Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 63.djvu/155

 immediately Wright's ‘Early Mysteries and other Latin Poems of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries,’ and at the same period he supplied many of the historical descriptions to Le Keux's ‘Memorials of Cambridge.’

On 16 Nov. 1837 Wright was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. Of the newer literary societies which came into being in 1838 and following years, Wright, like his friend Halliwell, was an indefatigable supporter. He was long the honorary secretary of the Camden Society from its foundation in 1838, and he edited for it: ‘Alliterative Poem on the Deposition of Richard II’ (1838); ‘The Political Songs of England, from the Reign of John to that of Edward II’ (1839); ‘The Latin Poems commonly attributed to Walter Mapes’ (1841); ‘Narrative of the Proceedings against Dame Alice Kyteler for Sorcery in 1324’ (1843); ‘Letters relating to the Suppression of Monasteries’ (1843); ‘Mapes de Nugis Curialium’ (1850), 4to, and ‘Churchwardens' Accounts of the Town of Ludlow in Shropshire, from 1540 to the End of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth’ (1869), 4to.

For the Percy Society, founded in 1841, of which he was treasurer and secretary, Wright edited fifteen publications, including ‘Political Ballads published in England during the Commonwealth’ (1841); ‘Specimens of old Christmas Carols, chiefly taken from Manuscript Sources’ (1841); ‘Specimens of Lyric Poetry composed in England in the Reign of Edward I’ (1842); ‘A Collection of Latin Stories, illustrative of the History of Fiction during the Middle Ages, from Manuscripts of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries’ (1842); ‘The Seven Ages in English Verse, edited from a Manuscript in the Public Library of the University of Cambridge’ (1845), with an ‘Introductory Essay’ (1846); Hawes's ‘Pastime of Pleasure’ (1845), and Chaucer's ‘Canterbury Tales,’ a new text, with illustrative notes (vols. i. and ii. 1847, vol. iii. 1851; reissued in a single volume, 1853, and in Cooke's ‘Universal Library,’ 1867).

For a short-lived Historical Society of Science, formed by Halliwell and himself, Wright edited, in 1841, ‘Popular Treatises on Science, written during the Middle Ages, in Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Norman, and English.’

For the Royal Society of Literature Wright undertook a more ambitious work, a ‘Biographia Britannica Literaria; or Biography of Literary Characters of Great Britain and Ireland, arranged in Chronological Order.’ It was intended to carry the undertaking down to 1840, but only two volumes appeared, one dealing with ‘The Anglo-Saxon Period’ (1842), and the other with ‘The Anglo-Norman Period’ (1846).

For the Shakespeare Society Wright edited ‘The Chester Plays’ (1843–7, 2 vols. 8vo), and for the Caxton Society Geoffrey Gaimar's ‘Anglo-Norman Metrical Chronicle of the Anglo-Saxon Songs: printed for the first time entire; with Appendix, containing the Lay of Havelok the Dane, the Legend of Ernwulf, and Life of Hereward the Saxon’ (1850, 8vo).

Meanwhile his collaboration with Halliwell produced ‘Reliquiæ Antiquæ: Scraps from Ancient Manuscripts, illustrating Early English Literature and the English Language’ (1839–43, 2 vols. 8vo; reissued 1845, 2 vols. 8vo). Together, too, the friends edited ten numbers of a monthly periodical called ‘The Archæologist and Journal of Antiquarian Science’ (September 1841–June 1842). Halliwell acknowledged great assistance from Wright in preparing his ‘Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words’ (1846); and they were avowedly joint editors of the revised edition of Nares's ‘Glossary’ (1859).

Intimacy with the engraver Frederick William Fairholt [q. v.] led Wright to produce in partnership with him an interesting series of illustrated volumes. In 1848 there appeared ‘England under the House of Hanover: its History and Condition during the Reigns of the Three Georges, illustrated from the Caricatures and the Satires of the Day, with Portraits and 300 Caricatures, Plans, and Woodcuts engraved by F. W. Fairholt, F.S.A.’ (2 vols. 8vo; 2nd edit. 1849; 3rd edit. 1852). To the same class of compilation belonged Wright's ‘History of Caricature and Grotesque in Literature and Art, with Illustrations from various sources; drawn and engraved by F. W. Fairholt, Esq., F.S.A., London, 1865, sm. 4to. With R. H. Evans he also wrote for Bohn's library an ‘Historical and Descriptive Account of the Caricatures of James Gillray; comprising a Political and Humorous History of the latter part of the Reign of George III’ (London, 1851, 8vo). Wright subsequently developed this essay into ‘The Works of James Gillray the Caricaturist; with a History of his Life and Times,’ with four hundred illustrations, London, 1873, 4to.

Wright's independent work of the period included: ‘Queen Elizabeth and her Times: a Series of Original Letters selected from the inedited private Correspondence of Lord Burghley, the Earl of Leicester, and others’ (London, 1838, 2 vols. 8vo, with very slender commentary); ‘The History of Ludlow and its Neighbourhood’ (8vo, part i. 1841, part ii. 1843, in 1 vol. 1852); ‘Autobiography