Abraham Fraunce ( – ) was an English poet.

Life

A native of

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

, he was born between 1558 and 1560. His name appears in a list of pupils of

Shrewsbury School Shrewsbury School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Shrewsbury. Founded in 1552 by Edward VI by royal charter, to replace the town's Saxon collegiate foundations which were disestablished in the sixteenth century, Shrewsb ...

in January 1571, and he joined

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College, formally the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch L ...

, in 1576, becoming a fellow in 1580/1. His

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

comedy, ''Victoria'', dedicated to Sir

Philip Sidney Sir Philip Sidney (30 November 1554 – 17 October 1586) was an English poet, courtier, scholar and soldier who is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan era, Elizabethan age. His works include a sonnet sequence, ' ...

, was probably written at

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, where he remained until he had taken his M.A. degree in 1583. He was called to the bar at

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...

in 1588, and then apparently practised as a barrister in the court of the Welsh marches. After the death of his patron, Sidney, Fraunce was protected by Sidney's sister, Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke. His last work was published in 1592. According to the 19th-century antiquary Joseph Hunter in his ''Chorus Vatum'', in 1633 Fraunce wrote an ''

Epithalamium An epithalamium (; Latin form of Greek ἐπιθαλάμιον ''epithalamion'' from ἐπί ''epi'' "upon," and θάλαμος ''thalamos'' "nuptial chamber") is a poem written specifically for the bride on the way to her marital chamber. This fo ...

'' in honour of the marriage of Lady Magdalen Egerton, seventh daughter of the Earl of Bridgwater, in whose service he may have been; thus, it was long assumed that Fraunce died in or after 1633. More recent scholarship, however, places Fraunce's death in 1592 or 1593 and attributes the Cutler-Egerton epithalamium to Abraham Darcie.

Works

His works are: * ''The Lamentations of Amintas for the death of Phyllis'' (1587), a version in English hexameters of his friend, Thomas Watson's, Latin ''Amyntas'' * ''The Lawiers Logike, exemplifying the praecepts of Logike by the practise of the common Lawe'' (1585) * ''The Arcadian Rhetorike'' (1588) * ''Abrahami Fransi Insignium, Armorum ... explicatio'' (1588) * ''The Countess of Pembroke's Yvychurch'' (1591/2), containing a translation of

Tasso TASSO (Two Arm Spectrometer SOlenoid) was a particle detector at the PETRA particle accelerator at the German national laboratory DESY. The TASSO collaboration is best known for having discovered the gluon, the mediator of the strong interaction an ...

's ''Aminta'', a reprint of his earlier version of Watson * ''The Lamentation of Corydon for the love of Alexis'' (

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...

, eclogue II), a short translation from Heliodorus, and, in the third part (1592) "Aminta's Dale," a collection of "conceited tales" supposed to be related by the nymphs of Ivychurch * ''The Countess of Pembroke's Emanuell'' (1591) * The Third Part of Pembroke's ''Ivychurch'', entitled ''Aminta's Dale'' (1592) *
Victoria, a Latin Comedy
' (written before or in 1583; not published until 1906). It is a translation of Luigi Pasqualigo's play, ''Il Fedele''. The ''Arcadian Rhetorike'' owes much to earlier critical treatises, but has a special interest from its references to

Edmund Spenser Edmund Spenser (; – 13 January 1599 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.) was an English poet best known for ''The Faerie Queene'', an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the House of Tudor, Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is re ...

, and Fraunce quotes from the ''Faerie Queene'' a year before the publication of the first books. In ''Colin Clouts Come Home Again'', Spenser speaks of Fraunce as Corydon, on account of his translations of Virgil's second eclogue. His poems are written in classical metres, and he was regarded by his contemporaries as the best exponent of

Gabriel Harvey Gabriel Harvey (1545 – 11 February 1631) was an English writer. Harvey was a notable scholar, whose reputation suffered from his quarrel with Thomas Nashe. Henry Morley, writing in the ''Fortnightly Review'' (March 1869), has argued that Harve ...

's theory. Even

Thomas Nashe Thomas Nashe (also Nash; baptised 30 November 1567 – c. 1601) was an English Elizabethan playwright, poet, satirist and a significant pamphleteer. He is known for his novel '' The Unfortunate Traveller'', his pamphlets including '' Pierce P ...

had a good word for "sweete Master Fraunce". ''The Countess of Pembroke's Emanuell, hexameters on the nativity and passion of Christ'', with versions of some psalms, were reprinted by Alexander Grosart in the third volume of his ''Miscellanies of the Fuller Worthies' Library'' (1872). Joseph Hunter in his ''Chorus Vatum'' stated that five of Fraunce's songs were included in Sidney's ''

Astrophel and Stella ''Astrophil and Stella'' is an English sonnet sequence by Philip Sidney containing 108 sonnets and 11 songs, probably composed in the 1580s. The name derives from the two Greek words, 'aster' (star) and 'phil' (lover), and the Latin word 'stell ...

'', but these should probably be attributed not to Fraunce, but to

Thomas Campion Thomas Campion (sometimes spelled Campian; 12 February 1567 – 1 March 1620) was an English composer, poet, and physician. He was born in London, educated at Cambridge, and studied law in Gray's Inn. He wrote over a hundred lute songs, masque ...

. See a life prefixed to the transcription of a manuscript Latin comedy by Fraunce, ''Victoria'', by Professor GC Moore Smith, published in W Bang's ''Materialien zur Kunde des älteren Englischen Dramas'', vol. xiv, 1906. Dana Sutton argues that Fraunce may be the author of
Hymenaeus
' (1578).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fraunce, Abraham 16th-century births 1590s deaths 16th-century English poets 16th-century English male writers Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge People educated at Shrewsbury School Writers from Shropshire Year of birth missing Members of Gray's Inn English male poets

Life

Works

Further reading

References