Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey was known to his contemporaries as "the most accomplished gentleman of his age", noble, learned and elegant. A man of his time, at the centre of the dangerous power games of the court of Henry VIII, Surrey is revealed in this selection as a subtle and graceful poet.
Immensely influential in literary history for his development of blank verse and the Petrarchian sonnet form in English, and as the first modern translator of Virgil, this selection reveals the Earl of Surrey to be a subtle and graceful poet and translator whose vigorous and faithful versions of the "Aeneid" continue to enrich the literary tradition. Reflecting an idealized world of aristocratic virtues of chivalry and honor, these poems have both a rich language and formal sophistication.
