Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Twyne, Thomas
TWYNE, THOMAS, M.D. (1543–1613), physician, whose name is spelt Twine in the records of the College of Physicians, third son of John Twyne [q. v.], master of Canterbury free school, was born at Canterbury in 1543. Lawrence Twyne [q. v.] was his brother. He became a scholar of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, on 6 July 1560, and was elected a fellow on 9 Nov. 1564. He graduated B.A. on 18 April 1564, M.A. on 10 July 1568. He then studied medicine at Cambridge, where John Caius [q. v.] was actively engaged in the encouragement of that study. He settled at Lewes in Sussex, where he acquired a large practice. He did not graduate M.B. at Oxford till 10 July 1593, and then proceeded M.D. at Cambridge. He was admitted a licentiate of the College of Physicians on 7 May 1596, his patron, Lord Buckhurst, having in April 1595 written to ask the college to admit him a fellow. The college resolved to admit him as soon as the statutes would allow. He was versed in astrology and a friend of Dr. John Dee [q. v.] He died at Lewes on 1 Aug. 1613, and was buried in the chancel of the church of St. Peter's and Mary's-Westout, where a brass to his memory remains to this day, bearing fourteen laudatory lines of Latin verse.
By his wife, Joanna Pumfrett, whom he was licensed to marry on 6 Oct. 1571, he was father of Brian Twyne [q. v.], the Oxford antiquary.
Some of Twyne's works are indicated by initials only, and others are translations or editions in which it is difficult to trace his exact share. Thus ‘The Schoolmaster,’ published in London in 1576 and 1583 in quarto, has also been attributed to Thomas Turswell [q. v.] Twyne's chief works are: 1. ‘The Breviary of Britayne,’ 1572. 2. ‘The Survey of the World,’ 1572. 3. ‘The Garland of Godly Flowers,’ 1574; dedicated to Sir Nicholas Bacon. 4. ‘The Tragedy of Tyrants,’ 1575. 5. ‘The Wonderful Workmanship of the World,’ 1578; dedicated to Sir Francis Walsingham. 6. ‘Physicke against Fortune, as well Prosperous as Adverse; translated from F. Petrark,’ 1579. 7. ‘New Counsel against the Plague; translated from Peter Drouet,’ all printed in London. He also translated into English verse the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth books of the ‘Æneid,’ completing the work of Thomas Phaer [q. v.], which was published as ‘The whole xiii. books of the Æneidos of Virgill’ in 1573, in 1584, and in 1596 in quarto. He inclines to dulness both in prose and verse.
[Munk's Coll. of Phys, i. 108; Lower's Sussex Worthies, p. 183; Marriage Licences issued by the Bishop of London, i. 50; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. i. 329.]