View source for Thomas Shadwell

{{short description|17th-century English poet and playwright}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2015}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2015}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Thomas Shadwell
| image               = Thomas Shadwell from NPG.jpg
| office              = [[Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom|Poet Laureate of England]]
| monarch             = [[William III of England|William III]] and [[Mary II]]
| term_start          = 9 March 1689
| term_end            = 19 or 20 November 1692 
| predecessor         = [[John Dryden]]
| successor           = [[Nahum Tate]]
| birth_date          = {{circa|1642}}<!--{{birth date|df=yes|1631|8|9}}-->
| birth_place         = [[Weeting]] or [[Lynford]], [[Norfolk]], England
| death_date          = {{death date|df=yes|1692|11|19}} (aged approx. 49–50)
| death_place         = London, England
| occupation          = Poet, playwright
| alma_mater          = [[Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge]]
| awards              = [[Poet laureate]]
| module              = {{infobox writer
| embed               = yes
| notable_works       = ''Epsom Wells''; ''Squire of Alsatia''
}}
| spouse              = [[Anne Shadwell]]
| children            = 4, including [[Charles Shadwell (playwright)|Charles]]
}}
'''Thomas Shadwell''' ({{circa|1642}} – 19 November 1692) was an English poet and playwright who was appointed [[Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom|Poet Laureate]] in 1689.<ref>{{Cite DNB |wstitle= Shadwell, Thomas | volume= 51 |last= Aitken |first= George Atherton  |author-link= George Atherton Aitken | pages= 340-343 |short=1}}</ref>

==Life==
Shadwell was born at either Bromehill Farm, [[Weeting-with-Broomhill]] or Santon House, [[Lynford]], [[Norfolk]],<ref>Clarke, WG (1937). In Breckland Wilds. Heffer & Sons Ltd, Cambridge; 2nd edition, p.142</ref> and educated at [[Bury St Edmunds]] School, and at [[Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge]], which he entered in 1656.<ref>{{acad|id=SHDL656T|name=Shadwell, Thomas}}</ref> He left the university without a degree and joined the [[Middle Temple]]. At the [[Glorious Revolution|Whig triumph in 1688]], he superseded [[John Dryden]] as poet laureate and historiographer royal. He died at Chelsea on 19 November 1692.<ref name="life1">[http://www.malaspina.org/home.asp?topic=./search/details&lastpage=./search/results&ID=20 Thomas Shadwell] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041128214840/http://www.malaspina.org/home.asp?topic=.%2Fsearch%2Fdetails |date=28 November 2004 }}</ref> He was buried in [[Chelsea Old Church]], but his tomb was destroyed by wartime bombing. A memorial to him with a bust by [[Francis Bird]] survives in [[Poets' Corner]] in [[Westminster Abbey]].<ref>Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851 by Rupert Gunnis</ref>

He was married to the actress [[Anne Shadwell]], who appeared in several of his plays. They had four children including the playwright [[Charles Shadwell (playwright)|Charles Shadwell]] and [[John Shadwell (physician)|John Shadwell]], a [[physician]] who attended to both [[Queen Anne of Great Britain|Queen Anne]] and [[George I of Great Britain|George I]].<ref>Highfill, Philip H, Burnim, Kalman A. & Langhans, Edward A. ''A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers & Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800, Volume 13''. SIU Press, 1991. p.276</ref>

==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 [[Thieves' cant|cant]] name for the [[Carmelites|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 hands of the sharpers there.<ref name="works1">[http://education.yahoo.com/reference/encyclopedia/entry/Shadwell Shadwell] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120609090123/http://education.yahoo.com/reference/encyclopedia/entry/Shadwell |date=9 June 2012 }}</ref><ref name="works2">[http://www.malaspina.org/home.asp?topic=./search/details&lastpage=./search/results&ID=20 Thomas Shadwell biography] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041128214840/http://www.malaspina.org/home.asp?topic=.%2Fsearch%2Fdetails |date=28 November 2004 }}</ref>

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.<ref name="works5">{{cite web|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/233/000101927/ |title=NNDB |publisher=NNDB |access-date=2018-06-19}}</ref>

Shadwell is chiefly remembered as the unfortunate [[Mac Flecknoe]] of Dryden's satire, the "last great prophet of [[Tautology (rhetoric)|tautology]]", and the literary son and heir of [[Richard Flecknoe]]:<blockquote>
"Shadwell alone, of all my sons, is he

Who stands confirm'd in full stupidity.

The rest to some faint meaning make pretence,

But Shadwell never deviates into sense."<ref name="dry1">{{cite web|url=http://www.bartleby.com/81/10703.html |title=MacFleck'noe |publisher=Bartleby.com |access-date=2018-06-19}}</ref></blockquote>

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 converted to Catholicism, joined the court party and produced ''[[Absalom and Achitophel]]'' and ''The Medal'', Shadwell became the champion of the [[Protestant]]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 personal attacks were returned with interest. In 1687, Shadwell attempted to answer these attacks in a version of [[Satire X|Juvenal's 10th Satire]].<ref name="works5"/> However, Dryden's portrait of Shadwell as [[Og]] in the second part of ''Absalom and Achitophel'' cut far deeper and has withstood the test of time:

<blockquote>
"A monstrous mass of foul corrupted matter,

As all the devils had spew'd to make the batter.

When wine has given him courage to blaspheme,

He curses God, but God before curst him; [...]

