Bolton (Boulton), Edmund

(?1575-?1633)

   Catholic historian and poet, born in Leicestershire, educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, then studied law in London. The last years of his life were mostly spent in debtors' prisons, either the "Fleet" (referred to in Dickens' Pickwick Papers) or in the "Marshalsea" (Dickens, Little Dorrit). His main publications are: A Pastoral Ode and three other pieces in England's Helicon, a collection of sonnets, 1600. The Roman Histories of Lucius Iulius Florus, a translation under the pseudonym of "Philanactophil," and dedicated to the Duke of Buckingham (a distant relative), 1618. Life of King Henry II, written (date unknown) for Speed's Chronicle, but rejected because of his pro-Catholic sympathies. Hypercritica, a short critical treatise of contemporary authors, 1618. Some of his other poems: "A Palinode," "Carol," "The Elements of Armories," "The Shepheard's Song," "To Favonius."

   Sources: Catholic Encyclopedia (http://www.newad vent.org). Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. England's Helico (www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/Helicon.htm). Encyclopedia of Britain. Bamber Gascoigne. London, Macmillan, 1994. Great Books Online, www.bartleby.com. 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 New Oxford Book of Christian Verse. Donald Davie, ed. Oxford University Press, 1981. The New Oxford Book of Sixteenth Century Verse. Emrys Jones, ed. Oxford University Press, 2002