5 - Cruso the English poet

Summary

The last chapter examined evidence for an Anglo-Dutch literary network and John Cruso's place in that network. The main aim of this chapter is to analyze English verse that Cruso wrote in the mid to late 1620s and to explore whether it points to an English literary network, to which Cruso belonged, and if so, who else was in that network and how it functioned. The chapter begins by catching up with Cruso in the years after 1622, when his first Dutch verse was published, until 1632, the year in which he published what was probably his most important contribution to English military science, Militarie Instructions, which is the subject of the next chapter. During these ten years, Cruso continued to work as a merchant and hosier. His business activities clearly flourished, for by 1632 he had moved parish from St Andrew to St Peter Mancroft. Furthermore, he became an elder in the Dutch church, following in his father's footsteps, and captain of the Dutch militia in Norwich, making him one of the leaders of the Dutch Stranger community.

It is, however, Cruso's relationships with Anglican prelates and minor gentry and the English verse that flowed from these relationships that form the focus of this chapter. The first verse that will be analyzed was not in fact written by Cruso but was addressed to him by the Anglican prelate and poet, Ralph Knevet (1600–71). This verse tells us not only that Cruso developed friendships across the confessional divide, but also that Knevet held Cruso's English verse in some esteem and suggests that Cruso wrote more English verse than that which survives. Apart from two short verses in the front matter of the second edition of The Art of Warre (see Chapter 9), the only other English verses that we can ascribe to Cruso with certainty are three laments or elegies on Lawrence Howlett, an occasional poet and preacher at St Andrew’s, Cruso's local parish church.

Early modern authors often engaged in acts of remembrance, and as we saw in the last chapter and will see in this chapter Cruso was no different in this regard.