The Complete Works of Early Modern Poet Thomas Wyatt the Elder, Volume 2

FAIN: FB-58313-15

Jason Powell
Saint Joseph's University (Philadelphia, PA 19131-1308)

Sir Thomas Wyatt (1504?-42) may have been the first person to write a sonnet in English. His translation from Plutarch's Moralia became the first known publication of a classical moral essay in English. He introduced continental forms such as ottava rima to the language, and his paraphrase of the Penitential Psalms sparked a century of popular English psalm translations. Yet many of his poems are not understood, in part because we lack an authoritative edition. This project, under contract with Oxford University Press, comprises a new original-spelling edition of Wyatt’s complete works in two volumes. The first includes 36 letters, a treason trial speech and a prose translation from Plutarch’s Moralia. The second includes 270 poems edited in groupings according to manuscript or print source. Volume one cleared a final review with the press in September 2012. I apply for a one-year Fellowship to complete volume 2.