English lyric poet (1503–1542) credited with introducing the sonnet to English literature. Excessively rare vellum manuscript DS, signed “Tho. Wiat,” one page, 11 x 5, March 10, 1535. Receipt of payment acknowledging that Lord Vaux has been paid £280 by Roger Cholmley for the manor of Newyngton Luces, Kent, signed at the conclusion in ink by Lord Vaux of Harrowden ("Thomas Harowdon") and on the reverse by Thomas Wyatt ("Tho. Wiat") and Sir Thomas Poynings ("Thomas Poynings"). In fine condition, with soiling to the reverse. Housed in a book-form cloth case with sunken compartment.
Per the accompanying old auction description: "This is the earliest recorded signature of the great Tudor poet and apparently the only example of his writing in private hands. It is among the earliest, undisputed autographs by a major English poet to have survived, and possibly the earliest to have been offered for sale. Wyatt's known letters, the earliest of which dates from April 1537, are all in the Public Record Office and in the British Library, where is also MS Egerton 2711 of Wyatt's poems, partly in his autograph."
Thomas Vaux, 2nd Baron Vaux of Harrowden (1509–1556) was a distinguished poet in Wyatt's courtly circle. He was, with Wyatt and Surrey, a principal contributor to the great miscellany of 1557, Tottel's Songs and Sonnets. He is now best remembered for 'The Aged Lover Renounceth Love,' the verses of recantation which, at the end of the century, William Shakespeare would incorporate into Hamlet: the Prince of Denmark hears the gravedigger singing the lines as he prepares Ophelia's grave.
Wyatt's fellow witness and signatory, Sir Thomas Poynings, was placed first amongst the poet's three closest friends by John Leland in his Funeral Songs on the Death of the Incomparable Sir Thomas Wyatt. The fourth party to the transaction, Sir Roger Cholmley, the purchaser of the property, was appointed Recorder of London in 1535, later rising to the position of Lord Chief Justice.
Provenance: Sotheby's, July 18, 1960.
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