| AdminHistory | Born in Shropshire and went to Shrewsbury School, where his name is on the register for January 1572. He matriculated as a pensioner at St John's College, Cambridge, on 20 May 1575. On 8 November 1575 he was made a Lady Margaret scholar of his college; he graduated BA in 1580 and in the same year was elected one of its fellows. He commenced MA in 1583. In 1578 and 1579 he acted in Hymenaeus (author unknown, although some have suggested Fraunce himself; Nelson, 2.906) and in Thomas Legge's trilogy Richardus tertius. At some time before 1583 he wrote Victoria, a Latin comedy modelled on Luigi Pasqualigo's 'Il fedele' (1576).
Immediately after his university studies Fraunce began the study of law, having enrolled on 5 June 1583 at Gray's Inn; on 8 February 1588 he was called to the bar. He then returned to Shropshire, where he practised at the court of the marches of Wales (this prerogative court for the border areas, established by Henry VIII, was located in Shrewsbury). There is a letter (BL, Harley 6995, item 35) of 11 August 1590, in which Henry Herbert, second earl of Pembroke, has written to the lord treasurer, recommending Fraunce as the queen's solicitor in the court, but the suit was unsuccessful.
While a student, and later while working in the law, Fraunce was also a prolific author, skilled at summarizing or re-presenting the work of classical or continental writers to an English audience. His works of poetry, philosophy, emblematics, and mythology are all popularizations, yet imaginative and creative none the less. All his writing was dedicated to members of Sir Philip Sidney's circle: Sidney himself, his sister Mary and brother Robert, Mary's husband the earl of Pembroke, or their friend Edward Dyer. The patronage may have had its origins at Shrewsbury School, to which Philip Sidney had also gone. It was cemented by Sidney's generosity to Fraunce in his years at university; in the letter of 1590 Pembroke says of Fraunce that he was bred up by my brother Sir Phillip Sidney long in Cambridge. The manuscript of the play "Victoria" is dedicated to Sidney (it is on deposit from Penshurst at the Kent Archives as MS, U1475/Z15). In addition there is, also with Sidney as the named recipient, a Tractatus de usu dialectices, with Emblemata varia, ad principes Europae et rem historicam spectantia, calamo bene depicta, et versibus latinis illustrata (Bodl. Oxf., MS Rawl. D. 345). The first part is a short treatise on dialectic, closely following the work of Pierre de la Rame (Petrus Ramus), the French philosopher whose work was very much in vogue in the Sidney circle, to some extent because of Fraunce's own writing. The second part is a series of devices of well-known historical figures, with discussion; this follows the work of Paolo Giovio, the Italian bishop and scholar. Another manuscript (BL, Add. MS 34361) is dedicated to Edward Dyer. This work is also an abbreviated attempt to explain the dialectic of Ramus, this time using literary examples from Spenser's 'Shepheardes Calender' (1579).
Fraunce's first published work, a translation of Thomas Watson's 'Amyntas' (1585), was 'The lamentations of Amuntas for the death of Phillis; paraphrastically translated out of Latine into English hexameteres' (1587). This work, which neglects to name Watson as the author, was more popular than the original work and went through at least four editions before 1600. It, and all Fraunce's subsequent English verse, was written in verse form imitative of the classical hexameter. The experiment in hindsight seems doomed but at the time it was considered by many writers to be an interesting direction. In 1588 Fraunce published his 'Insignium, armorum, emblematum, hieroglyphicorum, et symbolorum, quae in Italia imprese nominantur, explicatio: quae symbolicae philosophicae postrema pars est' (entered in the Stationers' register, 20 May 1588). This was dedicated to Robert Sidney. It is, as the title correctly describes it, a treatise on the nature of emblems and other devices, and follows an interest established in the Rawlinson manuscript. There is an addendum, possibly an additional part, which is in manuscript: Symbolicae philosophiae liber quartus et ultimus (on deposit from Penshurst as MS U1475/Z16, Kent County Archive Office).
The Arcadian rhetoric, or, 'The precepts of rhetorike made plaine by examples Greeke, Latin, English, Italian, French, Spanish' (1588; entered in the Stationers' register, 11 June) is a text on stylistic devices and uses many literary examples to exemplify them. In this Fraunce quotes from Spenser's unpublished 'Faerie queene: the lawiers logike, exemplifying the praecepts of logike by the practice of the common lawe' (1588; entered in the Stationers' register, 20 May) and follows the same Ramist method that he had used in his manuscripts, of providing literary examples to demonstrate principles of logic. Here, however, he expands the approach by using common law cases from Plowden and others.
There is a slight hiatus in Fraunce's publishing between 1588 and 1591. In the latter year appeared 'The countesse of Pembrokes Emanuel, conteining the nativity, passion, buriall, and resurrection of Christ: togeather with certaine psalmes of David, all in English hexameters', dedicated to Mary Sidney, countess of Pembroke. Then follows, also in 1591, 'The countesse of Pembrokes Yvychurch, conteining the affectionate life, and unfortunate death of Phillis and Amyntas: that in a pastorall; this in a funerall: both in English hexameters' (entered in the Stationers' register, 9 February). This work, as the title hints, is in two parts, the first a translation, somewhat modified, of Tasso's pastoral play Aminta, the second a modified and slightly expanded version of Fraunce's translation of Watson's Amyntas. Both works have been adjusted to make room for the countess of Pembroke to appear as a character. After this work comes what may be Fraunce's most imaginative work, 'The third part of the countesse of Pembrokes Yvychurch. Entituled, Amintas Dale, wherein are the most conceited tales of the pagan gods in English hexameters, together with their auncient descriptions and philosophicall explications' (1592). This is a series of explications of mythological narratives from Ovid's Metamorphoses, presented in a lively frame narrative that again features the countess of Pembroke. The work concludes with an amusing tale of three brothers who have offended the gods by their astrological predictionspossibly a satire of Richard, John, and Gabriel Harvey, all celebrated figures at Cambridge.
Fraunce's writings were well known to his contemporaries. His attempt to import classical verse forms into English brought scorn from Ben Jonson, who said to William Drummond of Hawthornden that That Abram Francis in his English Hexameters was a Foole (Jonson, Works, ed. C. H. Herford and P. Simpson, 192552, 1.133). Richard Barnfield parodies his style in the concluding section of his 'Affectionate Shepheard' (1594). Yet, others were more positive: Robert Greene openly imitates him in his 'Philomela' (1592), Nashe commends him as sweete Maister France in his preface to Robert Greene's 'Menaphon' (1589, sig. B2r), and even Gabriel Harvey, who may not have yet known of the satire in 'Amintas Dale', names Fraunce as one of those commendably employed in enriching, and polishing their native Tongue (G. Harvey, 'Foure Letters', 1592, sig. F4v). He is believed to be Corydon in Spenser's Colin Clouts Come Home Again (1595). In Francis Meres's 'Palladis tamia' (1598) he is said to be, after Sidney but in company with Spenser, Richard Barnfield, and others, amongst & the best (248r) in pastoral.
Because of an inaccurate report in Joseph Hunter's Chorus vatum (BL, Add. MS 24488, fol. 350) it was long believed that Fraunce lived out his years in Wales and died in 1633. But it appears that he was dead by 1593, for in the induction to his Phillis (1593, sig. Blr; cancelled in many copies) Thomas Lodge refers to two recently deceased poets who in theyr Swan-like songes Amintas wept, a probable allusion to Fraunce and the poet Thomas Watson (the authors of 'Amyntas'). It seems likely that Fraunce died in or near Shrewsbury in late 1592 or early 1593. |