Thomas Rymer

Not to be confused with Thomas the Rhymer.

Thomas Rymer (1641-1713). Courtesy The Phrase Finder.

Thomas Rymer (1641 - 14 December 1713) was an English poet, literary critic, and historiographer.

Life

Overview

Rymer was educated at Cambridge, and became a barrister at Gray's Inn. He published in 1678 Tragedies of the last Age Considered, in which he passed judgments, very unfavorable, upon their authors, including Shakespeare. He was of much more use as the collector of English treaties, which he published under the title of Fædera, in 20 volumes, the last 5 of which were edited after his death by R. Sanderson. Rymer. also publihed poems and a play, Edgar. He held the office of historiographer to William III. His learning and industry have received the recognition of many subsequent historians.

Family, youth, education

Rymer, a son of Ralph Rymer, lord of the manor of Brafferton, Yorkshire, was born at ‘The Hall’ at Yafforth, Yorkshire. His father, an ardent roundhead, was made treasurer of his district during the Commonwealth, and was granted the estate at Yafforth and Wickmore, Yorkshire, which he had previously rented from the royalist owner, Sir Edward Osborne.

Thomas was educated at the school kept by Thomas Smelt, a loyalist, at Danby-Wiske.

He was admitted a ‘pensionarius minor’ at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, on 29 April 1658, at the age of 17.

At the Restoration Sir Edward Osborne's son, Thomas, compelled Rymer's father to surrender these lands. Ralph Rymer, resenting this treatment, joined "the presbyterian rising" in the autumn of 1663. He was arrested on 12 October, was condemned to death for high treason on 7 January, and was hanged at York. A son, Ralph, who also engaged in the conspiracy, was detained in prison till 16 July 1666.

Leaving the university without a degree, Thomas Rymer became a member of Gray's Inn on 2 May 1666, and was called to the bar on 16 June 1673. But literature rather than law occupied most of his attention.

Literary critic

In 1668 Rymer appeared as an author by publishing a translation of a Latin anthology from Cicero's works called Cicero's Prince, dedicated to the Duke of Monmouth. The special study of his early life, however, was dramatic literature, and he reached the conviction that neglect of the classical rules of unity had seriously injured the dramatic efforts of English writers. In 1674 he published, with an elaborate preface in support of such views, an English translation of R. Rapin's Reflections on Aristotle's Treatise of Poesie.

In 1677 he not only prepared an essay critically examining some typical English dramas in the light of his theories, but also wrote a play in which he tried to illustrate practically the value of the laws of the classical drama. The play, which was not acted, was licensed for publication on 13 September 1677, and was published the next year (in 4to) under the title Edgar, or, The English monarch: An heroick tragedy. Addison referred to it in the Spectator (#692) as a typical failure.

Meanwhile Rymer's critical treatise was licensed for the press on 17 July 1677. It was entitled The Tragedies of the Last Age: Consider'd and examin'd by the Practice of the Ancients, and by the Common Sense of all Ages, in a letter to Fleetwood Shepheard, esq., 1678, sm. 8vo. The tract was republished, with ‘Part I’ on the title-page, in 1692. He returned to the attack on Othello in A Short View of Tragedy: its Original Excellency and Corruption; with some Reflections on Shakespeare and other Practitioners for the Stage. This was published late in 1692, but bears the date 1693.

Both works attracted attention. Dryden wrote on the opening volume some appreciative notes, which Dr. Johnson published in his Life of Dryden. The 2nd volume was reviewed by Motteux in the Gentleman's Journal for December 1692, and by John Dunton in the Compleat Library, December 1692 (ii. 58).

Literature

Rymer wrote 3 poems to the memory of Edmund Waller, which were published in a volume of elegies in 1688, as well as in Dryden's Miscellany Poems; and he is said to have written the Latin inscription for Waller's tomb at Beaconsfield. In 1689 he published a poem on Queen Mary's arrival, and in 1692 a translation of an elegy in Ovid's Tristia (bk. iii. elegy 6), reissued in Dryden's Miscellanies (2nd edition, 148).

