William Rankins ( fl. 1587) was an English author. He was classed by

Francis Meres Francis Meres (1565/1566 – 29 January 1647) was an English churchman and author. His 1598 commonplace book includes the first critical account of poems and plays by Shakespeare. Career Francis Meres was born in 1565 at Kirton Meres in the par ...

in his ''

Palladis Tamia ''Palladis Tamia: Wits Treasury; Being the Second Part of Wits Commonwealth'' is a 1598 book written by the minister Francis Meres. It is important in English literary history as the first critical account of the poems and early plays of William ...

'' (1598) as one of the three leading contemporary

satirist This is an incomplete list of writers, cartoonists and others known for involvement in satire – humorous social criticism. They are grouped by era and listed by year of birth. Included is a list of modern satires. Under Contemporary, 1930-196 ...

s, with Joseph Hall and John Marston.

Life

Baptised 1565, Rankins was the elder son of Henry Rankyn, master of the Barber–Surgeons' Company in 1587, and Mary Robynson. His father's will of 1597 favoured his younger brother, Henry. Rankins is regarded as a professional writer. Indeed, while his

anti-theatrical Antitheatricality is any form of opposition or hostility to theater. Such opposition is as old as theater itself, suggesting a deep-seated ambivalence in human nature about the dramatic arts. Jonas Barish's 1981 book, ''The Antitheatrical Prejudice ...

''Mirrour'' of 1587 apparently allied him with

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...

criticisms, he was involved in some fashion with the theatre beforehand and afterwards. It has been suggested that he was insincere, and that, as a

hack writer ''Hack writer'' is a pejorative term for a writer who is paid to write low-quality, rushed articles or books "to order", often with a short deadline. In fiction writing, a hack writer is paid to quickly write sensational, "pulp" fiction such as " ...

, he was paid for the pamphlet by the City of London corporation. Rankins died in 1609.

Works

Rankins wrote: * ''Mirrour of Monsters, wherein is plainly described the manifold vices and spotted enormities that are caused by the infectious sight of Playes'', London, 1587, a savage attack on the theatre, in the manner of

Stephen Gosson Stephen Gosson (April 1554 – 13 February 1624) was an English satirist. Biography Gosson was baptized at St George's church, Canterbury, on 17 April 1554. He entered Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 1572, and on leaving the university in 1576 h ...

, John Northbrooke and

Philip Stubbes Philip Stubbs (Stubbes) (c. 1555 – c. 1610) was an English pamphleteer. Life Stubbs was born about 1555. He was from Cheshire, possibly the area near Congleton. According to Anthony Wood, he was educated at Cambridge and subsequently at Oxford, ...

. Like also John Field,

John Norden John Norden (1625) was an English cartographer, chorographer and antiquary. He planned (but did not complete) a series of county maps and accompanying county histories of England, the ''Speculum Britanniae''. He was also a prolific writer ...

and

George Whetstone George Whetstone (1544? – 1587) was an English dramatist and author. Biography Whetstone was the third son of Robert Whetstone (d. 1557), a member of a wealthy family that owned the manor of Walcot at Barnack, near Stamford, Lincolnshire. Geor ...

, he argued against Sunday performance. It may have been a literary exercise in an established genre; in any case within a few years Rankins was a playwright. The work is allegorical, with main conceit a demonic parody of a wedding

masque The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th- and early 17th-century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio (a public version of the masque was the pageant). A masq ...

. * ''Mulmutius Dunwallow'', a play bought by Philip Henslowe in 1598, likely an adaptation; the subject was

Dyfnwal Moelmud Dyfnwal Moelmud ( Welsh for "Dyfnwal the Bald and Silent"; la, Dunvallo Molmutius; ) was accounted as an early king and lawmaker among the Welsh, credited with the codification of their standard units of measure. He also figures as a legendary ...

, and possible sources the ''

Historia Regum Britanniae ''Historia regum Britanniae'' (''The History of the Kings of Britain''), originally called ''De gestis Britonum'' (''On the Deeds of the Britons''), is a pseudohistorical account of British history, written around 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. I ...

'' and ''

Holinshed's Chronicles ''Holinshed's Chronicles'', also known as ''Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland'', is a collaborative work published in several volumes and two editions, the first edition in 1577, and the second in 1587. It was a large, co ...

''. * ''Hannibal and Scipio'', play written for Henslowe with Richard Hathway, and based on

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding in ...

; the same team produced c.1600 a comic play, and ''The Conquest of Spain by John of Gaunt''. None of these plays are extant. * Works dedicated to

Sir Christopher Hatton Sir Christopher Hatton KG (1540 – 20 November 1591) was an English politician, Lord Chancellor of England and a favourite of Elizabeth I of England. He was one of the judges who found Mary, Queen of Scots guilty of treason. Early years Sir ...

, ''The English Ape, the Italian imitation, the Foote-steppes of Fraunce. Wherein is explained the wilfull blindnesse of subtill mischiefe, the striuing for Starres, the catching of Mooneshine, and the Secrete Sounde of many hollowe heartes'' (1588), against the imitation of foreign fashions, and ''My Roughcast Conceit of Hell''. * Dedicated to John Salisbury of Lleweni, ''Seaven Satyres applyed to the weeke, including the worlds ridiculous follyes. True felicity described in the Phœnix. Maulgre. Whereunto is annexed the wandring Satyre'' (1598), publisher

Edward Allde Edward Allde (''Alde'', ''Alldee'', or ''Alday''; born c. 1560, died 1627) was an English printer in London during the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras. He was responsible for a number of significant texts in English Renaissance drama, includin ...

. ''True felicity described in the Phœnix'', a religious poem, is with seven satires, in seven-line stanzas. Before the ''Belvedere'' (1600) by

John Bodenham John Bodenham (c. 1559–1610), an English anthologist In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. ...

are three seven-line stanzas, "A Sonnet to the Muse's Garden" by Rankins; who also contributed anonymously to the anthology ''Plato's Cap'' of 1604.

Notes

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Rankins, William English male poets English satirists English dramatists and playwrights Year of birth missing 1609 deaths