BRETON, BRITTON or BRITTAINE, NICHOLAS English poet, was born in the parish of St. Giles without-Cripplegate. There is no official record of his residence at the university, but the diary of the Rev. Richard Madox tells us that he was at Antwerp in 1583 and was "once of Oriel College." He is supposed to have died shortly after the publica tion of his last work, Fantastickes (1626). Breton found a patron in Mary, countess of Pembroke, and wrote much in her honour until 16o1, when she seems to have withdrawn her favour.
His best work is to be found in his pastoral poetry. His Passionate Shepheard (1604) is full of sunshine and fresh air, and of unaffected gaiety. The third pastoral in this book—"Who can live in heart so glad As the merrie country lad"—is well known; with some other of Breton's daintiest poems, among them the lullaby, "Come little babe, come silly soule," it is incorporated in A. H. Bullen's Lyrics from Elizabethan Romances (189o). His keen observation of country life appears also in his prose idyll, Wits Trenchmour, "a conference betwixt a scholler and an angler," and in his Fantastickes, a series of short prose pictures of the months, the Christian festivals, and the hours, which throw much light on the customs of the times. Most of Breton's books are very rare and have great bibliographical value. His numerous works, with the exception of some belong ing to private owners, were collected by Dr. A. B. Grosart in the Chertsey Worthies Library in 1879.