Elixabethan Song Cycles: Idea by Michael Drayton / Fidessa by Bartholomew Griffin / Chloris by William Smith (edited by Martha Foote Crowe). London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1897. Courtesy Internet Archive.
William Smith (1596 fl.) was an English poet.
Life[]
Little is known of Smith.[1] There is no means of determining whether the writer is identical with the ‘W.S.’ who prefixed verses "in commendation of the author" to Grange's Golden Aphroditis, 1577, or with the ‘W.S.’ who paid Breton a like compliment in his Wil of Wit, 1606.[2] (Samuel Egerton Brydges identifies him with the former, but without giving any evidence.)[1]
Writing[]
Smith avowed himself a disciple of Spenser, and in 1596 published a collection of sonnets, entitled Chloris; or, The complaint of the passionate despised shepheard, printed by Edmund Bollifant, 1596, 4to. The volume opens with 2 sonnets, inscribed "To the most excellent and learned shepheard, Collin Cloute" (i.e. Spenser), and signed ‘W. Smith.’ In a 3rd sonnet addressed to Spenser at the close of the book Smith calls Spenser the patron of his maiden verse. The intervening pages are occupied by 48 sonnets, very artificially constructed, and by a poem of greater literary power, in 20 lines, called "Corins Dreame of the faire Chloris."[3]
A sonnet in the volume, "A Notable Description of the World," had been previously published in The Phoenix-nest, 1595, and there bore the signature ‘W.S. gentleman.’[3]
Heber owned a manuscript entitled A New Yeares Guift, or a posie upon certen flowers presented to the Countesse of Pembrooke by the author of “Chloris, or the passionate despised Shepherd;” it is now in the British Museum, MS. Addit. 35186.[2]
Recognition[]
"Corins Dreame" was transferred to England's Helicon (1600 and 1614).[3]
Publications[]
Poetry[]
- Chloris; or, The complaint of the passionate despised shepheard. London: Edmund Bollifant, 1596 [3]
- also published in Elizabethan Sonnet Cycles 3: Idea by Michael Drayton / Fidessa by Bartholomew Griffin / Chloris by William Smith (edited by Martha Foote Crow). London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1897.[4]
See also[]
References[]
Lee, Sidney (1898) "Smith, William (fl.1596)" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 53 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 141-142. Wikisource, Web, Nov. 27, 2016.
Notes[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 William Smith (1570 ca.-1596 fl.), English poetry, 1579-1830, Center for Applied Technologies in the Humanities, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University. Web, Nov. 27, 2016.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lee, 142.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Lee, 141.
- ↑ Search results = au:William Smith + Chloris, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Inc. Web, Nov. 27, 2016.
External links[]
- Poems
- "Colin I know that, in thy loftie wit"
- "To the most excellent and learned Shepheard Collin Cloute"
- William Smith at Sonnet Central (4 sonnets)
- William Smith at the Poetry Nook (6 poems)
- Books
- William Smith 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). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Smith, William (fl.1596)
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