Unto my Muse, that nere before could fly,
And taught her tune these harsh discordant strings
A note above her rurall minstrelsy,
Live in himselfe, and I in him may live;
Thine eyes to both vitality shall give."[621:B]
Beside his volume on Drake, Fitzgeffrey was the author of a collection of Latin epigrams, in three books, under the title of Affaniæ, printed in 8vo., 1601, and of a religious poem, called "The Blessed Birth-day," 1634, 4to. He lived highly respected both as a poet and divine, and died at his parsonage-house in 1636-7.
16. Fletcher, Giles, the elder brother of Phineas Fletcher, was born in 1588, took the degree of bachelor of divinity at Oxford, and died at his rectory of Alderton, in Suffolk, in 1623. The production which has given him a poet's fame, was published in 1610, under the title of "Christ's Victory and Triumph in Heaven and Earth over and after Death," Cambridge, 4to. It is written in stanzas of eight lines, and divided into four parts, under the appellations of Christs Victory in Heaven, his Triumph on Earth, his Triumph over Death, and his Triumph after Death.
This is a poem which exhibits strong powers of description, and a
great command of language; it is, however, occasionally sullied by conceits, and by a frequent play upon words, of which the initial stanza is a striking proof. Our author was an ardent admirer of Spenser, and has in many instances successfully imitated his picturesque mode of delineation, though he has avoided following him in the use of the prosopopeia.
17. Fletcher, Phineas, who surpassed his brother in poetical genius, took his bachelor's degree at King's College, Cambridge, in 1604, and his master's degree in 1608. Though his poems were not published until 1633, there is convincing proof that they were written before 1610; for Giles, at the close of his "Christ's Victory," printed in this year, thus beautifully alludes not only to his brother's Purple Island, but to his eclogues, as previous compositions:—