William Webbe
English critic and translator
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| Intro | English critic and translator | |
| Places | United Kingdom Great Britain England | |
| is | Linguist | |
| Work field | Literature Social science | |
| Gender |
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The details
Biography
William Webbe (fl. 1568–1591) was an English critic and translator. Little is known about him except that he attended Trinity College, Cambridge, and was a tutor for distinguished families.
He wrote a Discourse of English Poetrie (1586), in which he discusses prosody and reviews English poetry up to his own day. He also translated Virgil's first two Eclogues. A letter by Webbe to Robert Wilmot (fl. 1568–1608) is prepended to the 1591 edition of Wilmot's play Tragedie of Tancred and Gismund. The letter, praising Wilmot for having decided to publish the tragedy, acts as a prefacing endorsement of the play.