- Thomas Tusser
Thomas Tusser (1524–1580) was an English poet and farmer, best known for his instructional poem "
Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry ", published in 1557, and for the oft-repeatedproverb , "A fool and his money are soon parted."Biography
Early Life
He was born in
Rivenhall ,Essex , in around 1524, the son of William and Isabella Tusser. At a very early age he became achorister in the St Nicholas' collegiate chapel atWallingford Castle ,Wallingford ,Oxfordshire . He appears to have been pressed for service in theKing's Chapel , the choristers of which were usually afterwards placed by the king in one of the royal foundations atOxford orCambridge . But Tusser entered the choir ofSt. Paul's Cathedral , and from there went toEton College . He has left a quaint account of his privations atWallingford , and of the severities ofNicholas Udall at Eton.He was elected to King's College,
Cambridge , in 1543, a date which has fixed the earliest limit of his birth-year, as he would have been ineligible at nineteen. From King's College he moved toTrinity Hall, Cambridge , and on leaving Cambridge went to court in the service of William, 1st Baron Paget ofBeaudesart , as amusician . After ten years of life at court, he married and settled as a farmer atCattiwade ,Suffolk , near the river Stour.Early Career
There he wrote "
A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie " a long poem in rhyming couplets recording the country year. This work was first printed inLondon in 1557 by publisherRichard Tottel , and was frequently reprinted. Tottel published an enlarged edition "Five Hundreth Pointes of Good Husbandrie" in 1573. Tusser includes a homely mix of instructions and observations about farming and country customs which offer a fascinating insight into life in Tudor England, and his work records many terms andproverb s in print for the first time.He never remained long in one place. For his wife's health he removed to
Ipswich . After her death he married again, and farmed for some time atWest Dereham . He then became a singing man inNorwich Cathedral , where he found a good patron in the dean,John Salisbury .Later life
After another experiment in farming at
Fairstead , Essex, he moved once again toLondon , whence he was driven by the plague of 1572–1573 to find refuge at Trinity Hall, being matriculated as a servant of the college in 1573. At the time of his death he was in possession of a small estate at Chesterton,Cambridgeshire , and his will proves that he was not, as has sometimes been stated, in poverty of any kind, but had in some measure the thrift he preached. Thomas Fuller says he "traded at large in oxen, sheep, dairies, grain of all kinds, to no profit"; that he "spread his bread with all sorts of butter, yet none would stick thereon."Death
He died on
3 May 1580 . An erroneous inscription atManningtree , Essex, asserts that he was sixty-five years old.According to
John Stow 's "Survey of London ", Cheape Ward, Thomas Tusser was buried in the now lost church of St Mildred in the Poultry. [Thoms 1876, 98-99: the fact is also noted from Stow inWilliam Hone 's "Every-Day Book" (London 1830), p. 285 (February 20th).] The inscription on his tomb there was as follows:"Here Thomas Tusser, clad in earth, doth lie,
Stow's editor [Thoms 1876, p. 99, n.] adds the following epigram on Tusser from a volume called "The More the Merrier" (1608), by 'H. P.':
That sometime made the pointes of Husbandrie;
By him then learne thou maiest; here learne we must,
When all is done, we sleepe, and turne to dust:
And yet, through Christ, to Heaven we hope to goe;
Who reades his bookes, shall find his faith was so.""Ad Tusserum"
"Tusser, they tell me, when thou wert alive,
Thou, teaching thrift, thyselfe couldst never thrive.
So, like the whetstone, many men are wont
To sharpen others, when themselves are blunt."External links
* [http://en.thinkexist.com/quotation/a_fool_and_his_money_are_soon_parted/154153.html Reference to the famous proverb]
* [http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/tusser1.html Full text of "A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie"]References
*1911
*W. J. Thoms (Ed.), "Survey of London written in the year 1598 by John Stow. A new edition" (Chatto and Windus, London 1876) (Based on 1798 edition).
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