Everything about Nicholas Grimald totally explained
Nicholas Grimald (or
Grimoald) (
1519-
1562),
English poet, was born in
Huntingdonshire, the son probably of Giovanni Baptista Grimaldi, who had been a clerk in the service of
Empson and
Dudley in the reign of
Henry VII.
He was educated at
Christ's College, Cambridge, where he took his B.A. degree in 1540. He then removed to Oxford, becoming a probationer fellow of
Merton College in
1541. In
1547 he was lecturing on
rhetoric at Christ Church, and shortly afterwards became chaplain to
Bishop Ridley, who, when he was in prison, desired Grimald to translate
Laurentius Valla's book against the alleged
Donation of Constantine, and the
De gestis Basiliensis Concilii of Aeneas Sylvius (
Pius II). His connection with Ridley brought him under suspicion, and he was imprisoned in the
Marshalsea. It is said that he escaped the penalties of
heresy by recanting his errors, and was despised accordingly by his
Protestant contemporaries. Grimald contributed to the original edition (June 1557) of
Songes and Sonettes (commonly known as Tottel's
Miscellany), forty poems, only ten of which are retained in the second edition published in the next month.
He translated (1553)
Cicero's
De officiis as
Marcus Tullius Ciceroes thre bokes of duties (2nd ed., 1556); a
Latin paraphrase of
Virgil's
Georgics (printed 1591) is attributed to him, but most of the works assigned to him by
Bale are lost. Two Latin tragedies are extant;
Archipropheta sive Johannes Baptista, printed at Cologne in 1548, probably performed at Oxford the year before, and
Christus redivivus (Cologne, 1543), edited by JM Hart (for the Modern Language Association of America, 1886, separately issued 1899).
It can't be determined whether Grimald was familiar with
Buchanan's
Baptistes (1543), or with
Jacob Schoepper's
Johannes decollatus vel Ectrachelistes (1546). Grimald provides a purely romantic motive for the catastrophe in the passionate attachment of
Herodias to
Herod Antipas, and constantly resorts to lyrical methods. As a poet Grimald is memorable as the earliest follower of
Surrey in the production of
blank verse. He writes sometimes simply enough, as in the lines on his own childhood addressed to his mother, but in general his style is more artificial, and his metaphors more studied than is the case with the other contributors to the
Miscellany. His classical reading shows itself in the comparative terseness and smartness of his verses. His epitaph was written by
Barnabe Googe in May 1562.
See
C. H. Herford,
Studies in the Literary Relations of England and Germany (pp. 113-119, 1886). A Catalogue of printed books ... by writers bearing the name of Grimaldi (ed. AB Grimaldi), printed 1883; and
Edward Arber's reprint of
Tottel's Miscellany.
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