FLATMAN, THOMAS (1637-1688), poet and miniature painter, was educated at Winchester (1649-54) and New college, Oxford (1654-56) . He left Oxford without a degree in 1657, having been made fellow of his college in the previous year. In 1666 he was created M.A. of Cambridge by the king's letters.
As a miniature painter he is highly esteemed by modern critics, but only a few of his poems have survived in anthologies. He died in London, on Dec. 8, 1688. His collected works first appeared in 1674, as Poems and Songs, and an enlarged edition in 1686; many of his verses, however, were printed separately, the most notable being "A Thought of Death" (imitated by Pope) ; "Death, a Song" ; and "Hymn for Morning." Montelion's Al manack for 1661 and 1662 and a mock romance, Don Juan Lam berto, have also been ascribed to Flatman, by Wood.
See Anthony a Wood, Athenae Oxonienses, vol. iv. (edit. P. Bliss, 4 vols., 1813-2o) ; H. Walpole, Anecdotes of Painting (1762-71, later ed. 1879) ; S. Redgrave, Dictionary of Artists (new ed. rev. 1878) ; also F. A. Child, Life and Uncollected Poems of T. Flatman (Phila delphia, 1921) .