SIR JOHN, an ingenious English poet, was the son of John Harrington, Esq. who was committed to the Tower by Queen Mary for holding a correspondence with her sister Elizabeth; who, when she came to the crown, flood-godmother to this son. Before he was 30, he published a translation of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, a work by which he was principally known; for though he afterwards published some epigrams, his talent did not seem to have lain that way. He was created knight of the Bath by James I.; and presented a MS. to Prince Henry, levelled chiefly at the married bishops. He is supposed to have died about the latter end of James's reign.

James, a most eminent English writer in the 17th century, bred at Oxford, travelled into Holland, France, Denmark, and Germany, and learned the languages of those countries. Upon his return to England, he was admitted one of the privy-chamber extraordinary to King Charles I. He served the king with great fidelity, and made use of his interest with his friends in parliament to procure matters to be accommodated with all parties. The king loved his company except when the conversation happened to turn upon commonwealths. He found means to see the king at St James's; and attended him on the scaffold, Harrington, scaffold, where, or a little before, he received a token of his majesty's affection. After the death of King Charles, he wrote his Oceana; a kind of political romance, in imitation of Plato's Commonwealth, which he dedicated to Oliver Cromwell. It is said, that when Oliver perused it, he declared, that "the gentleman had wrote very well, but must not think to cheat him out of his power and authority; for that what he had won by the sword, he would not suffer himself to be scribbled out of." This work was attacked by several writers, against whom he defended it. Beside his writings to promote republican principles, he instituted likewise a nightly meeting of several ingenious men in the New Palace-Yard, Westminster; which club was called the Rota, and continued till the secluded members of parliament were restored by General Monk. In 1661, he was committed to the Tower for treasonable designs and practices; and Chancellor Hyde, at a conference with the lords and commons, charged him with being concerned in a plot. But a committee of lords and commons could make nothing of that plot. He was conveyed to St Nicholas's island, and from thence to Plymouth, where he fell into an uncommon disorder of the imagination. Having obtained his liberty by means of the earl of Bath, he was carried to London, and died in 1677. He published, besides the above works, several others, which were first collected by Toland, in one volume folio, in 1700: but a more complete edition was published in 1737, by the reverend Dr Birch.