FELTHAM, or FELLTHAM,

See also:

• OWEN, JOHN (1616-1683)
• OWEN, JOHN [OVENUS Or AUDOENUS] (c. 1560-1622)
• OWEN, ROBERT (1771-1858)
• OWEN, SIR HUGH (1804-1881)
• OWEN, SIR RICHARD (1804–1892)

OWEN (d. 1668)  , English moralist, was the son of Thomas Feltham or Felltham of Mutford in Suffolk . The date of his birth is given variously as 1602 and 1609 . Hs is famous chiefly as the author of a volume entitled Resolves,Divine, Moral and Political, containing one hundred short and pithy essays . To later issues of the Resolves Feltham appended Lusoria, a collection of forty poems . Hardly anything is known of his life except that T . Randolph, the adopted " son" of Ben Jonson, addressed a poem of compliment to him, and became his friend, and that Feltham attacked Ben Jonson in an ode shortly before the aged poet's death, but contributed a flattering elegy to the Jonsonus Virbius in 1638 . Early in life Feltham visited Flanders, and published observations in 1652 under the title of A Brief Character of the Low Countries . He was a strict high-churchman and a royalist; he even described Charles I. as " Christ the Second." Hallam stigmatized Feltham as one of our worst writers . He has not, indeed, the elegance of Bacon, whom he emulated, and he is often obscure and affected; but his copious imagery and genuine penetration give his reflections a certain charm . To the middle classes of the 17th century he seemed a heaven-sent philosopher and guide, and was only less popular than Francis Quarles the poet . Eleven editions of the Resolves appeared before 17oo . Later . editions by James Cumming (London, 1806; much garbled; has account of Feltham's life and writings), and O .

Smeaton in " Temple Classics " series (London, 1904) .