Further specimens of his verse, which was on occasion sportively amorous, appear in Nichols's Select Poems, 1780, and 2 pieces figure in A.H. Bullen's Musa Proterva (1895, pp. 125–7).

Other contributions by Rymer to literature consisted of a translation of Plutarch's "Life of Nicias" in the collection of Plutaroh's Lives (1683–1686), and he is supposed to be author of the preface to Thomas Hobbes's posthumous Historia Ecclesiastica carmine elegiaco concinnata (1688). A Life of Thomas Hobbes (1681), sometimes attributed to Rymer, is almost certainly by Richard Blackburne. An Essay concerning Critical and Curious Learning: In which are contained some short Reflections on the Controversie betwixt Sir William Temple and Mr. Wotton, and that betwixt Dr. Bentley and Mr. Boyl, by T.R., Esqr., 1698 — a "very poor and mean performance" — is attributed to Rymer by Hearne.

Historian

In the meantime Rymer's interests had been diverted to history. In 1684 he published a learned tract ‘of the antiquity, power, and decay of parliaments’ (other editions in 1704 and 1714). In 1692 he received the appointment of historiographer to the king, in succession to Thomas Shadwell, at a salary of £200 a year (Luttrell, ii. 623).

Shortly afterwards the government of William III determined, mainly at the suggestion of Lord Somers, to print by authority the public conventions of Great Britain with other powers. On 26 Aug. 1693 a warrant was issued to Rymer appointing him editor of the publication, which was to be entitled Fœdera, and authorizing him to search all public repositories for leagues, treaties, alliances, capitulations, confederacies, which had at any time been made between the crown of England and other kingdoms. Rymer took as his model Leibnitz's recently published Codex Juris Gentium Diplomaticus (Hanover, 1693), and founded his work on an Elizabethan manuscript Book of Abbreviations of Leagues by Arthur Agard. He corresponded with Leibnitz and with Bishop Nicolson, and benefited by their suggestions.

The warrant enabling him to continue his researches was renewed to Rymer on 12 April 1694. His expenses were large, and he was inadequately remunerated by the government. On 23 April 1694 he was granted, on his petition, a sum of £200, "seized at Leicester on the conviction of a Romish priest," Gervas Cartwright. But up to August 1698 he had expended £1,253 in transcription and the like, and only received £500. From May 1703 a salary of £200 was paid him for his editorial work, but he suffered extreme poverty until his death. Many importunate petitions, which Lord Halifax supported with his influence, were needed before any money was set aside by the government for printing his work.

The opening volume was at length published on 20 November 1704, with a turgid dedication in Latin to the queen. It begins with a convention between Henry I and Robert, earl of Flanders, dated 17 May 1101. Only 250 copies were printed. The 2nd volume appeared in 1705, and the 3rd in 1706. In 1707, when the 4th volume was issued, Robert Sanderson was appointed Rymer's assistant, and the warrant empowering searches was renewed on 3 May. The 5th and 6th volumes followed in 1708; the 7th, 8th, and 9th in 1709, the tenth and 11th in 1710, the 12th in 1711, the 13th and 14th in 1712, and the 15th, bringing the documents down to July 1586, in 1713, the year of Rymer's death.

The 16th volume, which appeared in 1715, was prepared by Sanderson, "ex schedis Thomæ Rymeri potissimum." By a warrant dated 15 February 1717 Sanderson was constituted the sole editor of the undertaking, and he completed the original scheme by issuing the 17th volume in 1717. Here the latest treaty printed was dated 1625. There were appended an index and a Syllabus seu Index Actorum MSS. quæ lix voluminibus compacta (præter xviii tomos typis vulgatos) collegit ac descripsit Thomas Rymer. The syllabus consists of a list of all the manuscripts Rymer had transcribed during the progress of the undertaking. These papers, which dealt with the period between 1115 and 1698, are now among the Additional MSS. at the British Museum (Nos. 4573–4630 and No. 18911).

Of the 250 copies printed of each of the 17 volumes, 200 only were for sale at £2 each. The cost of printing the 17 volumes amounted to £10,615 12s. 6d. A further 3 supplemental volumes by Sanderson brought the total number to 20, of which the last appeared in 1735. The latest document included was dated 1654.

