James Farewell (1666–1689) was a lawyer and poet, chiefly remembered as the author of ''The Irish Hudibras'', a caricature of Irish customs and language based on Book VI of Virgil's '' Aeneid''.

Background

He was the son of Thomas Farewell of

Horsington, Somerset Horsington is a village and Civil parish in Somerset, England, situated south of Wincanton and north of Templecombe in the South Somerset district. The village lies on the edge of Horsington Marsh, part of the Blackmore Vale. In 2011 the popul ...

, England, and educated at Sherborne, then to Wadham College, Oxford, which he left without a degree and proceeded to

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

to study law.

The Irish Hudibras

In 1689 Farewell published ''The Irish Hudibras or Fingallian Prince'', a humorous retelling of Book VI of Virgil's '' Aeneid'' transferred to the scene of Stuart Ireland relating the adventures of an Irish prince Nees. The poem somewhat savagely caricatures Irish customs and the people of Fingal in particular to portray the Irish as superstitious, ignorant and uncivilised. While in many ways a typical work of a Protestant Englishman of the times, the work is nevertheless remarkable for its deep knowledge of the Hiberno-English of the late seventeenth century, and it remains an important source on the life and customs of life and language in Ireland of this period. The Oxford antiquary Anthony Wood described Farewell as "a witty young man and tolerable poet".Anthony Wood, Athenae Oxonienses. London, 1813 He died of smallpox in or near Lincoln's Inn in 1689.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Farewell, James 1666 births 1689 deaths Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford People from West Somerset (district) People educated at Sherborne School People from Somerset 17th-century Irish poets Deaths from smallpox