henry VIII to Thomas Wyatt [England, 15 November 1539]
Wyatt to Henry VIII, Blois, 2 December 1539
Wyatt to Henry VIII, Blois, 16 December 1539
Wyatt and Tate to Henry VIII, Paris, 25 December 1539
Wyatt to Cromwell [Paris, 30? December 1539]
Wyatt to Henry VIII, Paris, 7 January 1540
Wyatt to Cromwell, Brussels, 22 January 1540
Wyatt to Henry VIII, Brussels, 3 February 1540
Wyatt to Cromwell, Brussels, 3 February 1540
Wyatt to Cromwell, Brussels, 10 February 1540
Wyatt to Cromwell, Brussels, 14 February 1540
Wyatt to Henry VIII, Brussels, 25 February 1540
Wyatt to Henry VIII, Ghent, 9 March 1540
Wyatt to Henry VIII, Ghent, 12 March 1540
Wyatt to Henry VIII, Ghent, 14 March 1540
Wyatt to Cromwell, Ghent, 21 March 1540
Wyatt to Cromwell, Ghent, 2 April 1540
Wyatt to Cromwell, Ghent, 5 April 1540
Wyatt to Cromwell, Ghent, 12 April 1540
Wyatt to Henry VIII, Ghent, 16 April 1540
Wyatt to [Cromwell] [England, between 26 May and 1 June 1540]
Part Four: Treason Trial Documents
Introduction
Wyatt's Declaration
[The Tower, Winter 1541]
Wyatt's Defence
[The Tower, Spring 1541?]
Additional Material
Coda
(Appendix A) Dudley's Memorandum
(Appendix B) Bonner's Accusations
(Appendix C) Hoby's Memorandum
(Appendix D) Wyatt's Reckoning
Endmatter
Descriptions
Works Cited
Biographies
Glossary
OED Antedatings

The Complete Works of Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder

Volume One: Prose

Edited by Jason Powell

Author Information

Jason Powell, Associate Professor of English, Saint Joseph's University

Jason Powell is Associate Professor of English at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia. He co-edited Authority and Diplomacy from Dante to Shakespeare (Ashgate, 2013) with William T. Rossiter and has published widely on sixteenth century authors, including Wyatt, Sidney and Shakespeare. His essays have appeared in Huntington Library Quarterly, Sixteenth Century Journal, and Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, among other venues.

The Complete Works of Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder

Volume One: Prose

Edited by Jason Powell

Reviews and Awards

"an edition that early modern literary scholarship has been in need of for a long time. We owe Jason Powell a great debt of thanks for this painstaking labor, which will no doubt prove the standard edition of Wyatt's works for decades to come ... it is the ideal blend of scholarly rigor and thought for the reader's experience of engaging with the texts." -- William T. Rossiter, Speculum

"This long-awaited, definitive, and brilliantly edited volume ... allows readers to follow Wyatt's career in its intriguing detail. Editor Jason Powell's annotations help us to understand the shifting details of the international political calculus, while his section introductions help those less familiar with the period to grasp larger significances and overarching trajectories. The volume also includes Wyatt's translation of Plutarch's De tranquillitate animi, dedicated to Katherine of Aragon, and two letters of conventional moral advice to Wyatt's son. The latter acquire particular poignancy, since the son - Thomas Wyatt the Younger - went to the block for raising a rebellion against Katherine and Henry's daughter, Mary I. Although produced primarily for a scholarly audience, few volumes will give their readers better insight into the dangers and uncertainties of Tudor political life." --John Watkins, Common Knowledge

"Authoritative and exhaustive in its scholarship, this superb edition of Wyatt's prose will be the definitive work of reference for decades to come. ... Wyatt's attentiveness to language - and the ways in which its slipperiness might be turned to his advantage - is as evident here when he is arguing for his life as it is in his poetry. ... this volume has everything the student and scholar of Wyatt's prose could possibly need. It is a masterly example of scholarly editing at its best and an advertisement not only for volume 2 (verse), but for Powell's edition of the Complete Poems of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, also under contract with Oxford University Press." --Catherine Bates, Renaissance Quarterly

"As a result of Jason Powell's meticulous scholarship and superb editing, Sir Thomas Wyatt's prose has become available in ways it never was before. This is a volume much to be commended and the companion edition of the poetry is to be eagerly anticipated." --James Carley, Times Literary Supplement