Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lupton, Thomas (fl.1583)

by Thomas Seccombe (1866-1923)

LUPTON, THOMAS (fl. 1583), miscellaneous writer, was the author of:

1. ‘A Moral and Pitieful Comedie intituled All for Money. Plainly representing the Manners of Men and Fashions of the World nowe-a-dayes,’ London, 1578, 4to (b.l.) ‘This is in rhyme and remarkably scarce’ (Watt). A late and elaborate morality (see Collier, Dramatic Poetry, ii. 347), it is of great length and numbers among its characters, Learning with Money, Learning without Money, Money without Learning, Neyther Money nor Learning, Satan, Gregorie Graceles, St. Laurence, Dives, Judas, and Mother Crooke. Its heavy artillery is directed against the protean forms of avarice, and it is strongly puritanical in sentiment. The interlude is reprinted in Collier's ‘Literature of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,’ 1851.
2. ‘A Thousand Notable Things of Sundry Sortes. Whereof some are wonderfull, some straunge, some pleasant, diuers necessary, a great sort profitable, and many very precious. At the Signe of the Cradle in Lumbard St.’ [1579], 4to (b.l.). This work, by which Lupton is chiefly known, and which was dedicated to ‘the affable Lady Margaret, countess of Darby’ (a granddaughter of Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk), went through numerous editions, one in 1595 (b.l.), another in 1599 (b.l.), and others at intervals down to 1793. It is largely composed of a variety of recipes and nostrums, equally enigmatic and grotesque. To stop an ‘aking tooth’ the writer recommends ‘a certain woorme with many feet (of some called a swyne louse) to be pricked with a needle and the tooth touched with the same needle; the payne thereof will cease immediately. This I got hardly out of an old booke.’ To the ten books of the original were added, in 1601, some anecdotes, which include the fable of Queen Elizabeth asking the Westminster boy ‘how often he had been whip't,’ and his extempore reply: ‘Infandum, Regina, jubes renovare dolorem,’ which he presently English'd ‘to the Queen's great comfort and his advancement.’ ‘It is,’ says Hunter, ‘a poor book, taken much [but not without acknowledgment] from Mizaldus.’
3. ‘Sivqila [aliquis]. Too good to be true … Herein is shewed by Dialogue the wonderful manner of the people of Mauqsun, with other talk not frivolous,’ 1580, 4to [b.l.], dedicated to Sir Christopher Hatton and reprinted in 1584 and 1587. The idea of the title coincides with that of the modern ‘Erewhon,’ nowhere, being a kind of Utopia (a short account of the contents is given by Watt).
4. ‘The Second Part and knitting up of the Booke entituled Too Good to be True, wherein is continued the Wonderful Lawes, etc. of the people of Mauqsun,’ 1581, 4to (b.l.) dedicated to ‘Sir William Cicill.’ This part contains a story similar to the plot of ‘Measure for Measure.’ (Both this and the preceding are scarce. See Heber, Cat. of Early English Poetry, and Lowndes.)
5. ‘A Persuasion from Papistrie. Written chiefly to the obstinate, determined, and disobedient English Papists, who are herein named and proued English Enimies, and extreme Enimies to England,’ 1581, 4to.
6. ‘The Christian against the Jesuite, wherein the secrete or namelesse writer of a pernitious booke intituled A Discouerie of I[ohn] Nicolls [q. v.], Minister, priuily printed, couertly cast abrod, and secretly solde is not only justly reprooued: But also a booke dedicated to the Queene's Maiestie, called a Persuasion from Papistrie, therein derided and falsified, is defended by Thomas Lupton. At the Black Beare,’ 1582, 4to (b.l.) (see Arber, Stationers' Registers, ii. 187 b). Dedicated to Sir Francis Walsingham.
7. ‘A Dreame of the Devill and Dives. Most terrible and fearefull to the seruants of Sathan, but right comfortable and acceptable to the Children of God. Licensed 6 May 1583 “provided he get the Bishop of London's allowance to it.” Printed for Henry Car at the signe of the Cat and Fidle’ [1584], 8vo (b.l.); copy in the Lambeth Library perhaps unique; 2nd edit. 1615, 8vo. Both editions are dedicated to Francis, earl of Bedford.

Lupton contributed some alexandrines to John Jones's ‘Benefit of the Auncient Bathes of Buckstones’ (1572) which precede ‘A prayer usually to be say'd before bathing,’ and commendatory verses to Barnaby Riche's ‘Allarme to England,’ 1578. A detailed scheme of a philanthropic kind by Lupton is in the Bodleian (MS. Jones 17).

[Collier's Bibl. Cat. i. 498; Fleay's Chron. English Drama, 1559–1642; Ames's Typogr. Antiq., ed. Herbert, pp. 986, 1008, 1079, 1108, 1338; Arber's Stationers' Reg. ii. passim; Watt's Bibl. Brit. p. 623; Hazlitt's Bibliographer's Handbook; Addit. MS. 24487, f. 178 (Hunter's Chorus Vatum); Cat. of Malone's Books in Bodleian; Dibdin's Library Companion, ii. 385; Gent. Mag. 1821, i. 123.]

T. S.

Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.187
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line

Page	Col.	Line
288	i	18 f.e.	Lupton, Thomas: after 1578. insert A detailed philanthropic scheme by Lupton is in MS. in the Bodleian Library (MS. Jones 17).