Sir John, an English poet, was born at Kelston, near Bath, in 1561, instructed in classical learning at Eton School, and thence removed to Cambridge, where he took his degree in arts. At the age of thirty, he published a translation of the Orlando Furioso, which, though executed without spirit or even accuracy, enriched our poetry with new stores of imagery and romance. Harrington was knighted in the field by Essex, to the great displeasure of the queen, who wished all such honours to emanate from herself; and in the reign of King James he was created a knight of the Bath. He was a favourite of Prince Henry, to whom he presented a manuscript, directed chiefly against married bishops. This production was intended for the private use of the prince; but being afterwards published, it raised a great clamour against the author, who had otherwise incurred suspicion, if not odium, by supporting Raleigh in his suit for the manor of Banwell, belonging to the bishopric of Bath and Wells, on the presumption that the actual incumbent had incurred a praemunire by marrying a second wife. Sir John died in 1612. His epigrams, which were the most popular of his works, though possessing little poetical merit, appeared first in 1618, and afterwards in 1625. The Nuge Antique, a miscellaneous collection of his works, was published in 1792, and again in 1804, with illustrative notes and a memoir of the author.