John Chalkhill

This shadowy figure may be the Chalkhill who entered Trinity College Cambridge in 1610, in which case he was not a friend of Spenser as stated on the title page of his poem. Various attempts have been made to identify him. He may have been coroner for Middlesex. A John Chalkehill of London took his M.A. from New College, Oxford in 1624 and was Vicar of Downton, Wiltshire (1637-41) and Rector of Ashley, Hampshire (1641), Foster, Alumni Oxon (1887-91). He may be the Joan. Chalkhill, Fellow of Winchester College who died at age 80 in 1679 (possibly the same as the New College Chalkehill). That he was an acquaintance of Izaak Walton (b. 1593) is certain.

TEXT RECORDS:

1640 ca.Thealma and Clearchus.
1640 ca.Thealma and Clearchus. [Conclusion.]
1640 ca.Thealma and Clearchus. [Continued.]

PUBLICATIONS:

Alcilia: Philoparthens loving folly [ascribed to Chalkhill]. 1613.
Thealma and Clearchus, ed. Izaac Walton. 1683.
Works, ed. Ryskamp and Westrem. 2000.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Anglican

Winchester College

poet

Izaac Walton

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL.

Elizabeth Cooper, in Muses Library (1738) 315; Joseph Ritson, Bibliographia Poetica (1802) 155; Censura Literaria 1 (1805) 1:160; William Beloe, Anecdotes of Literature 1 (1807) 69-74; Retrospective Review 4 (1821) 230-49; Nichols, Illustrations of the Literary History of the XVIII Century (1817-58); Nathan Drake, in Shakespeare and his Times (1817; 1838); Robert Nares, "John Chalkhill the Poet not fictitious" Gentleman's Magazine 93 (November 1823) 417-19; Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); Robert Chambers, Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); F. S. Merryweather, Gentleman's Magazine NS 9 (1860); Thomas Corser, Collectanea Anglo-Poetica III (1867) 260-66; Venn and Venn, Alum. Cant. (1922-27); Bush, OHEL (1945); Cummings, Spenser: The Critical Heritage (1971); Saunders, Renaissance Poets (1983); Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Database (1995).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for John Chalkhill:

1.	1683  Izaak Walton, in Chalkhill, Thealma and Clearchus (1683) Sig. A3v.
2.	1683  Thomas Flatman, "To my worthy Friend Mr. Isaac Walton, on the publication of this Poem; Chalkhill, Thealma and Clearchus (1683) sig. A4v.
3.	1805  Octavius Graham Gilchrist, "John Chalkhill" Censura Literaria 1 (1805) 160.
4.	1805  Henry John Todd, in Works of Spenser (1805) 1:clxix.
5.	1819  Thomas Campbell, in "Essay on English Poetry" Specimens of the British Poets (1819; 1841) lxvi-lxvii.
6.	1821  Anonymous, in Retrospective Review 4 (1821) 231.
7.	1823  Robert Nares, "John Chalkhill the Poet not fictitious" Gentleman's Magazine 93 (November 1823) 417-19.
8.	1823  John Mitford?, "John Chalkhill and Isaac Walton" Gentleman's Magazine 93 (December 1823) 493.
9.	1824  Robert Watt, in Bibliotheca Britannica (1824) 1:109.
10.	1860  George Gilfillan, in Specimens with Memoirs of the less-known British Poets (1860) 2:154-55.
11.	1862  John Payne Collier, in Poetical Works of Spenser (1862; 1875) 1:clxvii n.
12.	1866  John Payne Collier, "Thealma and Clearchus" in Bibliographical and Critical Account of the Rarest Books (1866) 1:144-46.
13.	1867  Thomas Corser, in Collectanea Anglo-Poetica III (1867) 264-66.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for John Chalkhill:

1.	1738  Elizabeth Cooper, in The Muses Library (1738) 315.
2.	1802  Joseph Ritson, Bibliographia Poetica (1802) 155.
3.	1807  William Beloe, in Anecdotes of Literature 1 (1807) 69-74.
4.	1817  Nathan Drake, in Shakespeare and his Times (1817; 1838) 294-95.
5.	1844  Robert Chambers, in Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844; 1850) 1:137.
6.	1905  George Saintsbury, "Introduction to John Chalkhill" in Minor Poets of the Caroline Period (1905-21) 2:369-72.