was gone, they remembered that a shining in her place *. "Phoebus" was The contribution of Giles Fletcher-A Canto upon the Death of Eliza-is the most poetical in the collection. It is a pastoral allegory, conceived in a spirit of grace and elegance. The monosyllabic terminations of the following lines produce an inharmonious effect, but the imagery is very rural. Tell me, sad Philomel, that yonder sit'st So let the friendly prickle never dig Thy watchful breast, with woound or small or big, Th' unwary foot, while thou perchance hang'st half awake. The picture of the snake "sliding with shrinking silence," is one of the happiest touches of description I have ever seen. It would be impossible more vividly to represent the sudden rustling of the leaves, and the shrinking" stillness that follows. The idea is partly borrowed from Virgil. The following verses upon the "velvet-headed violets," are equally meritorious in a different manner : So let the silver dew but lightly lie, Like little watery worlds, within your azure sky. This image might have dropped from the pencil of Rubens. Every wanderer in our green lanes on a spring morning must have seen these "little watery worlds.' Phineas Fletcher has a poem in the same volume, * See verses in Sorrowe's Joy, by H. Campion, of Emanuel College. dated from King's College, but very inferior to his brother's. Christ's Victorie was apparently composed before Fletcher took his Bachelor's degree. Fuller says, that it discovered the piety of a saint and the divinity of a doctor; the piety is more evident than the theological skill. The first edition appeared at Cambridge in 1610, and a second was not required until 1632. It is sufficiently clear, therefore, that the poem could not have been popular; and Phineas Fletcher, in some verses addressed to his brother upon its publication, entreats him not to esteem the censure of "malicious tongues *!" That Fletcher was dissatisfied with the reception of his work, may be inferred from the circumstance of his relinquishing the cultivation of the Muse, and applying himself to the study of school divinity. It is not, however, improbable that he occasionally indulged his taste in classical composition. In the library of King's College is a small MS., presented to it on the 2nd of February, 1654-5, by S. Th., supposed by Mr. Cole to mean Samuel Thoms, with this title:-Egidii Fletcheri versio Poetica Lamentationum Jeremiat. It is dedicated, in a copy of hexameter verses, to the amiable and upright Whitgift. Ornatissimo doctissimoque viro Do. Doctori Whitgifto Egidius Fletcherus salutem. Whitgift was Master of Trinity College from 1570 to June 1577, and the translation might, therefore, have been an offering of respect from the poet's father; but as the Archbishop lived till 1603, it is possible that it may have emanated from the son. Whitgift, like his friend Nevil, was a sincere encourager of learning and merit; he supported several poor "Upon my brother, Mr. G. F., his book intituled Christ's Victorie and Triumph." + Cole's MS. Collections in British Museum. D scholars in his own house, and enabled others to pursue their studies at the University. The author of Christ's Victorie may have participated in this munificence. Though "cross to the grain of his genius," Fuller tells us that Fletcher attained to "good skill" in scholastic divinity; he had too much capacity and amplitude of mind to fail in any pursuit to which he devoted his attention. A fellowship at the same time rewarded his labours, and enabled him to gratify his love of a Collegelife. Fuller does not inform us in what year Fletcher received ordination, but it could not have been long after the publication of his poem; for in 1612 he published at Cambridge, in 12mo., The Young Divine's Apology for his continuance in the University, with certain Meditations, written by Nathaniel Pownoll, late student of Christchurch College, Oxon, and dedicated to the eloquent Dr. King, at that time Bishop of London. This book I have not been able to obtain, and I am indebted for the knowledge of its existence to the MS. collections of the indefatigable Cole*. It would certainly tend to illustrate the poet's history. Of Fletcher's theological acquirements we have no memorials; but we are entitled to conclude that he was an able and earnest preacher. We learn from Fuller, that *Since this paragraph has been written, I have looked into Watts's Bibliotheca Britannica, vol. 2, and find the following notice:-" Pownoll, Nathaniel, late student of Christ Church, Oxford. The Young Divine's Apologie for continuing so long in the Universitie, with certain Meditations, Canterbury, 1612, 12mo." Of course it impossible to reconcile this account with Cole, whose expressions are, "In 1612, he (G.. Fletcher) printed at