William Webbe (1568-1591 fl.) was an English literary critic and translator.
William Webbe (1568-1591 fl.), A Discourse of English Poetry]. London: Edward Arber, 1870. Courtesy Internet Archive.
Life[]
Overview[]
Almost nothing is known of Webbe except that he was at Cambridge and acted as tutor in certain distinguished families, and was a friend of Edmund Spenser. He wrote a Discourse of English Poetrie (1586), in which he discusses meter and rhyme (the use of which he reprehends), and reviews English poetry up to his own day. He also translated the 1st 2 of the Eclogues of Virgil in singularly unmelodious [[Hexameter|hexameters.[1]
Youth and education[]
Webbe matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge, as a sizar in 1569.[2] He later moved to St. John's College, where he was acquainted with Gabriel Harvey and Edmund Spenser, and where he earned a B.A. in 1572-3.[3]
About 1583 or 1584 he was private tutor to the 2 sons of Edward Sulyard of Flemyngs in the parish of Runwell, Essex. When these pupils reached manhood Webbe went, probably again as private tutor, to the family of Henry Grey (cousin of Lady Jane Grey), at Pirgo in the parish of Havering atte Bower, Essex. One of Grey's daughters was married to a William Sulyard.[3]
Career[]
From Pirgo on 8 August 1591 Webbe dates a letter to his friend Robert Wilmot (1568 fl.), which is prefixed to the edition of Tancred and Gismund revised and published by Wilmot in 1592.[3] Grey's wife was one of the ladies to whom the tragedy is dedicated. From this letter Webbe would appear to have been present when the first version of the play in 1568 at the Inner Temple was "curiously acted in view of her majesty, by whom it was then princely accepted." Nothing more is known of Webbe.[4]
Writing[]
While he was at Flemyngs in the 'summer evenings' apparently of 1586 Webbe composed A Discourse of English Poetrie. Together with the authors judgment touching the reformation of our English Verse. By William Webbe, graduate. Imprinted at London, by John Charlewood for Robert Walley, 1586, 4to. This was entered on the Stationers' Register, 4 Sept. 1586. Only two copies are known — one is in Malone's Collection at the Bodleian, and the other is now at Britwell. It was reprinted in Ancient Critical Essays, edited by J. Haslewood, London, 1815' (ii. 13–95), and by Edward Arber among the English Reprints in 1870.[4]
The work shows Webbe to have been intimately and intelligently acquainted with contemporary English poetry and poets. It is dedicated to Edward Sulyard, and has a preface "to the noble poets of England." It is of high value and interest as a storehouse of allusions to contemporary poets, and for the light it throws upon the critical ideas of the Cambridge in which Spenser was bred.[4]
At the end of the Discourse the author prints his own version in hexameters of the first 2 eclogues of Virgil. It appears from the dedication that he had previously translated all the eclogues into a common English meter, probably hendecasyllables, for Sulyard's sons. The eclogues are followed by a table in English of "Cannons or general Cautions of Poetry," compiled from Horace by George Fabricius (1516–1571) of Chemnitz. A short Epilogus concludes the tract.[4]
It is a proof of Webbe's taste that he perceives the superiority to contemporary verse of the Shepherd's Calendar (ib. 23, 35, 52, 81). He translates Spenser's 4th eclogue into quaintly absurd sapphics, and his hexameters are scarcely better; but his protest against "this tinkerly verse which we call rhyme" must not be judged by his attempts at composition in classical meters.[4]
Thomas Warton mentions "a small black-lettered tract entitled 'The Touchstone of Wittes,' chiefly compiled, with some slender additions, from William Webbe's Discourse of English Poetry, written by Edward Hake and printed at London by Edmund Bollifant" (History of English Poetry, ed. 1870, 804); but no copy is known to be extant.[4]
Publications[]
Non-fiction[]
- A Discourse of English Poetry. London: Iohn Charlewood, for Robert Walley, 1586
- (edited by Edwin Arber). London: Edward Arber, 1870; Westminster: Constable, 1895.[5]
See also[]
References[]
Bayne, Ronald (1899) "Webbe, William" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 60 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 111-112 . Wikisource, Web, Jan. 5, 2017.</ref>
Notes[]
- ↑ John William Cousin, "Webbe, William," A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: Dent / New York: Dutton, 1910, 398-399. Wikisource, Web, Mar. 16, 2018.
- ↑ Search Results = "Webbe, William", Cambridge Alumni Database, University of Cambridge. Web, Jan. 5, 2017.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Bayne, 111.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Bayne, 112.
- ↑ Search results = au:William Webbe, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Jan. 5, 2016.
External links[]
- Prose
- About
- William Webbe (1550 ca.-1591) at English Poetry, 1579-1830
- William Webbe’s Discourse of English Poetrie in the Cambridge History of English and American Literature
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: Webbe, William
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