POETS LAUREATE part 1

Poets Laureate.
Who are they? What are they? read on...

POETS LAUREATE

The title “laureate” has been given to individuals displaying excellence in a particular field of endeavour for thousands of years. The tradition started in ancient Greece when a crown of laurel leaves [laurel was held sacred to the god Apollo] was awarded to victors in wars, sporting competitions and those who showed supreme literary prowess. Thus laureate came into use in the English language to denote eminence. At one time it was associated with the awarding of University degrees. [Some European countries still use the term baccalaureate to refer to their academic examinations.] In the Middle ages the degree of “poet laureate” was awarded to a person skilled in rhetoric, grammar and language. One of the earliest recorded recipients of the title was Francesco Petarca (1304-74) of Rome who gained the title in 1341.

In Britain the term “Poet Laureate” has, over the years, come to mean a poet appointed by the monarch and as such is a unique title since the title is granted for the poet’s life and a new title holder is not appointed until after the death of the current holder. There is no definitive answer to the question of who first held the post since monarchs as early as Henry 1 (c 1068-1135) appointed his own “Versificator Regis” at an annual rate of 10 shillings, but there had been versifiers and minstrels even earlier than this. History informs us of the names of several more of these “Kings Poets” in succeeding centuries. Gulielmus Peregrinus (Richard the Lionheart), Master Henry (Henry III), John Kay (Edward IV) Geoffrey Chaucer (Edward III) However it is only with Chaucer that the term “Poet Laureate” starts to come into use in this context when he is described as receiving an annual allowance of wine for the post in 1389.

Various individuals have been given the title by historians in succeeding years. Poets such as Gower, Kay, Andrew Bernard, Skelton, Robert Whittington, Richard Edwards, Spenser and Samuel Daniel but they are what might be termed as volunteer laureates since they are not mentioned in official proclamations as holding the post although some of them, most notably John Skelton, did hold the academic title awarded by a University.
Ben Johnson and William Davenant are recorded as receiving an annual pension of £100 and a butt of wine from Charles I.

The official list of Poets Laureate (note the plural term) begins with John Dryden when, in 1688, he was awarded the title by Charles II, confirmed by “letters patent” in 1670, and all the post holders since have been appointed in this way although the monarch’s role nowadays is only to confirm the appointment of a candidate selected by a government committee. However even this list is slightly suspect as Dryden’s letters of appointment refer to “the office of Poet Laureate void by the death of Sir William Davenant” so technically William Davenant could be regarded as the first even though there is no record of him being ‘appointed’ to the position
In the letters of appointment of John Dryden there is reference to an annual salary of money and wine but as it also appoints him as Royal Historian, it is not clear what the post of Poet Laureate was actually worth and neither is there an actual list of duties. Indeed to this day there is no official list of duties that go with the title and each Laureate decides for himself (they have all been male so far) what he will do to merit the post.
From Dryden in 1670 down to Andrew Motion today, there has been a continuous list of 19 post holders and though they are not all equally regarded as poets they are, in the eyes of most people, the definitive “Poets Laureate” and they are

1668: John Dryden
1688: Thomas Shadwell
1692: Nahum Tate
1715: Nicholas Rowe
1718: Reverend Laurence Eusden
1730: Colley Cibber
1757: William Whitehead
1785: Reverend Thomas Warton
1790: Henry James Pye
1813: Robert Southey
1843: William Wordsworth
1850: Alfred, Lord Tennyson
1896: Alfred Austin
1913: Robert Bridges
1930: John Masefield
1967: Cecil Day-Lewis
1972: Sir John Betjeman
1984: Ted Hughes
1999: Andrew Motion **

That is the position in Britain. Many other countries now have their own Poet Laureate or equivalent position. To my knowledge there are Canadian, American, Australian, Welsh and Scottish national poets as well as many more, slightly less prestiguous, poets laureate for various places and organisations but they are beyond the scope of this column.
In future columns I will write briefly on the post holders and highlight some of their poetry.

** It should be noted that in a departure from tradition Andrew Motion's letter of appointment refered to a period of 10 years and not to an office for life.

The image at the top of this column is that of William Davenport after whose death the 'official' list of Poets Laureate begins.