William Strode (poet)

William Strode (c. 1602 – 1645) was an English poet, Doctor of Divinity and Public Orator of Oxford University, one of the Worthies of Devon of John Prince (d.1723).

He was born in Devon and baptised on 11 January 1602/3 (probably at the age of one) at Shaugh Prior, about 4 miles north of Newnham, the ancient seat of the Strode family. He was the only son of Philip Strode (d.1605) by his wife Wilmot Hoghton, daughter of William Hoghton (alias Houghton) of Hoghton Tower, Lancaster. Philip Strode was the 4th son of William III Strode (1512-1579) of Newnham, Plympton St Mary, Devon, by his wife Elizabeth Courtenay, daughter and heiress of Philip Courtenay of Loughtor, a younger son of Sir Philip Courtenay (d.1488) of Molland in North Devon.

He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford. He began writing English and Latin verse at an early age; his first published work was a Latin poem in the collection Annae Funebria Sacra (1619). He remained at Christ Church for the rest of his life, taking his B.A. in 1621 and his M.A. three years later.

It is not known when he took deacon's orders, but in 1628 he was ordained priest, and gained a reputation as a preacher; he also became chaplain to his friend Bishop Corbett, formerly been Dean of Christ Church. When Corbett was translated from Oxford to the see of Norwich in 1632 they continued friends; Strode preached at an episcopal visitation in Norfolk the following year, and produced a Latin version of the bishop's epitaph on his mother for use on her monument. In 1629 he was made Public Orator of the University, a post he held till his death; he was also made proctor for 1629 under the newly introduced rotational system.

When in 1635 Charles I visited , near Oxford, Strode in his capacity of Orator made a speech in the king's honour; as a result he was promised the next Christ Church canonry not linked to a specific chair that should fall vacant. In 1636 the king returned, this time on a visit to the university, and on his arrival was again welcomed by the Orator. Strode also wrote one of three plays performed before the king and court on that occasion, which was described by a member of the audience as the worst play he had ever seen except for one at Cambridge. Strode had no experience as a dramatist, but had been commissioned by Archbishop Laud, Chancellor of the university, to write an attack on Puritanism which vilified Burton, Bastwick and Prynne, whom Laud was planning to arrest. The vitriolic tone of the attack was unusual for Strode, who was not only a tolerant and fair-minded man, but also in regular contact with his strongly Puritan family in Devon (his namesake the Parliamentarian was one of his cousins). However, 'The Townes new Teacher', written about this time, shows his new hostility to a movement whose narrow-minded intolerance he was finding increasingly disturbing: the poem has been called the best example of anti-Puritan satire.

...
Wikipedia