it cannot be determined whether grimald was familiar with george buchanan's "baptistes" (1543), or with jakob schöpper's "johannes decollatus vel ectrachelistes" (1546). grimald provides a purely romantic motive for the catastrophe in the passionate attachment of herodias to herod antipas, and constantly resorts to lyrical methods. as a poet grimald is memorable as the earliest follower of henry howard, earl of surrey in the production of blank verse. he writes sometimes simply enough, as in the lines on his own childhood addressed to his mother, but in general his style is more artificial, and his metaphors more studied than is the case with the other contributors to the "miscellany". his classical reading shows itself in the comparative terseness and smartness of his verses.