XXIV. Particulars respecting Sir Francis Bryan, one of the Authors of “Songs and Sonnets,” printed in 1557; Communicated by J. Payne Collier, Esq. in a Letter to Thomas Amyot, Esq. F.R.S., Treasurer

Extract

As information regarding any of our elder Poets is not without the sphere of inquiry by the Society of Antiquaries, I do not scruple to forward to you, for the inspection of that learned body, a few novel particulars respecting Sir Francis Bryan, one of the authors of the celebrated volume of “Songs and Sonnets,” first printed by Tottell in 1557, which went through several subsequent editions. Sir Francis Bryan, as you are well aware, was not less distinguished as a soldier and a politician than as a poet; but the intelligence we have hitherto procured relating to him has been, perhaps, more scanty than that which refers to any of his accomplished contemporaries. This fact must be my excuse for giving to what I now furnish an air of greater importance than it may really deserve. I feel so curious an interest in all matters, however trifling, connected with literary antiquities, that I am not a competent judge of the worth or worthlessness of a letter like the present. I therefore throw upon you the responsibility of deciding whether it ought to be read before the Society.