BY FRANCIS QUARLES. Life and Times of the Author. LONDON: SOLD BY WILLIAM TEGG AND CO., 1859. 280. S. 132. FEW MEMOIR. EW men have written fo much, enjoyed greater popularity in their time, and yet been more undeservedly neglected by contemporary and fucceeding writers, as the pious-minded author of "Emblems, Divine and Moral." With the exception of a few biographical data, embalmed by his affectionate and "forrowful widow" Urfula, and which fhe prefixed to one of his pofthumous works,* little additional information respecting him has reached us, His numerous publications- confifting principally of poetical paraphrafes of the Scriptures-enable us to form a juft eftimate of his religious character and tenets; but otherwife they afford us no infight whatever, either into his own personal history, or that of the stirring period in which it was his lot to be caft. He appears to have taken no decided part in that great political struggle, which divided this kingdom in the seventeenth century, and which completed his own ruin, as well as that of his fovereign, until a few months only preceding his death. His naturally ftudious and peaceful temper of mind was ill calculated "A Short Relation of the Life and Death of Mr. Francis Quarles, by Urfula Quarles, his forrowful Widow," prefixed to his "Solomon's Recantation," entitled, "Ecclefiaftes Paraphrased." 4to. Lond. 1645. |