Thomas Shadwell

Thomas Shadwell (?1642 - 19 November 1692) was an English poet and playwright, who was appointed Poet Laureate in 1689.

Thomas Shadwell (?1642-1692). Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Life

Overview

Shadwell belonged to a good Staffordshire family, was born in Norfolk, educated at Cambridge, and after studying law traveled, and on his return became a popular dramatist. Among his comedies, in which he displayed considerable comic power and truth to nature, may be mentioned The Sullen Lovers (1668), Royal Shepherdess (1668), The Humourists (1671), and The Miser (1672). He attached himself to the Whigs, and when Dryden attacked them in Absalom and Achitophel and The Medal, had the temerity to assail him scurrilously in The Medal of John Bayes (1682). The castigation which this evoked in MacFlecknoe and in the 2nd part of Absalom and Achitophel, in which Shadwell figures as "Og," has conferred upon him an unenviable immortality. He may have found some consolation in his succession to Dryden as Poet Laureate when, at the Revolution, the latter was deprived of the office.

Family

Shadwell was the grandson of George Shadwell, and the son of John Shadwell of the parish of Broomhill, Norfolk. He claimed descent from the family of Shadwell of Lyndowne, Staffordshire. John Shadwell, who had 11 children, was of the Middle Temple, and lost much of his property at the civil war. He was a justice of the peace for Middlesex, Norfolk, and Suffolk, and after the Restoration was appointed recorder of Galway and receiver there to the Duke of York, and subsequently was attorney-general at Tangier under William O'Brien, 2nd earl of Inchiquin. He was buried at Oxburgh, Norfolk, on 2 March 1684 (Blomefield, Norfolk, vi. 197; Oxburgh Register).

Youth and education

Shadwell was born in 1640 or 1642 at Broomhill House in the parish of Weeting (cf. Caius College Register; Notes and Queries, 8th ser. iv. 109).

He was educated at home for 5 years, and afterwards for a year at the school of Bury St. Edmunds.

On 17 December 1656 he was admitted as a pensioner to Caius College, Cambridge, "then aged 14," but he left without taking any degree, and entered the Middle Temple. After studying there for some time, he traveled abroad, and on his return turned his attention to literature.

Career

Shadwell's earliest play, The Sullen Lovers, based on Molière's Les Fâcheux, was brought out at Lincoln's Inn Fields on 5 May 1668. It was acted 12 days (Shadwell's wife taking the part of the heroine, Emilia), and was revived when the court was at Dover in 1670 (Downes, Roscius Anglicanus, 1708, 29). In the preface Shadwell avowed himself a disciple of Ben Jonson, his endeavor being to represent variety of humours, as was the practice of his master.

In September 1668 Pepys asked Shadwell to dinner; but when Shadwell's 2nd play, The Royal Shepherdess, which was adapted from Fountain's The Rewards of Virtue, was produced before a crowded house in February 1669, Pepys said it was "the silliest for words and design and everything that ever I saw in my whole life." A much better play, The Humourists, produced at the Theatre Royal in 1670, is said by Gildon to have met with many enemies on its premiere appearance.

The Miser, 1671, is an adaptation from Molière, but contains 8 characters not to be found in L'Avare. In the preface, Shadwell says that Molière's part in the play had not suffered in his hands: "'Tis not barrenness of wit or invention that makes us borrow from the French, but laziness." The Miser was dedicated to the Earl of Dorset. Nell Gwyn wrote: "My Lord of Dorset … drinks ale with Shadwell and Mr. Harris at the Duke's House all day long" (Notes and Queries, 4th ser. vii. 3).

Epsom Wells, one of Shadwell's best plays in spite of its coarseness, was acted at Dorset Garden in 1672. Shadwell says, in the dedication to his patron the Duke of Newcastle, that the town was "extremely kind to it." Sir Charles Sedley wrote a prologue, and, according to Dryden, gave the author help in writing the play.

In 1673 Shadwell constructed an opera out of Shakespeare's Tempest, with the sub-title of ‘The Enchanted Island,’ which was given at Dorset Garden with much success, and printed in 4to (Downes; cf. Genest, i. 155). In the dedication (to Monmouth) of Psyche, produced at Dorset Garden in February 1674, Shadwell alludes to the charge that others wrote the best parts of his plays. This opera, which is in rhymed verse, was based on Molière, and was played for about 8 nights. The scenery cost 800l.

The Libertine, a tragedy with Don Juan as hero, and The Virtuoso were brought out in 1676. In the dedication to the former, Shadwell replied to the charge of hasty writing preferred against him by Elkanah Settle in a postscript to Love and Revenge, 1675; in The Virtuoso he regretted that want of means prevented him devoting his whole time to the leisurely writing of "correct" comedies.

