Francis Meres (1565/1566 – 29 January 1647) was an English churchman and author. His 1598

commonplace book Commonplace books (or commonplaces) are a way to compile knowledge, usually by writing information into blank books. They have been kept from antiquity, and were kept particularly during the Renaissance and in the nineteenth century. Such book ...

includes the first critical account of poems and plays by Shakespeare.

Career

Francis Meres was born in 1565 at Kirton Meres in the parish of Kirton, Lincolnshire. He was educated at

Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 students and fellows. It is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from ...

, where he received a BA in 1587 and an MA in 1591. Two years later he was incorporated an MA of

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

. His relative, John Meres, was high sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1596, and apparently helped him in the early part of his career. In 1602 he became rector of

Wing, Rutland Wing is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the East Midlands county of Rutland, England. The population was 315 at the 2001 census and 314 at that of 2011. It features a fine church and a labyrinth made of turf. Rutland Wat ...

, where he also ran a school. Both his son Francis and his grandson Edward received their BA and MA from Cambridge and became rectors. Meres is especially known for his '' Palladis Tamia, Wits Treasury'' (1598), a

that is important as a source on the Elizabethan poets, and more particularly as the first critical account of the poems and early plays of William Shakespeare. Its list of Shakespeare's plays contributed to establishing their

chronology Chronology (from Latin , from Ancient Greek , , ; and , ''wikt:-logia, -logia'') is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time. Consider, for example, the use of a timeline or sequence of events. It is also "the deter ...

. The ''Palladis Tamia'' also contained moral and critical reflections borrowed from various sources, and embraced sections on books, on philosophy, on music and painting, and a "Comparative Discourse of our English poets with the Greeke, Latin, and Italian poets." This chapter enumerates the English poets from Chaucer to Meres's own day, and in each case a comparison with some classical author is instituted. A sermon entitled ''Gods Arithmeticke'' (1597) and two translations from the Spanish of Luís de Granada entitled ''Granada's Devotion and The Sinners' Guide'' (1598) complete Meres's list of works.

Marriage and issue

Meres had a wife, Mary (1576/1577–1631), whose maiden name is unknown. They had a son, Francis, born in 1607. In ''Shakespeare's Sonnets'' (1904), Charlotte Stopes stated that Meres was the brother-in-law of John Florio, but investigations by George Greenwood suggest Stopes erred in that claim. Meres died in 1647 and was buried in the parish Church of St Peter and St Paul, Wing, Rutland.

Notes

References

*Don C. Allen, "The Classical Scholarship of Francis Meres" PMLA, XLVIII: 1 (March 1933), 418–425. Francis Meres and Tamia Palladis, ''Wits Treasury''. Printed by P. Short for Cuthbert Burbie. 1598. Facsimile Reprint of the Church copy in the Henry E. Huntington Library. Introduction by Don C. Allen *Gerald Eades Bentley, " John Cotgrave's English Treasury of Wit and Language and the Elizabethan Drama" Studies in Philology, Vol. XL, 1943 * * * Attribution: * {{DEFAULTSORT:Meres, Francis 1565 births 1647 deaths 17th-century English Anglican priests Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge People from Kirton, Lincolnshire 16th-century English clergy People from Wing, Rutland