Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Twyne, Lawrence
TWYNE, LAWRENCE (fl. 1576), translator, eldest son of John Twyne [q. v.], by his wife Alice, daughter and coheiress of William Peper, was probably born about 1540 at Canterbury and educated at his father's school. He proceeded thence to All Souls' College, Oxford, where he was elected fellow and graduated B.C.L. on 17 Aug. 1564 (Reg. Univ. Oxon. i. 255). In 1573 he wrote some verses for his brother Thomas's translation of Lhuyd's ‘Breviary of Britayne,’ but his only claim to notice is his ‘Patterne of Painefull Aduentures, containing the most excellent, pleasant, and variable Historie of the Strange Accidents that befell vnto Prince Apollonius, the Lady Lucina his Wife, and Tharsia his Daughter. Wherein the Vncertaintie of this World and fickle state of man's life are liuely described. Gathered into English by Lavrence Twine, Gentleman. Imprinted at London by William How’ (1576, 4to). No copy of this edition is known to be extant, but it was licensed to How on 17 July 1576, and the ‘Stationers' Register’ states that ‘this book is sett foorth in print with this title “The Patterne of peynfull aduentures”’ (Arber, Transcript, ii. 301). Another edition, with no date, was issued by Valentine Simmes about 1595; a copy of it was sold at Utterson's sale for seven guineas, and from it Collier printed, with some inaccuracies, his edition in Shakespeare's ‘Library’ in 1843, and again in 1875. A third edition appeared in 1607, a year before the production of Shakespeare's ‘Pericles;’ a copy of this edition is in the Bodleian Library. The story of Apollonius of Tyre had been used in his ‘Confessio Amantis’ by John Gower [q. v.], who borrowed it from Godfrey of Viterbo. Another translation of the story from the French was published by Robert Copland [q. v.] in 1510. Twyne's version, however, was the one mainly used by the authors of ‘Pericles’ [see Wilkins, George], the production of which may have been suggested by the appearance of the third edition of Twyne's book in 1607. Steevens, Malone, and Douce erroneously assigned the authorship to Lawrence's brother, Thomas Twyne [q. v.]
Twyne is said (Foster, Alumni Oxon.) to have become rector of Twyneham, Sussex, in 1578. He married Anne, daughter of one Hoker of the county of Southampton, and had issue a son John and a daughter Anne (Berry, Hants Genealogies, pp. 222–3).
[Authorities cited; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. i. 464, ii. 130, and Fasti, i. 164; Collier's Bibl. Account and Prefaces to Reprints of the Patterne of Painfull Adventures; Corser's Collect. Anglo-Poet. iv. 43; Hazlitt's Handbook, p. 10.]