GREVILLE, FULKE, Lord Brooke, an English poet of the brilliant Elizabethan period, was born in 1554, at Alcester in Warwickshire. He was educated, along with his cousin Sir Philip Sidney, at Shrewsbury; and on leaving school, spent a considerable time at both the universities. After travelling on the Continent, and mastering some of the modern languages, he returned home; and through the influence of friends at court, obtained some honourable and lucrative employments, chiefly in connection with the government of Wales. In 1614 he was made under-treasurer and chancellor of the exchequer; and six years later, was raised to the peerage by the title of Lord Brooke of Beauchamp's Court. He was murdered in 1628, in a moment of rage, by an old servant of his own, who had no sooner done the deed than he threw himself upon the sword with which he had slain his master.
Fulke Greville's name is noteworthy in the history of English literature, both from his own contributions to it, and the services which he rendered to some of its needy cultivators in his day. Besides founding an historical lecture at Cambridge, he rendered much valuable aid to Davenant, Camden, Speed, and others, in their struggles with the hardships of a literary career. Of his own writings we may mention, The Life of the Renowned Sir Philip Sidney, Lond. 1652; Certaine learned and elegant Works of the Right Hon. Fulke Lord Brooke, written in his youth, and familiar exercise with Sir Philip Sidney, Lond. 1633; The Remains of Sir Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke, being Poems of Monarchy and Religion, never before printed, Lond. 1670; A Treatise of Human Learning; An Inquisition upon Fame and Honour; A Treatise of Wars; &c. Greville's poems are remarkable for their depth of thought and masculine strength of expression. They abound, however, more in solemn ethical and philosophical thought than in poetic beauties, strictly so called; and the diction in
which they are couched, though terse and powerful, is not unfrequently obscure. Southey calls Greville "the most difficult of all our poets," and adds, that "no writer of this or any other country appears to have reflected more deeply on momentous subjects." Charles Lamb, than whom few knew better the spirit of the Elizabethan era, says of Greville, that "he is nine parts Machiavel and Tacitus for one of Sophocles or Seneca. Whether we look into his plays or his most passionate love-poems, we shall find all frozen and made rigid with intellect."
The most noticeable feature of Lord Brooke's personal character was his friendship and admiration for his cousin Sir Philip Sidney. The inscription on his tomb-stone describes him as "The servant of Queen Elizabeth, the counsellor of King James, and the friend of Sir Philip Sidney."