English Literature, 1500 to 1799: Biographies

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature Further reading

Thomas Rymer

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. | 2011 | Copyright

Thomas Rymer , 1643?–1713, English critic and historiographer. Educated at Cambridge and Gray's Inn, he was called to the bar in 1673 but turned his efforts instead to literature, especially drama. Although in 1678 he did publish Edgar, or the English Monarch, a play in rhymed verse, he was especially interested in drama criticism. In his treatise The Tragedies of the Last Age (1677) he was fanatically hostile toward contemporary dramatists, and in A Short View of Tragedy (1692) he labeled Shakespeare's Othello"a bloody farce without salt or savour." Made historiographer royal in 1692, Rymer began (1693) to edit a work bringing together all public documents showing relations between England and other nations from 1101 to 1654. This work, called Foedera (1704–35), was modeled after Leibniz's Codex juris gentium diplomaticus ; the last 5 of the 20 volumes were edited by Robert Sanderson.

Bibliography: See preface to T. D. Hardy's Syllabus of Rymer's Foedera (1869–85); C. A. Zimansky, ed., The Critical Works of Thomas Rymer (1956, repr. 1971).

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Rymer, Thomas

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature | 2003 | | Copyright

Rymer, Thomas (1641–1713), is chiefly remembered for his valuable collection of historical records, Foedera (1704–35). He is known as a critic of considerable learning but dogmatic views, who supported the ancients in the battle between them and the moderns (see Battle of the Books). The Tragedies of the Last Age Considered (1678) was a critical attack on Elizabethan drama, continued in his A Short View of Tragedy (1692), which contains his famous condemnation of Othello as ‘a bloody farce’.

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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Rymer, Thomas." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Rymer, Thomas." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-RymerThomas.html

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Rymer, Thomas." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-RymerThomas.html

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