Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/118

 is dedicated. From this letter Webbe would appear to have been present when the first version of the play in 1568 at the Inner Temple was 'curiously acted in view of her majesty, by whom it was then princely accepted.' Nothing more is known of Webbe.

While he was at Flemyngs in the 'summer evenings' apparently of 1586 Webbe composed 'A Discourse of English Poetrie. Together with the authors judgment touching the reformation of our English Verse. By William Webbe, graduate. Imprinted at London, by John Charlewood for Robert Walley, 1586,' 4to. This was entered on the 'Stationers' Register,' 4 Sept. 1586. Only two copies are known—one is in Malone's Collection at the Bodleian, and the other is now at Britwell. It was reprinted in 'Ancient Critical Essays, edited by J. Haslewood, London, 1815' (ii. 13–95), and by Edward Arber among the 'English Reprints' in 1870. The work shows Webbe to have been intimately and intelligently acquainted with contemporary English poetry and poets. It is dedicated to Edward Sulyard, and has a preface 'to the noble poets of England.' At the end of the 'Discourse' the author prints his own version in hexameters of the first two eclogues of Virgil. It appears from the dedication (see also Discourse, p. 55, ed. Arber) that he had previously translated the whole eclogues into a common English metre, probably hendecasyllables, for Sulyard's sons. The eclogues are followed by a table in English of 'Cannons or general Cautions of Poetry,' compiled from Horace by George Fabricius (1516–1571) of Chemnitz. A short 'Epilogus' concludes the tract. It is of high value and interest as a storehouse of allusions to contemporary poets, and for the light it throws upon the critical ideas of the Cambridge in which Spenser was bred. It is a proof of Webbe's taste that he perceives the superiority to contemporary verse of the 'Shepherd's Calendar' (ib. pp. 23, 35, 52, 81). He translates Spenser's fourth eclogue into quaintly absurb sapphics, and his hexameters are scarcely better; but his protest against 'this tinkerly verse which we call rhyme' must not be judged by his attempts at composition in classical metres.

Warton mentions 'a small black-lettered tract entitled "The Touchstone of Wittes," chiefly compiled, with some slender additions, from William Webbe's "Discourse of English Poetry," written by Edward Hake and printed at London by Edmund Bollifant' (History of English Poetry, ed. 1870, p. 804); but no copy is known to be extant. 

WEBBER, JOHN (1750?–1793), landscape-painter, was born in London about 1750. His father, Abraham Weber, was a Swiss sculptor, who, at the age of twenty-four, settled in England, anglicised his name, and married an English woman named Maria Quandt. John, their eldest child, was sent when six years old to Berne to be brought up by a maiden aunt who resided there. At the age of thirteen he was placed with J. L. Aberli, a Swiss artist of repute, by whom he was instructed in both portraiture and landscape. Three years later he was enabled, with pecuniary assistance from the municipal authorities of Berne, to proceed to Paris to complete his training, and there he resided for five years, studying in the academy and under J. G. Wille. He then returned to his family in London, and was for a time employed by a builder in decorating the interiors of houses. In 1776 he exhibited at the Royal Academy a portrait of his brother, which attracted the notice of Dr. Solander, and this led to his appointment as draughtsman to the third and last expedition of Captain Cook to the South Seas. He returned in 1780, having witnessed the death of Cook, and was then employed for some time by the Admiralty in making finished drawings from his sketches for the illustrations to the account of the expedition which was published in 1784. These were engraved by Woollett, Pouncy, and others. Subsequently Webber painted many views of picturesque parts of England and Wales, as well as of Switzerland and North Italy, which he visited in 1787. Between 1787 and 1792 he published a series of sixteen views of places visited by him with Captain Cook, etched and coloured by himself. From 1784 he was a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy, of which he was elected an associate in 1785, and a full member in 1791. His paintings were carefully finished, but weak in colour and drawing. His representation of the death of Captain Cook was engraved by Byrne and Bartolozzi, and his portrait of the explorer (now in the National Portrait Gallery), which he painted at the Cape of Good Hope, was also engraved by Bartolozzi. Webber died unmarried in Oxford Street, London, on 29 April 1793. He bequeathed his Academy diploma to the public library at Berne, where also is a portrait of him painted by himself. His brother, Henry Webber, practised as a sculptor, but without distinction; the '