Edward Sherburne

Edward Sherburne
Born	1616 (1616) Cripplegate, London, England
Died	1702 (aged 83–84) England
Occupation	Poet, translator, royalist
Language	English
Nationality	British

Sir Edward Sherburne (18 September 1616 – 4 November 1702) was an English Caroline poet, translator and royalist soldier. He was among those who have become known to posterity as the "Cavalier poets".

Biography

Early life

Edward Sherburne was born 18 September 1616 in Goldsmith Rents, Cripplegate, London, the son of another Sir Edward Sherburne (1578–1641), a civil servant and secretary of the East India Company, and his wife Frances (1588–1673), a daughter of John Stanley of Roydon Hall, Essex. His father, a descendant of the Sherburnes of Stonyhurst, had moved from Oxford to London to be employed as agent to Sir Dudley Carleton (later Viscount Dorchester); he was later employed as secretary to Nicholas Bacon (Lord Keeper) from 1617 to 1621, as secretary of the East India Company from 1621, and finally as Clerk of the Ordnance of the Tower of London from 1626.

The younger Edward was tutored first under Thomas Farnaby and later Charles Aleyn, until the latter's death in 1640. Thereupon he attempted an abortive tour of France and Italy, returning in late 1641 upon the news of the grave illness of his father, who died in December of that year. He succeeded his father as Clerk of the Ordnance, having obtained the reversion of that office in 1637–1638.

Civil war

Due to his Roman Catholicism and royalist views, Sherburne was removed as Clerk of the Ordnance by order of the House of Lords at the outbreak of the civil war. For the following months he was prisoner in the custody of the usher of the black rod until his release in October of that year, whereupon he joined the forces of the king at Oxford. As Commissary General of artillery, Sherburne served at the Battle of Edgehill. On the surrender of Oxford, in June 1646, he moved to London to live in Middle Temple with his kinsman Thomas Povey. He also asserted, in petitioning for compensation in 1661, that he 'kept the train of ordnance together, to serve as a troop in the field in the decline of the late king's cause and preserved the ordnance records, so that it is now restored to its primitive order and constitution'.

Now living in near poverty—due to the seizure of his estate and considerable library—he obtained the acquaintance of several notable literary figures of the day, including his kinsman the author Thomas Stanley, the dramatist James Shirley, and latterly of the collector and naturalist Sir Hans Sloane. It was at this stage that he began the truly literary portion of his life, devoting a great deal of time to scholarship of the classics and publishing his first independent published works in 1648, both translations in verse of Seneca the Younger: "Medea, a Tragedie, written in Latine, by Lucius Annæus Seneca" and "Seneca's Answer to Lucius his Quære: Why Good Men suffer Misfortunes, seeing there is a Divine Providence". The latter contained a dedication to the 'King of Sorrows' Charles I, then captive on the Isle of Wight, who may detect "a glympse of Your own invincible Patience and inimitable Magnanimity; in bearing and ever-mastering Mis-fortunes" carefully omitting the continuing line "being a Stoicall Exhortation to the Anticipation of Death".

Interregnum

Main article: Interregnum

Following the execution of the king in January 1649, Sherburne moved from London, along with Thomas Stanley, staying at the country homes of the latter's relations in Cumberlow Green, Hertfordshire and Flower, Northamptonshire. His budding French and Italian scholarship, greatly encouraged by Stanley, bore fruit in his 1651 "Poems and Translations Amorous, Lusory, Morall, Divine" dedicated to Stanley.

Sherburne was part of a secretive, and almost unknown literary circle which formed in the aftermath of the Civil War, the Order of the Black Riband — alongside such learned men as Herrick, Stanley, Lovelace, Ogilby and Shirley — and whose ultimate purpose was to encourage translation and imitation of classical verse.

Sherburne was then enlisted as a tutor to the young Sir George Savile (later the Marquess of Halifax), and was linked at this time with the steward (of the same name) of Rufford Abbey who was involved in the Penruddock uprising. On the recommendation of Savile's mother, he was then attached as tutor to John Coventry, accompanying him on an extensive trip through "All France, Italy, some Part of Hungary, the Greater Part of Germany, Holland, and the Rest of the low Countries, and Flandres, returning Home about the End of October 1659".

