Thomas Lupton (16th-century writer)
Thomas Lupton 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". Biographical details for Lupton, beyond his list of publications, are not available.
Chronological list of works
- Commendatory verse for The bathes of Bathes ayde by the Welsh physician John Jones, a work on spa waters. Jones dedicated it to George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury.
- Commendatory verse for Allarme to England by Barnabe Rich, with those by Thomas Churchyard and Barnabe Googe.
- All for Money, a morality play with numerous personified characters. This was a traditional dramatic interlude, and the work was without dedication.
- A Thousand Notable Things of Sundry Sorts was a compilation, a popular work in the "wonder book" tradition. It ran to numerous editions into the 18th century, the last being in 1793. Sources included Lemnius and Mizaldus. It was dedicated to Margaret Stanley, Countess of Derby. The contents ranged from the use of the eagle-stone in childbirth, to the beasts pulling the chariot of Elagabalus according to Aelius Lampridius.
- Siuqila was a dialogue, subtitle Too Good to be True, appearing in 1580, and 1581. It made use of reversed names from Latin: Siuqila is from the Latin aliquis backwards, a traveller from Ailgna, and another character is Omen. The idealised society Mauqsun described is named from the Latin nusquam, nowhere. 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. Lupton's work has been compared to A Pleasant Dialogue by T. N., dedicated to Edward Dyer.
- A Persuasion from Papistrie, 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.
- The Christian Against the Jesuit, reply to the anonymous work of Parsons, dedicated to Francis Walsingham.
- A Dream of the Devil and Dives. There was a later edition in 1615.