PHINEAS FLETCHER WAS of a Kentish family, cousin to the celebrated dramatic writer, and son to the learned Dr. Giles Fletcher, whom Wood calls an excellent poet (ambassador to Russia, and author of the History of that Commonwealth, a little volume, suppressed on its first publication in 1591, but reprinted in 1643). Phineas, like his father, was educated at Eton, and King's College, Cambridge, where he entered in 1600, and afterwards took the degrees of A.B. and A.M. In 1621 he was presented to the benefice of Hilgay, in Norfolk, which he seems to have held twenty-nine years. He was the author of "Siceledes," a piscatory drama or pastoral, 4to, 1631, (originally intended to have been performed before James I., in 1614,) and "The Purple Island, or the Isle of Man," in twelve cantos of seven-lined stanzas, being an allegorical description of the human body and mind. This poem, which deserves to be better known, was printed at Cambridge, 1633, 4to, "together with Piscatorie Eclogs and other Poeticall Miscellanies." Mr. Headley, whose remarks on Fletcher well merit the reader's attention, observes that "Milton read and imitated him, and that he is eminently entitled to a very high rank among our old English classics." Fletcher's "Purple Island may be found in Dr. Anderson's Poets, with a biographical account prefixed. [LOVE.] [From the sixth Piscatory Eclogue.] LOVE's sooner felt than seen; his substance thin Oft in the eyes he spreads his subtle gin; He therefore soonest wins that fastest flies. Fly thence, my dear, fly fast, my Thomalin! Who him encounters once, for ever dies. But if he lurk between the ruddy lips, Unhappy soul, that thence his nectar sips, While down into his heart the sugar'd poison slips! Oft in a voice he creeps down through the ear; And if all fail, yet Virtue's self he'll hire. Himself's a dart, when nothing else can move : When Love and Virtue's self become the darts of To Mr. Jo. Tomkins. THOMALIN, my lief, thy music strains to hear More wraps my soul, than when the swelling winds rocks their whistling voices tear : On craggy Or when the sea, if stopt his course he finds, With broken murmurs thinks weak shores to fear, Scorning such sandy cords his proud head binds: More than where rivers in the summer ray, Through covert glades cutting their shady way, Run tumbling down the lawns, and with the pebbles play. Thy strains to hear, old Chamus from his cell For thee the Muses leave their silver well, veins. How oft have I, the Muses' bower frequenting, The ravish'd soul with thy sweet songs consenting, Transcends the stars, and with the angels' train surveys; and now, come back again, Those courts Ah! could'st thou here thy humble mind content And learn suspect the court's proud blandishment, Here might we safe, here might we sweetly dwell. Live Pallas in her towers and marble tent, But ah! the country bowers please me as well. There with my Thomalin I safe would sing, And frame sweet ditties to thy sweeter string; There would we laugh at spite and Fortune's thundering. No Flattery, Hate, or Envy lodgeth there; Pride is not there; no tyrant there we feel. They know no change, nor wanton Fortune's wheel: Thousand fresh sports grow in those dainty places, Light Fawns and Nymphs dance in the woody spaces, And little Love himself plays with the naked Graces. But seeing fate my happy wish refuses, Let me alone enjoy my low estate, A quiet spirit to heaven, securely live and blest. * GILES FLETCHER, BROTHER of the preceding, was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took the degree of B.D., and died at Alderton in Suffolk, 1623, "equally beloved," says Wood, "of the Muses and Graces." He published "Christ's Victorie and Triumph in Heaven and Earth over and after Death," Cambridge, 1610, 4to, in four parts, written in stanzas of eight lines. Mr. Headley calls it "a poem rich and picturesque, and on a happier subject than that of his brother." See his "Select Beauties of Ancient English Poetry." Another edition appeared in 1632, which in 1640 was furnished with a new title, and decorated with engravings. This is reprinted in Dr. Anderson's Poets with a Life. The latter of the two following extracts, taken from the conclusion of the poem, is an elegant tribute to the talents of his brother, from which it appears that in 1610 66 The Purple Island" was already written: indeed Phineas himself, in the dedication prefixed to his volume, describes its contents as the raw essays of his very unripe years and almost childhood. [Panglory's Wooing-song.] LOVE is the blossom where there blows Love doth make the heavens to move, And the sun doth burn in love: Love the strong and weak doth yoke, And makes the ivy climb the oak, |