The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume V. The Drama to 1642, Part One.
VI. The Plays of the University Wits.
§ 20. Thomas Lodge: sequence of his work.
| Thomas Lodge, born 1558, was educated at Trinity college, Oxford; the exact dates of his degrees are not known. He was a man of manifold activities. As pamphleteer, he wrote against Stephen Gosson in defence of the stage. 14 He began his play-writing as early as 1582, and his novel writing as early as 1584 with The Delectable Historie of Forbonius and Prisceria. He took part in the expedition to Tercer and the Canaries in that year, and whiled away the tiresome hours of the voyage by writing the source of As You Like It, namely Rosalynde. Euphues’ golden legacie. On his return home, he published a book of verse, Scillaes Metamorphosis. Just before setting out on a voyage with Cavendish in 1592, he had published an historical romance, The History of Robert, second Duke of Normandy, surnamed Robin the Divell; during his absence, Greene published for him his Euphues Shadow, and so facile was Lodge that, immediately on his return, he printed another historical romance, The Life and Death of William Longbeard, and his book of sonnets called Phillis. There followed on these the publication of his two plays, The Wounds of Civil War and A Looking Glasse for London and England, 1594, though the latter play was undoubtedly written much earlier; his book of verse, A Fig for Momus, 1595; and his romantic story, A Margarite of America, 1596. |
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