Samuel Daniel (1562 - October 14, 1619), English poet and
historian, was the son of a music-master, and was born near
Taunton, in Somerset. He was the brother of John Daniel. In 1579
Samuel was admitted to Magdalen Hall, Oxford, where he remained
for about three years, and then devoted himself to the study of
poetry and philosophy. The name of Samuel Daniel is given as the
servant of Lord Stafford, ambassador in France, in 1586, and
probably refers to the poet. He was first encouraged and, if we
may believe him, taught in verse, by the famous Countess of
Pembroke, whose honour he was never weary of proclaiming. He had
entered her household as tutor to her son, William Herbert. His
first known work, a translation of Paulus Jovius, to which some
original matter is appended, was printed in 1585. His first
known volume of verse is dated 1592; it contains the cycle of
sonnets to Delia and the romance called The Complaint of
Rosamond. Twenty-seven of the sonnets had already been printed
at the end of Sir Philip Sid