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Aurelian Townshend




Robert Cecil directed Aurelian's education and sent him to Europe to study. Within three years, Townshend was back in England. He then spent time in France as Edward Herbert 's friend and aide who "spoke French, Italian and Spanish in great perfection," but this was for a year. In 1613 , he became the Librettist of Inigo Jones . He became a friend of Thomas Carew 's, and wrote poetry for around five years.

In 1643 , he appears as "a poore and pocky Poet, (who) would bee glad to sell an 100 verses now at sixpence a piece, 50 shillings an 100 verses" before the House Of Lords , seeking protection from creditors. Other than these few facts, little can be sure.

Townshend's poetry is remarkably formal and simultaneously free. His language is delicate, and his lines musical. T. S. Eliot praised the musicality of Townshend's poetry, and Hugh Kenner argues that Townshend's mixture of formality and liberty set the stage for Andrew Marvell .


REFERENCES

  • Chambers, E. K., ed. ''Aurelian Townshend's Poems and Masks.'' London: Clarendon Press, 1912.

  • Kenner, Hugh, ed. ''Seventeeth-Century Poetry.'' New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964.