Cambridge, The Young Divine's Apologie for his continuance in the University, with certain Meditations, written by Nathaniel Pownoll, late student of Christ's College, Oxon, and dedicated to John, Bishop of London, among the uncatalogued books of the old University Library." The general accuracy of Watts is well known, and I believe the collections of Cole have an equal claim to that distinction. In this instance I feel inclined to follow the authority of Cole, for it is evident that he had himself seen the book. when he preached at St. Mary's, his prayer before the sermon usually consisted of one entire allegory, "not driven but led on, most proper in all particulars." The few specimens we possess of his prose, afford sufficient testimony of his learning and eloquence; but of the propriety of his allegorical prayers I may be permitted to entertain a doubt. After 1612 there is a blank in the history of Fletcher, until his settlement in the rectory of Alderton, in Suffolk. Fuller says, that he was placed there "by exchange of livings;" but it seems improbable that he would have relinquished any other preferment for a situation which is supposed to have hastened the period of his death. I think it very likely that he was presented to the living by Sir Robert Naunton, whose family were the patrons of the church, and had their residence in the parish*. Naunton † was Public Orator during several years of Fletcher's residence at Cambridge, and being himself a member of Trinity, it was natural that he should be desirous of forming an acquaintance with an individual so much esteemed as the author of Christ's Victorie must have been by many of his contemporaries. Fletcher did not live long to reap the advantage of his new preferment; the unhealthiness of the situation combined with the ignorance of his parishioners to depress his spirits and exhaust his constitution; a lonely village in the maritime part of Suffolk, more than two hundred years ago, had few consolations to offer to one accustomed to the refined manners and elegant occupations of an University. We are told by Fuller, in that * Magna Britannia, vol. 5, Suffolk, ed. 1730. † Elected Public Orator 27th July, 1594; succeeded by F. Nethersole, 10th December, 1611. quaint manner for which he is remarkable, that Fletcher's "clownish and low-parted parishioners (having nothing but their shoes high about them), valued not their pastor according to his worth, which disposed him to melancholy and hastened his dissolution*." Fletcher's death is supposed to have taken place about the year 1623†. But Fuller, the only authority upon whom we could, in this instance, safely rely, has left a blank for the last figure. The disquiet of his later years, together with his absence from books, and the derangement of his papers, caused him to be sometimes unsatisfactory with regard to accuracy in dates; his omission cannot now be remedied. I am enabled to state, through the kindness of the Rev. Addington Norton, the present Rector of Alderton, that no record of Giles Fletcher In the edition of Phineas Fletcher's Piscatory Eclogues, at Edinburgh, 1771, the Editor applies a garbled version of this story to Dr. Giles Fletcher, the poet's father. He professes to have derived his information from a Historical Dictionary of England and Wales, 1692. After enumerating some particulars, in the life of Dr. Fletcher, the writer adds, "in the end of his life he commenced Doctor of Divinity; and, being slighted by his clownish parishioners, he fell into a deep melancholy, and in a short time died." Mr. Chalmers, in his lives of Giles and Phineas Fletcher, refers to the Editor of this edition, "the most of whose judicious notes, preface, &c." he scrupulously retained, and the one I have quoted among the number. So carefully are errors bequeathed from one "judicious" "editor to another. That negligent and tasteless writer, Jacob, committed a still more ridiculous blunder in his Poetical Register, where he says, that Giles Fletcher wrote a poem called Christ's Victory, and his other brother, George Fletcher, was author of a poem entitled Christ's Victory Over and after Death, both of them very much commended, v. 2, p. 57. It was in an evil hour that Jacob forsook the more congenial studies that fitted him for the composition of the Law Dictionary. For this mistake, however, Jacob was indebted to his model Winstanley (Lives of the most famous English Poets, 1687, p. 159), whose puerile conceits and affected phraseology render his errors less endurable than the matter-of-fact manner of his imitator. The same accomplished critic gives Herbert to Oxford. Winstanley was originally a barber, an occupation for which he was probably well adapted. + Lloyd's State Worthies, vol. 1, p. 552-note, with additions by Whitworth. |