John Crowne

David Roberts (Birmingham City University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.04: English Writing and Culture of the Seventeenth Century, 1625-1688.
Vol. editors: Jennifer Brady (Rhodes College), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Neil Forsyth (Université de Lausanne), Claire Preston (Queen Mary, University of London), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University)

Dates

Born 6 Jan 1641
Died 1712
Activity 1665-1710

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Activities

Primary

Playwright / Dramatist
Poet

Resources

Crowne's Works

Save to Bookshelf

Unusually for a Restoration dramatist, John Crowne’s life was dominated by his father’s dream of land in North America. In fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that the life of this man of many dramatic genres – he wrote comedies, tragedies, histories, Shakespeare and Racine adaptations and even a pastoral court masque – was in many ways more distinctive than his work, which Robert D. Hume has described as “second-rate Dryden”.

William Crowne, resident of St Martin’s-in-the-Fields parish and Rouge Dragon Pursuivant of Arms to Charles I, survived the Civil War with diplomatic aplomb by marrying into a family of Shropshire Parliamentarians and discharging a number of offices in that county during Cromwell’s period of office. So successful was he that in 1656 he was able to

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2558 words

Citation: Roberts, David. "John Crowne". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 April 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1084, accessed 26 November 2024.]