As the successive volumes issued from the press, the great design attracted appreciative attention, both at home and abroad. Each volume was, on its publication, abridged by Rapin in French in Le Clerc's Bibliothèque Choisie, and a translation of this abridgment was published in English as Acta Regia by Stephen Whatley in 1731 in 4 vols. 8vo (originally issued in 25 monthly parts). Hearne highly commended Rymer's industry, and welcomed every instalment with enthusiasm (cf. Collections, ii. 296). Swift, who obtained the volumes for the library of Dublin University, wrote in his Journal to Stella on 22 February 1712: "Came home early, and have been amusing myself with looking into one of the volumes of Rymer's records."

While engaged on the Fœdera Rymer found time to deal with some controverted historical problems. In 1702 he published a letter to Bishop Nicolson "on his Scotch Library," in which he tries to free Robert III of Scotland from the imputation of bastardy. A 2nd letter to Bishop Nicolson contained "an historical deduction of the alliances between France and Scotland, whereby the pretended old league with Charlemagne is disproved and the true old league is ascertained." Sir Robert Sibbald, in a published reply, disputed Rymer's accuracy. Rymer, in a 3rd letter to Nicolson (1706), vindicated the character of Edward III.

Rymer died in poor circumstances at his house in Arundel Street, Strand, and was buried in the parish church of St. Clement Danes. He left all his property to Mrs. Anna Parnell, spinster; he seems to have been unmarried. After his death was published, in a volume called Curious Amusements: By a Gentleman of Pembroke-hall in Cambridge (1714, 12mo), Some Translations [attributed to Rymer] from Greek, Latin, and Italian Poets, with other Verses and Songs never before printed.

Writing

Literature

Edgar was a tragedy in rhymed verse. The plot was mainly drawn from William of Malmesbury. Abounding in strong royalist sentiments, the volume was dedicated to the king (other editions are dated 1691 and 1692). The only service that the piece rendered to art was to show how a play might faithfully observe all the classical laws without betraying any dramatic quality.

Criticism

In The Tragedies of the Last Age, Rymer promised to examine in detail 6 plays – Fletcher's Rollo, King or no King, and Maid's Tragedy; Shakespeare's Othello and Julius Cæsar; and Jonson's Catiline; as well as to criticise Milton's Paradise Lost "which some are pleased to call a poem." But he confined his attention for the present to the 1st 3 plays only. He is uniformly hostile to the works. Most of his remarks are captious, but he displayed wide reading in the classics and occasionally exposed a genuine defect.

In Rymer's eyes Othello was "a bloody farce without salt or savour." He denies that Shakespeare showed any capacity in tragedy, although he allows him comic genius and humor.

History

Though defective at some points, and defaced by errors of date and by many misprints, Rymer's Fœdera remains a collection of high value and authority for almost all periods of the middle ages and for the 16th century. For the period of the Commonwealth the work is meagre, and Dumont's ‘Corps Universel Diplomatique’ (8 vols. 1726) is for that epoch an indispensable supplement.

A corrected reprint, issued by Jacob Tonson at the expense of government, under the direction of George Holmes (1662–1749), of the first 17 volumes, appeared between 1727 and 1730, and was sold at £50 a set; this was limited to 200 copies (Reliquiæ Hearnianæ, ed. Bliss, iii. 23). A new edition in 10 volumes, published by John Neaulme at The Hague, 1737–45, is of greatly superior typographical accuracy, and supplies some new documents. A 3rd edition of the Fœdera was undertaken in 1806 by the Record Commission. Dr. Adam Clarke was appointed editor, and he was subsequently replaced by John Caley and Frederick Holbrooke; but after £30,388.18s.4½d. had been spent, between 1816 and 1830, on producing 500 copies of parts i.–vi. (forming vols. i.–iii. and bringing the work to 1383), the publication was finally suspended in 1830. A valuable syllabus of the Fœdera, containing many corrections, was prepared by Sir Thomas Hardy, and was issued in three volumes (volumw i. appearing in 1869, 4to, volume ii. in 1873, and volume iii. in 1885).

