Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kendall, Timothy
KENDALL, TIMOTHY (fl. 1577), verse-writer, son of William Kendall, by his wife Alice, was a native of North Aston, Oxfordshire. He was educated at Eton, and in 1572 was a member of Magdalen Hall, Oxford (Reg. Univ. Oxon., Oxford Hist. Soc., ii. 2, 38). Leaving the university without a degree, he became a student at Staple Inn. In 1577 he published ‘Flowers of Epigrammes, out of sundrie the most singular authours selected, as well auncient as late writers. Pleasant and profitable to the expert readers of quicke capacitie: By Timothe Kendall, late of the Universitie of Oxford: now student of Staple Inne in London,’ bl. letter, 8vo, 152 leaves. On the reverse of the title is a list of ‘The Names of all suche Aucthours out of whom these Flowers are selected.’ Then comes an epistle dedicatory to Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester. This is followed by an address ‘to the courteous and friendly reader,’ in which Kendall states that if his translations were approved he would ‘either augment these or publish more.’ After the address are commendatory verses by W. Seymour, George Whetstones (sic), E[dward?] G[uilpin?], Abraham Fleming, A. W., gent. [Arthur Warren or Andrew Willet?], and two copies of Latin verses by G. L. Few of the translated epigrams have any merit, and some are grotesquely bad. The translations are followed by Kendall's original compositions, with a new title: ‘Trifles by Timothe Kendall deuised and written (for the most part) at sundrie tymes in his yong and tender age. Tamen est laudanda voluntas.’ Among the ‘trifles’ are ‘Verses written to his father when he was scholler at Æton,’ ‘Preceptes written in his friend Richard Woodwards praier booke, sometime his companion in Oxford,’ ‘Verses written at the request of his cosen, Mary Palmer, in her praier booke called The Pomander of Praier,’ and epitaphs on his father and mother, who were buried at North Aston. Some of the pieces are taken verbatim, without acknowledgment, from Turberville. Copies of Kendall's rare book, which has been reprinted by the Spenser Society, are preserved in the British Museum, the Bodleian Library (Malone collection), and Trinity College, Cambridge. Meres, in ‘Palladis Tamia,’ 1598, numbers Kendall among the English epigrammatists, along with Heywood, Drant, Bastard, and Davies.
[Wood's Athenæ, ed. Bliss, i. 484–7; Corser's Collectanea.]