I wish my deadly foe no worse Than want of friends, and empty purse.

Breton found a patron in Mary countess of Pembroke and wrote much in her honour until 1601 when Nicholas Breton seems to have withdrawn her favour. Life
His father William Breton a London merchant who had made a considerable fortune died in 1559 and the widow (née Elizabeth Bacon) married the poet George Gascoigne before her sons had attained their majority. His work consists of religious and pastoral poems satires and a number of miscellaneous prose tracts.