Robert Chester (poet)

Robert Chester (flourished 1601) is the mysterious author of the poem Love's Martyr which was published in 1601 as the main poem in a collection which also included much shorter poems by William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, George Chapman and John Marston, along with the anonymous "Vatum Chorus" and "Ignoto".

Despite attempts to identify Chester no information has ever emerged to indicate with any certainty who he was. Currently all that is known of Chester is his name, the long poem he published, and a few unpublished verses. The poem's meaning is deeply obscure. Even the authenticity of the date on the title page has been questioned. It is also not known why Shakespeare and so many other distinguished poets supplemented the publication of such an obscure person with their own works.

The only clue to Chester's identity is the fact that his poem was dedicated to Sir John Salusbury of Lleweni Hall, Denbighshire, in Wales. Sir John was a member of the powerful Salusbury family of Wales. It may have been published to celebrate his knighthood in June 1601. However, even this date has been questioned.

In 1878 Chester was identified with a man of that name from Royston, Cambridgeshire, by Alexander Grosart, who produced the first modern edition of the poem. However, in 1913, Carleton Brown argued that Chester must have been closely associated with Salusbury in Denbighshire. Also, Chester's verse suggests that he was a servant of Salusbury's, rather than a social equal as was the Robert Chester from Royston. Brown discovered a manuscript poem entitled A Winter's Garland, written by Chester, in the Salisbury family archives. Another poem, welcoming Salusbury home from London, compares Chester's own crude "hoarse-throat raven's song" to the "court beautifying poets" he would have heard in London. Brown concluded that Chester was a local employee of Salusbury's who probably worked in his household. In 2009, Boris Borukhov, comparing the signatures of the poet and the Robert Chester from Royston, demonstrated that they were two different people. Chester's description of himself as a "British" poet, rather than "English" one, his particular interest in Geoffrey of Monmouth's account of King Arthur, as well as his links to Salusbury, strongly suggest that he was Welsh.

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