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Sylvester (JOSHUA an English author born)

JOSHUA, an English author; born in England in 1563. His life was divided between merchandise and poetry, but in neither did he achieve success. Of his original works we have no trace, except the title of the poem published about 1620, entitled "Tobacco Battered and the Pipes Shattered by a Volley of Holy Shot Thundered from Mount Helicon"; but in virtue of the great though short-lived popularity obtained by his English version of the "Divine Weeks and Works" of Du Bartas he lives in literary history a kind of shadowy life. It was especially popular with the Puritans and was one of the sources of inspiration for Milton's "Paradise Lost." He led a somewhat wandering existence and died in Middleburg, Holland, Sept. 28, 1618.