Richard was the only son of William Crashaw, a puritan preacher in London who had officiated at the burning of Mary, Queen of Scots. In defiance of his father's views on religion, Crashaw went to a High Church college at Cambridge, Pembroke. He later became a fellow of Peterhouse College but was forced to resign because of his Roman Catholic leanings.
Victory for Oliver Cromwell's Puritans in the Civil War made England a dangerous place for Catholic sympathisers like Crashaw, and in 1644 he fled to France. He became a Catholic sometime around 1645. His friend Abraham Cowley found him living in poverty in Paris, and introduced him to Charles I's Queen, Henrietta Maria. She sent Crashaw to Rome with a recommendation to the Pope. On his arrival in Italy however, Crashaw was simply allotted a position in a cardinal's household. Four months before he died, he was made a sub-canon of the Cathedral of Santa Casa in Loreto.
Crashaw was much influenced by the Italian poet Marino, as well as his reading of the Italian and Spanish mystics. Though his verse is somewhat uneven in quality, at its best it is characterised by brilliant use of extravagant baroque imagery.
Poems by this Poet
Poem | Post date | Rating | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Temperance or the Cheap Physitian upon the Translation of Lessius | 19 May 2014 |
No votes yet |
0 |
On Saint Peter Cutting of Malchus His Eare | 19 May 2014 |
No votes yet |
0 |
An Epitaph upon Husband and Wife Who died and were buried together | 31 July 2013 |
No votes yet |
0 |
Upon the Death of the Most Desired Mister Herrys | 19 May 2014 |
No votes yet |
0 |
On the Sepulchre of our Lord | 31 July 2013 |
No votes yet |
0 |
Dies Irae | 5 September 2014 |
No votes yet |
0 |
To the Noblest and Best of Ladies, the Countess of Denbigh | 31 July 2013 |
No votes yet |
0 |
To the Queen's Majesty | 5 September 2014 |
No votes yet |
0 |
Elegie on the Death of Doctor Porter, An | 29 November 2013 |
No votes yet |
0 |
O Heart! the equal poise of love's both parts | 5 September 2014 |
No votes yet |
0 |