FELLTHAM, OWEN

born 1602? died Feb. 23, 1668, London English essayist and poet, best known for his essays Resolves Divine, Morall, and Politicall, in which the striking images (some borrowed by the poet Henry Vaughan) are held to be more original than the ideas. Felltham wrote the first edition of Resolves (1623), which contained 100 essays, when he was 18. The second edition, Resolves, a Second Centurie, published in 1628, contained a further 100 essays. After becoming the Earl of Thomond's steward sometime before 1640, Felltham printed A brief Character of the Low Countries under the States (1652), which appeared in a reissue of the Resolves in 1661 together with 41 poems, some letters, and occasional pieces. Felltham spent most of his life at Great Billing, Northamptonshire, or at the Earl of Thomond's London house.