Old Plays, vol. i., and Ancient British Drama, vol. i. It is written in rhymed lines of rude construction, varying in length and neglecting the caesura. A number of the author’s shorter pieces are preserved in the Paradise of Dainty Devices, first published in 1575, and reprinted in the British Bibliographer, vol. iii.; the best known are the lines on May, the Amantium Irae, and the Commendation of Music, which has the honour of furnishing a stanza to Romeo and Juliet. The Historie of Damocles and Dionise is assigned to him in the 1578 edition of the Paradise. Sir John Hawkins credited him with the part song “In going to my lonely bed”; the words are certainly his, and probably the music. In his own day Edwards was highly esteemed. The fine poem, “The Soul’s Knell,” is supposed to have been written by him when dying.
See Grove’s Dict. of Music (new edition); the Shakespeare Soc. Papers, vol. ii. art. vi.; Ward, English Dram. Literature, vol. i.
EDWARDS, THOMAS CHARLES (1837–1900), Welsh Nonconformist divine and educationist, was born at Bala, Merioneth, on the 22nd of September 1837, the son of Lewis Edwards (q.v.). His resolve to become a minister was deepened by the revival of 1858–1859. After taking his degrees at London (B.A. 1861, M.A. 1862), he matriculated at St Alban Hall, Oxford, in October 1862, the university having just been opened to dissenters. He obtained a scholarship at Lincoln College in 1864, and took a first class in the school of Literae Humaniores in 1866. He was especially influenced by Mark Pattison and Jowett, who counselled him to be true to the church of his father, in which he had already been ordained. Early in 1867 he became minister at Windsor Street, Liverpool, but left it to become first principal of the University College of Wales at Aberystwyth, which had been established through the efforts of Sir Hugh Owen and other enthusiasts. The college was opened with a staff of three professors and twenty-five students in October 1872, and for some years its career was chequered enough. Edwards, however, proved a skilful pilot, and his hold on the affection of the Welsh people enabled him to raise the college to a high level of efficiency. When it was destroyed by fire in 1885 he collected £25,000 to rebuild it; the remainder of the necessary £40,000 being given by the government (£10,000) and by the people of Aberystwyth (£5000). In 1891 he gave up what had been the main work of his life to accept an undertaking that was even nearer his heart, the principalship of the theological college at Bala. A stroke of paralysis in 1894 fatally weakened him, but he continued at work till his death on the 22nd of March 1900. The Calvinistic Methodist Church of Wales bestowed on him every honour in their possession, and he received the degree of D.D. from the universities of Edinburgh (1887) and Wales (1898). His chief works were a Commentary on 1 Corinthians (1885), the Epistle to the Hebrews (“Expositor’s Bible” series, 1888), and The God-Man (“Davies Lecture,” 1895).
EDWARDSVILLE, a city and the county-seat of Madison county, Illinois, U.S.A., in the south-western part of the state, on Cahokia Creek, about 18 m. N.E. of St Louis. Pop. (1890) 3561; (1900) 4157 (573 foreign-born); (1910) 5014. Edwardsville is served by the Toledo, St Louis & Western, the Wabash, the Litchfield & Madison, and the Illinois Terminal railways, and is connected with St Louis by three electric lines. It has a Carnegie library. The city’s principal manufactures are carriages, ploughs, brick, machinery, sanitary ware and plumber’s goods. Bituminous coal is extensively mined in the vicinity. Adjoining Edwardsville is the co-operative village Leclaire (unincorporated), with the factory of the N.O. Nelson Manufacturing Co., makers of plumber’s supplies, brass goods, sanitary fixtures, &c.; the village was founded in 1890 by Nelson O. Nelson (b. 1844), and nearly all of the residents are employed by the company of which he is the head; they share to a certain extent in its profits, and are encouraged to own their own homes. The company supports a school, Leclaire Academy, and has built a club-house, bowling alleys, tennis-courts, base-ball grounds, &c. The first settlement on the site of Edwardsville was made in 1812, and in 1815 the town was laid out and named in honour of Ninian Edwards (1775–1833), the governor of the Illinois Territory (1809–1818), and later United States senator (1818–1824) and governor of the state of Illinois (1826–1830). Edwardsville was incorporated in 1819 and received its present charter in 1872.
