Thomas Lupton (16th-century writer)

Thomas Lupton (fl. 1572–1584)^[1] was an English polemical writer of the reign of Elizabeth I. His two-part work Siuqila of 1580–1 could be described as "the first Puritan utopia".^[2] Biographical details for Lupton, beyond his list of publications, are not available.^[1]

Chronological list of works

• Commendatory verse for The bathes of Bathes ayde (1572) by the Welsh physician John Jones, a work on spa waters. Jones dedicated it to George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury.^[1][3][4]
• Commendatory verse for Allarme to England (1578) by Barnabe Rich, with those by Thomas Churchyard and Barnabe Googe.^[1][3]
• All for Money (1578), a morality play with numerous personified characters.^[1] This was a traditional dramatic interlude, and the work was without dedication.^[5]
• A Thousand Notable Things of Sundry Sorts (1579) was a compilation, a popular work in the "wonder book" tradition.^[1][6] It ran to numerous editions into the 18th century, the last being in 1793.^[5] Sources included Lemnius and Mizaldus.^[7][8] It was dedicated to Margaret Stanley, Countess of Derby.^[5] The contents ranged from the use of the eagle-stone (aetites) in childbirth,^[9] to the beasts pulling the chariot of Elagabalus according to Aelius Lampridius.^[10]
• Siuqila (or Sivqila) was a dialogue, subtitle Too Good to be True, appearing in 1580 (first part, dedicated to Christopher Hatton), and 1581 (second part, dedicated to William Cecil).^[5] It made use of reversed names from Latin: Siuqila is from the Latin aliquis (anyone) backwards, a traveller from Ailgna (from Anglia, England), and another character is Omen (from Latin nemo or nobody). The idealised society Mauqsun described is named from the Latin nusquam, nowhere.^[1][11] The use of these terms is a tribute to the wordplay in Utopia of Thomas More, which may derived from the Greek as outopia, no place.^[12] Lupton's work has been compared to A Pleasant Dialogue (1579) by T. N. (Thomas Nicholls), dedicated to Edward Dyer.^[13]
• A Persuasion from Papistrie (1581), dedicated to Elizabeth I. It mentioned John Nicolls, an apostate Catholic priest, who was then attacked in an anonymous work by Robert Parsons that made a dismissive comment about Lupton.^[5]
• The Christian Against the Jesuit (1582), reply to the anonymous work of Parsons, dedicated to Francis Walsingham.^[1][5]
• A Dream of the Devil and Dives (1584). There was a later edition in 1615.^[1]