Lok (Lock or Locke), Henry

(?1553-?1608)

   He was born in London, where his father was a dealer in textiles. In 1550 his mother published Sermons upon the Song that Ezechias [Hezekiah] made after he had been sick and afflicted by the Hand of God, which included A Meditation of a penitent Sinner, written in manner of a Paraphrase after the 51 Psalm of David. Henry spent time at Oxford University but there is no record of him graduating; he then had some appointment at the court of Elizabeth. There is no record of his death. In 1591 he contributed a sonnet to the Essayes of a Prentice by James VI of Scotland. The Scottish clergyman and literary editor Dr. Alexander Balloch Grosart (1827-1899) reprinted Lok's sonnets, together with the one prefixed to James VI's volume, in his Miscellanies of the Fuller Worthies' Library, Vol. II, 1871. Lok paraphrased Psalms 27, 71, 119, 121, and 130. Some of his poems: "Adue to worlds vaine delight," "Ecclesiasticus, otherwise called the Preacher," "Lords Prayer," "Sundry Christian Passions Contained in Two Hundred," "These sacred words king Dauids son did preach," "To the virtuous Lady."

   Sources: Athenaeum Online System, Issue Number 2288: Poems of Henry Lok, Gentleman 1593-1597 (http://web.soi.city.ac.uk/Lok{ (Lock or Locke), Henryasp/v2/titles/issuefiles/2288.html). Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. 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 Development of the Sonnet: An Introduction. Michael R.G. Spiller. Routledge, 1993. The Sonnet: An Anthology. Robert M. Bender and Charles L. Squier, eds. Washington Square Press, 1987.