Thomas Wyatt: The Heart's Forest

by Susan Brigden

Thomas Wyatt (1503?-1542) was the first modern voice in English poetry. 'Chieftain' of a 'new company of courtly makers', he brought the Italian poetic Renaissance to England, but he was also revered as prophet-poet of the Reformation. His poetry holds a mirror to the secret, capricious world of Henry VIII's court, and alludes darkly to events which it might be death to describe. In the Tower, twice, Wyatt was betrayed and betrayer.

This remarkably original biography is more - and less - than a Life, for Wyatt is so often elusive, in flight, like his Petrarchan lover, into the 'heart's forest'. Rather, it is an evocation of Wyatt among his friends, and his enemies, at princely courts in England, Italy, France and Spain, or alone in contemplative retreat. Following the sources - often new discoveries, from many archives - as far as they lead, Susan Brigden seeks Wyatt in his 'diverseness', and explores his seeming confessions of love and faith and politics. Supposed, at the time and since, to be the lover of Anne Boleyn, he was also the devoted 'slave' of Katherine of Aragon. Aspiring to honesty, he was driven to secrets and lies, and forced to live with the moral and mortal consequences of his shifting allegiances. As ambassador to Emperor Charles V, he enjoyed favour, but his embassy turned to nightmare when the Pope called for a crusade against the English King and sent the Inquisition against Wyatt. At Henry VIII's court, where only silence brought safety, Wyatt played the idealized lover, but also tried to speak truth to power.

Wyatt's life, lived so restlessly and intensely, provides a way to examine a deep questioning at the beginning of the Renaissance and Reformation in England. Above all, this new biography is attuned to Wyatt's dissonant voice and broken lyre, the paradox within him of inwardness and the will to 'make plain' his heart, all of which make him exceptionally difficult to know - and fascinating to explore.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Poetry, Biography Memoir, Tudor Period, Renaissance

728 pages, Hardcover

First published September 20, 2012

About the author

Fellow and Tutor of Lincoln College and Reader in the University of Oxford.

Reviews

[Roman Clodia · Rating 4 out of 5]

There have been two recent biographies of Thomas Wyatt: this one, and Nicola Schulman's Graven With Diamonds - so which one to choose?

Schulman's is the popular read: accessible, generalist, unfailingly jaunty and confident, generally unconcerned with scholarship or evidence. This book is quite different: Brigden is an early modern historian at Oxford, and her approach is one characterised by care, precision, and a subtle dialogue with the current academic positions on Wyatt, the Henrician court, and the cultural valencies of poetry at the time.

For a historian, she is also a relatively sensitive reader of poetry, and pays close attention to the relevant manuscripts and what they might tell us. Inevitably, any biography on Wyatt concentrates perhaps overmuch on the rise and fall of Anne Boleyn - though Brigden brings a usefully critical eye to what we can and do know and what might be more usefully called gossip, myth-making and fiction.

So general readers wanting a lively rendering of Wyatt and the intrigues of the early Tudor court may well prefer Schulman (and the naming of Wyatt as `assassin' in the book's subtitle gives a feel for the almost journalistic approach it takes). Anyone, though, wanting a deeper, more informed, and more academically-invested approach would be well to consult Brigden's beautifully-written, dense and robust biography.

[Liam Guilar · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's inevitable that this book will be compared with Shulman's 'Graven with Diamonds'. Released within twelve months of each other both are ostensibly biographies of Wyatt, however they approach their subject from different directions. Shulman writes the biography of Wyatt's poetry: Brigden writes the story of Wyatt in his world.

Both are hampered by the lack of evidence: not that much is known of Wyatt and a modern biography is impossible. It's not even certain where Wyatt was for long stretches of his life; it's almost like trying to reconstruct life and character from scattered postcards: Seen at court: In the tower, Stuck in Kent, At the imperial court threatened by inquisition, back in the tower, riding hard and dying...

