William Smith (15??-16??) was an English

sonnet A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's invention, ...

eer,

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

, and friend of

Edmund Spenser Edmund Spenser (; 1552/1553 – 13 January 1599) was an English poet best known for ''The Faerie Queene'', an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognized as one of the premier craftsmen of ...

. He participated in ''

The Phoenix Nest ''The Phoenix Nest'' (sometimes written as ''Phœnix Nest'', and sometimes including a possessive apostrophe after the "x") was an anthology of poetry by various authors which was "set foorth" by an as-yet unidentified "R. S. of the Inner Temple ...

'' (1593), ''

England's Helicon ''Englands Helicon'' is an anthology of Elizabethan pastoral poems compiled by John Flasket, and first published in 1600. There was an enlarged edition in 1614. The word Helicon refers to the Greek mountain on which, in Greek mythology, two s ...

'' (1600) and published a sonnet sequence ''Chloris'' or ''The Complaint of the passionate despised Shepheard'' in 1596.

Works

Smith in 1596 published a collection of sonnets, entitled ''Chloris, or the Complaint of the passionate despised Shepheard'', printed by Edmund Bollifant, 1596. The volume opens with two sonnets, inscribed "To the most excellent and learned shepheard, Collin Cloute" (i.e. Spenser), and signed "W. Smith"; in a third sonnet addressed to Spenser at the close of the book Smith calls Spenser his patron. The content consists of 48 sonnets, and a poem in 20 lines, called ''Corins Dreame of the faire Chloris''. ''Corins Dreame'' was transferred to ''England's Helicon'' (1600 and 1614). The work was reprinted in

Edward Arber Edward Arber (4 December 183623 November 1912) was an English scholar, writer, and editor. Background and professional work Arber was born in London. From 1854 he 1878 he worked as a clerk in the Admiralty, and began evening classes at King ...

's ''English Garner'', viii. 171 sqq.

Attributions

Verse signed "W. S." has sometimes been attributed to Smith, but purely as a matter of conjecture. Cases include

commendatory verse The epideictic oratory, also called ceremonial oratory, or praise-and-blame rhetoric, is one of the three branches, or "species" (eidē), of rhetoric as outlined in Aristotle's ''Rhetoric'', to be used to praise or blame during ceremonies. Origin ...

for John Grange's ''Golden Aphroditis'', 1577, and

Nicholas Breton Nicholas Breton (also Britton or Brittaine) (c. 1545/53 – c. 1625/6) was a poet and prose writer of the English Renaissance. Life Nicholas belonged to an old family settled at Layer Breton, Essex. His father, William Breton, a London merchant ...

's ''Wil of Wit'', 1606.

Richard Heber Richard Heber (5 January 1773 – 4 October 1833) was an English book-collector. Biography He was born in Westminster, as the eldest son of Reginald Heber, who succeeded his eldest brother as lord of the manors of Marton in Yorkshire and Hodnet ...

owned a manuscript ''A New Yeares Guift, or a posie upon certen flowers'', described as presented to

Mary Sidney Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke (born Sidney, 27 October 1561 – 25 September 1621) was among the first Englishwomen to gain notice for her poetry and her literary patronage. By the age of 39, she was listed with her brother Philip Sidney ...

by the "author of Chloris" ; it is now in the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

, MS. Addit. 35186. Plays signed "W. Smith" assigned at some points to Smith were by

Wentworth Smith Wentworth Smith (1571 – in or after 1614), was a minor England, English dramatist of the Elizabethan period who may have been responsible for some of the plays in the Shakespeare Apocrypha, though no work known to be his is extant. Life ...

. The above article on William Smith depends on the authority of Sidney Lee cited below, but Lee is not accurate or reliable. See major correction entered above.

Notes

;Attribution *

External links

* * 16th-century English poets Year of death unknown Year of birth unknown English male poets {{UK-poet-stub

Works

Attributions

Notes

Further reading

External links