Thomas Edwards (poet)
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Thomas Edwards (died 1595)[1] was the author of two[2] Ovid inspired epic poems Cephalus and Procris; Narcissus. He has been identified as probably the Shropshire law student who transferred from Furnival's Inn to Lincoln's Inn in June 1587; here Edwards shared a room with a known friend of John Donne.
Edwards possibly contributed the Latin verse to Adriaan van Roomen's Parvum theatrum urbium which was published in 1595.[1]
[edit] Cephalus and Procris; Narcissus
Cephalus, Procris and Narcissus all feature in Ovid's poem Metamorphoses.
Edward's poems were published as a single volume in 1595; Cephalus and Procris in couplet form, Narcissus in a seven-line stanza.[1] In the first poem Edwards is more particularly imitating Marlowe and in the latter Shakespeare.[3] Various authors starting with Thomas Warton have suggested
- Pyramus: Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true.
- Thisbe: As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you.
- (Midsummer Night's Dream, Act v. 1)
is a reference to Edward's work, but this is generally discounted.[4]
The author concluded each work with a long postscript; in Narcissus this includes, using aliases, references to other poets including: Amintas (Thomas Watson); Collyn (Edmund Spenser); Leander (Christopher Marlowe) and Rosamond (Samuel Daniel). Others such as Adon (Shakespeare) have not been convincingly identified.[1]
Contemporaries, such as William Covell and Thomas Nashe, derided the work; Covell listing it, among the ‘smaller lights’ of modern poetry[1] and the book disappeared from the record until a fragment was discovered in the Lamport Library of Sir Charles Edmund Isham in 1867.[2] The full copy was subsequently discovered at the Cathedral Library at Peterborough. It was republished by the Roxburghe Club in 1882.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e Matthew Steggle, ‘Edwards, Thomas (fl. 1587–1595)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
- ^ a b Charlotte Carmichael Stopes; Thomas Edwards, Author of "Cephalus and Procris, Narcissus"; The Modern Language Review, Vol. 16, No. 3/4 (Jul. - Oct., 1921), pp. 209-223
- ^ Tucker Brooke et al.; The Renaissance: (1500-1660);Routledge, 1967; p406
- ^ W.E. Buckley (Ed); Cephalus and Procris; Narcissus; Roxburghe Club; 1882; preface
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