Sunday 8 February 2004

Forgotten poet

The quadricentenary of the birth of the poet and dramatist Edmund Crowsely (1604-1643) seems to be passing quite unremarked, even in his native Whitby. It is true that his plays have been, deservedly, almost forgotten, with the exception of the comedy Merry John Tickle, but perhaps it is time for a revival of his tragedy Follow The Turtle To My Father's Tomb, which contains some of the loveliest lines in all post-Shakespeare seventeenth-century verse, such as:
The single thought is licens'd in the mind,
And of this confidence is passion made.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I spent a long time searching the net but can find no reference to this poet. Did you make him up?
Prof. Richard Szegely
Dept of English
University of Minnesota

Tony said...

No, of course not. As I said, he has been virtually forgotten, unlike his younger brother Walter whose comedy Lady Montagu's Skirts (1640) was given a rollicking perfomance by the Marlowe Players at last year's Hull Festival.
If I had more time I would set up a website for both brothers, though material would be hard to come by as practically nothing is known about either of them.

Anonymous said...

I spent a long time searching the net but can find no reference to Prof. Richard Szegely . Did you make him up?
PJ Tafka

Anonymous said...

No, the author did not make me up, and I resent the suggestion. You should understand that left-wing expatriate Hungarian academics have to keep a low profile in today's USA, and this is why there are no references to me on the internet.
Dick Szegely

Tony said...

No further comments please. This correspondence must now cease; I cannot think why I allowed it to begin.