Thomas Wade (180519 September 1875) was an English poet and

dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between characters and is intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. Ben Jonson coined the term "playwri ...

Life

Wade, known in early life as Wade Lavender, was born at

Woodbridge, Suffolk Woodbridge is a port town and civil parish in the East Suffolk District, East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. It is up the River Deben from the sea. It lies north-east of Ipswich and around north-east of London. In 2011 it had a populat ...

. He went to London at a young age, where he began to publish verse influenced by

Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824) was an English poet. He is one of the major figures of the Romantic movement, and is regarded as being among the greatest poets of the United Kingdom. Among his best-kno ...

Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tub ...

and especially Shelley. He wrote some plays that were produced on the London stage with the benefit of the acting of

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''* ...

and

Fanny Kemble Frances Anne Kemble (later Butler; 27 November 180915 January 1893) was a British actress from a Kemble family, theatre family in the early and mid-nineteenth century. She was a well-known and popular writer and abolitionist whose published wor ...

. Wade contributed verse to magazines, and for some years he was editor as well as part-proprietor of '' Bell's Weekly Messenger''. When it proved financially unsuccessful, he retired to

Jersey Jersey ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gov ...

, where he edited the ''British Press'', continuing to publish poetry until 1871. He died in Jersey on 19 September 1875. His wife was Lucy Eager, a musician.

Works

The most notable of Wade's publications were: *''Tasso and the Sisters; Tasso's Spirit; the Nuptials of Juno; the Skeletons; the Spirits of the Ocean: Poems'' (1825) *''Woman's Love'' (1828), a play produced at

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...

*''The Phrenologists'', a

farce Farce is a comedy that seeks to entertain an audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd, and improbable. Farce is also characterized by heavy use of physical comedy, physical humor; the use of delibe ...

produced at Covent Garden in 1830 *''The Jew of Arragon'', a play that was "howled from the stage" at Covent Garden in 1830 owing to its sympathy with the

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

*''Mundi et Cordis de rebus sempiternis et temporariis Carmina'' (1835), a volume of poems and sonnets, many of which had previously appeared in the ''

Monthly Repository The ''Monthly Repository'' was a British monthly Unitarian periodical which ran between 1806 and 1838. In terms of editorial policy on theology, the ''Repository'' was largely concerned with rational dissent. Considered as a political journal, i ...

''; ''The Contention of Death and Love''; ''Helena and The Shadow Seeker'' — these three being published in the form of pamphlets in 1837 *''Prothanasia and other Poems'' (1839). Wade also wrote a drama entitled ''King Henry II'', and a translation of

Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

's ''Inferno'' in the metre of the original, both unpublished; and a series of

sonnet A sonnet is a fixed poetic form with a structure traditionally consisting of fourteen lines adhering to a set Rhyme scheme, rhyming scheme. The term derives from the Italian word ''sonetto'' (, from the Latin word ''sonus'', ). Originating in ...

s inspired by his wife, some published.

Notes

References

* Alfred H. Mills, ''The Poets and Poetry of the Century'', vol. iii. (10 vols, London, 1891–1897) *''Literary Anecdotes of the 19th Century'', edited by Sir W Robertson Nicoll and TJ Wise (2 vols., London, 1895–1896), containing a number of Wade's sonnets, a specimen of his Dante translation and a reprint of two of his verse pamphlets * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wade, Thomas 1805 births 1875 deaths People from Woodbridge, Suffolk English male dramatists and playwrights English male poets 19th-century English poets 19th-century English dramatists and playwrights 19th-century English male writers