The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume VII. Cavalier and Puritan.
§ 2. Sir John Beaumont
Sir John Beaumont, in a set of couplets addressed to James I, lamented the prevailing formlessness of English poetry, demanding, in place of “halting feet” and defective accents, “ragged rime,” “fetter’d staves” and obscure language, a type of verse the requirements of which are most nearly met by the closed couplet.
The lines To His Late Majesty, concerning the True Forme of English Poetry, not published till 1629, were, probably, written soon after the publication of the works of James I in 1616. Sir John Beaumont was a friend of Drayton, and may have had the characteristics of Englands Heroicall Epistles before his mind as he wrote.