Francis Meres was an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
churchman and
authorAn author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
.
He was born at
KirtonKirton, or Kirton in Holland is a village and civil parish within the Borough of Boston, in Lincolnshire, England.-Geography:Kirton is on the A16, B1397 and B1192 south of Boston, near Frampton and Sutterton. Several satellite villages and hamlets take their name from Kirton, including Kirton...
in the
Holland divisionHolland is an area of south-east Lincolnshire, England. The name is still recognised locally and survives in the district of South Holland.-Administration:...
of
LincolnshireLincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
in 1565. He was educated at
Pembroke College, CambridgePembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college has over seven hundred students and fellows, and is the third oldest college of the university. Physically, it is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from almost every century since its...
, where he received a B.A. in 1587 and an M.A. in 1591. Two years later he was incorporated an M.A. of
OxfordThe University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
. His relative, John Meres, was high sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1596, and apparently helped him in the early part of his career. In 1602 he became rector of
WingWing is a small village and civil parish in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England.-Architecture:The 17th-century houses in Wing were built from stone quarried at nearby Barnack and Clipsham. Many are roofed with Collyweston stone slate....
in
RutlandRutland is a landlocked county in central England, bounded on the west and north by Leicestershire, northeast by Lincolnshire and southeast by Peterborough and Northamptonshire....
, where he also ran a school.
Meres is especially well known for his
Palladis Tamia, Wits TreasuryPalladis Tamia, subtitled "Wits Treasury", is a 1598 book written by the minister Francis Meres. Meres calls it "A Comparative Discourse of our English Poets, with the Greek, Latin, and Italian Poets", and is important in English literary history as the first critical account of the poems and early...
(1598), a commonplace book that is important as a source on the Elizabethan poets, and more particularly because it is the first critical account of the poems and early plays of William Shakespeare. Its list of Shakespeare's plays is an important source for establishing their
chronologyThis article presents a possible chronological listing of the plays of William Shakespeare.-Difficulty of creating a precise chronology:Shakespearean scholars, beginning with Edmond Malone in 1790, have attempted to reconstruct the plays' relative chronology by various means, primarily using...
. A sermon entitled
Gods Arithmeticke (1597), and two translations from the Spanish of Luís de Granada entitled
Granada's Devotion and the Sinners' Guide (1598) complete Meres' list of works.
External links