OWEN
,
JOHN
(
1564?
-
1628?
),
epigrammatist
;
son of
Thomas
Owen
of
Plas-du
,
Llanarmon, Caerns.
, and nephew of
Hugh
Owen
(see the article
Owen
of
Plas-du
). Scholar of
Winchester
,
1577
, he matriculated at
New College
,
Oxford
, in
1582
, and became a
jurist Fellow
of the college in
1584
;
B.C.L.
1590
.
Owen
was
schoolmaster
at
Trelleck, Mon.
until, in
1595
, he became
headmaster
of
Warwick school
. Although his ten books of epigrams were published
between 1606 and 1613
, nothing is known of his life after
1595
. He may have given up his post to live on patronage. But, as no other
headmaster
is known at
Warwick
until
1628?
he may have taught there to his death in that year and
Wood
's statement that he d. in
1622
may be doubted. His patrons included
lady
Arabella
Stuart
, the
prince of Wales
, and
Robert
Cecil
.
His epigrams were best sellers in their day, the first collection of three books being reprinted within a month. Although they were put on the ‘
Index Expurgatorius
,’ their popularity was greater on the Continent than in
Britain
and they influenced particularly
German
writers of epigrams. They were translated into
English
,
French
,
German
, and
Spanish
.
Bibliography:
-
Wood
,
Athenae Oxonienses
, 1813–20. Sometimes
cited in the first (1691-2) edn
, i, 400-01;
-
The Transactions of the Honourable Society
of Cymmrodorion
,
1940
, 130-43;
-
Myth Stories of Greece and Rome
, London
and Glasgow, 1941
, x, 1941, 65-73;
-
E. Urbanus
, ‘Owenus u.d. deutschen Epigrammatiker,’ in
Literarhistorische Forschungen
, 1897
ff
, heft. xi, 1900.
Author:
John Henry Jones, Ph.D., Aberystwyth
