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== Vita ==
Ioannes Harington fuit filius [[Ioannes Harington (mortuus 1582)|Ioannis Harington]] uxorisque suae alterae [[Isabella Markham|Isabellae Markham]]. Nec diem nec locum nativitatis Ioannis Harington scimus;, sed baptizatus autem est die [[4 Augusti]] [[1560]] [[Londinium|Londinii]] in ecclesia Omnium Sanctorum ad Murum, sponsoribus regina Elizabeth ipsa et [[Gulielmus Herbert (comes Pembroke)|Gulielmi Herberti comitis Pembroke]]. Fuit filius [[Ioannes Harington (mortuus 1582)|Ioannis Harington]] uxorisque suae alterae [[Isabella Markham|Isabellae Markham]]. Fuit alumnusAlumnus [[Collegium Etoniense|Collegii Etoniensis]]; ibi cum contuberniis historiam calamitatum principissae Elizabethae, [[Maria I (regina Angliae)|Mariae]] regnante, Latine vertit reginaeque misit, quae in litteris gratulatoriis eum ''Boy Jacke'' ("puerulum Ioannem") nuncupavit;<ref>''Nugae antiquae'' vol. 2 p. 154.</ref> versio autem hodie deperdita est. Annis 1576-1581 fuit alumnus [[Collegium Regale (Cantabrigia)|Collegii Regalis]] [[Cantabrigia|Cantabrigiensis]].
<!-- Although he had intended to study law, Harington was attracted early in life to the [[royal court]], where his freespoken attitude and poetry gained Elizabeth's attention. The Queen encouraged his writing, but Harington was inclined to overstep the mark in his somewhat [[François Rabelais|Rabelaisian]] and occasionally risqué pieces. His attempt at a translation of [[Ariosto]]'s ''[[Orlando Furioso]]'' caused his banishment from court for some years, but was completed in 1591 and received great praise. [http://clendening.kumc.edu/dc/pc/harington.jpg] Angered by the raciness of his translations the Queen told Harington that he was to leave and not return until he had translated the entire poem. She chose this punishment rather than actually banishing him, but she considered the task so difficult that it was assumed Harington would not bother to comply. Harington, however, chose to follow through with the request, and eventually completed translating the poem. His version of the poem is the translation that is still read by English speakers today.
Harington wed Mary Rogers in 1583 and together they had fifteen kids'.
Harington fell ill in May 1612 and died on [[20 November]] [[1612]]; he was buried in Kelston.
==Campaigns in Ireland==
In 1599 the queen sent an army, led by [[Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex]], to [[Essex in Ireland|Ireland]] during the [[Nine Years War (Ireland)|Nine Years War]] (1595-1603). Following her strong recommendation that [[Essex]] include him in his army, Harington was put in command of horseman under [[Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton]]. Harington's legacy from this campaign were his letters and journal, which served to give the queen good intelligence about the progress of the campaign and its politics. Harington wrote, "I have informed myself reasonably well of the whole state of the country, by observation and conference: so I count the knowledge I have gotten here worth more than half the three hundred pounds this journey hath cost me." During the campaign Essex conferred a knighthood on Harington for his services. Essex fell into disfavour with the queen for concluding the campaign on a truce, and also caused her fury over the large number of knighthoods he awarded. Harington had been present at the truce negotiations, and on accompanying Essex when he returned to court to account to the queen, he experienced the royal wrath. However, his wit and charm soon secured the queen's forgiveness.
==Literary works==
Harington continued to write, even though he had vowed to give up poetry upon the death of Queen Elizabeth. He published just one more slim volume of verse in 1607, but continued to send letters both to friends and to the king's eldest son, Prince Henry, until 1609. Some of these letters were later collected by Harington's descendant, [[Henry Harington]], and published under the title of ''Nugae Antiquae'' in 1769. The volume is a significant source for the history of the [[Tudor re-conquest of Ireland]].
