Charles Fitzgeffrey
Charles Fitzgeffrey, born in 1576 in Cornwall, England, was a notable poet and academic associated with the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean literary scene. Following the death of his father, he was raised by his mother, who remarried into the Mohun family, providing Fitzgeffrey with influential connections in Cornwall. He attended the University of Oxford, where he earned his B.A. in 1596 or 1597 and his M.A. in 1600, later incorporating at Cambridge in 1617. Fitzgeffrey's literary career began with the publication of his poem "Sir Francis Drake: His Honourable Life's Commendation and his Tragicall Deathes Lamentation" in 1596, which garnered praise from contemporaries like critic Francis Meres. His body of work includes Latin epigrams and poems collected in "Caroli Fitzgeofridi affaniae," showcasing his engagement with authors such as Ben Jonson and Edmund Spenser. In 1603, he was appointed to the parish of St. Dominick's, a position he held until his death in 1638. Fitzgeffrey's life and work reflect the cultural and literary currents of his time, as well as the importance of familial and social ties in shaping his journey as a poet and scholar.
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Charles Fitzgeffrey
Writer
- Born: c. 1576
- Birthplace: Cornwall, England
- Died: February 24, 1638
Biography
Charles Fitzgeffrey was born in 1576 to Alexander Fitzgeffrey, rector of the parish of St. Fimbarrus at Foway, a port town on the southern coast of the county of Cornwall. At some point during Fitzgeffrey’s boyhood—records suggest that he must have been at least eight years of age—his father died. Fitzgeffrey’s widowed mother married a younger brother of Sir William Mohun, and Fitzgeffrey was welcomed into the Mohun family. Sir William Mohun became a paternal figure to Fitzgeffrey. In the epitaph composed for Mohun, Fitzgeffrey writes that Sir William had relieved his longing for his father. He further addresses Sir William’s sons as his full brothers rather than the half brothers—actually the adoptive cousins—that they were.
Sir William Mohun, paternal figure to Fitzgeffrey, was a member of a distinguished family and an important man in the county. The family traced its descent from William de Mohun, who arrived on British shores with William the Conquerer. In 1572 William Mohun was appointed sheriff. In 1584, when war with Spain broke out, he was made one of the two deputy lieutenants for Cornwall. It may be gleaned from the poet’s writing that this paternal figure, like his father, was taken from him at an early age. It seems that he was not living when Fitzgeffrey entered Oxford. Fitzgeffrey’s epitaph suggests that Mohun died at sea. Fitzgeffrey’s assimilation into the Mohun family provided him access to Cornwall’s educated gentry, among whom he formed lifelong connections and friendships.
On July 6, 1593, Fitzgeffrey matriculated from Broadgates Hall of the University of Oxford. (Broadgates was refounded as Pembroke College in the next century.) He received his B.A. in 1596 or 1597 and his M.A. in 1600 and was incorporated at Cambridge in 1617. While little is known about Fitzgeffrey’s wife or their marriage, he is known to have had three sons, each of whom followed the academic path of their father—and of their grandfather before him. Fitzgeffrey’s energies while at Cambridge were divided between his studies and his literary pursuits. In 1596, the printer for the university, Joseph Barnes, published his poem Sir Francis Drake: His Honourable Life’s Commendation and his Tragicall Deathes Lamentation. Critic Francis Meres’s praise in his survey of contemporary English literature Palladis Tamia (1598)—his reference is to “yon Charles Fitz-Ieffrey, that high touring [that high-towering] Falcon”—and the inclusion of twenty passages of the poem in England’s Parnassus gave him early visibility as a poet.
Throughout the 1590’s, Fitzgeffrey was writing the Latin epigrams and other short poems that would be collected in Caroli Fitzgeofridi affaniae. (“Affaniae” is a non-classical word which means “trivial, trashy talk.”) His references to contemporary authors such as Thomas Campion, Sir Richard Carew, Michael Drayton, Ben Jonson, Sir Philip Sidney, and Edmund Spenser, in his Caroli Fitzgeofridi affaniae show that he spent much of his time at Oxford reading works that were not a part of the academic curriculum at that time. In 1603, Sir Anthony Rous, the father of two brothers with whom he had matriculated from Broadgates Hall, presented him with the living of St. Dominick’s, the parish of his seat at Halton on the Tamar River. Fitzgeffrey held this position until his death in 1638.