Post-Restoration

Sherburne corresponded with learned men through the following decades and that was to include Elias Ashmole, Obadiah Walker, Edward Bernard (Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford University), and Isaac Vossius. It was during the 1670s that he began a twenty-year correspondence with Anthony Wood.

Early in 1675, Sherburne published a translation of Manilius' didactic poem The Sphere (Book I of the Astronomica) into English heroic verse, which included engravings by Wenceslaus Hollar, prose commentary and an appendix constituting a extensive biographical catalogue of ancient and modern astronomers almost up to that time. Both commentary and appendix reveal a deep knowledge of astronomy, astronomical history, and of comparative mythologies, religions, and philosophies, comparable to Ralph Cudworth's The True Intellectual System of the Universe (1678).

At the Restoration Sherburne was restored to his office as Clerk of the Ordnance, and references in state papers suggest that he continued to be a diligent public servant. In this role he was principal author of the Rules, Orders, and Instructions given to the office of ordnance in 1683, which continued in use largely unaltered until the office was abolished in 1857. Near the time of the popish plot efforts were made to remove him on grounds of religion, but he was supported by the king, by whom he was granted a knighthood on 6 January 1682.

He published a translation of François Blondel's The Comparison of Pindar and Horace in 1696, his first prose translation. He was working on another prose translation, Tacitus, His Morals, from the French of Abraham Nicolas Amelot de la Houssaye, at the time of his death.

During the Glorious Revolution Sherburne was unable to swear the new oaths on grounds of his Roman Catholicism, and was forced to retire. As his petition to the then Master-General of the Ordnance the Earl of Romney went unanswered, it is likely he was supported in his final years by his cousin Sir Nicholas Sherburne of Stonyhurst Hall. He died on 4 November 1702 and is buried in the chapel of the Tower.

Works

In his own time Sherburne was respected not only for his learning but also for his poetic ability; in his dedication to Theatrum Poetarum (1675) Edward Phillips praised his translations as discovering "a more pure Poetical Spirit and Fancy, then many others can justly pretend to in their original Works," and his translations were praised by Gerard Langbaine in An Account of the English Dramatic Poets (1691) as "the best Versions we have extant, of any of Seneca's; and show the Translator a Gentleman of Learning, and Judgment." "As an exact poetic translator Sherburne has a significant place in the changing discourse of translation at the time", Katherine Quinsey stated, "in which translation was increasingly seen as an original poetic effort comparable to imitation."

Major publications

• Medea: a Tragedie. Written in Latine by Lucius Annévs Seneca. English'd by E. S. Esq; with Annotations (London: Printed for Humphrey Moseley, 1648).
• Seneca's Answer to Lvcilivs his Qvære; Why Good Men suf er Misfortunes seeing there is a Divine Providence? Written Originally in Latine Prose, and Now Translated into English Verse, By E.S. Esq. (London: Printed for Humphrey Moseley, 1648).
• Poems and Translations amorous, lusory, morall, divine (London: Printed by William Hunt for Thomas Dring, 1651); republished as Salmacis, Lyrian & Sylvia, Forsaken Lydia, The Rape of Helen, A Comment thereon, With Severall other Poems and Translations (London: Printed by William Hunt for Thomas Dring, 1651).
• The Sphere of Marcus Manilius Made an English Poem: With Annotations and an Astronomical Appendix. By Edward Sherburne, Esquire (London: Printed for NathanaelBrooke, 1675).
• Troades, or, The Royal Captives. A Tragedy, written Originally in Latin by Lucius Annæus Seneca, the Philosopher. English'd by Edward Sherburne, Esq; with Annotations (London: Printed by Anne Godbid & John Playford for SamuelCarr, 1679).
• The Comparison of Pindar and Horace, Written in French by Monsieur Blondel, Master in Mathematicks to the Dauphin, English'd By Sir Edward Sherburne, Kt. (London: Printed for Thomas Bennet, 1696).
• The Tragedies of L. Annæus Seneca the Philosopher; viz. Medea, Phædra and Hippolytus, Troades, or the Royal Captives, and The Rape of Helen, out of the Greek of Coluthus; Translated into English Verse; with Annotations. To which is prefixed the Life and Death of Seneca the Philosopher; with a Vindication of the said Tragedies to Him, as their Proper Author. (London: Samuel Smith and Benjamin Walford, 1701; reprinted, 1702; facsimile of 1702 printing, New York: AMS, 1976).

