Francis Meres
Francis Meres wrote a book in 1598 that changed how we understand William Shakespeare. At the time, Shakespeare was a working playwright in his mid-thirties. No one had yet tried to catalog his plays, assess his poems, or place him alongside the great writers of history. Meres did all three in a single chapter of a commonplace book called Palladis Tamia, Wits Treasury. What drove a Lincolnshire-born churchman and schoolmaster to write the first critical account of Shakespeare's work? And why does that account still matter more than four centuries later?
Meres was born in 1565 at Kirton Meres, in the parish of Kirton, Lincolnshire. He took his BA from Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1587, and his MA there in 1591. Two years after that, Oxford incorporated him as an MA as well, a credential that gave him standing in both of England's great university towns. His relative John Meres served as high sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1596, and that family connection appears to have smoothed Meres's early career. By 1602 he had settled into the rectorship of Wing in Rutland, where he also ran a school. The educational household he built proved durable: both his son Francis and his grandson Edward earned their BA and MA from Cambridge and went on to become rectors themselves.
Palladis Tamia, Wits Treasury appeared in 1598, the same year Meres published two other works. Its chapter titled "Comparative Discourse of our English poets with the Greeke, Latin, and Italian poets" is the piece that secured Meres's place in literary history. Working through the English poets from Chaucer up to his own day, Meres paired each one with a classical counterpart, measuring English literary achievement against the ancient world. Shakespeare was among those enumerated, and Meres listed his plays in a way that has since helped scholars establish the chronology of the early works. The list names plays that might otherwise have been difficult to date, giving researchers a firm point before which those works must have existed. Beyond Shakespeare, the Palladis Tamia gathered moral and critical reflections from a range of sources, and organized them into sections on books, philosophy, music, and painting.
A year before the Palladis Tamia, Meres published a sermon called Gods Arithmeticke in 1597. In 1598, alongside his famous commonplace book, he issued two translations drawn from the Spanish of Luis de Granada: Granada's Devotion and The Sinners' Guide. These translations show the breadth of his reading and his comfort moving between languages. His output across those two years was substantial for a man who was also managing a parish and, soon after, a school.
Meres married a woman named Mary, born in 1576 or 1577, whose maiden name has not survived. Their son Francis was born in 1607. Mary died in 1631, and Meres himself died on the 29th of January 1647, buried at the parish Church of St Peter and St Paul in Wing, Rutland. One piece of his biography generated scholarly dispute: in her 1904 study Shakespeare's Sonnets, Charlotte Stopes claimed that Meres was the brother-in-law of the Italian-English lexicographer John Florio. Investigations by George Greenwood later suggested that Stopes had erred in making that connection. The claim has not been established, but it points to a long-running effort by scholars to map the social world Shakespeare and his contemporaries moved through, a world in which Meres, through the Palladis Tamia, holds a permanent and documented place.
Common questions
Who was Francis Meres and why is he important to Shakespeare studies?
Francis Meres was an English churchman and author born in 1565 in Lincolnshire. His 1598 commonplace book, Palladis Tamia, Wits Treasury, contains the first critical account of Shakespeare's poems and early plays, and its list of plays has helped scholars establish their chronology.
What is Palladis Tamia by Francis Meres?
Palladis Tamia, Wits Treasury is a commonplace book published by Francis Meres in 1598. It includes moral and critical reflections, sections on books, philosophy, music, and painting, and a chapter comparing English poets from Chaucer onward with classical Greek, Latin, and Italian writers.
Where was Francis Meres educated?
Francis Meres was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he received a BA in 1587 and an MA in 1591. Oxford subsequently incorporated him as an MA two years after that.
What other books did Francis Meres write besides Palladis Tamia?
Meres published a sermon called Gods Arithmeticke in 1597, and in 1598 he issued two translations from the Spanish of Luis de Granada: Granada's Devotion and The Sinners' Guide.
Where did Francis Meres serve as a rector?
From 1602, Francis Meres served as rector of Wing in Rutland. He also ran a school there and was buried at the parish Church of St Peter and St Paul in Wing when he died on the 29th of January 1647.
Was Francis Meres related to John Florio?
Charlotte Stopes claimed in her 1904 study Shakespeare's Sonnets that Meres was the brother-in-law of John Florio, but George Greenwood's subsequent investigations suggest that claim was an error.