Thomas Shadwell

Thomas Shadwell (c. 1642 – November 19, 1692) was an English playwright and miscellaneous writer who was appointed poet laureate in 1689. Image File history File links ShadwellT.jpg Summary http://todayinliterature. ... Image File history File links ShadwellT.jpg Summary http://todayinliterature. ... Events January 4 - Charles I attempts to arrest five leading members of the Long Parliament, but they escape. ... November 19 is the 323rd day of the year (324th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Events February 13 - Massacre of Glencoe March 1 - The Salem witch trials begin in Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony with the charging of three women with witchcraft. ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my [birth]right) Englands location (dark green) within the British Isles Languages English (de facto) Capital London de facto Largest city London Area – Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population – Total (mid-2004) – Total (2001 Census) – Density Ranked... A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is someone who writes dramatic literature or drama. ... The term writer can apply to anyone who creates a written work, but the word more usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, or those who have written in many different forms. ... A Poet Laureate is a poet officially appointed by a government and often expected to compose poems for state occasions and other government events. ... Events Louis XIV of France passed the Code Noir, allowing the full use of slaves in the French colonies. ...

Life

According to his son, Sir John Shadwell, Thomas Shadwell was born at Santon Hall, Norfolk, and educated at Bury St Edmunds School, and at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, which he was entered in 1656. He left the university without a degree, and joined the Middle Temple. At the Whig triumph in 1688 he superseded John Dryden as poet laureate and historiographer royal. He died at Chelsea on the I9th of November 1692.^[1] Norfolk (pronounced IPA: ) is a low-lying county in East Anglia in the east of southern England. ... Map sources for Bury St Edmunds at grid reference TL8564 Bury St Edmunds is a town in the county of Suffolk, England, with a population of 35,015 (2001 census). ... Full name Gonville and Caius College Motto Named after Edmund Gonville & John Caius Previous names Gonville Hall (1348), Gonville & Caius (1557) Established 1348, refounded 1557 Sister College(s) Brasenose College Master Sir Christopher Hum Location Trinity St Undergraduates 468 Postgraduates 291 Homepage Boatclub Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, generally known... Part of Middle Temple c. ... John Dryden John Dryden (August 9, 1631 – May 12, 1700) was an influential English poet, literary critic, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known as the Age of Dryden. ...

Works

In 1668 he produced a prose comedy, The Sullen Lovers, or the Impertinents, based on Les Fâcheux by Molière, and written in open imitation of Ben Jonson's comedy of humours. His best plays are Epsom Wells (1672), for which Sir Charles Sedley wrote a prologue, and the Squire of Alsatia (1688). Alsatia was the cant name for the Whitefriars area of London, then a kind of sanctuary for persons liable to arrest, and the play represents, in dialogue full of the local argot, the adventures of a young heir who falls into the hand of the sharpers there.^[2][3] Molière, engraved frontispiece to his Works. ... Benjamin Jonson (June 11, 1572 – August 6, 1637) was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. ... Sir Charles Sedley (c. ... Information Capital: Strasbourg Population  - Total  - Density 1,734,145 (1999 census) 1,793,000 (1. ... The word cant can mean more than one thing: Cant is insincere speech, similar to hypocrisy. ... The Order of Our Lady of Mt. ... Argot is primarily slang used by various groups, including but not limited to thieves and other criminals, to prevent outsiders from understanding their conversations. ...

For fourteen years from the production of his first 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.^[4] John Dryden John Dryden (August 9, 1631 – May 12, 1700) was an influential English poet, literary critic, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known as the Age of Dryden. ...

Shadwell is chiefly remembered as the unfortunate Mac Flecknoe of Dryden's satire, the "last great prophet of tautology," and the literary son and heir of Richard Flecknoe: Tautology refers to a use of redundant language in speech or writing, or, put simply, saying the same thing twice. Within the study of logic, a tautology is a statement that is true by its own definition. ... Richard Flecknoe (c. ...

