Thomas Rymer
Encyclopedia
Thomas Rymer English
historiographer royal
, was the younger son of Ralph Rymer, lord of the manor
of Brafferton
in Yorkshire
, described by Clarendon
as possessed of a good estate, who was executed for his share in the Presbyterian
rising of 1663.
, near Northallerton
in the North Riding of Yorkshire
in 1643, or possibly at Yafforth
. He studied at Northallerton Grammar School
where he was a class mate of George Hickes
. Here he studied for eight years under Thomas Smelt, a noted Royalist. Aged sixteen, he then went to study at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, entering on 29 April 1659.
Although Rymer was still at Cambridge in 1662, when he contributed Latin verses to a university volume celebrating the marriage of Charles II and Catherine of Braganza, there is no record of his taking a degree. This may have been due to the financial problems his father was suffering at the time, and on 13 October 1663, Ralph Rymer was arrested for his involvement in a plot to stage an uprising in Yorkshire against King Charles; he was executed the next year. Although Thomas's elder brother Ralph was also arrested and imprisoned, Thomas himself was not implicated, and on 2 May 1666, he became a member of Gray's Inn, and was called to the bar on 16 June 1673.
's Reflections on Aristotle
's Treatise of Poesie (1674), to which he added a preface in defence of the classical rules for unity in drama. Following the principles there set forth, he composed a tragedy in verse, licensed 13 September 1677, called Edgar, or the English Monarch, which was a failure. It was printed in 1678.
Rymer's views on the drama were again given to the world in the shape of a printed letter to Fleetwood Shepheard, the friend of Prior
, under the title of The Tragedies of the Last Age Consider'd (1678). To Ovid
's Epistles Translated by Several Hands (1680), with preface by Dryden
, Penelope to Ulysses was contributed by Rymer, who was also one of the hands who Englished the Plutarch
of 1683-86. The life of Nicias
fell to his share. He furnished a preface to Whitelocke
's Memorials of English Affairs (1682), and wrote in 1681 A General Draught and Prospect of the Government of Europe, reprinted in 1689 and 1714 as Of the Antiquity, Power, and Decay of Parliaments, where, ignorant of his future dignity, the critic had the misfortune to observe, "You are not to expect truth from an historiographer royal."
He contributed three pieces to the collection of Poems to the Memory of Edmund Waller
(1688), afterwards reprinted in Dryden's Miscellany Poems, and is said to have written the Latin inscription on Waller's monument in Beaconsfield churchyard. The preface to the posthumous Historia Ecclesiastica (1688) of Thomas Hobbes
is said to have been by Rymer, but the Life of Hobbes (1681) sometimes ascribed to him was written by Richard Blackburne. He produced a congratulatory poem upon the arrival of Queen Mary
in 1689.
His next piece of authorship was to translate the sixth elegy of the third book of Ovid's Tristia for Dryden's Miscellany Poems (1692, p. 148). On the death of Thomas Shadwell
in 1692 Rymer received the appointment of historiographer royal
, at a yearly salary of £200. Immediately afterwards appeared his much discussed Short View of Tragedy (1693), criticizing Shakespeare and Ben Jonson
, which produced The Impartial Critick (1693) of John Dennis
, the epigram of Dryden.
Rymer's most lasting contribution to scholarship was the sixteen volumes of Foedera he published from 1704 to 1713; a collection of "all the leagues, treaties, alliances, capitulations, and confederacies, which have at any time been made between the Crown of England and any other kingdoms, princes and states," it was an immense labor of research and transcription on which he spent the last twenty years of his life. Rymer died on 13 December 1713, and was buried four days later in St Clement Danes
Church in the Strand
. He apparently left no immediate family.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
historiographer royal
Historiographer Royal (England)
In England the office of Historiographer Royal, a historian under the official patronage of the royal court, was created in 1660 with an annual salary of £200 and a butt of sack.-Historiographers Royal:Holders of the office included:...
