Robert Chester’s ‘Love’s Martyr; Or, Rosalins Complaint’: With its Supplement, ‘Diverse Poeticall Essaies on the Turtle and Phoenix

The literary scholar Alexander Balloch Grosart (1827-99) reprinted this allegorical poem by Robert Chester (fl.c.1586-1604) with an introduction and notes in 1878. Grosart incorrectly identified the poem’s author as a certain Sir Robert Chester of Royston. Later research suggests Chester served as a chaplain or secretary in the household of the work’s dedicatee, Sir John Salusbury. Originally printed in 1601, the grandiloquent, meandering poem is chiefly remembered for the works appended to it. These include original poems by Chester’s contemporaries, Shakespeare, Jonson, Chapman and Marston, as well as the anonymous ‘Ignoto’ and ‘Vatum Chorus’. All the poems treat Chester’s theme, an invented myth describing the chaste, sacrificial love between a phoenix and a turtledove. Scholars continue to debate the identity of the historical figures signified by these birds, especially in Shakespeare’s cryptic contribution.