"The rest to some faint meaning make pretence,
But Shadwell never deviates into sense." ^[5]

Dryden had furnished Shadwell with a prologue to his True Widow (1679), and in spite of momentary differences, the two had been on friendly terms. But when Dryden joined the court party, and produced Absalom and Achitophel and The Medal, Shadwell became the champion of the Protestants, and made a scurrilous attack on Dryden in The Medal of John Bayes: a Satire against Folly and Knavery (1682). Dryden immediately retorted in Mac Flecknoe, or a Satire on the True Blue Protestant Poet, T.S. (1682), in which Shadwell's personalities were returned with interest. A month later he contributed to Nahum Tate's continuation of Absalom and Achitophel satirical portraits of Elkanah Settle as Doeg and of Shadwell as Og. In 1687, Shadwell attempted to answer these attacks in a version of the tenth satire of Juvenal. ^[6] Absalom and Achitophel is a landmark poetic political satire by John Dryden. ... Protestantism is a general grouping of denominations within Christianity. ... Nahum Tate (1652 – July 30, 1715) was an Anglo-Irish poet and lyricist. ... Elkanah Settle (January 1, 1648 - February 12, 1724), was an English poet and playwright. ... Note: This article is about the Roman poet, who is the most famous person by this name. ...

However, Dryden's portrait of Shadwell in Absalom and Achitophel cut far deeper, and has withstood the test of time. In this satire, Dryden noted of Settle and Shadwell:

Two fools that crutch their feeble sense on verse;
Who, by my muse, to all succeeding times
Shall live, in spite of their own doggrel rhymes; ^[7]

Nonetheless, Shadwell, due to the Whig triumph in 1688 superseded his enemy as Poet Laureate and historiographer royal.^[8] While the Whigs (along with the Tories) are often described as one of the two political parties in late 17th to mid 19th century Great Britain, it is more accurate to describe them as loose political groupings or tendencies. ... A Poet Laureate is a poet officially appointed by a government and often expected to compose poems for state occasions and other government events. ... Historiography is writing about rather than of history. ...

His son, Charles Shadwell was also a playwright. A scene from his play, "The Stockjobbers" was included as an introduction in Caryl Churchill's "Serious Money" (1987).^[9] Charles Shadwell was an English playwright of the 18th century. ... Caryl Churchill (born September 3, 1938) is a English writer of stage plays known for her use of non-realistic techniques and feminist themes. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Poems

Dear Pretty Youth

Love in their little veins inspires

Nymphs and Shepherds

Works

A complete edition of Shadwell's works was published by another son, Sir John Shadwell, in 1720. His other dramatic works are:

• The Royal Shepherdess (1669), an adaptation of John Fountain's Rewards of Virtue
• The Humorist (1671)
• The Miser (1672), adapted from Molière
• Psyche (1675)
• The Libertine (1676)
• The Virtuoso (1676)
• The history of Timon of Athens the Man-hater (1678),--on this Shakespearian adaptation see O Beber, Shadwell's Bearbeitung des Timon of Athens (Röstock, 1897)
• A True Widow (1679)
• The Woman Captain (1680), revived in 1744 as The Prodigal
• The Lancashire Witches and Teague O'Divelly, the Irish Priest (1682)
• Bury Fair (1689)
• The Amorous Bigot, with the second part of Teague O'Divelly (1690)
• The Scowerers (1691)
• The Volunteers, or Stockjobbers, published posthumously (1693).

Notes

1. ↑  Thomas Shadwell
2. ↑  Shadwell
3. ↑  Thomas Shadwell biography
4. ↑  NNDB
5. ↑  NNDB
6. ↑  NNDB
7. ↑  MacFleck’noe
8. ↑  Satire
9. ↑  Thomas Shadwell
10. ↑  Dear Pretty Youth
11. ↑  Love in their little veins inspires
12. ↑  Nymphs and Shepherds

Reference

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Thomas Shadwell

• This entry incorporates public domain text originally from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.