Flecknoe, Richard

(d. 1678?)

   Although it is not certain, it is thought he was a Jesuit priest of Irish extraction. He traveled extensively between 1640 and 1648, visiting the Low Countries; Rome, Istanbul, Portugal and Brazil. He was known by the nickname of "Langbaine" because of his long, lean frame. John Dryden (see entry) lampooned him in his hostile MacFlecknoe (1682); however, Robert Southey and Charles Lamb (see entries) praised his work. He wrote many plays as well as poetry. There is no record of the circumstances of his death. Some of his publications (with shortened titles): Hierothalamium..., 1626. The Affections of a Pious Soule..., 1640. Miscellania, or Poems of All Sorts..., 1653. Love's Dominion, 1654 (a play). Relation of Ten Years' Travels in Europe, Asia, Affrique, and America, 1654. Ariadne, 1654 (possibly the first English opera). The Diarium or Journal..., 1656. Sketches in Enigmatical Characters..., 1658. The Marriage of Oceanus and Britannia, 1659. Sir William Davenant's Voyage to the Other World, 1668. Poems in Epigrams of All Sorts, 1670. Some of his poems: "Invocation of Silence," "On the Death of Our Lord," "The Ant."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. Songs from the British Drama. Edward Bliss Reed, ed. Yale University Press, 1925. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The New Oxford Book of Seventeenth Century Verse. Alastair Fowler, ed. Oxford University Press, 1991. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. Treasury of Irish Religious Verse. Patrick Murray, ed. Crossroad, 1986.