Robert Chester (flourished 1601) is the mysterious author of the poem Love's Martyr which was published in 1601 as the main poem in a collection which also included much shorter poems by William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, George Chapman and John Marston, along with the anonymous "Vatum Chorus" and "Ignoto".
Despite attempts to identify Chester no information has ever emerged to indicate with any certainty who he was. Currently all that is known of Chester is his name, the long poem he published, and a few unpublished verses. The poem's meaning is deeply obscure. Even the authenticity of the date on the title page has been questioned. It is also not known why Shakespeare and so many other distinguished poets supplemented the publication of such an obscure person with their own works.
Identity
The only clue to Chester's identity is the fact that his poem was dedicated to Sir John Salusbury of Lleweni Hall, Denbighshire, in Wales. Sir John was a member of the powerful Salusbury family of Wales. It may have been published to celebrate his knighthood in June 1601. However, even this date has been questioned.
In 1878 Chester was identified with a man of that name from Royston, Cambridgeshire, by Alexander Grosart, who produced the first modern edition of the poem. However, in 1913, Carleton Brown argued that Chester must have been closely associated with Salusbury in Denbighshire. Also, Chester's verse suggests that he was a servant of Salusbury's, rather than a social equal as was the Robert Chester from Royston. Brown discovered a manuscript poem entitled A Winter's Garland, written by Chester, in the Salisbury family archives. Another poem, welcoming Salusbury home from London, compares Chester's own crude "hoarse-throat raven's song" to the "court beautifying poets" he would have heard in London. Brown concluded that Chester was a local employee of Salusbury's who probably worked in his household. In 2009, Boris Borukhov, comparing the signatures of the poet and the Robert Chester from Royston, demonstrated that they were two different people. Chester's description of himself as a "British" poet, rather than "English" one, his particular interest in Geoffrey of Monmouth's account of King Arthur, as well as his links to Salusbury, strongly suggest that he was Welsh.
However, no documentation beyond this has been found to identify Chester. E. A. J. Honigmann argues that Chester was probably Salusbury's local chaplain or secretary, and that he and his patron shared a taste for "mystical verse" which contained obscure acrostic puzzles. Salusbury himself was a poet. A previous collection of verse, Sinetes Passions (1597) by Robert Parry had included a supplement containing acrostic verse, possibly written by Salusbury.
The poem
Publication
The poem was first published in 1601 under the title Love's Martyr, or Rosalin's Complaint, in a quarto printed by Richard Field for the London bookseller Edward Blount. It was not entered in the Stationers' Register. The unused sheets of the first edition were subsequently acquired by the publisher Matthew Lownes, who reissued the work in 1611, unchanged but with a new title page: The Anuals of great Brittaine, or a most excellent Monument wherein may be seene all the antiquities of this Kingdome. Two copies of the first edition and one copy of the second are known to survive; a fourth copy, missing its title page, cannot be securely assigned to either issue.
Title
The title page of the first quarto of Love's Martyr explains the content:
<blockquote>
Love's Martyr: or Rosalins Complaint. Allegorically shadowing the truth of Loue, in the constant Fate of the Phoenix and Turtle. A Poeme enterlaced with much varietie and raritie; now first translated out of the venerable Italian Torquato Caeliano, by Robert Chester. With the true legend of famous King Arthur the last of the nine Worthies, being the first Essay of a new Brytish Poet: collected out of diuerse Authenticall Records. To these are added some new compositions of seuerall moderne Writers whose names are subscribed to their seuerall workes, vpon the first subiect viz. the Phoenix and Turtle. </blockquote>
The Italian poet "Torquato Caeliano" is as mysterious as Robert Chester himself. No original Italian work from which the poem is supposed to have been translated has ever been identified, nor is Caeliano a known Italian poet. It has been argued that Chester made up Caeliano to conceal the personal significance of the poem's allegory. The name is probably a combination of the names of the real poets Torquato Tasso and Livio Celiano.