A Select Collection of Old English Plays Originally Published by Robert Dodsley in the year 1744

Bess, that from Peshall’s ‘History of the University,’ it would seem
that the Queen was not present on the occasion of the accident.” He
died on the 31st October in the same year, according to Hawkins; and
in Turbervile’s Poems, printed in 1567, are two elegiac compositions
on his decease, one by Turbervile himself, the other by Thomas Twine,
the translator of Virgil.[3]

“Edwards,” writes Collier,[4] “enjoyed a very high reputation as a
dramatic poet, but he seems to have owed much of it to the then
comparative novelty of his undertakings.” Thomas Twine, in an epitaph
upon his death, calls him--

          “The flower of our realm
  And Phœnix of our age,”

and specifically mentions two of his plays, “Damon and Pythias” and
“Palamon and Arcyte,” adding, however, that he had written more
equally fit for the ears of princes--

  “Thy tender Tunes and Rimes
    Wherein thou woont’st to play,
  Eche princely Dame of Court and Towne,
    Shall beare in minde alway.
  Thy Damon and his Friend,
    Arcyte and Palemon,
  With moe full fit for princes’ eares,
    Though thou from earth art gone,
  Shall still remain in fame,” &c.

He is mentioned in Webbe’s “Discourse of English Poetry,” 1586, and
Puttenham, in his “Art of English Poesie,” 1589, tells us that the
Earl of Oxford (of whose dramatic productions there is no other trace)
and Edwards deserve the highest prize for “comedy and interlude; and
Lord Buckhurst and Master Edward Ferrys [George Ferrers] for tragedy.”
Meres, in his “Palladis Tamia,” 1598, repeats the applause given by
Puttenham, with the omission of the word “interlude,” then out of
fashion, terming Edwards “one of the best for comedy.”

“The earliest notice we have of Edwards as a dramatic poet,” continues
Collier, “occurs in 1564-5, when a tragedy by him, the name of which
is not given, was performed by the children of the chapel, under his
direction, before the Queen at Richmond. This might possibly be his
‘Damon and Pythias,’ termed by Lord Burghley, in the uncertain
phraseology of that time, ‘a tragedy,’ or it might be one of the other
dramatic performances of which, according to Twine, Edwards was the
author. ‘Damon and Pythias,’ however, is the only extant specimen of
his talents in this department of Poetry.” Besides his dramatic
productions, Edwards was the author of several poems in “The Paradyse
of Daynty Devises” (1576), the _sundry pithie and learned
inventions_ of which, indeed, are announced in the title to have
been “devised and written for the most part by M. Edwards, sometime
of her Majesties Chapel.” Two of these _learned inventions_ are
given by Ellis, in his “Specimen of Early English Poets,” vol. ii.,
and one of them in especial has aroused the enthusiasm of Mr Haslewood
by the happiness of the illustration, the facility, elegance, and
tenderness of the language, and the exquisite turn of the whole.[5]
“When he was in extremitie of his sickness,” writes Wood, narrating
our author’s death, “he composed a noted poem, called ‘Edwards’ Soul
Knil’ (knell), or the ‘Soul Knil of M. Edwards,’ which was commended
for a good piece. In support of this tradition, Anthony quotes
Gascoigne, whereas Gascoigne, on the contrary, only refers to the
story for the purpose of ridiculing the idea that the ‘Knil’ was
written under any such circumstances.”[6]

Among the Cotton MSS. in the British Museum are four poems by Edwards,
one of which is addressed to some court beauties of his time;[7] one
of these also is given by Mr Ellis in his “Specimens.” A part of his
song “In Commendation of Musick,” in the “Paradise of Dainty Devices,”
is given by Shakespeare, “Romeo and Juliet,” act iv., sc. 5: “Where
gripyng grief the hart would wound,” &c. Ritson mentions “An Epytaphe
of the lord of Pembroke” by Mr Edwards (1569-70); but this is merely
said to be written by a _Mr Edwardes_, and was not, at any rate,
from the pen of the author of “Damon and Pithias.”[8]

“Among the books of my friend, the late Mr William Collins, of
Chichester, now dispersed,” writes Warton,[9] “was a collection of
short comic stories in prose, printed in the black letter, and, in the
year 1570, ‘Set forth by Maister Richard Edwardes, Mayster of Her
Maiesties Revels.’ There is a mistake in assigning this office to
Edwards, for Sir Thomas Cawarden and Sir Thomas Benger were
successively Masters of the Revels in our author’s time. However,
among these tales was that of the ‘Induction of the Tinker’ in
Shakespeare’s ‘Taming of the Shrew;’ and perhaps,” writes Warton,
“Edwards’ story book was the immediate source from which Shakespeare,
or rather, the author of the old ‘Taming of the Shrew’ drew that
diverting apologue.”

The drama here reprinted from the earliest known edition of 1571,[10]
collated with that of 1582, may have been the same as the
  _tragedy_ performed before Queen Elizabeth by the children of the
chapel at Christmas, 1564-5. “Although,” writes Collier, “Edwards
continued in this play to employ rhymes, he endeavoured to get rid of
some part of its monotony, by varying the length of his lines, and by
not preserving the cæsura.