EDWARDSVILLE, a borough of Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on the north branch of the Susquehanna river, adjoining Kingston and close to the north-western limits of Wilkes-Barre (on the opposite side of the river), in the north-eastern part of the state; the official name of the post office is Edwardsdale. Pop. (1890), 3284; (1900), 5165, of whom 2645 were foreign-born; (1910 census), 8407. It is served by the electric line of the Wilkes-Barre & Wyoming Valley Traction Co. Coal mining and brewing are the chief industries. Edwardsville was incorporated in 1884.
EDWIN, Aeduini or Edwine (585–633), king of Northumbria, was the son of Ella of Deira. On the seizure of Deira by Æthelfrith of Bernicia (probably 605), Edwin was expelled and is said to have taken refuge with Cadfan, king of Gwynedd. After the battle of Chester, in which Æthelfrith defeated the Welsh, Edwin fled to Rœdwald, the powerful king of East Anglia, who after some wavering espoused his cause and defeated and slew Æthelfrith at the river Idle in 617. Edwin thereupon succeeded to the Northumbrian throne, driving out the sons of Æthelfrith. There is little evidence of external activity on the part of Edwin before 625. It is probable that the conquest of the Celtic kingdom of Elmet, a district in the neighbourhood of the modern Leeds, ruled over by a king named Cerdic (Ceredig) is to be referred to this period, and this may have led to the later quarrel with Cadwallon, king of Gwynedd. Edwin seems also to have annexed Lindsey to his kingdom by 625. In this year he entered upon negotiations with Eadbald of Kent for a marriage with his sister Æthelberg. It was made a condition that Christianity should be tolerated in Northumbria, and accordingly Paulinus was consecrated bishop by Justus in 625, and was sent to Northumbria with Æthelberg. According to Bede, Edwin was favourably disposed towards Christianity owing to a vision he had seen at the court of Rœdwald, and in 626 he allowed Eanfled, his daughter by Æthelberg, to be baptized. On the day of the birth of his daughter, the king’s life had been attempted by Eomer, an emissary of Cwichelm, king of Wessex. Preserved by the devotion of his thegn Lilla, Edwin vowed to become a Christian if victorious over his treacherous enemy. He was successful in the ensuing campaign, and abstained from the worship of the gods of his race. A letter of Pope Boniface helped to decide him, and after consulting his friends and counsellors, of whom the priest Coifi afterwards took a prominent part in destroying the temple at Goodmanham, he was baptized with his people and nobles at York, at Easter 627. In this town he granted Paulinus a see, built a wooden church and began one of stone. Besides York, Yeavering and Maelmin in Bernicia, and Catterick in Deira, were the chief scenes of the work of Paulinus. It was the influence of Edwin which led to the conversion of Eorpwald of East Anglia. Bede notices the peaceful state of Britain at this time, and relates that Edwin was preceded on his progresses by a kind of standard like that borne before the Roman emperors. In 633 Cadwallon of North Wales and Penda of Mercia rose against Edwin and slew him at Hatfield near Doncaster. His kinsman Osric succeeded in Deira, and Eanfrith the son of Æthelfrith in Bernicia. Bede tells us that Edwin had subdued the islands of Anglesey and Man, and the Annales Cambriae record that he besieged Cadwallon (perhaps in 632) in the island of Glannauc (Puffin Island). He was definitely recognized as overlord by all the other Anglo-Saxon kings of his day except Eadbald of Kent.
See Bede, Hist. Eccl. (ed. Plummer, Oxford, 1896), ii. 5, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 20; Nennius (ed. San Marte, 1844), § 63; Vita S. Oswaldi, ix. Simeon of Durham (ed. Arnold, London, 1882–1885, vol. i. R.S.). (F. G. M. B.)
EDWIN, JOHN (1749–1790), English actor, was born in London on the 10th of August 1749, the son of a watchmaker. As a youth, he appeared in the provinces, in minor parts; and at Bath in 1768 he formed a connexion with a Mrs Walmsley, a milliner, who bore him a son, but whom he afterwards deserted. His first London appearance was at the Haymarket in 1776 as
