The first book-length biography of John Cruso of Norwich (b. 1592/3), a
second-generation migrant poet, translator and military author, that
explores ideas and practices of identity formation in the early modern
period.
John Cruso of Norwich (b. 1592/3), the eldest son of Flemish migrants,
was a man of many parts: Dutch and English poet, translator, military
author, virtuoso networker, successful merchant and hosier, Dutch church
elder and militia captain. This first book-length biography, making
extensive use of archival and literary sources, reconstructs the life
and work of this multi-talented, self-made man, whose literary oeuvre is
marked by its polyvocality.
Cruso's poetry includes a Dutch amplificatio on Psalm 8, some 221 Dutch
epigrams, and elegies (one of which frames the most important
Anglo-Dutch literary moment in the seventeenth century, a collection of
Dutch and Latin elegies which marked the death of the London Dutch
church minister, Simeon Ruytinck, and included verses by Constantijn
Huygens and Jacob Cats). As a military author, Cruso published five
works, in English, including two translations from the French. These
works display his knowledge of the canon of classical and Renaissance
literature, which, in turn, allowed him to fashion himself as a miles
doctus, a learned soldier, and make a contribution to military science
in England prior to and during the English Civil Wars.
In focusing on the rich and varied life and works of John Cruso, this
book also explores ideas and practices of identity formation in the
early modern period, as well as allowing Cruso's life to shed further
light on the migrant experience in seventeenth-century Norwich. Joby
shows how a second-generation migrant could successfully integrate
himself into English society, whilst continuing to engage with his Low
Countries heritage.
