Thanks, Joseph -- I'd meant to write 17thC (I sometimes tangle hundreds
[1600s] and centuries) -- but I was still out by 50 years!!
But wasn't there a pre-history of "unofficial" laureates? Skelton certainly
described himself as such, and I think maybe Ben Jonson too. If Dryden was
the first officially appointed one (under Charles II presumably?), was this
another French Import, like women actresses?
Robin
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dustin Joseph Anderson" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2001 5:13 PM
Subject: Re: laureate
> John Drydan was England's first officially appointed poet laureate.
>
> Dustin
>
> Robin Hamilton wrote:
> >
> > > Listening to Pinkus and Motion, surely the great southern land could
claim
> > a
> > > voice of its own? What is the history of the laureate?
> > >
> > > jh
> >
> > Petrarch, then in England John Skelton as the self-appointed first. I
think
> > it becomes official round the beginning of the 16th C.
> >
> > Robin Hamilton
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