, was the younger son of Ralph Rymer, lord of the manor
Lord of the Manor
The Lordship of a Manor is recognised today in England and Wales as a form of property and one of three elements of a manor that may exist separately or be combined and may be held in moieties...
of Brafferton
Brafferton, North Yorkshire
Brafferton is a village and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 257.The village is situated about ten miles south of Thirsk, on the River Swale....
in Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
, described by Clarendon
Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon
Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon was an English historian and statesman, and grandfather of two English monarchs, Mary II and Queen Anne.-Early life:...
as possessed of a good estate, who was executed for his share in the Presbyterian
Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism refers to a number of Christian churches adhering to the Calvinist theological tradition within Protestantism, which are organized according to a characteristic Presbyterian polity. Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures,...
rising of 1663.
Early life and education
Thomas Rymer was born at Appleton WiskeAppleton Wiske
Appleton Wiske is a small village and civil parish that sits between Northallerton and Yarm in the Vale of York, a flat tract of land that runs between the North Yorkshire Moors to the east, the Yorkshire Dales to the west and the River Tees to the north....
, near Northallerton
Northallerton
Northallerton is an affluent market town and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England. It lies in the Vale of Mowbray and at the northern end of the Vale of York. It has a population of 15,741 according to the 2001 census...
in the North Riding of Yorkshire
North Riding of Yorkshire
The North Riding of Yorkshire was one of the three historic subdivisions of the English county of Yorkshire, alongside the East and West Ridings. From the Restoration it was used as a Lieutenancy area. The three ridings were treated as three counties for many purposes, such as having separate...
in 1643, or possibly at Yafforth
Yafforth
Yafforth is a village in the civil parish of Danby Wiske in Hambleton, North Yorkshire, England about west of Northallerton. The village lies on the B6271 road between Northallerton and the village of Scorton.The River Wiske passes to the east of the village...
. He studied at Northallerton Grammar School
Northallerton College
Northallerton College, formerly known as Northallerton Grammar School, was founded in 1323. Parts of the old school building can be seen adjacent to All Saints' Church near the north end of Northallerton High Street...
where he was a class mate of George Hickes
George Hickes
George Hickes was an English divine and scholar.-Biography:Hickes was born at Newsham, near Thirsk, Yorkshire, in 1642...
. Here he studied for eight years under Thomas Smelt, a noted Royalist. Aged sixteen, he then went to study at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, entering on 29 April 1659.
Although Rymer was still at Cambridge in 1662, when he contributed Latin verses to a university volume celebrating the marriage of Charles II and Catherine of Braganza, there is no record of his taking a degree. This may have been due to the financial problems his father was suffering at the time, and on 13 October 1663, Ralph Rymer was arrested for his involvement in a plot to stage an uprising in Yorkshire against King Charles; he was executed the next year. Although Thomas's elder brother Ralph was also arrested and imprisoned, Thomas himself was not implicated, and on 2 May 1666, he became a member of Gray's Inn, and was called to the bar on 16 June 1673.
Career
His first appearance in print was as translator of René RapinRené Rapin
René Rapin was a French Jesuit and writer.He was born at Tours and entered the Society of Jesus in 1639. He taught rhetoric, and wrote extensively both in verse and prose.-Works:...
's Reflections on Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
's Treatise of Poesie (1674), to which he added a preface in defence of the classical rules for unity in drama. Following the principles there set forth, he composed a tragedy in verse, licensed 13 September 1677, called Edgar, or the English Monarch, which was a failure. It was printed in 1678.
Rymer's views on the drama were again given to the world in the shape of a printed letter to Fleetwood Shepheard, the friend of Prior
Matthew Prior
Matthew Prior was an English poet and diplomat.Prior was the son of a Nonconformist joiner at Wimborne Minster, East Dorset. His father moved to London, and sent him to Westminster School, under Dr. Busby. On his father's death, he left school, and was cared for by his uncle, a vintner in Channel...
, under the title of The Tragedies of the Last Age Consider'd (1678). To Ovid
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...
's Epistles Translated by Several Hands (1680), with preface by Dryden
John Dryden
John Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.Walter Scott called him "Glorious John." He was made Poet...
