Apparently little is known of Robert Tofte, gentleman of Barton, Hampshire. J. W. Sanders reports that "Nicknamed 'Robin Redbreast,' he was an engaging poet who translated Tasso, Ariosto and other Italians, and published love-poems — his lady was from the Caryll family" Biographical Dictionary (1983) 161. Tofte was acquainted with Henry Constable, Thomas Watson, Michael Drayton, and George Wither.
TEXT RECORDS:
PUBLICATIONS:
Laura: the toyes of a traveller. 1597.
Two tales translated out of Ariosto. 1597.
Alba: the months minde of a melancholy lover; certaine divine poems. 1598.
Orlando inamorato: the three first bookes of Boiardo done into English. 1598.
A controvery between two Tassi of marriage and wiving, done into English. 1599.
The batchelars banquet. 1603.
Ariostos satyres by Garvis Markham [or Tofte]. 1608.
Honours academie: the famous pastorall of the faire shepherdesse Julietta; divers histories, englished. 1610.
The blazon of jealousie, translated. 1615.
PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:
English
Anglican
Oxford University
poet
translator
Henry Constable
Michael Drayton
Thomas Watson
George Wither
REFERENCE:
DNB; NCBEL.
Joseph Ritson, Bibliographia Poetica (1802) 361-62; Censura Literaria 1 (1805) 234-38; 4 (1805-09) 403; Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); F. B. Williams, "Robert Tofte" Review of English Studies 12 (1937) 405-24; Bush, OHEL (1945); F. B. Williams, "Robert Tofte an Oxford Man" RES NS 6 (1955) 177-79; Mark Eccles, "Brief Lives" Studies in Philology 79 (1982); Saunders, Renaissance Poets (1983); Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Database (1995).
COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Robert Tofte:
| 1. | 1820 John Payne Collier, in Poetical Decameron (1820) 1:59. |
| 2. | 1866 John Payne Collier, "Alba" in Bibliographical and Critical Account of the Rarest Books (1866) 4:159-60. |
