Harrington,

Harrington, SIR JOHN, born in 1561 at his father's seat of Kelston, near Bath, studied at Eton and Christ's College, Cambridge, and afterwards was attached to the court of Queen Elizabeth, who had been his god-mother. His wit brought him into much favour, which he endangered by the freedom and the political allusions of his satires. In 1599 he served under Essex in Ireland, and was knighted by him on the field, much to the queen's displeasure. To fortify his application to King James for the office of Chancellor-archbishop of Ireland he composed, in 1605, A Short View of the State of Ireland, a most interesting and singularly modern essay (first edited by Rev. W. Dunn Macray, 1880). He died of dropsy in December 1612. He is now remembered chiefly as the translator of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso (1591) into English verse. His other writings were some Rabelaisian pamphlets, a number of fair epigrams, and A Brief View of the State of the Church, written for the Prince of Wales.