Giles Fletcher

Giles Fletcher (1588 – 1623)

1. Born in London in 1588. Brother of Phineas Fletcher and cousin of the dramatist John Fletcher.
2. Educated in Westminister School and Trinity College, Cambridge.
3. Became the reader in Greek grammar in 1615 and the reader in Greek language in 1618.
4. Like his elder brother he took the holy order and became Rector of Alderton in Suffolk.
5. Works:
   1. Christi Victorie and Triumph in Heaven and Earth over and after death
      1. This poem is written in eight line stanzas deriving from Edmund Spenser.
      2. WJ Courthope says, “The action of the first, Christ’s victory in heaven, brings towards the close of Christ’s actual life on Earth. Christ’s Victory on Earth is a fanciful version of the incidents of the Temptation; Christ’s triumph over the Death relates the Saviour’s Crucifixion and burial, christ’s triumph after death is a description of the resurrection and Ascension”
   2. Canto upon the Death of Eliza
   3. An Elegy upon Prince Henry’s Death
   4. A Description of Encolpius
      1. A short poem in rhyming couplets.
6. Edmund Gosse stated that Giles excels among the Spenserian school of poets and he even aims at “higher majesties of melody and imagination than Spenser attempted.”