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GILES FLETCHER.

GILES FLETCHER, the author of one of the finest religious poems to which the early part of the seventeenth century gave birth, has not received the attention due to his genius, either from his contemporaries, or from posterity. Yet in him and his brother Phineas we behold the two most gifted followers of Spenser; in their hands the torch of allegorical poetry, if I may employ the metaphor, was extinguished, and transmitted to no successor. William Browne was rather the imitator of Spenser in his pastoral vein, than in the arabesque imagery of the Faerie Queen. Of Giles Fletcher's life little has hitherto been told, and that little imperfectly. Mr. Chalmers has reprinted Christ's Victorie, with a prefatory notice of the writer, in his edition of the British Poets, but without adding much, if any thing, to the previous stock of knowledge. In the following memoir something has, perhaps, been accomplished towards the illustration of the poet's history, and the additional facts relating to his father will not, it is trusted, be uninteresting.

Dr. Giles Fletcher, the father of the poet, was the brother of Richard Fletcher, Bishop of London. Having been educated at Eton, in 1565, he was elected to King's College, Cambridge, where, in 1569, he took the degree of B.A.; that of M.A. in 1573; and LL.D. in 1581. Anthony Wood says that he became an excellent poet. The only specimens of his poetical talent I have seen are the verses upon the death of Walter Haddon *.

Haddon was a member of King's College, and one of the most eminent men of the age. His contemporaries speak in enthusiastic

Fletcher's political talents appear to have been highly appreciated by Elizabeth, who employed him as her Commissioner in Scotland, Germany, and the Low Countries. I have ascertained that he sat in Parliament in 1585, with Herbert Pelham, Esq., for the then flourishing town of Winchelsea *. In 1588, the memorable year of the Armada, he was sent to Russia, where he concluded a treaty with the Czar, beneficial to English commerce. Soon after his return, he published his observations upon that country; they were, however, soon suppressed, and not reprinted until 1643. They were afterwards incorporated in Hackluyt's Voyages †.

The worthy Fuller informs us that, upon Fletcher's arrival in London, he sent for his intimate friend Mr. Wayland, Prebendary of St. Paul's, and tutor to Fuller's father, "with whom he expressed his thankfulness to

terms of his mental and personal accomplishments. Archbishop Cranmer entertained a high opinion of his learning and talents, and availed himself of his advice and assistance in ecclesiastical affairs. Haddon died in London, February, 1571. His poems were collected by Thomas Hatcher, a fellow of the same college, and one of his warmest admirers. Mr. Park refers to Dr. Fletcher's poems in a note upon Warton's History of Poetry, but in a manner to incline the reader to suppose that the allusion was applicable to the author of Christ's Victorie.

The work which is entitled Poematum Gualteri Haddoni Legum Doctoris, sparsim collectorum, Libri Duo, is exceedingly scarce. Thomas Baker, the well-known antiquary, considered his copy, which afterwards passed into the collection of the Bishop of Ely, to be almost unique. There is, however, a copy in the British Museum.

*Notitia Parliamentaria, vol. iii., p. 107.

+ As a picture of Russia in its deepest ignorance and barbarism, the account of the "Russe Commonwealth" is very amusing. His description of theological learning in Russią, towards the close of the sixteenth century, is singular, especially when contrasted with the glory of our own country at that period. Fletcher relates the following anecdote of a conversation with one of their "bishops, that are the choice men out of all their monasteries." He "offered him a Russe Testament, and turned him to the first chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel, where he began to read in very good order. I asked him first, what part of Scripture it was that he had read? He answered that he could not well tell. How many evangelists there were in the New Testament? He said he knew not. How many apostles there were? He thought there were twelve.”— p. 89, ed. 1591.

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God for his return from so great a danger." The quaint historian, in his careless way, talks of the emperor being habited in blood, and adds that, if he had cut off the ambassador's head, he and his friends might have sought their own amends; but, says he, the question is, where he would have found it. Certainly, if Fuller alludes to the head, its recovery would have been very questionable. But this story of the Czar's cruelty is an invention. The reigning emperor was Theodore Ivanowich, and Dr. Fletcher expressly assures us that "he was verie gentle, of an easie nature, quiet and mercyful." P. 110, ed. 1591.

On his return, Fletcher was made secretary (townclerk) to the city of London, and one of the Masters of the Court of Requests. The situation of treasurer of St. Paul's he seems to have resigned in 1610*. His death is thought to have taken place in the same year.

Dr. Fletcher also wrote a very curious Discourse concerning the Tartars, which Whiston reprinted in his Memoirs.