The midwife laid her hand on his thick skull,

With this prophetic blessing-- Be thou dull;

Drink, swear and roar, forbear no lewd delight

Fit for thy bulk, do anything but write".<ref name="dry2">{{cite web|url=http://www.bartleby.com/218/0720.html |title=Satire |publisher=Bartleby.com |access-date=2018-06-19}}</ref></blockquote>

Nonetheless, due to the political triumph of the [[British Whig Party|Whig]] party in 1688, Shadwell superseded his enemy as [[Poet Laureate]] and [[historiographer]] royal.<ref name="works5"/>

His son, [[Charles Shadwell (playwright)|Charles Shadwell]] was also a playwright. A scene from his play ''The [[Stockjobber]]s'' was included as an introduction in [[Caryl Churchill]]'s ''Serious Money'' (1987).<ref name="life1"/>

==Poems==

===''Dear Pretty Youth ''===
{| cellpadding="5px" cellspacing="0" border="0" style="margin:auto; background:#ffdab9;"
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:::'''''Dear Pretty Youth '''''
|-
|
Dear pretty youth, unveil your eyes,<br /> 
How can you sleep when I am by?<br /> 
Were I with you all night to be,<br /> 
Methinks I could from sleep be free.<br /> 
Alas, my dear, you're cold as stone:<br /> 
You must no longer lie alone.<br /> 
But be with me my dear, and I in each arm<br /> 
Will hug you close and keep you warm.
|-
|
| valign=bottom |
{{Citation needed|date=February 2007}}
|}

===''Love in their little veins inspires ''===
{| cellpadding="5px" cellspacing="0" border="0" style="margin:auto; background:#fffdd0;"
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::'''''<span style="color:#FF2400;"> Love in their little veins inspires</span> '''''
|-
|
<span style="color:#FF2400;">Love in their little veins inspires<br />
their cheerful notes, their soft desires.<br /> 
While heat makes buds and blossoms spring,<br />
those pretty couples love and sing. <br />
But winter puts out their desire,<br />
and half the year they want love's fire.</span>
|-
|
| valign=bottom |
<ref name="p2">{{cite web|url=http://www.lieder.net/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=14839 |title=Love in their little veins inspires |publisher=Lieder.net |date=2014-06-16 |access-date=2018-06-19}}</ref>
|}

===''Nymphs and Shepherds ''===
{| cellpadding="5px" cellspacing="0" border="0" style="margin:auto; background:#7d7;"
|
::'''''<span style="color:#177245;"> Nymphs and Shepherds </span>'''''
|-
|
<span style="color:#01796F;">Nymphs and shepherds, come away.<br />
In ye groves let's sport and play,<br />
For this is Flora's holiday,<br />
Sacred to ease and happy love,<br />
To dancing, to music and to poetry;<br />
Your flocks may now securely rove<br />
Whilst you express your jollity.<br />
Nymphs and shepherds, come away.</span>
|-
|
| valign=bottom |
<ref name="p3">{{cite web|url=http://www.lieder.net/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=14839 |title=Nymphs and Shepherds |publisher=Lieder.net |date=2014-06-16 |access-date=2018-06-19}}</ref>
|}

==Bibliography==
A complete edition of Shadwell's works was published by another son, Sir John Shadwell, in 1720. Thomas Shadwell's other dramatic works are:
*''[[The Sullen Lovers]]'' (1668), adapted from [[Molière]]
*''The Royal Shepherdess'' (1669), an adaptation of John Fountain's ''Rewards of Virtue''
*''The Humorist'' (1671)
*''The Miser'' (1672), adapted from Molière
*''[[Psyche (Locke)|Psyche]]'' (1675)
*''[[The Libertine (play)|The Libertine]]'' (1676)
*''[[The Virtuoso (play)|The Virtuoso]]'' (1676)
*''[[Timon of Athens by Thomas Shadwell|The History of Timon of Athens the Man-hater]]'' (1678), — on this Shakespearian adaptation see Oscar Beber's inaugural dissertation, ''Thom. Shadwell's Bearbeitung des Shakespeare'schen "Timon of Athens"'' (Rostock, 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 (play)|The Volunteers]]'', or ''Stockjobbers'', published posthumously (1693)

==See also==
{{portal|Poetry}}
* [[Restoration comedy]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|2}}
<!-- Dead note "works4": [http://www.nndb.com/people/233/000101927/ NNDB] -->
<!-- Dead note "p1": [http://www.lieder.net/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=14839 Dear Pretty Youth] -->

==References==
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Shadwell, Thomas |volume=24|page=759}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* {{wikisource author-inline|Thomas Shadwell}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Thomas Shadwell}}
* {{Librivox author |id=2469}}
* [https://archive.today/20121212165050/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.]

{{s-start}}
{{s-court}}
{{succession box|title=British [[Poet Laureate]]|before=[[John Dryden]]|after=[[Nahum Tate]]|years=1689–1692}}
{{succession box|title=[[Historiographer Royal (England)|English Historiographer Royal]]|before=[[John Dryden]]|after=[[Thomas Rymer]]|years=1689–1692}}
{{s-end}}

{{Restoration comedy}}
{{Poets Laureate of the United Kingdom}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shadwell, Thomas}}
[[Category:1640s births]]
[[Category:1692 deaths]]
[[Category:British poets laureate]]
[[Category:Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Members of the Green Ribbon Club]]
[[Category:Writers from Norfolk]]
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]
[[Category:17th-century English dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:17th-century English poets]]
[[Category:17th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:English male dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:English male poets]]
[[Category:Burials at Chelsea Old Church]]