{\b Nicholas Breton}.

{\b Date of Birth}.: 1545-55 (exact date uncertain)

{\b Date of Death}.: 1626

{\b Works}.

English poet and prose writer. A prolific writer who published poetry and 
prose works for over fifty years, he was greatly influenced by Sir Philip 
Sidney. Some of his best lyrics appeared in England's Helicon (1600) alongside 
those of Sidney, Drayton and Ralegh. The Passionate Shepherd (1604), a volume 
of pastoral poetry, made him popular.

{\b Featured Works}.

'In the Merry Month of May'.

{\b General Comment}.

Breton was born to a Staffordshire family and was introduced to the world of 
letters by his stepfather, George Gascoigne. He became part of a group at 
Oxford who sought to preserve the memory of Sir Philip Sidney and he had the 
patronage of his sister, the Countess of Pembroke. Except for eight years 
which he possibly spent travelling, he steadily wrote and published love 
lyrics, sonnets, pastorals, satires, pamphlets, essays, letters and other 
poetic and prose pieces. Obliged to write for a living, most of his writings 
were not popular, probably because of their better sociological rather than 
literary value.