Was distinguished by the appellation of the Elder, as there was one of the same name who raised a rebellion in the time of Queen Mary.  He was son to Henry Wyat of Alington-castle in Kent.  He received the rudiments of his education at Cambridge, and was afterwards placed at Oxford to finish it.  He was in great esteem with King Henry VIII. on account of his wit and Love Elegies, pieces of poetry in which he remarkably succeeded.  The affair of Anne Bullen came on, when he made some opposition to the King’s passion for her, that was likely to prove fatal to him; but by his prudent behaviour, and retracting what he had formerly advanced, he was restored again to his royal patronage.  He was cotemporary with the Earl of Surry, who held him in high esteem.  He travelled into foreign parts, and as we have observed in the Earl of Surry’s life, he added something towards refining the English stile, and polishing our numbers, tho’ he seems not to have done so much in that way as his lordship.  Pitts and Bale have entirely neglected him, yet for his translation of David’s Psalms into English metre and other poetical works, Leland scruples not to compare him with Dante and Petrarch, by giving him this ample commendation.

  Let Florence fair her Dantes justly boast,
  And royal Rome, her Petrarchs numbered feet,
  In English Wyat both of them doth coast: 
  In whom all graceful eloquence doth meet.

Leland published all his works under the title of Naenia.  Some of his Biographers (Mrs. Cooper and Winstanley) say that he died of the plague as he was going on an embassy to the Emperor Charles V. but Wood asserts, that he was only sent to Falmo by the King to meet the Spanish ambassador on the road, and conduct him to the court, which it seems demanded very great expedition; that by over-fatiguing himself, he was thrown into a fever, and in the thirty-eighth year of his age died in a little country-town in England, greatly lamented by all lovers of learning and politeness.  In his poetical capacity, he does not appear to have much imagination, neither are his verses so musical and well polished as lord Surry’s.  Those of gallantry in particular seem to be too artificial and laboured for a lover, without that artless simplicity which is the genuine mark of feeling; and too stiff, and negligent of harmony for a His letters to John Poynes and Sir Francis Bryan deserve more notice, they argue him a man of great sense and honour, a critical observer of manners and well-qualified for an elegant and genteel satirist.  These letters contain observations on the Courtier’s Life, and I shall quote a few lines as a specimen, by which it will be seen how much he falls short of his noble cotemporary, lord Surry, and is above those writers that preceded him in versification.

  The courtiers life.

  In court to serve decked with fresh araye,
  Of sugared meats seling the sweet repast,
  The life in blankets, and sundry kinds of playe,
  Amidst the press the worldly looks to waste,
  Hath with it joyned oft such bitter taste,
  That whoso joys such kind of life to holde,
  In prison joys, fetter’d with chains of golde.