Fraunce, Abraham

(fl. 1587-1633)

   Born in Shropshire, he was educated at Shrewsbury School. Sir Philip Sidney, a former pupil at Shrewsbury, sent him to St. John's College, Cambridge, from where he graduated M.A. in 1583. He was called to the bar at Gray's Inn and practiced in Wales. When Sidney died in 1586, Sidney's sister Mary, countess of Pembroke, took Fraunce under her patronage and to her he dedicated several of his works. He entered the service of John Egerton, first earl of Bridgewater, who became president of the council of Wales in 1631. Fraunce's earliest published work was the translation of Thomas Watson's (see entry) Amyntas (1585), which he entitled The Lamentations of Amintas; it is in the form of eleven eclogues, each called a "day." He contributed to Allot's English Parnassus (1600) and five songs at the close of Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophel and Stella (1591). His other major publications: Victoria, 1579, (a Latin comedy. The Arcadian Rhetorike, 1588. The Lawiers Logike, 1588. The Countesse of Pembrokes Emanuel, 1591. The Countesse of Pembrokes Yuychurch, 1591. The Third part of the Countesse of Pembrokes Yuychurch, 1592.

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). Great Books Online (www.bartleby.com). Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources (http://library.stanford.edu). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia).