FLETCHER, PHINEAS (1582-1650), English poet, elder son of Dr. Giles Fletcher, and brother of Giles the younger, no ticed above, was born at Cranbrook, Kent, and baptized on April 8, 1582. He was educated at Eton and King's college, Cambridge. His pastoral drama, Sicelides or Piscatory (pr. 1631) was written (1614) for performance before James I., but only produced after the king's departure at King's college. He became chaplain to Sir Henry Willoughby, who presented him in 1621 to the rectory of Hilgay, Norfolk, where he married and spent the rest of his life. In 1627 he published Locustae, vel Pietas Jesuitica. The Locusts or Apollyonists, two parallel poems in Latin and English attacking the Jesuits. An erotic poem, Brittains Ida (1628), bear ing Spenser's name, is included among his works by Dr. Grosart. In 1632 appeared two theological prose treatises, The Way to Blessedness and Joy in Tribulation, and in 1633 his magnum opus, The Purple Island. It included his Piscatorie Eclogs and other Poetical Miscellanies. He died in 1650, his will being proved on Dec. 13. The Purple Island, or the Isle of Man, is a poem in 12 cantos describing in cumbrous allegory the physiological structure of the human body and the mind of man. The manner of Spen ser is preserved throughout, and the chief charm of the poem lies in its descriptions of rural scenery. Some critics see in the alle gorist of The Purple Island a link between Spenser and Bunyan. The Piscatory Eclogues are pastorals the characters of which are represented as fisher boys on the banks of the Cam, and are in teresting for the light they cast on the biography of the poet himself (Thyrsil) and his father (Thelgon). The poetry of Phineas Fletcher has not the sublimity sometimes reached by his brother Giles. The mannerisms are more pronounced and the conceits more far-fetched, but the verse is fluent, and lacks neither colour nor music.
Editions of his works have been printed by Dr. A. B. Grosart (Fuller Worthies Library, 4 vols., 1869) and Prof. Boas (with those of Giles Fletcher, 2 vols., 1908-09) . See also H. E. Cory, Spenser, the School of the Fletchers, and Milton (Univ. of California Publica tions, No. 5, 1912) .