John Owen (epigrammatist)
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John Owen (c. 1564 - 1622), was a Welsh epigrammatist.
He was born at Betws Garmon, near Snowdon, and was educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford, from where he graduated as Bachelor of Civil Law in 1590. He became head master of The King's School at Warwick around 1595, and his salary was doubled to £20 per year in 1614. On his death in 1622, John Owen was buried in the old St Paul's Cathedral, London.
His Latin epigrams, which have both sense and wit in a high degree, gained him much applause, and were translated into English, French, German, and Spanish. John Owen had started writing epigrams while at Winchester - indeed, education there was largely devoted to the production of them - and his were good enough by the time he reached 16 years of age to be used in a ceremony held when Queen Elizabeth I paid a state visit to Sir Francis Drake on his ship at Deptford, on his return from sailing around the world. John Owen started publishing his epigrams in 1606, whereupon they met with almost instant success throughout Europe and earned him the pseudonym of "The English Martial" (though in fact he was Welsh).
[edit] References
- Warwick School: A History (2004) by G N Frykman and E J Hadley. ISBN 0-946095-46-9
- This article incorporates public domain text from: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London, J.M. Dent & sons; New York, E.P. Dutton.
