In the First of the Piscatory Eclogues, which Phineas Fletcher included in the Volume containing his Purple Island, printed at Cambridge in 1633 in 4to; he clearly describes, in the person of Thelgon, the career of his father, Giles Fletcher the Elder, LL.D.: who went English Ambassador to Muscovy; and, on his return home, published, in 1591, a book entitled Of the Russ Common Wealth; which was quickly suppressed, lest it might give offence to the Czar.
The Ninth Stanza of this First Piscatory Eclogue thus begins:
And whether Nature, joined with Art, had wrought me; Or I too much believed the Fisher's praise; Or whether Phœbus self, or Muses, taught me; Too much inclined to Verse and music Plays: So far credulity and youth had brought me, I sang....
Thelgon then specifies the subjects of his Latin and English Poems: amongst which, in the next Stanza, occurs this line:
And raised my rhyme to sing of Richard's climbing.
Upon this allusion the authorship of Licia is ascribed to Phineas Fletcher's father.
The original edition of these Poems is undated. It was printed (? privately printed) however about September 1593; as will be seen from the date on pages 419, 423.
Ad Amorem.
Si cœlum patria est puer beatum, Si vero peperit Venus benigna, Si Nectar tibi Massicum ministrat; Si sancta Ambrosia est cibus petitus, Quid noctes habitas, diesque mecum? Quid victum face supplicemque aduris? Quid longam lachrimis sitim repellis? Quid nostræ dape pasceris medullæ? O vere rabidum genus færarum: O domo stige patriaque digne: Jam levis sumus umbra, quid lacessis?
Ad Lectorem.
Non convitia, nec latrationes, Nec Ronchos timeo, calumniasve, Nec ullos obelos severiores. Non quod judicio meo Poeta Sim tantus, nihil ut queat reprehendi: Sed quod judicio meo Poeta Sim tam ridiculus, parumque doctus, Ut nullum fore judicem eruditum, Meos carpere qui velit labores: Nam quis Æthiopem velit lavare?