William Webbe (

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

1568–1591) was an English critic and translator. He attended

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

, and was a tutor for distinguished families, including the two sons of Edward Sulyard of Flemyngs,

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, and later the children of Henry Grey of Pirgo, also in Essex. Webbe wrote a '' Discourse of English Poetrie'' (1586), dedicated to Sulyard, in which he discusses prosody and reviews English poetry up to his own day. He argued that the dearth of good English poetry since

Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer ( ; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He ...

's day was not due to lack of poetic ability, or to the poverty of the language, but to the want of a proper system of prosody. He decried rhyming verse, showed enthusiasm for

Spenser Spenser is an alternative spelling of the British surname Spencer. It may refer to: Geographical places with the name Spenser: * Spenser Mountains, a range in the northern part of South Island, New Zealand People with the surname Spenser: * Dav ...

's ''

The Shepheardes Calender ''The Shepheardes Calender'' (originally titled ''The Shepheardes Calendar, Conteyning twelve Aeglogues proportionable to the Twelve monthes. Entitled to the Noble and Vertuous Gentleman most worthy of all titles both of learning and chevalrie ...

'', and urged the adoption of

hexameter Hexameter is a metrical line of verses consisting of six feet (a "foot" here is the pulse, or major accent, of words in an English line of poetry; in Greek as well as in Latin a "foot" is not an accent, but describes various combinations of s ...

s and sapphics for English verse He also translated

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...

's first two ''

Eclogues The ''Eclogues'' (; , ), also called the ''Bucolics'', is the first of the three major works of the Latin poet Virgil. Background Taking as his generic model the Greek bucolic poetry of Theocritus, Virgil created a Roman version partly by o ...

.'' A letter by Webbe to Robert Wilmot (

1568–1608) is prepended to the 1591 edition of Wilmot's play ''Tragedie of Tancred and Gismund''.Wilmot, Robert. ''The Tragedie of Tancred and Gismund''. London, 1591. The letter, praising Wilmot for having decided to publish the tragedy, acts as a prefacing endorsement of the play.

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External links

''A Discourse of English poetrie''
at Internet Archive. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Webbe, William English translators 16th-century births 16th-century English writers 16th-century English male writers 16th-century English educators Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge 1591 deaths Translators of Virgil