William Percy (1574-1648). William Percy (1574-1648), Coelia: Containing twenty sonnts (1818). Forgotten Books, 2018. Courtesy Amazon.com.
William Percy (1574-1648) was an English poet and playwright.
Life[]
Youth and education[]
Percy was the 3rd son of Henry Percy, 8th earl of Northumberland (?1532–1585), and his wife Katharine (Neville) (1545/6–1596). He was probably born at Topcliffe, near Thirsk, Yorkshire.[1]
He matriculated from Gloucester Hall (afterwards Worcester College), Oxford, on 13 June 1589, aged 15. Barnabe Barnes], son of the bishop of Durham, was studying at Oxford at the same time, and Barnes and Percy strengthened at the university a friendship doubtless previously begun in the north. "To the right noble and vertuous gentleman, M. William Percy," Barnes dedicated his Parthenophil in 1593.[1]
Career[]
Percy was ambitious to emulate his friend Barnes's literary example. In 1594 he published a collection of Sonnets to the fairest Cœlia (London, by Adam Islip, for W[illiam] P[onsonby]), and closed the slender volume with a madrigal in praise of Barnes's poetic efforts, entitled "To Parthenophil upon his Laya and Parthenophe." Only 20 sonnets are included, and none are impressive. Copies of the original belonged to the Duke of Northumberland and A.H. Huth.[1]
In an address to the reader prefixed to the sonnets, Percy promised "ere long to impart unto the world another poeme more fruitful and ponderous." It is doubtful if this promise were literally fulfilled. His only other acknowledged publication is "a poor madrigall," signed "W. Percy, Musophilus: spes Calamo occidit," in Barnes's Four Bookes of Offices, 1606.[1]
But 6 plays by him — all amateurish dramatic essays — remain in manuscript in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire. Of these Joseph Haslewood printed 2 for the Roxburghe Club in 1824. The play entitled The Cuck-queanes and cuckolds errants, or the bearing down the Inn: a comoedye, is in prose, and is introduced by a prologue spoken by Tarleton's ghost. The other, The Faery Pastorall, or Forest of Elues, is chiefly in blank verse. The unpublished plays are:[1] Arabia Sitiens, or a Dream of a Dry Year, 1601; The Aphrodisial, or Sea Feast, 1602; A Country's Tragedy in Vacuniam, or Cupid's Sacrifice, 1602; and Necromantes, or the two supposed Heads, a comical invention acted by the children of St. Paul's about 1602.[2]
In 1619 Thomas Campion included in his Epigrammata a friendly and appreciative address to Percy in Latin verse (bk. ii. No. 40; cf. edited by A.H. Bullen, 325).[2]
Percy seems to have lived a troubled life. For a time he was in the Tower on a charge of homicide. In 1638 he was residing obscurely in Oxford, "drinking nothing but ale."[3]
He died at Oxford in May 1648, "an aged bachelor in Pennyfarthing Street, after he had lived a melancholy and retired life many years." He was buried on 28 May in Christchurch Cathedral.[2]
Recognition[]
Percy's Sonnets to the Fairest Coelia were reprinted by Sir Egerton Brydges in 1818; by Dr. Grosart in Occasional Issues in 1877; by Arber in English Garner (vi. 135–50); and in Elizabethan Sonnets edited by Sidney Lee, 1904, ii. 137.[1]
Publications[]
Poetry[]
- Sonnets to the Fairest Coelia. London: Adam Isli, for W.P., 1594.[4]
- also published as Coelia; containing twenty sonnets by W. Percy (edited by Samuel Egerton Brydges). Kent, UK: Press of Lee Priory, 1818.
Plays[]
- The Cuck-Queanes and Cuckolds Errants; or, The bearing down the inne: A comaedye / The faery pastorall, or, Forrest of elves. London: William Nicol, from the Shakespeare Press, 1824.
- Arabia Sitiens. A dream of a drye yeare (1601)
- published as William Percy's Mahomet and His Heaven: A critical edition (edited by Matthew Dimmock). Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2006.
Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[5]
See also[]
References[]
Lee, Sidney (1895) "Percy, William" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 44 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 441-442. Wikisource, Web, Apr. 3, 2020.
Notes[]
External links[]
- Books
- Coelia at Amazon.com
- About
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: Percy, William (1575-1648)
|