The son of a lord mayor of London, Thomas Lodge studied at Merchant Taylors' School (1571-73), Trinity College Oxford (B.A. 1577, M.A. 1581, M.D. 1602), and Lincoln's Inn (1578). Lodge settled in London about 1580, where he published voluminously in prose and verse. He engaged in two privateering expeditions, to the Canary Islands and to South America (1588, 1591-93); about 1600 he studied medicine in France, converted to Catholicism, and gave up writing. Lodge was acquainted with Greene, Barnabe Rich, Daniel, Drayton, Lily, and Watson. He died a Catholic exile in France. Malone's identification of Lodge as Spenser's "Alcon" has not been accepted.
TEXT RECORDS:
1589The most pithie and pleasant Historie of Glaucus and Silla.
1590A pleasant Eglog betweene Montanus and Coridon.
1593Egloga Prima.
1593Phillis: The Induction.
1595To Happy Menalcas. Eglogue II.
1595To Master Samuel Daniel. Eglogue IV.
1595To Reverend Colin. Eclogue I.
1595To Rowland. Eglogue III.
1596Wits Miserie, and the Worlds Madnesse.
PUBLICATIONS:
A defence of poetry, music, and stage plays. 1579?
An alarum against usurers. 1584.
Scillaes metamorphosis. 1589.
Rosalynde: Euphues golden legacy. 1590.
Catharos: Diogenes in his singularitie. 1591.
The famous, true and historicall life of Robert second Duke of Normandy. 1591.
Euphues shadow. 1592.
The life and death of Wiliam Long beard. 1593.
Phillis: honoured with pastoral sonnets, elegies and amorous delights. 1593.
The wounds of civill war, lively set forth in the true tragedies of Marius and Scilla. 1594.
A looking glasse for London and England. 1594.
A fig for Momus: containing satyres, eclogues and epistles. 1595.
The Divel conjured. 1596.
A margarite of America. 1596.
Wits miserie and the worlds madnesse. 1596.
Prosopoeia: containing the tears of the mother of God. 1596.
The flowers of Lodowicke of Granado. 1601.
The famous and memorable works of Josephus. 1602.
A treatise of the plague. 1603.
The workes of Lucius Annaeus Seneca. 1614.
A learned summary upon the famous poem of William of Saluste Lord of Bartas. 1621.
Complete works, ed. Sir Edmund Gosse. 4 vols, 1883.
PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:
English
Anglican
Catholic
Dissenter
Merchant Taylors' School
Trinity College Oxford
Bachelor of Arts
Doctor of Medicine
Lincoln's Inn
Inns of Court
physician
lawyer
poet
dramatist
novelist
translator
Edward Alleyn
Samuel Daniel
Michael Drayton
Robert Greene
John Lyly
Richard Mulcaster
Thomas Nashe
Barnabe Rich
Matthew Roydon
Sir Philip Sidney
Thomas Watson
REFERENCE:
DNB; NCBEL.
Bodenham, Bel-vedere (1600); England's Helicon (1600, 1614); Edward Phillips, Theatrum Poetarum (1675); William Winstanley, Lives of the Most Famous English Poets (1687); Anthony Wood, Athenae Oxonienses (1690-91; 1721); 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); Giles Jacob, An Historical Account of ... English Poets (1720); Anthony Wood, Athenae Oxonienses (1690-91; 1721) 1:498; Cibber-Shiels, Lives of the Poets (1753) 1:164-66; David Erskine Baker, Companion to the Play-House (1764); Biographia Dramatica (1782; 1812); George Ellis, Specimens of Early English Poetry (1790; 1801); Samuel Egerton Brydges, Theatrum Poetarum Anglicanorum (1800); Joseph Ritson, Bibliographia Poetica (1802) 268-69; William Beloe, Anecdotes of Literature 1 (1807) 306, 2 (1807) 114-19, 159-67; Censura Literaria 3 (1807) 305-06; British Bibliographer 1 (1810) 557-50; Alexander Chalmers, General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17); Bliss, Athenae Oxonienes (1815) 2:382-87; Nathan Drake, in Shakespeare and his Times (1817; 1838); Thomas Campbell, Specimens of the British Poets (1819); Retrospective Review 2 (1820) 70-92; Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); Joseph Haslewood, "Thomas Lodge and Stephen Gosson" Gentleman's Magazine 97 (March 1827) 221-23; "Thomas Lodge" The Kaleidoscope NS 8 (12 February 1828) 269; Robert Chambers, Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Thomas Corser, Collectanea Anglo-Poetica 8 (1878) 369-81; The English Poets, ed. Thomas Humphry Ward (1880); Foster, Alumni Oxon (1887-91); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); N. Burton Paradise, Thomas Lodge: the History of an Elizabethan (1931); C. J. Sisson, Thomas Lodge and other Elizabethans (1933); Edward A. Tenney, Lodge (1935); S. A. Tannenbaum, Lodge: A Concise Bibliography (1940); Bush, OHEL (1945); Lewis, OHEL (1954); Pat M. Ryan, Lodge, Gentleman (1958); Wesley D. Rae, Thomas Lodge (1967); R. C. Johnson, Lodge 1939-65 (1968); Charles W. Whitworth, "Thomas Lodge, Elizabethan Pioneer" Cahiers elisabethains 3 (1973) 5-15; Cummings, Spenser: The Critical Heritage (1971); Mark Eccles, "Brief Lives" Studies in Philology 79 (1982); Saunders, Renaissance Poets (1983); Eliane Cuvelier, Thomas Lodge: Temoin de son temps (1984); Spenser Encyclopedia, "Lodge" (1990) 438; Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Database (1995).
COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Dr. Thomas Lodge:
BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Dr. Thomas Lodge:
AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)
1. | 1584 Sir Philip Sidney: Thomas Lodge, "To the right worshipfull, Sir Philips Sidney Knight" An Alarum against Usurers (1584) sig. Aii. |
2. | 1589 Robert Greene: Thomas Lodge, "Sonnet" Greene, The Spanish Masquerado (1589) sig. A2v. |
3. | 1595 Michael Drayton: Thomas Lodge, "To Master Michael Drayton. Epistle 5" Lodge, A Fig for Momus (1595) sigs H2v-H4. |
4. | 1595 Matthew Roydon: Thomas Lodge, in "To Rowland" A Fig for Momus (1595) Sig. D2. |