John Burrell (poet)

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John Burrell or John Burel (fl. 1590) was a Scottish poet and goldsmith.

He was the author of a poetical description of the entry of Queen Anne (Anne of Denmark) into Edinburgh in 1590, titled The Discription of the Queenis Maiesties most honourable entry into the town of Edinburgh.[1] According to Burel, performers with black masks or visards represented the "Moirs" of "the Inds" who lived in comparative ease and comfort by the golden mountain of "Synerdas". They had come to salute Scotland's new queen and offer to her service their "most willing minds".[2]

Among the title-deeds of a small property at the foot of Todricks Wynd, Edinburgh, there was found a disposition of a house by John Burrel, goldsmith, yane of the printers in his majesties cunzie house (king's mint) in 1628. From the minuteness with which the poet describes the jewellery displayed on Queen Anne's entry, it appears that he had a special technical knowledge of such matters, and there is thus every reason to suppose him to have been identical with John Burrel of the king's mint. The poem, along with another by the same author, titled The Passage of the Pilgrims, divided into four parts, was published in Watson's and the former is also included in Sir Robert Sibbald's . Neither of the poems possesses any literary merit.

His translation of a medieval verse drama Pamphilus based on works of Ovid seems to address the events of 1591, when the young courtier Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox was advised to end his relationship with Lilias Ruthven.[3]

In 1601 Francis Mowbray wrote to Sir Robert Cecil from Edinburgh complaining about John Burrell who was in London and had ridiculed him in verse and had a sonnet against him published. Mowbray enclosed a copy of the printed poem (which survives) and wanted the poet put in prison.[4]

References[]

  1. ^ James Thomson Gibson-Craig, Papers Relative to the Marriage of James VI (Edinburgh, 1828), 'Discription', pp. v-vi 'THE DISCRIPTION OF THE QVEENS MAIESTIES MAIST HONORABLE ENTRY INTO THE TOVN OF EDINBVRGH, VPON THE 19. DAY OF MAII. 1590' (Edinburgh: Robert Waldegrave, ?1596), STC (2nd ed.) / 4105
  2. ^ Clare McManus, Women on the Renaissance stage: Anna of Denmark and Female Masquing in the Stuart Court, 1590-1619 (Manchester, 2002), p. 78.
  3. ^ Andrea Thomas, Glory and Honour: The Renaissance in Scotland (Edinburgh, 2013), p. 169.
  4. ^ John Duncan Mackie, Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1597-1603, vol. 13 (Edinburgh, 1969), pp. 807-8: Jamie Reid Baxter, 'Politics, Passion and Poetry in the Circle of Lennox: John Burel and his surviving works', L. A. J. R. Houwen, Alasdair A. MacDonald, Sally Mapstone, A Palace in the Wild: Essays on Vernacular Culture and Humanism in Late-medieval and Renaissance Scotland (Peeters, 2000), pp. 201-2.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Henderson, Thomas Finlayson (1886). "Burrel, John". In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 07. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

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