of his translations. As an author he appeals mainly to antiquaries and philologists.
He only published two volumes in his lifetime. The earlier—a pious lucubration in prose—printed by Thomas Berthelet in 1539, is entitled ‘The Exposition and Declaration of the Psalme Deus ultionum dominus made by Syr Henry Parker, knight, Lord Morley; dedicated to the Kynges Highness, 1534’ (Brit. Mus.) The second volume is a very long-winded and not very faithful translation in irregular and uncouth verse of Petrarch's ‘Trionfi;’ it is entitled ‘Tryumphes of Fraunces Petrarcke [of Loue, Chastite, Death, Fame, Tyme, Divinity], translated out of Italian into English by Henrye Parker, knyght, Lorde Morley.’ It is without date, but being printed by John Cawood, ‘prynter to the Quenes Hyghnes’ [i.e. Queen Mary], cannot have been issued before 1553. At the close is an original poem, ‘Vyrgyll in his Epigrames of Cupide and Dronkennesse.’ Four copies of the work are known—two in the British Museum, one in the Bodleian Library, and one at Britwell. A reprint was partly edited by the Earl of Iddesleigh for the Roxburghe Club in 1887.
After Morley's death there were printed his verse epitaphs ‘on Sir Thomas West, baron of Grisley, Lord La Warr, K.G.,’ who died on 9 Oct. 1554, in Legh's ‘Accidence of Armorie,’ 1568, fol. 51 b (cf. Walpole, Royal and Noble Authors, ed. Park, i. 321); two short reflective poems from Ashmole MS. 48—one addressed ‘to his posterytie … wrytten over a chamber dore where he was wont to ly at Hollenbyrry [i.e. Great Hallingbury]’—in Park's ‘British Bibliographer,’ vol. iv., and in ‘Songs and Ballads, chiefly of the reign of Philip and Mary’ (Roxburghe Club, Nos. vi. and vii.); extracts from his prose translations of Boccaccio's ‘De Præclaris Mulieribus, that is to say in Englishe of the ryght renoumyde ladyes,’ in F. G. Waldron's ‘Literary Museum,’ 1792, from a manuscript on vellum belonging to Bindley (cf. Thorpe, Cat. of MSS., 1836).
The greater part of Morley's literary work remains in manuscript; it chiefly consists of translations. From Plutarch he rendered, through Latin versions, ‘The Story of Paulus Emylyus,’ dedicated to Henry VIII (Bodl. Laud. MS. H. 17, on vellum); ‘Life of Agesilaus,’ dedicated to Cromwell, and including a parallel between Agesilaus and Henry VIII (Phillipps MS. i. 313); ‘Life of Theseus,’ from the Latin of Lapo di Castiglionchio, dedicated to Henry VIII (Brit. Mus. Royal MS. 17, D ii.); ‘Scipio and Hannibal,’ from the Latin of Donato Acciavioli (ib. 17, D xi.). Others of his translations are ‘Seneca's 92nd and 18th Epistles’ (ib. 17, A. xxx.); ‘St. Athanasius his Prologue to the Psalter,’ from the Latin of Angelo Poliziano (ib. 17, C. 12); ‘the Pistellis and Gospells for the 52 Sondayes in the yeare,’ for Anne Boleyn, marchioness of Wiltshire (Harl. MS. 6561); John de Turre Cremata's exposition of the 36th Psalm, with sonnets from the Italian of Maffeo Vegio, dedicated to the Princess Mary (Royal MS. 18, A. xv.); Cicero's ‘Dream of Scipio,’ from the ‘De Republica,’ dedicated to Princess Mary (ib. 18, A. lx.); Erasmus's ‘Praise to the Virgin Mary,’ dedicated to the Princess Mary (ib. 17, A. xlvi.); commentary on Ecclesiastes, dedicated to the Duke of Somerset (ib. 17, D. xiii.); Masuccio's ‘Novelle’ (ib. 18, A. lxii.), a story of Frederic Barbarossa, dedicated to Henry VIII and Queen Catherine [Parr]; St. Anselm's ‘Life of Mary and Our Saviour,’ and Thomas Aquinas's ‘Angelical Salutation’ (ib. 17, C. xvi. 1, 2); Paolo Giovio's ‘Commentaries of the Turks,’ dedicated to Henry VIII (Arundel MS. 8).
Morley married Alice, daughter of Sir John St. John of Bletsoe, Bedfordshire. She was related to the royal family through her grandmother Margaret Beauchamp, who by a second marriage was grandmother of Henry VII. Lady Morley died in December 1552, aged 66, and was buried in Great Hallingbury church, where her tomb is inscribed ‘regio sanguine prognata.’ By her Morley had two daughters, one (Jane) wife of George Boleyn, lord Rochford, son of Thomas Boleyn, earl of Wiltshire; and the other the wife of Sir John Shelton. His only son Henry, made a knight of the Bath at the coronation of Anne Boleyn in 1533, was groom of the privy chamber in attendance on Anne of Cleves at Calais in 1539 (Chronicle of Calais, p. 176). He died in December 1553, in his father's lifetime (Machyn, Diary, pp. 53, 337), after having been twice married. His first wife was Grace, daughter of John Newport of Brent-Pelham, Hertfordshire; his second wife was Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Philip Calthorpe of Erwarton, Suffolk, by Amata, Anne Boleyn's aunt; a drawing of this Lady Parker, by Holbein, is reproduced in Chamberlane's ‘Heads’ (No. xl.) By each wife he left children. Charles, a younger son of the first marriage, born 28 Jan. 1537, entered the catholic church, retired to Pavia after Elizabeth's accession, became titular bishop of Man, and erected monuments in the cloister of Pavia church to Francis, duke of Lorraine, and Richard de la Pole, duke of Suffolk, who had been slain at the battle of Pavia in 1525 (Gough, Sepulchral Monuments; Dodd, Church History).