Giles Fletcher, the poet, we are told by Fuller, was born in the city of Londont, and according to Mr. Chalmers's conjecture, about the year 1588. Fuller

-1610, 7 Febr.

* I find under a notice of Bayly, Bishop of Bangor Ludov. Bayly, A.M., Admissus ad Thesaurariam S. Pauli, per Resig. Egidii Fletcheri, LL.D. Reg. Lond.-Wood, Athen. Oxon. ed Bliss. b. 2.

+ Worthies of England, vol. ii., London, p. 82, ed. Nichols, 1811. FLETCHER") considers Giles Chalmers (Biograph. Dict., Art the eldest son, whose birth he fixes in 1588, and that of Phineas, the The probability is, that Phineas was the elder. At younger, in 1584! the conclusion of the fourth book of Christ's Victorie, Giles speaks of

The Kentish lad that lately taught

His oaten reed the trumpet's silver sound.

*

*

*

Let his shrill trumpet with her silver blast
Of fair Eclecta and her spousal bed
Be the sweet pipe, and smooth encomiast,
But my green Muse hiding her younger head

received his information from Mr. Ramsay, who married
the poet's widow; and it is to be regretted that his
account is so brief and uncircumstantial. I think
Fletcher's birth may be carried back two or three years,
for we shall presently find him hailing the accession of
James in 1603, in strains such as a boy of fourteen or
fifteen could scarcely be expected to produce. He was
sent, it appears, at an early age, to Westminster School,
from which he was elected to Trinity College, Cam-
bridge. This is the relation of Fuller; but I am unable
to reconcile it with the declaration of Giles Fletcher
himself. In the dedication of Christ's Victorie, to Dr.
Nevil, he speaks with all the ardour of a young and
noble heart of the kindness he had experienced from
that excellent man. He mentions his having reached
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as it were out of heaven, a benefit of that nature
and price, than which he could wish none (only heaven
itself excepted) either more fruitful and contenting for
the time that now is present, or more comfortable and
encouraging for the time that is already past, or more
hopeful and promising for the time that is yet to come."
And further on, he expressly states that he was placed
in Trinity College by Dr. Nevil's "only favour, most
freely, without either any means from other, or any desert”
in himself. This praise could not have been consistent
with truth, if Fletcher had obtained his election from
Westminster School*. Nevil merited the laudatory epi-

Under old Chamus' flaggy banks that spread
Their willow locks abroad, &c.

Eclecta, or Intellect, in the Purple Island, is the leader of the virtues and good qualities of the heart. The Purple Island was, therefore, composed before the publication of Christ's Victorie.

*Having been permitted to refer to the Register Book of Westminster School by the favour of the Rev. Williamson, the present Head Master, I am enabled to state positively that Fletcher was not elected from Westminster to Cambridge. There is no evidence that he was on

thet applied to him by Camden*, whether we look upon him as the public benefactor of the college over which he presided, or in the still more endearing character of the benevolent and disinterested patron of the poor and the learned. Bishop Hacket was also a partaker of his generosity. Plume informs us, in his life of that prelate, that when Hacket's father, although personally unknown to Dr. Nevil, applied to him for his interest to procure his son's election from Westminster to Trinity College, the worthy master replied, that the boy should go to Cambridge, or he would carry him on his own back." I shall have occasion to recur to Nevil in the life of

Herbert t.

The accession of James furnished a theme of praise to all the nation; 'the very poets with their idle pamphlets," writes that unwearied correspondent Mr. Chamberlain, "promise themselves great part in his favour." The University of Cambridge put forth its welcome under the ingenious title of Sorrowe's Joy §, and the writers evinced their skill in blending their mourning with gladness, and while they lamented that "Phoebe"

the foundation of the school. The probability is, that he was a Townboy, and obtained the patronage of Dr. Nevil.

Μεγαλοπρεπης, “ Magnificent.”

For an interesting notice of Dr. Nevil, the reader is referred to Todd's Account of the Deans of Canterbury. He was appointed to the mastership of Trinity College by Queen Elizabeth in 1592-3, and we learn from a MS. quoted by Mr. Todd, and in his own possession, that before the departure of James from the University in 1614-15, he visited Dr. Nevil, who was too infirm to leave his rooms, and after having thanked him for the generosity and splendour of his entertainment, he concluded by saying that he was proud of such a subject.

In a letter to Sir Dudley Carleton, April 13, 1603. Printed in Nichols's Progresses of King James I.

Sorrowes Joy, or a Lamentation for our Deceased Soveraigne Elizabeth, with a Triumph for the Prosperous Succession of our Gratious King James. Printed by John Legat, printer to the University of Cambridge,

1603.