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JOHN [OVENUS Or AUDOENUS] OWEN (c. 15...

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 392 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JOHN [OVENUS Or AUDOENUS] See also:OWEN (c. 1560-1622)  , Welsh epigrammatist, was See also:born at Plas Dhu, See also:Carnarvonshire, about 156o . He was educated under Dr Bilson at See also:Winchester School, and at New See also:College, See also:Oxford . He was a See also:fellow of his college from 1584 to 1591, when he became a schoolmaster, first at Trelleck, near See also:Monmouth, and then at See also:Warwick, where he was See also:master of the school endowed by See also:Henry VIII . He became distinguished for his perfect mastery of the Latin See also:language, and for the See also:humour, felicity and point of his epigrams . The See also:Continental scholars and wits of the See also:day used to See also:call him " the See also:British See also:Martial." He was a staunch See also:Protestant besides, and could not resist the temptation of turning his wit against the See also:Roman See also:Catholic See also:Church . This practice caused his See also:book to be placed on the See also:Index prohibitorius in 1654, and led a See also:rich old See also:uncle of the Roman Catholic communion to cut him out of his will . When the poet died in 1622, his countryman and relative, See also:Bishop See also:Williams of See also:Lincoln, who is said to have supported him in his later years, erected a See also:monument to his memory in St See also:Paul's See also:cathedral with a Latin See also:epitaph . See also:Owen's Epigrammata are divided into twelve books, of which the first four were published in 1606, and the See also:rest at four different times . Owen frequently adapts and alters to his own purpose the lines of his predecessors in Latin See also:verse, and one such borrowing has become celebrated as a See also:quotation, though few know where it is to be found . It is the first See also:line of this See also:epigram: " Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis: Quo modo? See also:fit See also:semper tempore pejor homo." (See also:Lib . I. ad Edoardum See also:Noel, epig . 58.) This first line is altered from an epigram by See also:Matthew Borbonius, one of a See also:series of mottoes for various emperors, this one being for Lothaire I .

Omnia mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis: Illa vices quasdam res habet, ilia vices." There are See also:

editions of the Epigrammata by See also:Elzevir and by See also:Didot; the best is that edited by Renouard (2 vols., See also:Paris, 1795) . See also:Translations into See also:English, either in whole or in See also:part, were made by Vicars (1619); by Pecke, in his Parnassi Puerperium (1659); and by See also:Harvey in 1677, which is the most See also:complete . La Torre, the See also:Spanish epigrammatist, owed much to Owen, and translated his See also:works into Spanish in 1674 . See also:French translations of the best of Owen's epigrams were published by A . L . See also:Lebrun (1709) and by Kerivalant (1819) .

End of Article: JOHN [OVENUS Or AUDOENUS] OWEN (c. 1560-1622)
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