Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 20.djvu/234

 mentioned in Clerke's ‘Polimanteia’ (1595) among the leaders of English contemporary poetry under the disguise of ‘Watson's heire.’ Lodge, in his ‘Phillis’ (1593), wrote of Fraunce and Watson as ‘forebred brothers, who in their swan-like songs Amintas wept.’ Similarly Spenser refers to them jointly when, in the ‘Faerie Queene,’ he speaks of ‘Amyntas' wretched fate, to whom sweet poets' verse hath given endless date.’ Gabriel Harvey, in his ‘Foure Letters’ (1592), commends Fraunce and others to ‘the lovers of the muses … for their studious endeavours commendably employed in enriching and polishing their native tongue.’ George Peele, in his ‘Honour of the Garter’ (1593), describes ‘our English Fraunce’ as ‘a peerless sweet translator of our time.’ Meres, in his ‘Palladis Tamia’ (1598), names Fraunce with Sidney, Spenser, and others as ‘the best for pastoral.’ Ben Jonson, with characteristic brusqueness, told Drummond of Hawthornden ‘that Abram Francis in his English hexameters was a fool’ (Conversations, p. 4).

Fraunce's earliest published work was the translation of Thomas Watson's ‘Amyntas,’ 1585, which he entitled ‘The Lamentations of Amintas for the Death of Phillis; paraphrastically translated out of Latine into English Hexameteres,’ London, by John Wolfe for Thomas Newman and Thomas Gubbin, 1587; by Walter Charlewood, 1588. It was also republished in 1589, and an edition dated 1596 belongs to Sir Charles Isham. It is in the form of eleven eclogues, each called a ‘day.’ In 1591 appeared ‘The Countesse of Pembrokes Yuychurch, conteining the affectionate life and unfortunate death of Phillis and Amyntas. That in a Pastorall: this in a Funerall: both in English Hexameters,’ London, by Thomas Orwyn for William Ponsonby. In the dedication to the Countess of Pembroke, Fraunce writes: ‘I haue somewhat altered S. Tassoes Italian and M. Watsons Latine “Amyntas” to make them both one English.’ The pastoral which opens the volume is translated directly from Tasso's ‘Aminta.’ The second part, ‘Phillis Funeral,’ is a republication of Fraunce's older translation of Watson's ‘Amyntas’—‘The Lamentations of Amintas.’ The eclogues here number twelve, the last one of the earlier edition being divided into two, and there are a few other alterations in the concluding lines. Robert Greene, in the dedicatory epistle to his ‘Philomela: the Lady Fitzwaters Nightingale,’ 1615, justifies his own title by Fraunce's example in giving to his ‘Lamentations of Amintas’ the title of ‘The Countess of Pembrokes Ivychurch.’ There follow in the same volume, all in hexameters: ‘The Lamentation of Corydon for the loue of Alexis, verse for verse out of Latine,’ from Virgil's Eclogue II (reprinted from Fraunce's ‘Lawier's Logike,’ 1588), and ‘The Beginning of Heliodorus, his Aethiopical History.’ In 1592 was published ‘The Third Part of the Countesse of Pembrokes Iuychurch, entituled Amintas Dale, wherein are the most conceited tales of the Pagan Gods in English Hexameters, together with the ancient descriptions and philosophical explications,’ London, for Thomas Woodcocke. This was dedicated to the Countess of Pembroke, is in both verse and prose, and resembles in plan Sidney's ‘Arcadia.’ A companion volume to this series was ‘The Countess of Pembrokes Emanuel: conteining the Natiuity, Passion, Burial, and Resurrection of Christ, togeather with certaine Psalmes of Dauid. All in English Hexameters,’ London, for William Ponsonby, 1591; also dedicated (in two hexameter lines) to the Countess Mary. Eight psalms are reduced to hexameters. Dr. Grosart reprinted this volume in his ‘Fuller Worthies' Miscellanies,’ vol. iii., 1872.

Fraunce's other works were: 1. ‘Abrahami Fransi Insignium, Armorum, Emblematum, Hieroglyphicorum, et Symbolorum, quæ in Italia Imprese nominantur, explicatio: Quæ Symbolicæ Philosophicæ postrema pars est,’ London, 1588. Dedicated to Robert Sidney, Sir Philip's brother. The original manuscript is in Bodleian MS. Rawl. Poet. 85. 2. ‘The Arcadian Rhetorike, or the Precepts of Rhetorike made plaine by examples Greeke, Latin, English, Italian, French, Spanish, out of Homer's Ilias and Odissea, Virgil's Æglogs, Georgikes & Aeneis, Songs & Sonets, Torquato Tassoes Goffredo, Aminta, Torrismondo Salust his Iudith, and both his semaines Boscan & Garcilassoes sonets and Æglogs,’ London, by Thomas Orwin, 1588 (entered in Stationers' Registers 11 June). A copy is in the Bodleian; none is in the British Museum. Fraunce here quotes the unpublished ‘Faerie Queene.’ 3. ‘The Lawiers Logike, exemplifying the praecepts of Logike by the practice of the Common lawe,’ London, 1588 (entered in Stationers' Registers 20 May 1588, when Fraunce's own name appears with the licensers, the bishop of London and the warden of the company). Dedicated to the Earl of Pembroke in rhymed hexameters. Quotations from Latin and English poets appear in the text, and Fraunce appends Virgil's second eclogue in the original and in his own hexametrical translation, afterwards reprinted at the end of the ‘Ivychurch,’ as well as analyses of the Earl of Northumberland's case and of Stanford's crown pleas. A manu-