Phineas Fletcher
baptized April 8, 1582, Cranbrook,
Kent, England
died 1650, Hilgay, Norfolk
English poet best known for his religious and
scientific poem The Purple Island.
He was the elder son of Giles Fletcher the Elder
and brother of Giles Fletcher the Younger. He
was educated at Eton and at King’s College,
Cambridge. Fletcher became chaplain to Sir Henry
Willoughby, who presented him in 1621 to the
rectory of Hilgay, Norfolk, where he spent the
rest of his life.
His greatest work, The Purple Island, was
published in 1633. It included the Piscatorie
Eclogs and other Poetical Miscellanies. The
Purple Island: or the Isle of Man, is a poem in
12 cantos describing allegorically the human
physiology and soul. The manner of Edmund
Spenser is employed throughout, and the chief
charm of the poem is considered by critics to be
its descriptions of rural scenery. The
Piscatorie Eclogs are pastorals, the characters
of which are represented as fisherboys on the
banks of the Cam, and are interesting for the
light they cast on the biography of the poet
himself (Thyrsil) and his father (Thelgon), and
on Phineas’ friendship with Cambridge men.
Fletcher’s poetry has not the sublimity
sometimes reached by his brother Giles.
