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 are annexed other various discourses, both pleasant and profitable. Imprinted at London for N. L., C. B., and T. H., 1600. The compiler's name is not given on the title-page, but the initials "R. A." are appended to the two preliminary sonnets. Oldys, the antiquary, in the preface to Hayward's British Muse (1738), asserted that he had seen a copy containing the signature "Robert Allott" in full; and it has been solely on Oldys's authority hitherto that the compilation of this valuable anthology has been attributed to Allott. The fact has been overlooked that Dr. Farmer, in a manuscript note in his copy of England's Parnassus, states that he, too, had seen the name "Robert Allott" printed in full. Mr. J. P. Collier, however, in his reprint (Seven English Poetical Miscellanies, 1867), suggests that the initials "R. A." belong to Robert Armin

Robert Armin

Robert Armin was an English actor, a member of the Lord Chamberlain's Men. He became the leading comedy actor with the troupe associated with William Shakespeare following the departure of Will Kempe around 1600...

, author of the Nest of Ninnies.

In 1599, a thick duodecimo was published, entitled Wits Theater of the Little World, a prose "collection of the flowers of antiquities and histories". There is no name on the title-page, and the dedication in most copies is addressed "To my most esteemed and approved loving friend, Maister J. B.", and bears no signature. One bibliographer after another ascribes the book to John Bodenham

John Bodenham

John Bodenham , anthologist, is stated to have been the editor of some of the Elizabethan anthologies, viz., Politeuphuia , Wits' Theater , Belvidere, or the Garden of the Muses , and England's Helicon . Mr...

. But there is a copy, in which the dedication is signed "Robert Allott", and "J. B." is printed in full, "John Bodenham". It is thus clear that Allott was the compiler of Wits Theater, and that the book was produced under Bodenham's patronage. Bodenham, it can be shown on other grounds, was not the compiler of the prose and verse miscellanies of the beginning of the seventeenth century, which, like England's Helicon and Wits Theater, have been repeatedly associated with his name; he was merely their projector and patron.

No biographical facts have come down about Allott. Samuel Egerton Brydges

Samuel Egerton Brydges

Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges, 1st Baronet was an English bibliographer and genealogist. He was also Member of Parliament for Maidstone from 1812 to 1818....

 surmised that he was the Robert Allott who held a fellowship at St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1599. There was also a publisher of this name in the early part of the seventeenth century; but we have no means of identifying the editor of England's Parnassus with either of his namesakes. Two sonnets by a Robert Allott are prefixed to Gervase Markham

Gervase Markham

Gervase Markham was an English poet and writer, best known for his work The English Huswife, Containing the Inward and Outward Virtues Which Ought to Be in a Complete Woman first published in London in 1615.-Life:Markham was the third son of Sir Robert Markham of Cotham, Nottinghamshire, and was...

's Devereux (1597); his name is appended to a sonnet and six Latin hexameters prefixed to Chr. Middleton

Christopher Middleton (d. 1628)

-Life:The Dictionary of National Biography gives tentative information. He may be identical with the Christopher Middleton of Cheshire who matriculated from Brasenose College, Oxford, 12 December 1580, aged 20. A clergyman of the same name, who graduated B.D. from St...

's Legend of Duke Humphrey (1600), and a Robert Allott is noticed in 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...

's Epigrams (1599). In each of these cases the Robert Allott is doubtless to be identified with the editor of England's Parnassus, to whom we might also attribute with safety the six Latin hexameters (signed "R. A.") prefixed to "Wits Commonwealth".

Works

England's Parnassus is a thick octavo volume

Octavo

Octavo to is a technical term describing the format of a book.Octavo may also refer to:* Octavo is a grimoire in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett...

 of some five hundred pages. The extracts are arranged alphabetically under subject-headings, and the author's name is appended in each case. Bullen writing in the DNB

Dictionary of National Biography

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

 in 1885 states that had been twice reprinted; first in Park's ponderous Heliconia, 1815, and again, for private circulation, by Collier, 1867.

Allott's other production, Wits Theater, is a collection of moral sayings gathered from classical authors, anecdotes of famous men, historical epitomes, and the like. It contains plenty of curious information, but is hardly less wearisome than Francis Meres

Francis Meres

Francis Meres was an English churchman and author.He was born at Kirton in the Holland division of Lincolnshire in 1565. He was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he received a B.A. in 1587 and an M.A. in 1591. Two years later he was incorporated an M.A. of Oxford...

's Wit's Treasury.