Life

The Dictionary of National Biography

Dictionary of National Biography

The Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885...

 gives tentative information. He may be identical with the Christopher Middleton of Cheshire

Cheshire

Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...

 who matriculated from Brasenose College, Oxford

Brasenose College, Oxford

Brasenose College, originally Brazen Nose College , is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. As of 2006, it has an estimated financial endowment of £98m...

, 12 December 1580, aged 20. A clergyman of the same name, who graduated B.D. from St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1619, was rector of Aston-le-Walls, Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...

, from 1612 till his death there in 1628.

Works

Middleton was the author of:

• A Short Introduction for to Learn to Swimme, gathered out of Master Digbies Booke of the Art of Swimming, and translated into English for the better instruction of those who understand not the Latin tongue, by Christopher Middleton, 1595, 4to. This was illustrated with woodcuts of persons swimming, and was a translation of the De Arte Natandi libri duo, 1587, of Everard Digby
  Everard Digby (scholar)
  Everard Digby was an English academic theologian, expelled as a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge for reasons that were largely religious. He is known as the author of a 1587 book, written in Latin, that was the first work published in England on swimming; and also as a philosophical teacher,...
  
  .
• The Historie of Heaven: containing the Poetical Fictions of all the Starres in the Firmament, gathered from amongst all the Poets and Astronomers, by Chrystopher Middleton. Printed for him 1596.
• The Famous Historie of Chinon of England, with his Strange Adventures for the love of Celestina, daughter to Lewis, King of France; with the worthy Atchivement of Sir Lancelot du Lake, and Sir Tristram du Lions for faire Laura, daughter to Cadar, Earle of Cornewall, being all Knights of King Arthur's Round Table. By Chr. Middleton. At London, printed by John Danter for Cuthbert Burbie, 1597.
• The Legend of Humphrey, Duke of Glocester, by Chr. Middleton. London, printed by E. A. for Nicholas Ling, 1600. The author dedicates this poem to Sir Jarvis Clifton
  Gervase Clifton, 1st Baron Clifton
  Gervase Clifton, 1st Baron Clifton was an English nobleman.Clifton was a son of Sir John Clifton of Barrington Court, Somerset and was educated at St Alban Hall, Oxford...
  
  . It is preceded by a Latin hexastichon by Robert Allott
  Robert Allott
  -Biography:Allott was editor of a famous miscellany of Elizabethan poetry, entitled England's Parnassus; or the choycest Flowers of our Modern Poets, with their Poeticall comparisons, Descriptions of Bewties, Personages, Castles, Pallaces, Mountaines, Groves, Seas, Springs, Rivers, &c. Whereunto...
  
  , a sonnet by Michael Drayton
  Michael Drayton
  Michael Drayton was an English poet who came to prominence in the Elizabethan era.-Early life:He was born at Hartshill, near Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England. Almost nothing is known about his early life, beyond the fact that in 1580 he was in the service of Thomas Goodere of Collingham,...
  
  , and two short poems by John Weever
  John Weever
  John Weever , was an English poet and antiquary.-Life:He was a native of Preston, Lancashire. Little is known of his early life and his parentage is not certain...
  
  . The poem, consisting of 184 six-line stanzas, is written on the plan of the poems in the Mirror for Magistrates.

Further reading

• John Simons, Christopher Middleton and Elizabethan medievalism, pp. 43–60 in Utz, Richard J., 1961-; Shippey, Tom A. (ed.), Medievalism in the modern world : essays in honour of Leslie J. Workman
  Leslie J. Workman
  Leslie J. Workman was an independent scholar and founder of academic medievalism.- Biography :...
  
  ' ' (1998).