Leonard Digges (writer)

Leonard Digges (/dɪɡz/; 1588 – 7 April 1635) was an accomplished Hispanist and minor poet, a younger son of the astronomer Thomas Digges (1545–95, and younger brother of Sir Dudley Digges (1583–1639). After his father's death in 1595, his mother married Thomas Russell of Alderminster, who was named by William Shakespeare as one of the two overseers of his will. There are varying opinions about the extent to which the young Leonard Digges might have been influenced in his choice of profession by his stepfather's association with Shakespeare; disagreements about whether he was or was not personally acquainted with the playwright have in recent years eclipsed discussion of the work of Digges himself.

Leonard Digges matriculated at University College, Oxford in 1603, the year of his mother's remarriage, and graduated BA in 1606. This was followed by a period of study abroad. He may have traveled to Spain with fellow Hispanist James Mabbe, whom he knew from Oxford, for he wrote a note on the flyleaf of a book which Mabbe sent from Madrid to Will Baker, also a friend from Oxford days. The book was a copy of Rimas by Lope de Vega (published in 1613); it still survives, in the library of Balliol College. Digges's inscription reads:

Anthony a Wood said of Leonard Digges that he "was esteemed by those who knew him in Univ.coll. a great master of the English language, a perfect understander of the French and Spanish, a good poet, and no mean orator." Wood says also that "upon his supplication made to the venerable convocation" of University College Oxford, Digges was made M.A. in 1626, "in consideration that he had spent many years in good letters in transmarine universities." He lived in the College from then until his death in 1635, and was buried in the College chapel (no longer standing).

Digges translated Claudian's The Rape of Proserpine (printed 1617). His translation of Varia fortuna de soldado Píndaro by Gonzalo de Céspedes y Meneses, was published in 1622 as Gerardo, the Unfortunate Spaniard, and was used by John Fletcher as a source for his plays The Spanish Curate and The Maid in the Mill.

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