Joshua Sylvester 1561-1618
Joshua Sylvester was born in Kent and was educated at Southampton Grammar School.
An excellent French and Latin scholar, his literary reputation was founded on his translation from French of Du Bartas's The Divine Weeks and Works, which he undertook over several years. His poetry includes The Wood-man's Bear (1587) and Tobacco Battered; and the Pipes Shattered (1617).
Later in life he was a friend of the satirist Joseph Hall, chaplain to Prince Henry, and one of the bishops subsequently imprisoned by Parliament in 1642.