Henry Constable

Born in 1562, Henry Constable was an English poet of the Elizabethan age and is remembered above all for Diana, one of the earliest English sonnet sequences. He studied at Cambridge and moved in courtly and literary circles at a time when the sonnet was becoming a major fashion in English poetry.

Constable’s writing is admired for its elegance and musical style, especially in its treatment of love and devotion. Later in life he converted to Catholicism, a decision that deeply affected his fortunes and led to years spent abroad, along with periods of imprisonment after his return to England.

He died in 1613 at Liège. Although not as widely known today as some of his contemporaries, he remains an important early figure in the history of the English sonnet.