Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/131

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Edwards
125
Edwards

guage. There were essays on Homer, Goethe, Kant, Coleridge, Hamilton, Mill, &c. He was one of the most finished writers of Welsh in his day. Most of his essays were afterwards collected and published as 'Traethodau Llenyddol a Duwinyddol' ('Essays, Literary and theological,' 1867, 2 vols. 8vo). In 1847 he started the 'Geiniogwerth' ('Pennyworth').

In 1855 he visited the continent to perfect his knowledge of German and French. His college lectures were at first chiefly classical, but gradually became more theological. He lectured on the evidences, the principles of morality, the laws of thought, the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle. He did not write his lectures, but it was his habit to study each subject thoroughly, smoking the whole time. He spoke without hesitation, but slowly, so that each student could write all while listening. His best-known work is his 'Athrawiaeth yr lawn' ('Atonement'), 1860, of which an English translation appeared in 1886; and a second edition of the original, with a memoir by his son. Principal Edwards, M.A., D.D., of Aberystwyth, in 1887. About 1862 he was offered the honorary degree of D.D. by Princeton College, U.S.A., but he declined it. His own university offered him the same degree in 1865, and he went to Edinburgh to receive it. In 1876 his friends and admirers gave him a handsome testimonial, which placed him for the future in a position of comfort. He died 19 July 1887, and his remains were interred in the same grave as those of Thomas Charles of Bala [q. v.], whose granddaughter he had married.

[Principal Edwards's Memoir, 1887.]

EDWARDS, RICHARD (1523?–1566), poet and playwright, a native of Somersetshire, born about 1523, was educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He took his bachelor's degree in 1544, and in the same year was elected to a fellowship at Corpus. In 1547 he was nominated student of Christ Church and created M.A. At Oxford he studied music under George Etheridge. On leaving the university he entered himself at Lincoln's Inn, but does not appear to have followed the profession of the law. He became a gentleman of the Chapel Royal, and in 1561 was appointed master of the children of the chapel. In January 1564-5 a tragedy by Edwards was performed by the children of the chapel before the queen at Richmond (Collier, History of English Dramatic Poetry, 1879, i. 183). He attended the queen on her visit to Oxford in 1566, and composed for her entertainment the play of 'Palamon and Arcite,' which was acted in Christ Church Hall. The play (which has not come down) gave great satisfaction; the queen 'laughed heartily thereat, and gave the author... great thanks for his pains' (Wood). Edwards died 31 Oct. 1566 (Hawkins, Hist. of Music, 1853, p. 521).

Only one play of Edwards is extant, 'The excellent Comedie of two the moste faithfullest Freendes, Damon and Pithias,' &c., 1571, 4to; 2nd edition, 1582. This play, which has merely an antiquarian interest, is reprinted in the various editions of Dodsley's 'Old Plays.' Many of Edwards's poems were published in 'The Paradyse of Daynty Devises,' which first appeared in 1576 and passed through eight editions in twenty-four years. It is stated on the title-page of the anthology that the 'sundry pithie and learned inventions' were 'devised and written for the most part by M. Edwards, sometime of her majesties chapel.' Some of Edwards's poems are not without grace and tenderness. By his contemporaries he was greatly admired, and Thomas Twine proclaimed him to be

The flower of our realm
And Phœnix of our age.

Barnabe Googe eulogises him in 'Eglogs, Epitaphes, and Sonettes,' 1563; Turberville has an 'epitaph' on him in 'Epitaphs, Epigrams. Songs, and Sonnets,' 1567 (where the 'epitaph' by Twine also occurs); Webbe, in his 'Discourse of English Poetry,' 1586, Puttenham in his 'Art of English Poesie,' 1589, and Meres in 'Palladis Tamia,' 1598, have commendatory notices of him. A part of his song 'In Commendation of Musick' ('Where gripyng grief the hart would wound,' &c.) is given in 'Romeo and Juliet,' act iv. sc. 5. Four of his poems are preserved in Cotton MS. Tit. A. xxiv. The 'Mr. Edwardes' who wrote 'An Epytaphe of the Lord of Pembroke' (licensed in 1569) is not to be identified with the author of 'Damon and Pithias.' Warton mentions that a collection of short comic stories, printed in 1570, b.l., 'Sett forth by Maister Richard Edwardes, mayster of her maiesties revels' (Edwards was not master of the revels), was among the books of 'the late Mr. William Collins of Chichester, now dispersed.'

[Wood's Athenæ, ed. Bliss, i. 353; Reg. Univ. Oxford, i. 208; Hawkins's Hist. of Music, 1853, pp. 362, 521, 924–7; Collier's Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry, 1879, i. 183–4, ii. 389–93; Warton's Hist. of Engl. Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, iv. 213–220; Dodsley's Old Plays, ed. Hazlitt, vol. iv.; Collier's Bibliogr. Cat.; Ritson's Bibl. Poet.; Corser's Collectanea.]

EDWARDS, ROGER, D.D. (1811–1886), Welsh Calvinistic methodist, was born in 1811, the year in which the Calvinistic metho-