_JOSEPH_ of _Exeter_.


_Joseph of Exeter_ was born at the City of _Exeter_ in _Devonshire_, he
was also sirnamed _Iscanus_, from the River _Isk_, now called _Esk_,
which running by that City, gave it formerly the denomination of
_Isca_. This _Joseph_ (faith my Author) was _a Golden Poet in a Leaden
Age_, so terse and elegant were his Conceits and Expressions. In his
younger years he accompanied King _Richard_ the First, in his
Expedition into the _Holy Land_, by which means he had the better
advantage to celebrate, as he did, the Acts of that warlike Prince, in
a Poem, entituled _Antiochea_. He also wrote six Books _De Bello
Trojano_, in Heroick Verse, which, as the learned _Cambden_ well
observes, was no other then that Version of _Dares Phyrgius_ into
_Latine_ Verse. Yet so well was it excepted, that the _Dutchmen_ not
long since Printed it under the name of _Cornelius Nepos_, an Author
who lived in the time of _Tully_, and wrote many excellent pieces in
Poetry, but upon a strict view of all his Works, not any such doth
appear amongst them; they therefore do this _Joseph_ great wrong in
depriving him the honour of his own Works. He was afterwards, for his
deserts, preferred to be Arch-bishop of _Burdeaux_, in the time of King
_John_, about the year 1210.

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_MICHAEL BLAUNPAYN_.