In Timon of Athens, 1678, Shadwell spoke of the inimitable hand of Shakespeare, but added, "Yet I can truly say I have made it into a play." The True Widow, produced in 1679 or perhaps 1678, and dedicated to Sedley, was not popular, though Shadwell was well satisfied with it. The Woman Captain, 1680, was followed by The Lancashire Witches, 1681, which was successful in spite of the efforts of a party who said that the character of the chaplain, Smerk, was an insult to the church of England. Much of the play was struck out by the licenser before it was acted, but it was afterwards printed in full (on its coarseness, cf. Spectator, No. 141).

Conflict with Dryden

In 1671 Shadwell referred to Dryden, in the preface to The Humourists, as his "particular friend;’ he joined Crowne and Dryden in an attack on Settle's Empress of Morocco in 1674, and in 1679 Dryden contributed a prologue to Shadwell's True Widow. But in the preface to his 1st play (1668) Shadwell had written in opposition to views recently expressed in Dryden's Essay of Dramatic Poesy, while in The Virtuoso (1676) he sneered at contemporary dramatists, and Dryden must have felt that some of the remarks related to his writings and to Aureng-Zebe in particular.

There was, however, no open feud until 1682, when Dryden produced his 2nd satire on Shaftesbury, The Medal, prefaced by an epistle to the whigs. Shadwell replied with The Medal of John Bayes: A satire against folly and knavery, and with a prose Epistle to the Tories, in which, as well as in the verse, he grossly libeled his opponent, both as poet and man, calling him an "abandoned rascal," "half wit, half fool." Shadwell is supposed also to have been the author of a rather less offensive satire, The Tory Poets, 1682, in which Dryden is attacked, in company with Thomas Otway and others.

Dryden took his revenge in MacFlecknoe; or, A satire on the true blue Protestant poet, T.S., published in October 1682, where Shadwell is represented as the literary son and successor of poetaster Richard Flecknoe. In this savage attack it was alleged that Shadwell was void of wit, and "never deviates into sense," and there were allusions to Shadwell's "mountain belly," slowness of composition, comparison of himself with Jonson, and the help he obtained from Sedley. A month later Dryden wrote another bitter attack in Nahum Tate's 2nd part of Absalom and Achitophel, where, under the name of Og, he described Shadwell as a drunken "mass of foul corrupted matter," and ridiculed his poverty and his habit of taking opium.

In the following year Shadwell and Thomas Hunt (?1627-1688) attacked Dryden in Some Reflections upon the pretended Parallel in the play called the Duke of Guise, 1683, and Dryden retorted in the Vindication of the Duke of Guise, in which reference was made especially to Shadwell's drinking habits and to his ignorance of the classics. Shadwell was again attacked in a scarce eulogy on Dryden, The Laurel, 1685.

It was not until 1687 that Shadwell, in a translation of the Tenth Satire of Juvenal, dedicated to Sir Charles Sedley, and written as a counterblast to a translation by Dryden's friend, Henry Higden, replied to Mac Flecknoe. In this he rather proved his dullness by taking literally Dryden's reference to him as an "Irishman." In conclusion he alleged that Dryden, when taxed with the authorship of the satire, "denied it with all the execrations he could think of." There is, however, abundant proof that Dryden made no secret of the authorship.

After an interval of 7 years Shadwell produced 1 of his best plays, The Squire of Alsatia (May 1688), in which the rogues make free use of their cant language. The play ran for 13 nights, and the author's 3rd night brought him in £130, "16l. more than any other poet ever did." The title originally proposed seems to have been the Alsatia Bully (Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. p. 198, 12th Rep. pt. v. p. 119).

Poet Laureate

At the Revolution Dryden lost the laureateship, and was succeeded by Shadwell, as Poet Laureate and historiographer royal. The salary of £300 a year was sometimes in arrears (ib. 13th Rep. v. 373, 14th Rep. vi. 166). The lord chamberlain, on being asked why he did not give the laureateship to a better poet, is reported to have said, "I do not pretend to say how great a poet Shadwell may be, but I am sure he is an honest man."

Besides some loyal poems Shadwell produced in 1689 the comedy Bury Fair, based partly on the Duke of Newcastle's Triumphant Widow and Molière's Les Précieuses Ridicules. In the dedication to Lord Dorset Shadwell says that it was written during an 8 months' illness, and that for nearly 10 years his ruin had been designed, and he had been kept from the exercise of a profession which would have afforded him a competent living. After the Amorous Bigot in 1690, Shadwell brought out The Scowrers (1691), an excellent but coarse comedy, which gives an interesting picture of the times.

Shadwell died suddenly on 19 November 1692, and was buried at Chelsea on 24 November. An article upon him appeared in Peter Motteux's Gentleman's Journal for November; and in a funeral sermon, by Dr. Nicholas Brady, printed in 1693, Shadwell is highly praised as a complete gentleman and an unalterable friend, with a deep sense of religion. The report that he died of an overdose of opium is rendered probable by Brady's remark that "he never took his dose of opium but he solemnly recommended himself to God by prayer, as if he were then about to resign up his soul."

