Robert Codrington (c.1602–c.1665) was an English writer, known as a translator.

Life

From a

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

family, Codrington was elected a demy of

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by Bishop of Winchester William of Waynflete. It is one of the wealthiest Oxford colleges, as of 2022, and ...

, 29 July 1619, at the age of 17, and took the degree of M.A. in 1626. After travelling, he returned home, married, and settled in

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

. In May 1641 he was imprisoned by the House of Commons for publishing an elegy on the

Earl of Strafford Earl of Strafford is a title that has been created three times in English and British history. The first creation was in the Peerage of England in January 1640 for Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, the 1st Viscount Wentworth, the clo ...

. In later life Codrington lived in London. According to Anthony Wood, he died in the Great Plague of 1665.

Works

Codrington was a prolific writer and translator. His best known work was the ''Life and Death of Robert, Earl of Essex'', London 1646, reprinted in the '' Harleian Miscellany''; Anthony Wood regarded it as a partisan parliamentarian work. It was compiled using contemporary pamphlets. He wrote also the following works: Translated from French: * ''Treatise of the Knowledge of God'', by Peter Du Moulin, London, 1634. * ''The Memorials of Margaret de Valois, first wife of Henry IV of France'', 1641, 1658, 1662. * ''The fifth book of Caussin's Holy Court'', London, 1650. * ''Heptameron; or, The History of the Fortunate Lovers'', by Margaret de Valois, London, 1654. * ''Shibboleth; or, The Reformation of Severall Places in the Translations of the French and of the English Bible: The Correction of Divers Common Opinions, History and other matters'', by J. D'Esparre, 1655. The British Museum Catalogue also attributed to him the translation of ''A Declaration sent to the King of France and Spain from the Catholiques and Rebells in Ireland'', 1642. Translated from Latin: *''The History of Justin, taken out of the four and forty books of Trogus Pompeius'', London, 1654, 1664, 1682. * Robert Sanderson's ''Several Cases of Conscience discussed'', 1660. *''Life and Death of Alexander the Great'', by Q. Curtius Rufus, London, 1661, 1670, 1673. *''Ignoramus, a Comedy'', London, 1662. John Sidney Hawkins, in his 1787 edition of this play, commented that Codrington had "preserved more of the satire, and even of the wit and humour of the original, than could well be expected". *''Prophecies of Christopher Kotterus'', London, 1664. He was also the author of the ''Life of Aesop'' in French and Latin, prefixed to Thomas Philipot's ''

Aesop's Fables Aesop's Fables, or the Aesopica, is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a Slavery in ancient Greece, slave and storyteller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 Before the Common Era, BCE. Of varied and unclear origins, the stor ...

'' (1666), and translated ''The Troublesome and Hard Adventures in Love'' (1652), attributed to

Miguel de Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra ( ; ; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was a Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelist ...

. Codrington's English works were: * A revised edition of Lodowick Lloyd's ''Pilgrimage of Princes'', under the title ''The Marrow of History, or the Pilgrimage of Kings and Princes'', 1653. * A second part added to Francis Hawkins's ''Youth's Behaviour'', 1664 and 1672, with a collection of proverbs that was also published separately in 1672. * ''Prayers and Graces'' attached to Francis Seager's ''School of Virtue'', 1620 (according to William Carew Hazlitt). * ''His Majesty's Propriety and Dominion on the British Seas asserted, together with a true account of the Netherlanders' insupportable Insolencies'', 1665. ''The Happy Mind, or a compendious direction to attain to the same'', London, 1640, is attributed to him, and the following poems: ''Seneca's Book of Consolation to Marcia'', translated into an English poem, 1635 (Hazlitt); ''An Elegy to the Memory of Margaret, Lady Smith'' (Hazlitt); and ''An Elegy to the Memory of Elizabeth, Lady Ducey'' (manuscript, Hazlitt).

Notes

External links

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Codrington, Robert 1665 deaths English male non-fiction writers English male poets 17th-century English translators Year of birth uncertain