COMMENTARY
A Note on Sources
Wykehamist pattern poetry survives in a few concentrations . First , there is the fountainhead , the printed Poematum liber of Richard Willes ( 1573 ) ( nos . 1-5 above ). The next printed example is probably the Greek altar of John Luid ( no . 6 ), commencing the New College 1587 Peplus in memory of the poet and courtier Sir Philip Sidney . ( The rival volume produced by Oxford University at large in the same year on Sidney ’ s untimely death , the Exequiae , also contained four shaped poems .) Then , Robert Pincke , future Warden of New College , produced some Latin wings for the 1603 Oxford Funebre officium on the death of Elizabeth I . Thereafter our sources switch to manuscript , of which the earliest example is probably the shaped poem in hourglass form found in John Harmar ’ s dictates , as noted in the introduction .
The first important collection , however , is Bodleian , MS Lat . misc . e . 23 , compiled in 1600 under the general editorship of John Reinolds , in expectation of a visit by Elizabeth I ( nos . 7-12 ). This contains thirteen shaped poems , fortunately all signed by their authors . These six authors , together with their predecessors Willes and Luid , are the only Wykehamist pattern poets to whom we can currently assign names . They are Thomas Chaundler , Robert Fawne , Charles Hoskins , Roger Pincke , John Reinolds , and Hugh Robinson . Biographical notes on Chaundler , Reinolds , and Robinson are supplied below . As for the others , whose efforts are not here represented , it is perhaps significant that Fawne and Pincke matriculated at Oxford on the same day in 1602 as Reinolds , their three signatures standing together in the university ’ s matriculation register . The final poet , Charles Hoskins , was slightly younger , but had several elder Wykehamist brothers , including the famous poet and judge John Hoskins , author of ‘ The Trusty Servant ’
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