Writing

Plays

For 14 years from the production of his 1st comedy to his memorable encounter with John Dryden, Shadwell produced a play nearly every year. These productions display a hatred of sham, and a rough but honest moral purpose. Although bawdy, they present a vivid picture of contemporary manners.

Estimates of Shadwell's literary powers differ widely. Rochester said that "if Shadwell had burnt all he wrote, and printed all he spoke, he would have had more wit and humour than any other poet." Elsewhere, Rochester praised "Hasty Shadwell and slow Wycherley," while Addison, in the Spectator, applauds his humor (No. 35).

Shadwell depended, like Jonson — whom he vainly tried to imitate — for the amusement of his hearers on the "humors" of his characters; he had little wit, though it is not fair to bracket him, as Dryden did, with Settle. His comedies are useful for the vivid account they give of the life of his time. Although no poet, he was, as Scott says, an acute observer of nature, and he showed considerable skill in invention. He seems to have been naturally coarse, and was grossly indecent without designing to corrupt.

The dates of publication of Shadwell's plays were as follows:

‘The Sullen Lovers,’ 1668. ‘The Royal Shepherdess,’ 1669. ‘The Humourists,’ 1671. ‘The Miser,’ 1672. ‘Epsom Wells,’ 1673. ‘Psyche,’ 1675. ‘The Virtuoso,’ 1676. ‘The Libertine,’ 1676. ‘Timon of Athens,’ 1678. ‘A True Widow,’ 1679. ‘The Woman Captain,’ 1680. ‘The Lancashire Witches,’ 1681. ‘The Squire of Alsatia,’ 1688. ‘Bury Fair,’ 1689. ‘The Amorous Bigot,’ 1690. ‘The Scowrers,’ 1691. ‘The Volunteers,’ 1693 (posthumous, with a dedication to the queen, signed by the widow, and a prologue by D'Urfey).

A play called The Innocent Impostors is also referred to Shadwell, but cannot be traced (Hist. MSS. Comm. 4th Rep. App. pp. 280–1).

Shadwell's eldest son (afterwards Sir John Shadwell) in 1720 brought out a collected edition of his father's dramatic works, in 4 volumes, with a dedication to George I.

Verse

Shadwell published also the following occasional verses, in folio form, besides the translation from Juvenal and ‘Medal of John Bayes’ already noticed:

‘A Lenten Prologue refused by the Players’ (in reply to the ‘Medal’), 1683. ‘A Congratulatory Poem on His Highness the Prince of Orange's Coming into England,’ 1689. ‘A Congratulatory Poem to the most Illustrious Queen Mary, upon her arrival into England,’ 1689. ‘Ode to the King on his Return from Ireland,’ 1690. ‘Ode on the Anniversary of the King's Birth,’ 1690. ‘Votum Perenne: a Poem to the King on New Year's Day,’ 1692.

Other verses are in Gildon's ‘Poetical Remains of … Mr. Shadwell,’ &c., 1698. A ‘Song for St. Cecilia's Day,’ 1690, is given in Nichols's ‘Select Collection of Poems,’ v. 298–301.

Samples

Dear Pretty Youth

Dear Pretty Youth
Dear pretty youth, unveil your eyes, How can you sleep when I am by? Were I with you all night to be, Methinks I could from sleep be free. Alas, my dear, you're cold as stone: You must no longer lie alone. But be with me my dear, and I in each arm Will hug you close and keep you warm.

Love in their little veins inspires

Love in their little veins inspires
Love in their little veins inspires their cheerful notes, their soft desires. While heat makes buds and blossoms spring, those pretty couples love and sing. But winter puts out their desire, and half the year they want love's fire.

Nymphs and Shepherds

Nymphs and Shepherds
Nymphs and shepherds, come away. In ye groves let's sport and play, For this is Flora's holiday, Sacred to ease and happy love, To dancing, to music and to poetry; Your flocks may now securely rove Whilst you express your jollity. Nymphs and shepherds, come away.

Recognition

Shadwell became Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom in 1689, and served until his death in 1692.

Shadwell's eldest son (afterwards Sir John Shadwell) placed a small white marble monument in the east aisle of Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey. The inscription upon it is incorrect (cf. Stanley, Westminster Abbey, 1868, 278).

A portrait by S. Gribelin is prefixed to his 1720 collected plays; an anonymous mezzotint by W. Faithorne, jun., after a painting of Kerseboom's, is also said to represent Shadwell (Noble, Continuation of Granger, 1806, i. 255).

