William Alabaster
Encyclopedia
Arbalest
The arbalest was a late variation of the medieval European crossbow. A large weapon, the arbalest had a steel prod . Since an arbalest was much larger than earlier crossbows, and because of the greater compressive strength of steel, it had a greater force...
er", a crossbow
Crossbow
A crossbow is a weapon consisting of a bow mounted on a stock that shoots projectiles, often called bolts or quarrels. The medieval crossbow was called by many names, most of which derived from the word ballista, a torsion engine resembling a crossbow in appearance.Historically, crossbows played a...
man.
He was born at Hadleigh, Suffolk, and educated at Westminster School
Westminster School
The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxford and Cambridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college in Britain...
, and Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
from 1583. His Roxana, a Latin tragedy, was performed around 1592, and printed in 1632. Roxana is founded on the La Dalida (Venice, 1567) of Luigi Groto, known as Cieco di Hadria, and Hallam asserts that it is a plagiarism
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
(Literature of Europe, iii.54). A surreptitious edition in 1632 was followed by an authorized version a plagiarii unguibus vindicata, aucta et agnita ab Authore, Gulielmo Alabastro.
He became a Roman Catholic convert in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
when on a diplomatic mission as chaplain
Chaplain
Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...
. His religious beliefs led him to be imprisoned several times; eventually he gave up Catholicism, and was favoured by James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
. He received a prebend in St Paul's Cathedral, London, and the living of Therfield
Therfield
Therfield is both a small village of approximately 4,761 acres and a civil parish which sits upon the chalk range, three miles southwest of Royston, and six miles northeast of Baldock) and within the English county of Hertfordshire.-Ancient history:The name Therfield is a variation of Tharfield...
, Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
. He died at Little Shelford
Little Shelford
Little Shelford is a village located to the south of Cambridge, in the county of Cambridgeshire, in eastern England. The River Granta lies between it and the larger village of Great Shelford, and both are served by Shelford railway station, which is on the line from Cambridge to London Liverpool...
, Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
.
Family
He was the son of Roger Alabaster of the cloth merchant family from HadleighHadleigh
Hadleigh is an ancient market town in Suffolk, East Anglia, England. Guthrum, King of the Danes, is said to be buried in the grounds of St. Mary Church in the town. He was defeated by King Alfred in the 9th century....
in Suffolk, by Bridget Winthrop of Groton
Groton
Groton is the name of several places :In England:*Groton, Suffolk**Groton WoodIn the United States of America:*Groton, Connecticut, a town**Groton , Connecticut, within the town*Groton, Massachusetts*Groton, New Hampshire*Groton , New York...
, Suffolk, sister of Adam Winthrop(1548–1574) whose first wife (the marriage was short, she died three years later in child birth) was Alice Still, sister of John Still
John Still
John Still , bishop of Bath and Wells enjoyed considerable fame as a preacher and disputant. He was formerly reputed to be the author of the early English comedy drama Gammer Gurton's Needle .-Career:...
(d.1607/8), Bishop of Wells. Adam Winthrop's grandson was John Winthrop
John Winthrop
John Winthrop was a wealthy English Puritan lawyer, and one of the leading figures in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the first major settlement in New England after Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led the first large wave of migrants from England in 1630, and served as governor for 12 of...
(1587-1649), Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony
Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions...
. Another of William's uncles was John Cotta
John Cotta
John Cotta was a physician in England and author of books and other texts on medicine and witchcraft.He wrote considerably about quack doctors, and exposed several in his book Ignorant Practisers of Physicke but still clearly believed in evil spirits, sorcerers and magic...
(1575-1650) the physician, married to another of Adam Winthrop's sisters
Career
One book of an epic poem in Latin hexameterHexameter
Hexameter is a metrical line of verse consisting of six feet. It was the standard epic metre in classical Greek and Latin literature, such as in the Iliad and Aeneid. Its use in other genres of composition include Horace's satires, and Ovid's Metamorphoses. According to Greek mythology, hexameter...
s, in honour of Queen Elizabeth
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
, is preserved in MS. in the library of Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay on the site of a Dominican friary...
. This poem, Elisaeis, Apotheosis poetica, Spenser
Spenser
Spenser is an alternative spelling of the British surname Spencer. It may refer to:Geographical places with the name Spenser:* Spenser Ecological District in New Zealand* Spenser Mountains, a range in the northern part of South Island, New Zealand...
highly esteemed. "Who lives that can match that heroick song?" he says in Colin Clout's come home againe, and begs "Cynthia" to withdraw the poet from his obscurity.
Cádiz
Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
in the capacity of chaplain, and, while he was in Spain, he became a Roman Catholic. An account of his change of faith is given in an obscurely worded sonnet contained in an MS. copy of Divine Meditations, by Mr Alabaster (see J. P. Collier, Hist. of Eng. Dram. Poetry, ii.341). He defended his conversion in a pamphlet, Seven Motives, of which no copy is extant. The proof of its publication only remains in two tracts, A Booke of the Seuen Planets, or Seuen wandring motives of William Alablaster's wit, by John Racster (1598), and An Answer to William Alabaster, his Motives, by Roger Fenton
Roger Fenton (clergyman)
Roger Fenton was an English clergyman, one of the translators of the Authorised King James Version.-Life:He was born in Lancashire and was educated at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, where he matriculated as a sizar in 1585. He graduated B.A. in 1589, becoming a fellow in 1590. He graduated M.A. in...
(1599). From these it appears that Alabaster was imprisoned for his change of faith in the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
during 1598 and 1599.
In 1607 he published at Antwerp Apparatus in Revelationem Jesu Christi, in which his study of the Kabbalah
Kabbalah
Kabbalah/Kabala is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the esoteric aspect of Rabbinic Judaism. It was systematized in 11th-13th century Hachmei Provence and Spain, and again after the Expulsion from Spain, in 16th century Ottoman Palestine...
gave a mystical interpretation of Scripture. The book was placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum
Index Librorum Prohibitorum
The Index Librorum Prohibitorum was a list of publications prohibited by the Catholic Church. A first version was promulgated by Pope Paul IV in 1559, and a revised and somewhat relaxed form was authorized at the Council of Trent...
at Rome early in 1610. Alabaster says in the preface to his Ecce sponsus venit (1633), a treatise on the time of the second advent of Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
, that he went to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and was there imprisoned by the Inquisition
Inquisition
The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis , was the "fight against heretics" by several institutions within the justice-system of the Roman Catholic Church. It started in the 12th century, with the introduction of torture in the persecution of heresy...
, but succeeded in escaping to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and again embraced the Protestant faith.
Alabaster's other cabalistic writings are Commentarius de Bestia Apocalyptica (1621) and Spiraculum tubarum (1633), a mystical interpretation of the Pentateuch. These theological writings won the praise of Robert Herrick
Robert Herrick (poet)
Robert Herrick was a 17th-century English poet.-Early life:Born in Cheapside, London, he was the seventh child and fourth son of Julia Stone and Nicholas Herrick, a prosperous goldsmith....
, who calls him "the triumph of the day" and the "one only glory of a million".
Works
- Roxana - (c. 1595) Latin drama
- Elisaeis – Latin epic on Elizabeth IElizabeth I of EnglandElizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
- Apparatus in Revelationem Jesu Christi (1607)
- De bestia Apocalypsis (1621)
- Ecce sponsus venit (1633)
- Spiraculum Tubarum (1633)
- Lexicon Pentaglotton, Hebraicum, Chaldaicum, Syriacum, Talmudico-Rabbinicon et Arabicum (1637)