Browne, WILLIAM

Browne, WILLIAM, English pastoral poet, was born at Tavistock in 1591. He had his education at Exeter College, Oxford, was next a student at the Inner Temple, then tutor to Robert Dormer, the future Earl of Carnarvon. According to Wood he was taken into the household of the Herberts at Wilton, where he 'got wealth and purchased an estate.' But little is known of his life. He was living at Dorking about the close of 1640, and seems to have died about 1643. His great work was Britannia's Pastorals (books i. ii. 1613-16; reprinted 1625). Browne here shows a fine descriptive faculty, and rich poetry gleams through his quaint and tedious allegorising. A third book was printed by the Percy Society in 1852, and by W. C. Hazlitt in his collective edition of Browne's works for the Roxburghe Club (2 vols. 1868). The only other work that needs mention is The Shepherd's Pipe (1614), a collection of eclogues. Browne was read by Milton and Keats, and himself was a devoted imitator of Spenser.