George Clint painted a portrait from Faithorne's engraving; it shows a resemblance in person between Shadwell and his master, Ben Jonson. Clint's painting was engraved by Duvean.

Publications

Poetry

• The Medal of John Bayes: A satyr against folly and knavery. London: Richard Janesway, 1682.
• Satyr to his Muse. London: T.W., 1682.
• The Tory-Poets: A satyr. London: R. Johnson, 1682.
• A Lenten Prologue. London: 1683.
• A Congratulatory Poem on his Highness the Prince of Orange. London: James Knapton, 1689.
• A Congratulatory Poem to... Queen Mary. London: James Knapton, 1689.
• Ode on the Anniversary of the King's Birth. London: James Knapton, 1690.
• Ode to the King: On his return from Ireland. London: 1690.
• Votum Perenne: A poem to the King on New-Years-Day. London: Samuel Crouch, 1692.
• Ode on the King's Birth-Day. London: Francis Saunders, 1692.

Plays

• The Sullen Lovers; or, The impertinents: A comedy (adapted from Molière). London: Henry Herringman, 1668.
• The Royal Shepherdess: A tragi-comedy (adapted from John Fountain). London: Henry Herringman, 1669.
• The Humorists: A comedy. London: Henry Herringman, 1671.
• The Miser: A comedy (adapted from Moliere). London: T. Collins & J. Ford, 1672.
• Epsom-wells: A comedy. London: 1673; London: Henry Herringman, 1673.
• The Tempest; or, The enchanted island: A comedy (adapted from William Shakespeare). London: J.M., for Henry Herringman, 1674.
• Psyche: A tragedy. London: T.N., for Henry Herringman, 1675.
• The Libertine: A tragedy. London: T.N., for Henry Herringman, 1676.
• The Virtuoso: A comedy. London: T.N., for Henry Herringman, 1676
  • (edited by Marjorie Hope Nicolson & David Stuart Rodes). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1966.
• The History of Timon of Athens, the Man-Hater (adapted from Shakespeare). London: J.M., for Henry Herringman, 1678.
• A True Widow: A comedy. London: 1679.
• The Woman-Captain: A comedy. London: S. Carr, 1680.
• The Lancashire Witches, and Tegue o Divelly the Irish Priest: A comedy. London: John Starkey, 1682; London: James Knapton, 1718.
• The Squire of Alsatia: A comedy. London: James Knapton, 1688
  • Thomas Shadwell's The Squire of Alsatia: A critical edition (edited by J.C. Ross). New York: Garland, 1987.
• Bury-fair, a comedy. 1689
  • Thomas Shadwell's Bury-Fair: A critical edition (edited by J.C. Ross). New York: Garland, 1995.
• The Amourous Bigotte ... A comedy. London: James Knapton, 1690.
• The Scowrers: A comedy. London: James Knapton, 1691.
• The Volunteers; or, The stock-jobbers: A comedy. London: James Knapton, 1693.
• Dramatick works (edited by Sir John Shadwell). (4 volumes), London: James Knapton / Jacob Tonson, 1720.

Non-fiction

• Notes and observations on the Empress of Morocco (with John Dryden & John Crown). London: 1674.
• Some Reflections upon the Pretended Parallel in the Play called the 'Duke of Guise'. London: Francis Smith Sen., 1683.

Collected editions

• Works. London: James Knapton, 1693.
• Thomas Shadwell (edited by George Saintsbury). London: T. Fisher Unwin / New York: Scribner, 1903.
• Complete Works (edited by Montague Summers). (5 volumes), London: Fortune Press, 1927.
• Dryden and Shadwell: The literary controversy; and Mac Flecknoe (1668-1679): Facsimile reproductions (edited by Richard L. Oden). Delmar, NY: Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, 1977.

Translated

• Juvenal, The Tenth Satyr: English and Latin. London: D. Mallet for Gabriel Collins, 1687.

Love In Their Little Veins Inspires By Thomas Shadwell Poem -298 14.01.21

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of British poets
• List of English-language playwrights
• Timeline of British poetry

Preceded by John Dryden

British Poet Laureate 1689-1692

Succeeded by Nahum Tate

References

•  Aitken, George Atherton (1897) "Shadwell, Thomas" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 51 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 340-343  . Wikisource, Web, Feb. 27, 2018.

External links

Poems

• Thomas Shadwell 2 poems ("Dear Pretty Youth," "Song of Devils") at the Academy of American Poets
• Thomas Shadwell at My Poetic Side (7 poems)
• Thomas Shadwell at AllPoetry (8 poems)
• Thomas Shadwell at the LiederNet Archive

Plays

• 14 Shadwell Plays Online

Books

• Thomas Shadwell at Amazon.com

About

• Thomas Shadwell in the Encyclopædia Britannica
• Thomas Shadwell at Westminster Abbey
• Thomas Shadwell at NNDB

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