North, Thomas (c. 1535–c. 1601)

English translator. His translations include Plutarch's Lives, which appeared in 1579 as Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans. Shakespeare drew heavily on this translation for his Roman plays (Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, and Coriolanus).

North's first translation was of the Spanish adaptation of Marcus Aurelius: Reloy de principes by Antonio de Guevara. North's version, The Diall of Princes (1557), is partially based on a French translation.

North's translation of Plutarch was not taken directly from the Greek, but from a 1559 version by the French translator Jacques Amyot. North's version is neither scholarly nor accurate: both Amyot and North embellished Plutarch's rather dry prose style. Nevertheless it was very popular; a second edition (1603) augmented the text with translations of other classical biographies.

He was the second son of the 1st Lord North. After possibly studying at Cambridge, he entered Lincoln's Field Inn in 1557, though he seems to have devoted himself to literature rather than law. In 1574 he accompanied his brother on an embassy to France. He was knighted in 1591.

North also published The Morall Philosophy of Doni (1570), a translation of a collection of Oriental fables by the Italian writer Anton Francesco Doni (1513–1574).