Francis Sabie

Who was Francis Sabie?

Francis Sabie was an English poet.

Sabie was a schoolmaster at Lichfield in 1587. He published three volumes of verse—two in 1595, and one in 1596.

His earliest publication, in two parts, was The Fishermans Tale: Of the famous Actes, Life, and Loue of Cassander, a Grecian Knight, 1595. The second part bears the heading Flora's Fortune. The second part and finishing of the Fisher-mans Tale. The poem, which was licensed for publication to Richard Jones on 11 Nov. 1594, is a paraphrase in monotonous blank verse of Pandosto, afterwards renamed Dorastus and Fawnia, a romance by Robert Greene. A reprint from a Bodleian manuscript, limited to ten copies, was issued by James Orchard Halliwell in 1867.

Later in 1595 there appeared Pan's Pipe, Three Pastorall Eglogues in English Hexameter, with other poetical verses delightfull. The publisher was again Richard Jones, who obtained a license for the publication on 11 Jan. 1594–5. The prose epistle To all youthful Gentlemen, Apprentises, fauourers of the diuine Arte of sense-delighting Poesie, is signed F. S. The hexameters run satisfactorily.