Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 44.djvu/241

 renowned Earl of Northumberland,”’ 1593. This, the most elaborate of Peele's non-dramatic productions, was written (in blank verse) to commemorate the installation as knights of the Garter of several noblemen and gentlemen, including Henry Percy, ninth earl of Northumberland [q. v.] The poem introduces the well-known legend as to the foundation of the order. Copies are in the British Museum, Bodleian Library, and Dyce collection, and at Britwell. 6. ‘Anglorum Feriæ, England's Holidays, celebrated the 17th of November last,’ 1595, was first printed in 1830 from a manuscript now in the British Museum. It celebrates in blank verse the appearance of a noble company at tilt, in honour of the birthday of the queen.

Besides the above, Peele wrote lines to Thomas Watson (1582) and the ‘Praise of Chastity’ (in ‘The Phœnix Nest,’ 1593), and has been ‘credited’ with ‘A Merry Ballet of the Hawthorn-tree,’ first printed in Ritson's ‘Ancient Songs,’ 1790, from a manuscript in the Cottonian Library, signed ‘G. Peele,’ in a much more modern hand than that of the ballad. Collected editions of Peele's works were edited by Dyce in 1829–39, and by Mr. A. H. Bullen in 1888.

Peele is one of the most prominent figures among those of Shakespeare's ‘predecessors’ and earlier contemporaries. In his manipulation of his own language for metrical purposes he was skilful, and now and then wonderfully successful. His blank verse, usually fluent though monotonous, rises here and there to grandeur and force; and scattered through his plays and pastorals are more than one lyric of imperishable charm. His text is so largely corrupt as to make generalisations unsafe, but he seems hardly to have mastered the management of rhyme. In constructive power as a dramatist he was, as far as the plays to be with certainty ascribed to him are concerned, consistently deficient; and he ‘exercised far less influence over the development of our drama than either Lyly or Greene, not to mention Marlowe’ (, Shakspere's Predecessors, p. 564). Yet his fancy was quick and versatile, and his dramatic writings derived their effectiveness, not only from the varied brilliancy of his imagery, but also from the occasional strength of his feeling, which readily reflected the popular and patriotic sentiment of his age (see The Battle of Alcazar, A Farewell, &c.). The growth of his powers had been stimulated by a university training, and his works abound in classical allusions; but he was not often markedly felicitous in his employment of them. He had, for better or worse, imbibed something, too, of the spirit of his Italian sources. His method of literary workmanship was assimilative, and he subsequently served at times the purposes of the greatest of literary assimilators, Milton.

[Dyce's Account of George Peele and his Writings, in the Dramatic and Poetical Works of Robert Greene and George Peele (1861, Dyce's first edition of Peele's Works, with Life, was published in 3 vols. in 1829–39); Mr. A. H. Bullen's Works of George Peele, 2 vols. 1888, introduction; Fleay's Biographical Chronicle of the English Drama, 1891, ii. 150–162; Symonds's Shakspere's Predecessors in the English Drama, 1884, pp. 537 seqq.; Collier's History of English Dramatic Poetry, 3 vols. (new edit. 1879); Ward's History of English Dramatic Literature (1875), i. 203–13; Læmmerhirt's George Peele, Untersuchungen über sein Leben und seine Werke (Rostock, 1882).] 

PEEND or DE LA PEEND, THOMAS (fl. 1565), translator and poet, educated, apparently, at Oxford University, was a London barrister. According to Wood he ‘much delighted in poetry and classical learning.’ His chief work was ‘The Pleasant Fable of Hermaphroditus and Salmacis, by T. Peend, Gent. With a Morall in English Verse. Anno Domini 1565; Mense Decembris. Imprinted by Thomas Colwell,’ 8vo. This is dedicated by T. Peend, esq., ‘from my chamber over agaynst Sergeants Inne in Chancery Lane, 1564,’ to Nicholas St. Leger. Peend says he had translated and in part printed much more of the original, but he kept it back lest ‘I shall seeme to abuse the writer or reader of those four bookes of Metamorphosis whych be so learnedly translated all redye.’ Golding's translation had just appeared. Peend's extract is from Book IV. of the ‘Metamorphoses,’ and is in fourteen-syllable verse. It is followed by an original ‘morall to the fable,’ and ‘a pleasaunt question’ in irregular verse, written with force and ease. This is signed ‘T. D. Peend.’ A short account in prose of the persons alluded to in the poems concludes the volume. Peend also issued a translation from the Spanish, entitled ‘The moste notable Historie of John Lord Mandozze,’ 1565, 12mo. The dedication is addressed from the Middle Temple to a kinsman, Sir Thomas Kemp, knight. It is followed by a poetical address to the reader and an argument. The poem is in alternate fourteen and sixteen syllable lines. In the margin attention is called to copious passages ‘added by the Translatour.’ There are some verses by Peend prefixed to John Studley's ‘Agamemnon’ (1566). 