George Whetstone - life and works

Whetstone’s life was typical of a Gentleman of his time. He participated in military expedition and in one he was killed, perhaps in 1587. He was the third son of Robert Whetstone a rich Gentleman of London. It may be he was a member of a “Inns of Court”. We have some article in this sense.

There are not many biographical notes about Whetstone. We know he was born about 1554 and he died about 1587. T.C. Izard says he was christened in 1550 at St. Lawrence in the Old Jewry. He was a polygraph. His literary activity includes poetry, plays, prose narrative, songs, political works, fiction, epigrams in dedication to dead friends. We can remember the Elegy to Sir Ph. Sidney and The Elegy in Remembrance of Sir Gaskoigne.

These biographical works made him the first biographer in Elizabethan time. He was man of his times. He participated in many military expeditions and in the last he was killed by a certain Uvedall, Servant of Sir Ph. Sidney. (Mark Eccles gives us these news from an article of his).

Whetstone’s works had a particular evolution: from fiction and poetry to realism, politics, and prose.

The first book we can consider is The Rocke of the Regard (1576) which is a fiction work where poetry alternates with prose. It’s a light work with a final allegorical dream and romantic tales.

Promos and Cassandra is a play, written for the stage, which deals with problems regarding dramaturgy. In the Dedicatory Epistles of Promos and Cassandra he writes about his idea of a comedy.

An Heptameron of Civill Discourses (1582) is a way to introduce Italian social customs in England, settling the scene at an Italian Renaissance Court. Prose tales, poems and Dialogue form is its material. It has a particular structure: Dialogue form and Framed Novellas.

A Mirror for Magistrates of the Cities and A Touchstone for the Time (1584) mark e new phase of his literary work. He began to write didactic books; he writes of politics as a patriot and Puritan. The last Book by Whetstone, entitled The English Myrror (1586) was dedicated to Elizabeth I.

The Honourable reputation of a Souldier (1585) is a moral guide for the soldier and it recalls his military experience.

The Censure of a Loyal Subject (1587) is a “Dialogue Form” like Aurelia, but he gives his attention to the Popular classes. The main character of this book is a tailor.

Whetstone had an aristocratic literary taste but his elegant and difficult prose alternates with realistic passages in particular when he tells a novella.

Whetstone’s education was humanist and classical. He had legal interests, too. Perhaps he was a member of a “Inns of Court”. He studied “Rethoric” and he tried to pursue “decorum” in his works.

He loved culture which was considered by Elizabethans the key to progress and the social raising of man and a source of virtue, too.

In Whetstone’s books moral justification is always present.

He was a Protestant and he was influenced by his religion. He wasn’t an aesthetic artists, his prose was elegant but principally moralizing. He was influenced by politics, too. His books reflect contemporary political events for example beheading of Mary Stuart and the various expeditions of Sir Francis Drake against Spain.

There are many elements in Whetstone’s books which make him man of his times. He considers politics and culture of the Elizabethan period; he reflects that kind of culture in his education and method of composition.

In his book there are amorous epistles, symbolism, proverbs, novellas and sonnets. He loved what was foreign and ancient; he studied Rhetoric and classical culture; considered Man as the centre of the Universe; loved travelling abroad and especially to Italy where he was in 1580; exalts the themes of his own Religion and censures the Catholic Ceremonies.

Whetstone was in Italy in 1580. He quotes his journey in his most important books. He travelled to Italy to complete his education like many aristocratic young men did. It was fashionable to travel abroad to know new Countries and their culture, customs, monuments.

The young men chose Italy principally for its historical tradition and because it was the place were the Renaissance was born.

At this time, the Italian Renaissance represented the European renaissance. Whetstone travelled to France and then to Italy. He visited Turin, a town of the Duchy of Milan near the river Po, Bologna, Rome, Naples, Tivoli, Loreto, Recanati and Venice.

The literary result of this journey was An Heptameron of Civill Discourses…(1582) in which he shows his whish to be an Italianized writer and man.