- Thomas Shadwell
Thomas Shadwell (c. 1642 –
19 November 1692 ) was an Englishplaywright and miscellaneouswriter who was appointedpoet laureate in 1689.Life
According to his son, Sir John Shadwell, Thomas Shadwell was born at Stanton Hall,
Norfolk , and educated atBury St Edmunds School, and atGonville and Caius College, Cambridge , which he entered in 1656. He left the university without a degree, and joined theMiddle Temple . At the Whig triumph in 1688 he supersededJohn Dryden as poet laureate and historiographer royal. He died at Chelsea on19 November 1692 . [http://www.malaspina.org/home.asp?topic=./search/details&lastpage=./search/results&ID=20 Thomas Shadwell] ]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 ofBen Jonson 's comedy of humours. His best plays are "Epsom Wells" (1672), for which SirCharles Sedley wrote a prologue, and the "Squire of Alsatia" (1688).Alsatia was thecant 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 localargot , the adventures of a young heir who falls into the hand of the sharpers there. [http://education.yahoo.com/reference/encyclopedia/entry/Shadwell Shadwell] ] [http://www.malaspina.org/home.asp?topic=./search/details&lastpage=./search/results&ID=20 Thomas Shadwell biography] ]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. [http://www.nndb.com/people/233/000101927/ NNDB] ]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 ofRichard Flecknoe :"The rest to some faint meaning make pretense,
But Shadwell never deviates into sense." [http://www.bartleby.com/81/10703.html MacFleck’noe] ]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 theProtestant s, 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 toNahum Tate 's continuation of "Absalom and Achitophel" satirical portraits ofElkanah Settle as Doeg and of Shadwell as Og. In 1687, Shadwell attempted to answer these attacks in a version of Juvenal's 10th Satire. [http://www.nndb.com/people/233/000101927/ NNDB] ]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; [http://www.bartleby.com/218/0720.html Satire] ]Nonetheless, Shadwell, due to the Whig triumph in 1688 superseded his enemy as
Poet Laureate andhistoriographer royal.His son,
Charles Shadwell was also a playwright. A scene from his play, "TheStockjobber s" was included as an introduction inCaryl Churchill 's "Serious Money" (1987). [http://www.malaspina.org/home.asp?topic=./search/details&lastpage=./search/results&ID=20 Thomas Shadwell] ]Poems
"Dear Pretty Youth "
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 ofJohn 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
References
*1911|article=Thomas Shadwell|url=http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Thomas_Shadwell
External links
* [http://www.letrs.indiana.edu/cgi-bin/eprosed/eprosed-idx?type=boolean;layer=2;rgn1=period;q1=Res&size=100&slice=2 14 Shadwell Plays Online.]
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