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ALABASTER, or ARBLASTIER, WILLIAM (15...

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 466 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ALABASTER, or ARBLASTIER, See also:WILLIAM (1567-1640) , See also:English Latin poet and See also:scholar, was See also:born at See also:Hadleigh, See also:Suffolk, in 1567. He was, so See also:Fuller states, a See also:nephew by See also:marriage of Dr See also:John Still, See also:bishop of See also:Bath and See also:Wells. His surname, some-times written Arblastier, is one of the many variants of arbalester, a See also:cross-bowman. Alabaster was educated at See also:Westminster school, and entered Trinity See also:College, See also:Cambridge, in 1583. He became a See also:fellow, and in 1592 was incorporated of the university of See also:Oxford. About 1592 he produced at Trinity College his Latin tragedy of See also:Roxana.1 It is modelled on the tragedies of See also:Seneca, and is a stiff and spiritless See also:work. Fuller and See also:Anthony a See also:Wood bestowed exaggerated praise on it,while See also:Samuel See also:Johnson regarded it as the only Latin See also:verse worthy of See also:notice produced in See also:England before See also:Milton's elegies. Roxana is founded on the La Dalida (See also:Venice, 1567) of See also:Luigi Groto, known as Cieco di See also:Hadria, and See also:Hallam asserts that it is a See also:plagiarism (Literature of See also:Europe, iii. 54). A surreptitious edition in 1632 was followed by an authorized version a plagiarii unguibus vindicata, aucta et agnita ab Authore, Gulielmo Alabasteo.. One See also:book of an epic poem in Latin hexameters, in See also:honour of See also:Queen See also:Elizabeth, is preserved in MS. in the library of See also:Emmanuel College, Cambridge. This poem, Elisaeis, See also:Apotheosis poetica, See also:Spenser highly esteemed.

" Who lives that can match that heroick See also:

song?" he says in See also:Colin Clout's come See also:home againe, and begs " Cynthia " to withdraw the poet from his obscurity. In See also:June 1596 Alabaster sailed with See also:Robert Devereux, See also:earl of See also:Essex, on the expedition to See also:Cadiz in the capacity of See also:chaplain, and, while he was in See also:Spain, he became a See also:Roman See also:Catholic. An See also:account of his See also:change of faith is given in an obscurely worded See also:sonnet contained in a MS. copy of Divine Meditations, by Mr Alabaster (see J. P. See also:Collier, Hist. of Eng. Dram. See also:Poetry, ii. 341). He defended his See also:conversion in a pamphlet, Seven Motives, of which no copy is extant. The See also:proof of its publication only remains in two tracts, A Booke of the Seuen See also:Planets, or Seuen wandring motives of William Alablaster's (sic) wit . . . , by John Racster (1598), and An See also:Answer to William Alabaster, his Motives, by See also:Roger See also:Fenton (1599).

From these it appears that Alabaster was imprisoned for his change of faith in the See also:

Tower of See also:London during 1598 and 1599. In 1607 he published at See also:Antwerp Apparatus in Revelationem Jesu Christi, in which his study of the See also:Kabbalah was turned to account in a mystical See also:interpretation of scripture which See also:drew down the censure alike of Protestants and Catholics. The book was placed on the See also:Index librorum prohibitorum at See also:Rome See also:early in Oro. Alabaster says in the See also:preface to his Ecce sponsus venit (1633), a See also:treatise on the See also:time of the second See also:advent of See also:Christ, that he went to Rome and was there imprisoned by the See also:Inquisition, but succeeded in escaping to England and again embraced the See also:Protestant faith. He received a prebend in St See also:Paul's See also:cathedral, London, and the living of Therfield, See also:Hertfordshire. He died in 1640. Alabaster's other cabalistic writings are Commentarius de See also:Bestia Apocalyptica (1621) and Spiraculum tubarum . . . . (1633), a mystical interpretation of the See also:Pentateuch. It was by these theological writings that he won the praise of Robert See also:Herrick, who calls him " the See also:triumph of the See also:day " and the "one only See also:glory of a million" 1 For an See also:analysis of the See also:play see an See also:article on the Latin university plays in the Jahrbuch der Deutschen See also:Shakespeare Gesellschaft (See also:Weimar, 1898). (" To See also:Doctor Alabaster " in See also:Hesperides, 1648). He also published (1637) See also:Lexicon Pentaglotton, Hebraicum, Chaldaicum, Syriacum, Talmudico-Rabbinicon et Arabicum.

See T. Fuller, Worthies of England (ii. 343); J. P. Collier, Bibl. and Crit. Account of the Rarest Books in the English See also:

Language (vol. i. 1865) ; See also:Pierre See also:Bayle, See also:Dictionary, See also:Historical and See also:Critical (ed. London, 1734) ; also the See also:Athenaeum (See also:December 26, 1903), where Mr See also:Bertram See also:Dobell describes a MS. in his See also:possession containing See also:forty-three sonnets by Alabaster.

End of Article: ALABASTER, or ARBLASTIER, WILLIAM (1567-1640)

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