Arthur Gorges

The Poems of Sir Arthur Gorges, 1953. Courtesy Amazon.com.

Sir Arthur Gorges (?1569 - 10 October 1625), was an English poet, translator, sea captain, and courtier.

Life

Family

Gorges was the 3rd son of Sir William Gorges, vice-admiral of the fleet; his mother was Winifred (daughter of Roger Budockshide of St. Budeaux, Devonshire, and 1st cousin to Sir Walter Raleigh). He was also nephew of Sir Thomas Gorges, who married Helena Snakenburg, widow of William Parr, marquis of Northampton, and cousin of Sir Ferdinando Gorges. Gorges belonged to that brilliant band of English nobles who combined active service with the finest literary acquirements.

Sir William Gorges of Charlton (in the parish of Wraxall, Somerset) was knighted in Ireland in 1579, Vice Admiral of the Fleet in 1580, and Constable of the Tower of London]]. He died in the Tower in December 1584. Arthur Gorges' brother Tristram Gorges (circa 1562 - 8 May 1608) was entrusted by Sir Francis Drake with the custody of Don Pedro de Valdez who was captured in the fight with the Spanish Armada in 1588. He took Don Pedro to the Tower of London.

Gorges' mother was heiress to the manor of Budockshede. This appears to be the same place as St. Budeaux, where some of the Gorges family lived:

The name St. Budeaux comes from St Budoc, the Bishop of Dol-de-Bretagne (Brittany). The village is documented in William the Conqueror's Domesday Book of 1086. Known as Bucheside, it was valued at 30 shillings (around six times the amount of neighbouring manors). Over the course of the next few hundred years, Bucheside became Bodekishide, Budeokshed, and even Bottockishide. The modern name, St. Budeaux, is itself a Frenchified "elegant" form.

Youth and education

Arthur Gorges attended the University of Oxford, earning a B.A. in 1574.

Career

A cousin of both Walter Raleigh and Charles Arundell, Gorges was a member of the Oxford-Howard circle of Catholic courtiers in the late 1570s. ) Arundell claimed that Oxford had tried to have Gorges murdered on the Richmond Green.

In 1582 Gorges was a gentleman-pensioner, and on 13 October 1584 he married Douglas, only child and heiress of Henry Howard, viscount Bindon. She was among the greatest heiresses of the day, and the marriage appears to have incurred royal displeasure. She died on 13 August 1590, leaving an only daughter, Ambrosia, who died in 1600, about 10 years of age.

Gorges was member of parliament for Yarmouth in 1584, Camelford in 1588, Dorsetshire in 1592–3, and Rye in 1601.

Gorges was associated with Sir Walter Raleigh as a volunteer against the Spanish invasion. In 1597 he commanded the Wast Spite, the ship in which Raleigh sailed as vice-admiral under Robert Devereux, 2nd earl of Essex, on the Islands Voyage. In 1607 Gorges wrote an account of this voyage, which he appears to have intended to publish, with a preface and dedication to Henry, prince of Wales, and also "with Marine and Martiall Discourses added according to the occurrences." It subsequently came into the hands of Samuel Purchas, and was published by him in his Pilgrimes, bk. x. chap. ix. It forms the chief account we have of this important voyage, and though Gorges has been accused of partiality towards Raleigh in his treatment of the latter's controversy with Essex, his account has always been accepted as true.

By the end of 1597, Gorges had married a 2nd wife, Elizabeth Clinton, daughter of Henry, earl of Lincoln. She brought him considerable property in Chelsea, including the house which had once belonged to Sir Thomas More, and the chapel in Chelsea pertaining to it. By his 2nd wife he had 6 sons and 5 daughters. His eldest son, Arthur Gorges, was also knighted, and died in October 1661, leaving 6 children by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Chauncey of Edgcote, Northamptonshire.

About 1611 Gorges, together with Sir Walter Cope, was instrumental in starting a central office for the transaction and registration of the sale of lands, tenements, and goods, and also mercantile and other business, called ‘The Publicke Register for Generall Commerce,’ and to be erected in 'Britain's Burse.’ For this they obtained royal letters patent, but it appears to have been unsuccessful, and was relinquished.

Subsequently Gorges seems to have devoted himself to literature.

He had large property in Chelsea, and built a house there, Gorges House (later named Milman House). He died there on 10 October 1625.

Writing

Like many of his contemporaries Gorges was a prolific verse-maker. Most of his poems remain in manuscript, but a few have been published (see Sir S.E. Brydges, Restituta, iv. 506, and British Bibliographer, iv. 134). They are worth rescuing from oblivion. In 1614 he translated Lucan's Pharsalia, an achievement commemorated in his epitaph. In 1619 he published a translation of Bacon's De Sapientia Veterum, and also a translation of Bacon's Essays into French.

Recognition

The early death of Gorges's 1st wife was commemorated by her husband's friend, Spenser, the poet, in the poem entitled "Daphnaida." In this the disconsolate husband is introduced as ‘Alcyon,’ and again in the poem "Colin Clout's come home again."

Gorges was among 9 men knighted on 29 October 1597.

He was buried in Sir Thomas More's chapel, Chelsea, where a handsome monument remains to his memory. A brass plate, now fixed to the north wall, is engraved with the kneeling effigies of Sir Arthur Gorges and his 6 sons on a side of a small table, and his wife and 5 daughters on the other.

He is included in the Oxford Book of Sonnets, 2000, along with Raleigh, Spenser, Michael Drayton, and other poets of the time.

Publications

Poetry

• The Olympian Catastrophe (edited by Randall Davies). Kensington, London: Cayme Press, 1925.
• Poems (edited by Helen Estabrook Sandison). Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1953.

Translated

• Lucan, Lucans Pharsalia: Containing the ciuill warres betweene Cæsar and Pompey. London: Nicholas Okes, for T. Thorp, 1614.
• Francis Bacon, The Wisdom of the Ancients: Done into English. London: Iohn Bill, 1619.
• Francis Bacon, The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral, of Sir Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban: With a table of the colours of good and evil; whereunto is added, The wisdom of the antients. London: A. Swall, 1691.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

Poems by Arthur Gorges

"Her Face" by Sir Arthur Gorges (read by Tom O'Bedlam)

1. Her Face

See also

• List of British poets

References

•  Cust, Arthur Henry (1890) "Gorges, Arthur" in Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 22 London: Smith, Elder, p. 241 . Wikisource, Web, Feb. 17, 2018.
• Raymond Gorges & Frederick Brown, The Story of a Family through Eleven Centuries; illustrated by portraits and pedigrees: Being a history of the gamily of Gorges. Merrymount Press, 1944. 293 pgs.

External links

Poems

• Arthur Gorges at the Poetry Foundation
• Arthur Gorges profile & poem ("Yourself the Sun") at the Academy of American Poets
• "Sonnet 4"
• Sir Arthur Gorges at PoemHunter (1 poem)

Books

• The Poems of Sir Arthur Gorges Amazon.com

About

• Sir Arthur Gorges at TudorPlace
• Gorges, Arthur (1557-1625) at History of Parliament Online
• Sir Arthur Gorges (1557-1625) at English Poetry, 1579-1830

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Gorges, Arthur