Thomas Rymer

The son of a Yorkshire squire, Thomas Rymer attended Cambridge and became a member of Gray's Inn in 1673. While Rymer is remembered as a literary critic, he soon moved on to other things, succeeding Shadwell as Historiographer Royal to William III and devoting the remainder of his life to editing a massive collection of treaties between England and foreign governments.

TEXT RECORDS:

1674Reflections on Aristotle's Treatise of Poesie: The Preface of the Translator.
1678The Tragedies of the last Age consider'd.

PUBLICATIONS:

Cicero's Prince ... collected out of Cicero's works. 1668.
Reflections on Aristotle's treatise of poesie, by R. Rapin. 1674.
Edgar. 1678.
The tragedies of the last age consider'd. 1678.
A general draught and prospect of government in Europe. 1681.
Penelope to Ulyses [Ovid, trans.] 1683.
A poem on the arrival of Queen Mary. 1689.
Poems on several occasions [Rochester, ed. Rymer]. 1691.
A short view of tragedy. 1692.
A defence of dramatick poetry; being a review of Mr Collier's View. 1698.
An essay, concerning critical and curious learning. 1698.
Letters to the ... Bishop of Carlisle. 1702.
Foedera. 17 vols, 1704-17.
On the antiquity, power, and decay of Parliament. 1714.
Some translations from Greek, Latin, and Italian poets. 1714.
Critical works, ed. C. A. Zimansky. 1956.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Anglican

Sidney Sussex College Cambridge
Gray's Inn
Inns of Court
courtier

lawyer
antiquary
editor
dramatist
essayist
historian

John Somers

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL; DLB.

Gerard Langbaine, Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691); Charles Gildon, Lives and Characters of the English Dramatick Poets (1699); Giles Jacob, Poetical Register (1719); David Erskine Baker, Companion to the Play-House (1764); John Nichols, Select Collection of Poems (1780-82); Biographia Dramatica (1782; 1812); Censura Literaria 1 (1805) 152; Alexander Chalmers, General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17); John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes (1812-15); Thomas Noon Talfourd, "Rymer on Tragedy" Retrospective Review 1 (1820) 1-15; Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); Robert Chambers, Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844); John Holland, Poets of Yorkshire (1845); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); William Roberts, "Two Eighteenth-Century Critics" The Bookworm 2 (1889); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); Venn and Venn, Alum. Cant. (1922-27); D. C. Douglas, in English Scholars (1939); C. A. Zimansky, ed. Critical Works (1956); Cummings, Spenser: The Critical Heritage (1971).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Thomas Rymer:

1.	1694  John Dryden to John Dennis, 1694; in Dryden, Letters, ed Ward (1942) 71-72.
2.	1700  Daniel Kenrick, in A New Session of the Poets (1700) 2-3.
3.	1700  Samuel Cobb, in Poetae Britannici (1700) 7-8.
4.	1705 ca.  Francis Knapp, in "Epistle to Mr. B.," 1705 ca.; Nichols, Select Collection of Poems (1780-82) 4:291.
5.	1715 ca.  George Hickes, ca. 1715; Restituta or ... English Literature Revived 1 (1814) 61.
6.	1734 ca.  Alexander Pope, 1734-36 ca.; Spence, Anecdotes, Observations, and Characters ed. Singer (1820) 172-73.
7.	1740  Lewis Theobald, in Preface to Shakespeare, 1740; in Beverley Warner, Famous Introductions to Shakespeare's Plays (1906) 79.
8.	1779  Samuel Johnson, in "Life of Dryden," Lives of the English Poets (1779-81); ed. Hill (1905) 1:413.
9.	1805  Samuel Egerton Brydges, "Thomas Rymer" Censura Literaria 1 (1805) 152.
10.	1812  Isaac D'Israeli, in Calamities of Authors (1812; 1881) 85.
11.	1820  Thomas Noon Talfourd, "Rymer on Tragedy" Retrospective Review 1 (1820) 1.
12.	1842  C. H. Timperley, in Encyclopaedia of Literary and Typographical Anecdote (1842) 2:605.
13.	1845  John Holland, "Thomas Rymer" Poets of Yorkshire; comprising Sketches of the Lives, and Specimens of the Writings of those Children of Song (1845) 52-54.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Thomas Rymer:

1.	1691  Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 433-34.
2.	1699  Charles Gildon, in Lives and Characters of the English Dramatick Poets (1699) 119-20.
3.	1719  Giles Jacob, in Poetical Register: or the Lives and Characters of the English Dramatick Poets (1719) 216.
4.	1764  David Erskine Baker, in Companion to the Play-House (1764) 2:Sigs Cc6v-Dd.
5.	1780  John Nichols, in Select Collection of Poems with Notes Biographical and Historical (1780-82) 1:220.
6.	1812  Alexander Chalmers, in General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17) 26:513-15.
7.	1844  Robert Chambers, in Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844; 1850) 1:527.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1674  Abraham Cowley:   Thomas Rymer, Preface to Rapin (1674) Sig B3-B3v.
2.	1678  Edmund Waller:   Thomas Rymer, in Short View of the Tragedy of the Last Age (1678); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05) 2:379-80.
3.	1688  Edmund Waller:   Thomas Rymer, "On Mr. Waller" Poems to the Memory of that incomparable Poet Edmond Waller (1688) 4-9.