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Richard Crashaw c.1612-1649

Richard Crashaw was the son of a staunch Puritan preacher. He was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, from where he graduated in 1634 going on to become a fellow of Peterhouse.

After the English Civil War he became a Roman Catholic and left England for France. Introduced to the French Queen, Henrietta Maria, by his friend Abraham Cowley, another ex-Cambridge fellow who was working as her secretary, he was helped by her to obtain a position at Loreto Cathedral in Italy, where he died in 1649.

Crashaw's principal poetic work was the Steps to the Temple, a collection of religious poems published in 1646. Attached to this was a non-religious section entitled Delights of the Muses, which contains his best-known poem Wishes to his Supposed Mistress. After his death his friend Miles Pinkney published a more complete volume of his works, Carmen Deo Nostro.

Works include

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Four Metaphysical Poets: George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, Henry Vaughan and Andrew Marvell
A.F. Allison (Editor)

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