Proctor (Procter), Thomas

(fl. 1578-1584)

   He was the son of John Proctor, a schoolmaster from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, and is described as stationer, anthologist, and poet. Nothing else is known of him apart from his poetry. A Gorgeous Gallery of Gallant Inventions, 1578, contains several of Proctor's poems, the longest of which is "The History of Pyramus and Thisbie Truely Translated." It has been suggested that this poem was in Shakespeare's mind when he wrote Midsummer Night's Dream (?1595). The book was reprinted several times. The Triumph of Truth, ?1585, contains the poems "Caesars Triumph," "Gretians Conquest" and "Desert of Dives." Of the Knowledge and Conduct of Wars was published in 1578 and Commendatory Poem in News from the North in 1585. Some of his other poems: "A Briefe Dialogue Between Sicknesse and Worldly Desire," "A Maze of Maydens," "A Mirror of Mortallity," "Beauty is a Pleasant Pathe to Distruction," "How to Choose a Faythfull Freende," "Of Three Things to Be Shunned," "Proctors Precepts," "Win Fame, and Keepe It."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. 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 Reflective Verse. Geoffrey Grigson, ed. Faber & Faber, 1984. The Oxford Book of Sixteenth Century Verse. E.K. Chambers, ed. Oxford University Press, 1932. Years work in the Humanities Research Centre, 2003-2004, Thomas Proctor, Sheffield Hallam University (http://www.shu.ac.uk/research/hrc/work.html).