John Quarles


John Quarles was an English poet.

Life

One of the eighteen children of Francis Quarles, Quarles may have been born in Essex in 1624. He was educated under the care of Archbishop James Ussher. Quarles matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford, on 9 February 1643, but does not seem to have taken a degree.
During the English Civil War, Quarles joined the Royalist cause and served as a soldier at the garrison at Oxford, England. After the Parliamentarian victory, Quarles was first imprisoned and later banished from England. While in banishment in Flanders he wrote the poems contained in his first published volume, Fons Lachrymarum.
Quarles was back in England in 1648, but his "occasions beyond sea" compelled him to leave again in 1649. The date of his final return to England is unknown.
Towards the end of his life Quarles became impoverished, surviving off his literary work. In 1665, he died during the Great Plague of London.

Works

The published works of Quarles are:
There is nothing in the book to show that this last item, a translation entirely in the manner of Quarles, is a posthumous publication, but the date of his death given above is confirmed by William Winstanley, who was apparently acquainted with at least one member of his family. Quarles also wrote a prose preface to John Hall's Emblems, 1648, and contributed verses to Thomas Fuller's Abel Redevivus.