Cromwell's forgotten laureate
The best war poem of the seventeenth century?
Early modernity is full of flamboyant characters: one of my favourites is the sadly forgotten Payne (or Fitzpayne) Fisher, wonderfully Latinized as Paganus Piscator.1 Fisher is Oliver Cromwell’s forgotten laureate poet: he received regular payments from the Protectorate during the 1650s and in return produced a steady stream of striking Latin verse, mode…
