Francis Quarles

1592-1644. English poet. Born near Romford, he was educated at Cambridge, studied law at Lincoln's Inn, and held official positions in royal and episcopal service. In 1639 he became city chronologer of London. He supported the king in the Civil War and as a result suffered the loss by plunder of his manuscript collection. His works include A Feast for Worms (1620), Sion's Elegies (1625) and Divine Emblems (1635). Such fame as he has rests upon this last work. The emblems were drawn from two continental collections, Herman Hugo's Pia Desideria (1624) and Philippe de Mallery's Typus Mundi (1627). They form a version of the Bible moralized, in which Quarles includes a good deal of that paradoxical mode now often associated with the Metaphysical poets.