Yalden, Thomas

(1670-1736)

   Born in Oxford and educated at Magdalen College school and Magdalen College, Oxford. His principal dates are: B.A., 1691; M.A., 1694; fellow, 1699-1713; vicar of Willoughby, Warwickshire 1700-1709; lecturer on moral philosophy, 17051713; B.D., 1706; chaplain to the Duke of Beaufort, 1706; bursar of Magdalen College, 1707; D.D., 1708; dean of divinity, 1709; chaplain of Bridewell Hospital, London (where he died and was buried), 1713-1736. Robert Anderson and John Dryden (see entry) both included poems by Yalden in their collections. Many of Yalden's poems are poetic versions of Aesop's Fables. Some of his publications: Ode for St. Cecilia's Day, 1693 (set to music by Daniel Purcell, 1660-1717). On the Conquest of Namur, 1695. Æsop at Court, 1702. An Essay, 1704. Poems, 1810. Some of his poems: "Advice to a Lover," "An Owl and the Sun," "Ovid's Art of Love," "The Fox and Bramble," "The Iliad (Selections)," "The Nightingale and Cuckow," "The Satyr's Address," "The Sun and the Wind," "To Sir Humphry Mackworth."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. EighteenthCentury English Verse. Dennis Davison, ed. Penguin Books, 1988. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). 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 Oxford Book of Classical Verse in Translation. Adrian Poole and Jeremy Maule, eds. 1995.