Charles Blake (1664 – 22 November 1730) was an English divine and poet.

Biography

Blake was born at

Reading, Berkshire Reading ( ) is a town and borough in Berkshire, England, and the county town of Berkshire. It is the United Kingdom's largest town, with a combined population of 355,596. Most of Reading built-up area, its built-up area lies within the Borough ...

, being the son of John Blake, ‘gent.,’ of that town. He was educated at the Merchant Taylors’ School and St. John’s College, Oxford, of which he was scholar and afterwards fellow (B.A. 1683, M.A. 1687–8, D.D. 1696). He was domestic chaplain to Sir

William Dawes William Dawes Jr. (April 6, 1745 – February 25, 1799) was an American soldier, and was one of several men who, in April 1775, alerted minutemen in Massachusetts of the approach of British regulars prior to the Battles of Lexington and Concor ...

, afterwards bishop of Chester and archbishop of York, who was his close friend. Among his preferments were the rectory of St. Sepulchre’s, London, of Wheldlake in Yorkshire, and of St. Mary's, Hull, and he was successively a prebendary of Chester, a prebendary of York (1716), and archdeacon of York (1720), He died 22 November 1730. He published a small collection of Latin verses, consisting of a translation into Latin of the poem of Musæus on

Hero and Leander Hero and Leander (, ) is the Greek myth relating the story of Hero (, ''Hērṓ''; ), a priestess of Aphrodite (Venus in Roman mythology) who dwelt in a tower in Sestos on the European side of the Hellespont, and Leander (, ''Léandros''; ...

, and of part of the fifth book of

John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet, polemicist, and civil servant. His 1667 epic poem ''Paradise Lost'' was written in blank verse and included 12 books, written in a time of immense religious flux and politic ...

’s ‘

Paradise Lost ''Paradise Lost'' is an Epic poetry, epic poem in blank verse by the English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The poem concerns the Bible, biblical story of the fall of man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their ex ...

;’ and two original poems, one called ‘Hibernia Plorans,’ written in 1689, the year of the siege of Londonderry, deploring Ireland's woes, in the style of Virgil's Eclogues, and the other an elegy on the death, in 1688, of Frederick, the Great Elector of Brandenburg. These were all published together in a little sixpenny pamphlet, under the title of ‘Lusus Amatorius, sive Musæi de Herone et Leandro carmen; cui accedunt Tres Nugæ Poeticæ,’ at London in 1693.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blake, Charles 1664 births 1730 deaths 17th-century English clergy 18th-century English clergy 18th-century English poets People from Reading, Berkshire Alumni of St John's College, Oxford Fellows of St John's College, Oxford