Critical reputation

John Dunton in his Life and Errors (1818, 354) calls Rymer "orthodox and modest." Alexander Pope described him as "a learned and strict critic," and "on the whole one of the best critics we ever had.… He is generally right, though rather too severe in his opinion of the particular plays he speaks of." Comparing Rymer's critical efforts with Dryden's Essay on Dramatic Poetry (1668), Dr. Johnson wrote that Dryden's criticism had the majesty of a queen, Rymer's the ferocity of a tyrant. Macaulay judged him to be the worst critic that ever lived. It is fairer to regard him as a learned fanatic, from whose extravagances any level-headed student of the drama may derive much amusement and some profit.

In Martin Scriblerus Pope classed Rymer with John Dennis as being among those "who, beginning with criticism, became afterwards such poets as no age hath parallel'd." A contemporary caricature scornfully designated him ‘a garreteer poet’ (Caulfield, Portraits, 1819, i. 50).

Recognition

Poetic justice

Main article: Poetic justice

Rymer coined the phrase "poetic justice" in his 1678 essay, "The Tragedies of the Last Age Considered." "Poetical justice" (as he put it), was the rewarding of those of good character, and the punishing of those of bad character, in narrative literature. Rymer considered "poetical justice" to be necessary to good literature.

Publications

Poetry

• 3 poems in Poems to the Memory of that Incomparable Poet Edmond Waller Esquire. London: Joseph Knight / Francis Saunders, 1688.
• A Poem on the Arrival of Queen Mary. London: Awnsham Churchil, 1689.

Play

• Edgar; or, The English monarch: An heroick tragedy. London: Richard Tonson, 1678; London: James Knapton, 1693.

Non-ficton

• The Tragedies of the Last Age Consider'd. London: Richard Tonson, 1678.
• A General Draught and Prospect of Government in Europe. London: Tho. Benskin, 1681.
• A Short View of Tragedy. London: Richard Baldwin, 1693; New York: AMS Press, 1970.
• A Defence of Dramatick Poetry: Being a review of Mr Collier's View.London: Eliz. Whitlock, 1698.
• An Essay Concerning Critical and Curious Learning. London: R. Cumberland, 1698
  • (edited by Curt A. Zaminsky). Los Angeles: William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, University of California, 1965.
• A Vindication of An Essay Concerning Critical and Curious Learning. London: F. Whitlock, 1698.
• Letters to the ... Bishop of Carlisle. London: James Knapton, 1702.
• On the Antiquity, Power, and Decay of Parliament. London: J. Roberts, 1714.
• Of the Power of Parliaments. London: J. Roberts, 1715.

Collected editions

• Critical Works (edited by C.A. Zimansky). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1956.

Translated

• Cicero, Cicero's Prince ... collected out of Cicero's works. London: S. Mearne, 1668.
• René Rapin, Reflections on Aristotle's Treatise of Poesie. London: T.N., for H. Herringman, 1674.
• Ovid, Penelope to Ulyses. 1683.
• Some Translations from Greek, Latin, and Italian Poets. 1714.

Edited

• John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, Poems on Several Occasions. London: Jacob Tonson, 1691.
• Foedera. (17 vols), 1704-17.
  • abridged as Acta Regia: Being the account which Mr. Rapin de Thoyras published of the history of England ... and grounded upon ... Mr. Rymer's Foedera. (4 volumes), London: J. Darby, A. Bettesworth, F. Fayram, 1725; London: James, John & Paul Knapton / D. Midwinter / A. Bettesworth & C. Hitch / et al, 1734.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of British poets
• List of literary critics

References

•  Lee, Sidney (1897) "Rymer, Thomas" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 50 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 65-68 . Wikisource, Web, Oct. 23, 2016.

External links

Poetry

• 3 elegies to Waller: "On Mr. Waller," "Waller, qui ne sent rien des Maux de la vieillesse (translated), "To Mr. Riley, Drawing Mr. Waller's Picture"

Books

• Thomas Rymer at Amazon.com

About

• Thomas Rymer in the Encyclopædia Britannica
• Rymer, Thomas in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
• Thomas Rymer in English Poetry, 1579-1830

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Rymer, Thomas