Brigden's solution is to put Wyatt in his world. Not the courtly maker, the possible probably not /I/ of a handful of poems that can definitely be ascribed to him, but a man moving through deadly times. Creating his world Bridgen leaves chronology behind: he doesn't get born til page 65, by which time he's already been on an Embassy to France and his poems have been discussed. At times Wyatt's shadowy figure seems to fade behind a list of names as Brigden hunts him through an impressive array of primary documents to build his context. The danger is that Wyatt could disappear and the book degenerate into essays on "The Role of Ambassadors" or "Contemporary Thinking about Friendship". It's a tribute to her skill that she never quite loses him and the effect is of a character emerging in his actions and in other people's reports.

The other striking aspect of this book is the way Bess Darrell emerges, not as the possible addressee of some love poems, but as a stubborn, loyal woman making her way in a vicious and unforgiving world.

What the book reminds us of is how nasty, there's no other word for it, the court of Henry 8th must have been. The "law of words” alone meant that words construed as Treason were acts of Treason and punishable as such. It was far too easy for Y to make allegations based on what Z said X might have been overheard to say by W.

This is not a theorised history where disembodied ideologies move across the landscape, but a record of feuds and revenge, slighted honour, greed and vindictive self-assertion at a crucial point in European history. Brigden catches Wyatt's essential dilemma: How could an intelligent man reconcile the knowledge that an honest man has to speak his truth and live it in a world where living his truth is a one-way ticket to a very nasty end?

Brigden's scholarship is impressive. She footnotes everything. I will be plundering her bibliography for a long time. She has tracked her subject through a dizzying array of sources, but her writing is anything but academic. At times the build up of names becomes distracting, a forest of Foreign dignitaries the reader could easily get lost in (just how many Tassos were there?), but she keeps her narrative moving. She does a good reading of Wyatt's poems. Her reading of his translations of the Psalms is not in terms of any literary theory but as an historian reading them carefully in the context of her knowledge of the religious schisms of the time, which makes a welcome change. What sounds to modern ears like a bit of uncharacteristically bad poetry may be Wyatt negotiating religious dogma, tip toeing round word choices and syntax that could have him burnt.

As she points out, his masterpiece may well be his prose "Defence". I suspect neither translations of Psalms or the Defence spring to mind when Wyatt the Poet is mentioned.

If the book has a failing it's the lack of a simple chronological time line of Wyatt's life.

One thing both books have in common is the discrepancy between what's on the cover and what's in the book. Both books are, I think excellent. But who writes the blurbs?

'Graven with Diamonds' is the "Many Lives of Thomas Wyatt: Courtier, Poet, Assassin, Spy." The first two are undeniable. There seems little evidence that Wyatt ever "assassinated" anyone. Given that he was an ambassador "spying" seems an odd description of his work.

Brigden's book is apparently: " A Life of the poet, diplomat and lover at the heart of Henry VIII's court". Most of her book is about Wyatt abroad, there's very little of his "life at Henry VIII's court" and in what way was Wyatt at the heart of Henry's court? It;s not a claim the book makes. And when did "lover" get to be a job description? And where is the evidence for this "lover" in her book?

So two biographies in twelve months. They compliment each other. ‘The Heart's Forest’, will probably be the standard scholarly biography for a long time. It will make an excellent reference source. Schulman's "Graven with Diamonds" will be the book to read as an introduction to the poems and their courtly context.

[Stephanie Kline · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an extremely well-researched biography of a man who seems very hard to write a biography about. Because so little is known about Thomas Wyatt, this is almost more of an explanation for the 1500s and the Henrican court, than it is about Wyatt himself. There is SO much information about the things Wyatt would have done - his work as a poet, spy, ambassador, and courtier... though there is not enough evidence for us to REALLY feel like we know him by the end of the book. It's heavy reading and a bit confusing, but overall Susan Brigden made a great effort and deserves praise for her amount of meticulous research and persistence in writing about a man we know so little about.

[Sam Worby · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful history book, enhanced by Wyatt's clever poetry. Hardcore historical reading: the man is elusive and the sources fleeting, but it is all the better and richer for it. I greatly enjoyed this.

[G. Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did enjoy this book, but must admit I found its somewhat meandering style a little hard at times. An interesting perspective to look at the man through the medium of his poetry and works, and the examinations of his poetry are very interesting. Hard work, but a fulfilling read.

[Richard Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Learned a lot from this fine book.

[Natalin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!!!