Note 1. CV. Thomas Sternhold.—He was groom of the robes to Henry the Eighth: an office which he retained in the court of Edward the Sixth. Braithwait says that he obtained his situation by his poetical talents; and he appears, indeed, to have had a reputation about the court not only for his poetry, but also for his piety. As is well known, Sternhold was one of the principal contributors to the Old Version of the Psalms of David. It is generally believed that he composed fifty-one; but this is an error. Sternhold died in 1549, in which year thirty-seven, and not fifty-one, were first published by Day under the title of “Psalmes of Dauid, drawen into English Metre by Thomas Sternholde.” In 1551, another edition was published, with seven added from the pen of John Hopkins; and seven more were added in 1556 by William Whittingham, then an exile at Geneva. The remaining Psalms were versified by different individuals, and they were first printed all together at the end of the Book of Common Prayer, in 1562, under the title of “The whole Book of Psalmes, collected into English Metre, by T. Sternhold, J. Hopkins, and others. Set forth and allowed to be sung in all Churches before and after Morning and Evening Prayer, and also before and after Sermons.” In the early editions of “The whole Book of Psalmes” Sternhold’s initials are affixed to the first and twenty-second inclusive, and to the 25th, 26th, 28th, 32d, 34th, 41st, 43rd, 44th, 63rd, 68th, 73rd, 103rd, 120th, 123rd, and 128th: in the whole thirty-seven, the number published. [back]
