John Andrews

Who is John Andrews?

John Andrews, was an English poet.

Andrews was the author of a poem called the ‘Anatomie of Basenesse’, which was reprinted in the ‘Miscellanies of the Fuller Worthies' Library’. The ‘Anatomie’ was published with only the initials I. A. in the epistle dedicatory to Sir Robert Sydney, but this epistle guides to the authorship. Apologising for his dedication, the writer says, among other things, that he prints not ‘vaine-gloriously,’ or he would have ‘subscribed his name,’ and that he forbore to have his name published ‘out of some respects.’ The ‘some respects’ probably refer to his being a minister of the Gospel; he seems to have held that his satire was too drastic and vehement for a clergyman, and might lay him open to misconstruction. Anthony à Wood in his ‘Athenæ,’ and his editor Dr. Bliss, filled in the initials thus—‘I[ohn] A[ndrews]’—and wrote of him: ‘John Andrews, a Somersetshire man born, was entered a student in Trinity College 1601, aged 18, took one degree in arts [viz. M.A., Fasti Oxon.], left the university, became a painfull preacher of God's word, and a publisher of’ certain books. … ‘When he died, or where he was buried, I know not.’