, Penelope to Ulysses was contributed by Rymer, who was also one of the hands who Englished the Plutarch
Plutarch
Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
of 1683-86. The life of Nicias
Nicias
Nicias or Nikias was an Athenian politician and general during the period of the Peloponnesian War. Nicias was a member of the Athenian aristocracy because he had inherited a large fortune from his father, which was invested into the silver mines around Attica's Mt. Laurium...
fell to his share. He furnished a preface to Whitelocke
Bulstrode Whitelocke
Sir Bulstrode Whitelocke was an English lawyer, writer, parliamentarian and Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England.- Biography :...
's Memorials of English Affairs (1682), and wrote in 1681 A General Draught and Prospect of the Government of Europe, reprinted in 1689 and 1714 as Of the Antiquity, Power, and Decay of Parliaments, where, ignorant of his future dignity, the critic had the misfortune to observe, "You are not to expect truth from an historiographer royal."
He contributed three pieces to the collection of Poems to the Memory of Edmund Waller
Edmund Waller
Edmund Waller, FRS was an English poet and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1624 and 1679.- Early life :...
(1688), afterwards reprinted in Dryden's Miscellany Poems, and is said to have written the Latin inscription on Waller's monument in Beaconsfield churchyard. The preface to the posthumous Historia Ecclesiastica (1688) of Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury , in some older texts Thomas Hobbs of Malmsbury, was an English philosopher, best known today for his work on political philosophy...
is said to have been by Rymer, but the Life of Hobbes (1681) sometimes ascribed to him was written by Richard Blackburne. He produced a congratulatory poem upon the arrival of Queen Mary
Mary II of England
Mary II was joint Sovereign of England, Scotland, and Ireland with her husband and first cousin, William III and II, from 1689 until her death. William and Mary, both Protestants, became king and queen regnant, respectively, following the Glorious Revolution, which resulted in the deposition of...
in 1689.
His next piece of authorship was to translate the sixth elegy of the third book of Ovid's Tristia for Dryden's Miscellany Poems (1692, p. 148). On the death of Thomas Shadwell
Thomas Shadwell
Thomas Shadwell was an English poet and playwright who was appointed poet laureate in 1689.-Life:Shadwell was born at Stanton Hall, Norfolk, and educated at Bury St Edmunds School, and at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, which he entered in 1656. He left the university without a degree, and...
in 1692 Rymer received the appointment of historiographer royal
Historiographer Royal (England)
In England the office of Historiographer Royal, a historian under the official patronage of the royal court, was created in 1660 with an annual salary of £200 and a butt of sack.-Historiographers Royal:Holders of the office included:...
, at a yearly salary of £200. Immediately afterwards appeared his much discussed Short View of Tragedy (1693), criticizing Shakespeare and Ben Jonson
Ben Jonson
Benjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems...
, which produced The Impartial Critick (1693) of John Dennis
John Dennis
John Dennis was an English critic and dramatist.-Life:He was born in Harrow, London. He was educated at Harrow School and Caius College, Cambridge, where he took his B.A. degree in 1679. In the next year he was fined and dismissed from his college for having wounded a fellow-student with a sword....
, the epigram of Dryden.
Rymer's most lasting contribution to scholarship was the sixteen volumes of Foedera he published from 1704 to 1713; a collection of "all the leagues, treaties, alliances, capitulations, and confederacies, which have at any time been made between the Crown of England and any other kingdoms, princes and states," it was an immense labor of research and transcription on which he spent the last twenty years of his life. Rymer died on 13 December 1713, and was buried four days later in St Clement Danes
St Clement Danes
St Clement Danes is a church in the City of Westminster, London. It is situated outside the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand. The current building was completed in 1682 by Sir Christopher Wren and it now functions as the central church of the Royal Air Force.The church is sometimes claimed to...
Church in the Strand
Strand, London
Strand is a street in the City of Westminster, London, England. The street is just over three-quarters of a mile long. It currently starts at Trafalgar Square and runs east to join Fleet Street at Temple Bar, which marks the boundary of the City of London at this point, though its historical length...
. He apparently left no immediate family.