===Orlando Furioso===
===The Metamorphosis of Ajax===
Around this time, Harington also devised Britain's first [[flushing toilet]] — called the Ajax (i.e. "a jakes"; ''jakes'' being an old [[slang]] word for [[toilet]]) — installed at his manor in [[Kelston]], and which was reputed to have been current with the queen herself. Indeed, the American utilisation of the word 'John' as a euphemism for toilet, or bathroom, derives from Harington's invention. In 1596, Harington wrote a book called ''A New Discourse upon a Stale Subject: The Metamorphosis of Ajax'' about his invention. He published it under the pseudonym of '''Misacmos'''. The book made political allusions to the [[Earl of Leicester]] that angered the Queen, and he was again banished from the court. The Queen's mixed feelings for him may be the only thing that saved Harington from being tried at [[Star Chamber]].
==Life as a courtier==
After the queen's death, Harington's fortunes faltered at the court of the new King, [[James I of England|James I]]. He spent some time at his manor at Kelston, but then found himself serving time in prison. He had stood surety for the debts of his cousin, Sir [[Griffin Markham]], in the sum of £4000, when the latter had become involved in the [[Bye Plot|Bye]] and [[Main Plot]]s. Not able to meet his cousin's debts without selling his own lands, and unwilling to languish in gaol, he escaped custody in October 1603. However, James I had already recognised his loyalty and created him a [[Knight of the Bath]] and also granted him the properties forfeited upon Markham's exile.
Towards the end of his life, Sir John Harington became the tutor to [[Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales]]. He annoted for him a copy of [[Francis Godwin|Francis Godwin's]] ''De praesulibus Angliae''. Harington's grandson, John Chetwind later published these annotations in 1653, under the title of ''A Briefe View of the State of the Church''.
Sir John Harington died on [[November 20]], [[1612]] at the age of 51. Though he was never able to regain his place in high society in England, his poetry at the time was well known and much admired, despite lacking much place inmodern literature. -->
== Opera ==
* ''An Anatomie of the Metamorphosed Ajax'' (1596)
* ''An Apologie in Defence of the Metamorphosis of Ajax'' (1596)
* ''A Tract on the Succession to the Crown'' (1602 scriptum; 1880 editum)
* ''Ulysses upon Ajax'' (1596)
* ''A TractShort onView of the SuccessionState toof the CrownIreland'' (16021605 scriptum; 1879 editum)
* ''A ShortBriefe View of the State of Irelandthe Church of England'' (16051608 scriptascriptum)
* ''A Briefe View of the State of the Church of England'' (1608 scripta)
* ''Epigrams both Pleasant and Serious''
** postea sub titulo ''The Most Elegant and Witty Epigrams of Sir John Harington''
* ''A Supplie or Addicion to the Catalogue of Bishops''<ref>Supplementum biographicum libro [[Franciscus Godwin|Francisci Godwin]] ''Catalogue of the Bishops of England'' (1601)</ref> (1608 scriptum, 1653 editum)
* ''The Prayse of Private Life''
* ''Nugae Antiquae''
* ''[[Orlando furioso (versio Ioannis Harington)|Orlando Furioso in English Heroical Verse]]'' (1591)
* ''[[Aeneis (versio Ioannis Harington)|The sixth Book of Virgil's Aeneid]]'' (1604)
* ''[[Regimen sanitatis Salernitanum (versio Ioannis Harington)|The Englishmans DoctorDocter, or The Schoole of Salerne]]'' (1607)
* ''Psalmi'' Anglice versi
== Notae ==
<div class="references-small"><references /></div>
==Nexus externi==
==Bibliographia==
* S. Cauchi, "Recent studies in Sir John Harington" in ''English Literary Renaissance'' vol. 25 (1995) pp. 112–25
* D. H. Craig, ''Sir John Harington''. 1985
* Ian Grimble, ''The Harington Family''. London: Jonathan Cape, 1957
* Gerald Kilroy, "[http://www.brlsi.org/proceed04/belief200312.htm Sir John Harington: 'A Protesting Catholique Purytan']" (2004)
* N. E. McClure, ed., ''The Letters and Epigrams of Sir John Harington''. 1930
* Jason Scott-Warren, "Harington, Sir John (bap. 1560, d. 1612)" in ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004-2007)
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Harington, Ioannes}}
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