Modern editions

• Franz Jozef van Beeck, ed., The Poems and Translations of Sir Edward Sherburne, 1616-1702. Excluding Seneca and Manilius. (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1961).

References

Beddard, R. A. (1984). "Two Letters from the Tower, 1688," Notes and Queries, Vol. XXXI, pp. 347–52.

Bentley, Gerald Eades (1939). "James Shirley and a Group of Unnoted Poems on the Wedding of Thomas Stanley," Huntington Library Quarterly, Vol. II, pp. 219–34.

Birrell, T. A. (1997). "The Library of Sir Edward Sherburne (1616-1702)." In: Arnold Hunt, Giles Mandelbrote & Alison Shell, eds., The Book Trade & Its Customers, 1450-1900: Historical Essays for Robin Myers. Winchester: St. Paul's Bibliographies/New Castle: Oak Knoll Press, pp. 189–204.

Bull, Stephen (2008). "A Scramble for Arms: The War of Ordnance Logistics." In: The Furie of the Ordnance: Artillery in the English Civil Wars. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, pp. 54–80.

Crump, Galbraith M. (14 March 1958). "Edward Sherburne's Acquaintances," Times Literary Supplement, p. 139.

Feingold, Mordechai (1991). "John Selden and the Nature of Seventeenth-Century Science." In: In the Presence of the Past: Essays in Honor of Frank Manuel. Dordrecht/Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 55–78.

Henderson, Felicity (2013). "Faithful Interpreters? Translation Theory and Practice at the Early Royal Society," Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, Vol. LXVII, pp. 101–122.

Hermans, Theo (1986). "Literary Translation: The Birth of a Concept," New Comparison: A Journal of Comparative and General Literary Studies, Vol. I, pp. 28–42.

Mishra, Rupali (2022). "In the Company of Merchants: Edward Sherburne, the East India Company, and the Transformation of Stuart Political Practices." In: William J. Bulman & Freddy C. Domínguez, eds., Political and Religious Practice in the Early Modern British World. Manchester University Press, pp. 77–96.

Osborn, James M. (1958). "Thomas Stanley's Lost “Register of Friends”," The Yale University Library Gazette, Vol. XXXII, No. 4, pp. 122–47.

Poole, William (2013). "Loans from the Library of Sir Edward Sherburne and the 1685 English Translation of Xenophon," The Library, Vol. XIV, No. 1, pp. 80–87.

Praz, Mario (1925). "Stanley, Sherburne and Ayres as Translators and Imitators of Italian, Spanish and French Poets," The Modern Language Review, Vol. XX, No. 3, pp. 280–94.

Revard, Stella P. (2000). "Thomas Stanley and “A Register of Friends”." In: Claude J. Summers & Ted-Larry Pebworth, eds., Literary Circles and Cultural Communities in Early Modern England. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, pp. 148–72.

Roberts, William (1988). "Saint-Amant: Plaque Tournante de l'Europe au XVlle Siecle." In: Wolfgang Leiner, ed., Horizons europeens de la litterature francaise au XVlle siecle: L'Europe: lieu d'echanges culturels?. Tübingen: Gunter.

Steiner, Thomas R. (1970). "Precursors to Dryden: English and French Theories of Translation in the Seventeenth Century," Comparative Literature Studies, Vol. VII, No. 1, pp. 50–81.

Tomlinson, H. C. (1975). "Place and Profit: An Examination of the Ordnance Office, 1660-1714," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Vol. XXV, pp. 55–75.

Willmoth, Frances (1993). Sir Jonas Moore: Practical Mathematics and Restoration Science. Woodbridge: Boydell Press.

External links

• Works by Edward Sherburne at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)

Preceded by Edward Sherburne

Clerk of the Ordnance December 1641 – August 1642

Succeeded by John White