Known primarily for his occasional poetry, William Basse has a small but secure place as a Spenserian poet of considerable note among his contemporaries. His Shakespeare which was not properly credited to Basse until Edmond Malone's edition of Shakespeare in 1790, and "The Angler's Song," appearing in Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler (1653), are the primary works which have established his reputation. His verse is characterized by unpretentious diction, a pleasant and flowing prosody, and frequent allusion to the celebrated persons he knew.

Basse appears to be from Moreton, near Thame, in Oxfordshire: in Athenæ Oxonienses (1691-1692) Anthony Wood called him "sometime a retainer to Lord Wenman of Thame Park." Lord Wenman was the former Sir Richard Wenman, created an Irish peer by the title of Viscount Wenman of Tuam in July 1628. Other contemporary mention of Basse is included in the entries of the Thame Parish Register, which records...