(Brother of Phineas Fletcher.) Born, probably in London, about 1588. Probably educated at Westminster School. To Cambridge, 1602 (?). Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, 12 April 1605; B.A., 1606; Minor Fellow of Trinity College, 17 Sept. 1608. Reader in Greek Grammar, 1615; Reader in Greek Language, 1618. Ordained, 1618. Rector of Alderton, Suffolk. Died, 1623. Works: “Christ’s Victorie and Triumph,” 1610; “The Reward of the Faithfull,” 1623; “Licia” (anon.), (1593). Collected Poems: ed. by A. B. Grosart, 1868.
The Spenser of this age.
Equally beloved of the muses and graces.
A poem [“Christ’s Victory”] rich and picturesque, and on a much happier subject than that of his brother, yet unenlivened by personification.
Giles, inferior as he is to Spenser and Milton, might be figured, in his happiest moments, as a link of connection in our poetry between those congenial spirits, for he reminds us of both, and evidently gave hints to the latter in a poem on the same subject with “Paradise Regained.”
Giles seems to have more vigor than his elder brother, but less sweetness, less smoothness, and more affectation in his style. This indeed, is deformed by words neither English nor Latin, but simply barbarous; such as elamping, eblazon, deprostrate, purpured, glitterand, and many others. They both bear much resemblance to Spenser. Giles sometimes ventures to cope with him, even in celebrated passages, such as the description of the Cave of Despair. And he has had the honor, in turn, of being followed by Milton, especially in the first meeting of our Saviour with Satan, in the “Paradise Regained.” Both of these brothers are deserving of much praise: they were endowed with minds eminently poetical, and not inferior in imagination to any of their contemporaries. But an injudicious taste, and an excessive fondness for a style which the public was rapidly abandoning,—that of allegorical personification,—prevented their powers from being effectively displayed.
His poem of “Christ’s Victory and Triumph,” in parts almost sublime, in parts almost puerile, is a proof that imaginative fertility may exist in a mind with little imaginative grasp. Campbell, however, considers him a connecting link between Spenser and Milton.
The intensity of the Poets’ own Love and Faith, Hope and Graciousness lies over his Poem—like a bar of sunlight—as one has seen such shattering itself in dazzling glory against a heath-purpled mountain-side. In unexpected turns, in equally unexpected places, you are reminded that you have no mere Singer working artistically but a “Saint”—in the Bible not Mediæval-Papistical meaning—pouring out the glad Worship of his whole nature—a nature rich of faculty in itself and enriched with celestial riches. This inworking into the very “stuff” of his Poem, of his own personality—imparts a tender humanness to it: and came of that brave self-estimate or in another sense fine naturalness, which belongs to the greatest of our great names among those who have insight,—SHAKESPEARE, and touchingly BACON, MILTON, SIR THOMAS BROWNE. Approve or condemn, accept or reject, it is something to feel as you read that a man’s own warm blood, not the mere ink of his pen, flows and thrills through his book.
There is a massive grandeur and earnestness about “Christ’s Victory” which strikes the imagination.
Giles Fletcher is eminently a religious poet—in the technical sense of the word, as happily also in the more general sense. He deals with Christian themes: “Christ’s Victory in Heaven,” “Christ’s Victory on Earth,” “Christ’s Triumph over Death,” “Christ’s Triumph after Death;” and it is his special distinction, that in handling such themes he does not sink into a mere rhyming dogmatist, but writes with a genuine enthusiasm and joy…. Giles Fletcher’s success as a “religious” poet, so far as he succeeds, is due first to the selection of themes which he makes, and secondly to the genuine religious ardour that inspired him. He delighted to contemplate the career of the central Hero of his Christian faith and love—His ineffable self-sacrifice, His leading captivity captive, His complete and irreversible triumph. That career he conceived and beheld vividly and intensely with a pure unalloyed acceptance; it thrilled and inspired him with a real passion of worship and delight. So blissfully enthralled and enraptured, what else could he sing of? His heart was hot within him; while he was musing, the fire burned; then spake he with his tongue. It was the tongue of one highly cultured and accomplished, of a rich and clear imagination, with a natural gift of eloquence, with a fine sense of melody, and metrical skill to express it.
Fletcher tells the story of Christ’s life with many digressions, and concludes with an affectionate reference to the poetic work of his brother Phineas, whom he calls “Young Thyrsilis.” His admiration of Spenser is very apparent. Allegorical descriptions of vices and virtues abound in his poem. There is a wealth of effective imagery, with which the occasional simplicity of some passages descriptive of natural scenery contrasts attractively. But exaggerated Spenserian characteristics mar the success of the work as a whole.
“Licia” is what a typical sonnet-cycle ought to be, a delicate and almost intangible thread of story on which are strung the separate sonnet-pearls. In this case the jewels have a particular finish. Fletcher has adopted the idea of a series of quatrains, often extending the number to four, and a concluding couplet, which he seems fond of utilising to give an epigrammatic finish to the ingenious incident he so often makes the subject of the sonnet. He is fully in the spirit of the Italian mode, however, acknowledging in his title page his indebtedness to poets of other nationalities than his own.
He was the author of the finest religious poem produced in English literature between the “Vision of Piers Plowman” and “Paradise Lost.” In several passages of his fourfold “Christ’s Victory and Triumph” (1610) Giles Fletcher solved the difficult problem of how to be at once gorgeous and yet simple, majestic and yet touching. At his apogee he surpasses his very master, for his imagination lifts him to a spiritual sublimity. In the beatific vision in his fourth canto we are reminded of no lesser poem than the “Paradiso.” It is right to say that these splendours are not sustained, and that Giles Fletcher is often florid and sometimes merely trivial. The sonorous purity and elevation of Giles Fletcher at his best give more than a hint of the approaching Milton, and he represents the Spenserian tradition at its very highest.
