Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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Wheatley: “Payne Fisher, who styled himself Paganus Piscator, was born in 1616, in Dorsetshire, and removed from Hart Hall, Oxford, of which he had been a commoner, to Magdalene College, Cambridge, in 1634, and there took a degree of B.A., and first discovered a turn for poetry. He was afterwards a captain in the King’s service at Marston Moor fight; but, leaving his command, employed his pen against the cause, which he had supported with his sword, and became a favourite of Cromwell’s. After the King’s return, he obtained a scanty subsistence by flattering men in power, and was frequently imprisoned for debt. He died, 1693, in the Fleet Prison. He published several poems, chiefly in Latin, and in 1682, printed a book of Heraldry, with the arms of such of the gentry as he had waited upon with presentation copies. He was a man of talents, but vain, unsteady, and conceited, and a great time-server.”