Stanley, Thomas

(1625-1678)

   Born at Cumberlow, Hertfordshire, he graduated M.A. from Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, in 1641, entered into a prosperous marriage, traveled in France and took up residence in the Middle Temple, there to concentrate on writing. He used his wealth to support his many literary friends, most of whom dedicated works to him. A student of Greek philosophy, between 1655 and 1662, he published four volumes of History of Philosophy. His edition of Æschylus was published in 1663, and revised and enlarged (1809-1816 in 4 volumes) by Samuel Butler (see entry). Some of Stanley's verses were set to music by John Gamble and published by him in his Ayres and Dialogues (1656). Stanley died at his lodgings in Suffolk Street, Strand, and was buried in the church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. He produced four volumes of poetry, many of them translations: Poems, 1647. Europa: Cupid Crucified, 1649. Poems, (1647-1651). Psalterium Carolinum, 1657. Some of his poems: "Beauty," "Celia Singing," "On a Violet in Her Breast," "The Bracelet," "The Magnet," "The Relapse," "The Repulse."

   Sources: An Anthology of World Poetry. Mark Van Doren, ed. Reynal and Hitchcock, Inc., 1936. Ben Jonson and the Cavalier Poets. Hugh MacLaen, ed. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1974. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. Metaphysical Lyrics and Poems of the Seventeenth Century: Donne to Butler. Herbert J. Grierson, ed. Oxford University Press, 1921. The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources (http://library.stanford.edu). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Faber Book of Epigrams and Epitaphs. Geoffrey Grigson, ed. Faber and Faber, 1977. The Oxford Book of Classical Verse in Translation. Adrian Poole and Jeremy Maule, eds. 1995. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. The Poems and Translations of Thomas Stanley. Galbraith Miller Crump, ed. Oxford University Press, 1962.