LAUREATE (Lat. luureat us, from laurea, laurel-tree. from laurus, laurel), POET. A title received from the English Crown by letters pat ent. There is no installation ceremony, but the newly appointed laureate is expected to attend a levee in Court dress. It was formerly his duty to compose an ode on the sovereign's birthday, on the birth of a royal infant, on a national victory. and by request on many other occasions. The origin of the title has given rise to much specu lation. It was customary among the Greeks to crown with the laurel a popular poet, and tile practice was revived in the Middle Ages. Pe trarch, for example, was crowned with great solemnity at Rome (1341). At Paris, Oxford, and Cambridge, the laurel wreath was some times placed on the heads of scholars distin guished for learning or poetry. John Skelton (died 1529) received the honor from both the English universities. and styled himself Poeta Laurent us. Attached to the house holds of the medieval English kings were min strels and poets. They were not, however, crowned; instead of this honor. they reeeived pensions. Chaucer received from Edward Ill. a pension of twenty marks (13661. and after wards (1374) a pitcher of wine daily—one of the subsequent perquisites of the laureateship. But Chaucer never received an official appointment to the post. and his pensions were for 41iplomatie
and other services. There was no English poet laureate till the accession of the House of Stuart. By virtue of his pensions in 1616 and 1630. Ben Jonson came to be regarded as laureate; but the title, so far as is known, was never officially con ferred on him. On December 11, tf3,S, William D'Avenant received from Charles I. a pension of £100 a year. but no title accompanied the grant. He was, however. assumed to be laureate. espe cially after the Restoration. So far as is known, the first English poet to receive the title of poet laureate by. royal letters patent was John Dry den. The honor was conferred on him August IS, 1070. Dryden's "successors, with their terms of office, are: Thomas Slmdwell (1689-92). Na hum Tate (1692-11151. Nicholas Rowe 11715 18 ), Laurence Eu;den Colley Fibber ( 1730 -511, Will iam Whitehead ( 17:18 85). Thomas Wanton (1785-00). Henry :lamps Pye ( 17901 813 , Robert Southey William Wordsworth ( 1813-50). Alfred Tennyson ( IS50 Alfred Austin (1g96—). Consult : .1alone's essay prefixed to Works of Dryden (London, 1800) ; Hamilton, 7•he Pwts Laureate of Englund Iti79) ; and West, The Laureatcs of Englund (ib., 1895).