Fletcher, Robert

(fl. 1586)

   He appears to have come from Warwickshire and graduated B.A. (1564) and M.A. (1567) from Merton College, Oxford. On account of some misdemeanor he was asked to leave and renounce his fellowship. He became a schoolmaster at Taunton, Somerset, and afterwards a preacher, though there is no record of his being ordained. He wrote many epigrams and short poems. His known publications: An Introduction to the Looue of God (shortened title), 1581. The Song of Solomon, 1586. The Nine English Worthies 1606 (from Henry I [1100-35] to Prince Henry [1594-1612], son of James I; a brief life of each monarch in prose is followed by an epitaph in verse, except in the last case, where the life is wholly in verse). Some of his poems: "A Sing-song on Clarinda's Wedding," "Degenerate Love and Choyce," "May Day," "The Engagement Stated," "The Model of the New Religion," "The Myrtle Grove," "Upon the Death of John Selden," "Some of His Epigrams: 24, in Candidum," "31, Ad Rufinum," "44, in Sextum," "60, De Curiatio," "75, in Lupercum," "78, in Uarum," "95, in Nævolum."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. See his poems and epigrams in English Poetry: Author Search. ChadwyckHealey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html).