Stapleton (Stapylton), Sir Robert

(d. 1669)

   He was a Yorkshire poet who was educated in the Benedictine convent of St. Gregory at Douay, where he became a professed monk of the order in 1625. He converted to Protestantism and was appointed one of the gentlemen in ordinary of the privy chamber to Prince Charles (later Charles II). He was with Charles I at the battle of Edgehill (1642), was knighted at Nottingham, and made doctor of civil law at Oxford in the same year, and at the Restoration he was again brought into the royal household. He was buried near the vestry door of Westminster Abbey and is memorialized by a stone in Poets' Corner. His works include: The Slighted Maid, 1663 (a verse comedy). The Step-Mother, 1664 (a tragicomedy, in verse). The Tragedie of Hero and Leander, 1669 (in verse). The Loves of Hero and Leander: A Greek Poem, 1645. Juvenal's Sixteen Satyrs, 1669. Two of his poems: "The Bard's Song," "To My Friend, Mr. Shirley, Upon His Comedy."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Great Books Online (www.bartleby.com). Seven Centuries of Poetry: Chaucer to Dylan Thomas. A.N. Jeffares, ed. Longmans, Green, 1955. 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 Dramatic Works and Poems of James Shirley, Vol. I. Alexander Dyce and William Gifford, eds. Russell and Russell, 1966. The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk).