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GEORGE PEELE (1558-c. 1598)

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 45 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GEORGE See also:PEELE (1558-c. 1598)  , See also:English dramatist, was See also:born in See also:London in 1558 . His See also:father, who appears to have belonged to a See also:Devonshire See also:family, was clerk of See also:Christ's See also:Hospital, and wrote two See also:treatises on See also:book-keeping . See also:George See also:Peele was educated at Christ's Hospital, and entered Broadgates See also:Hall (See also:Pembroke See also:College), See also:Oxford, in 1571 . In 1574 he removed to Christ See also:Church, taking his B.A. degree in 1577, and proceeding M.A. in 1579 . In 1579 the See also:governors of Christ's Hospital requested their clerk to " See also:discharge his See also:house of his son, George Peele." It is not 'necessary to read into this anything more than that the governors insisted on his beginning to See also:earn a livelihood . He went up to London about 158o, but in 1583 when Albertus Alasco (See also:Albert See also:Laski), a See also:Polish nobleman, was entertained at Christ Church, Oxford, Peele was entrusted with the arrangement of two Latin plays by See also:William Gager (fl . I58o—1619) presented on the occasion . He was also complimented by Dr Gager for an English See also:verse See also:translation of one of the I phigenias of See also:Euripides . In 1585 he was employed to write the See also:Device of the See also:Pageant See also:borne before See also:Woolston Dixie, and in 1591 he devised the pageant in See also:honour of another See also:lord See also:mayor, See also:Sir William See also:Webbe . This was the Descensus Astraeae (printed in the Harleian See also:Miscellany, 18o8), in which See also:Queen See also:Elizabeth is honoured as See also:Astraea . Peele had married as See also:early as . 1 583 a See also:lady who brought him some See also:property, which he speedily dissipated .

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Robert See also:Greene, at the end of his Groats-See also:worth of Wit, exhorts Peele to repentance, saying that he has, like himself, " been driven to extreme shifts for a living." The sorry traditions of his reckless See also:life were emphasized by the use of his name in connexion with the apocryphal Merrie conceited Jests of George Peele (printed in 1607) . Many of the stories had done service before, but there are See also:personal touches that may be See also:biographical . He died before 1598, for See also:Francis See also:Meres, See also:writing in that See also:year, speaks of his See also:death in his Palladis Tamia . His See also:pastoral See also:comedy of The Araygnement of See also:Paris, presented by the See also:Children of the See also:Chapel Royal before Queen Elizabeth perhaps as early as 1581, was printed anonymously in 1584 . See also:Charles See also:Lamb, sending to See also:Vincent See also:Novello a See also:song from this piece of Peele's, said that if it had been less uneven in See also:execution See also:Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess had been but a second name in this sort of writing." Peele shows considerable See also:art in ' his flattery . Paris is arraigned before See also:Jupiter for having assigned the See also:apple to See also:Venus . See also:Diana, with whom the final decision rests, gives the apple to none of the competitors but to a nymph called Eliza, whose identity is confirmed by the further with' a See also:fine See also:tower and 'See also:spire . See also:Peel was called by the Northmen Holen (See also:island, i.e . St See also:Patrick's Isle); the existing name is See also:Celtic, explanation, " whom some Zabeta See also:call." The Famous See also:Chronicle of See also:King See also:Edward the first, sirnamed Edward Longshankes, with his returne from the See also:holy See also:land . Also the life of Lleuellen, rebell in See also:Wales . Lastly, the sinking of Queen Elinor, who suncke at Charingcrosse, and See also:rose again at Potters-hith, now named Queenehith (printed 1593) . This " chronicle See also:history," formless enough, as the rambling See also:title shows, is nevertheless an advance on the old chronicle plays, and marks a step towards the Shakespearian See also:historical See also:drama .

The Battell of Alcazar—with the death of Captaine See also:

Stukeley (acted 1588-1589, printed 1594), published anonymously, is attributed with much See also:probability to Peele . The Old Wives See also:Tale, registered in Stationers' Hall, perhaps more correctly, as " The Owlde wifes tale " (printed 1595), was followed by The Love of King See also:David and See also:fair Bethsabe (written c . 1588, printed 1599), which is notable as an example of Elizabethan drama See also:drawn entirely from scriptural See also:sources . Mr Fleay See also:sees in it a See also:political See also:satire, and identifies Elizabeth and See also:Leicester as David and Bathsheba, See also:Mary Queen of Scots as See also:Absalom . Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes (printed 1599) has been attributed to Peele, but on insufficient grounds . Among his occasional poems are " The Honour of the Garter," which has a See also:prologue containing Peele's judgments on his contemporaries, and " Polyhymnia " (1590), a See also:blank-verse description of the ceremonies attending the retirement of the queen's See also:champion, Sir See also:Henry See also:Lee . This is concluded by the " See also:Sonnet," " His See also:golden locks See also:time hath to See also:silver turn'd," quoted by See also:Thackeray in the 76th See also:chapter of The Newcomes . To the See also:Phoenix See also:Nest in 1593 he contributed " The Praise of Chastity." Mr F . G . Fleay (Biog . Chron. of the Drama) credits Peele with The See also:Wisdom of See also:Doctor Doddipoll (printed 1600), Wily Beguiled (printed 16o6), The Life and Death of See also:Jack See also:Straw, a notable See also:rebel (1587?), a See also:share in the First and Second Parts of Henry VI., and on the authority of See also:Wood and Winstanley, Alphonsus, See also:Emperor of See also:Germany . Peele belonged to the See also:group of university scholars who, in Greene's phrase, " spent their wits in making playes." Greene went on to say that he was " in some things rarer, in nothing inferior," to See also:Marlowe .

Phoenix-squares

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Nashe in his See also:preface to Greene's Menaphon called him " the See also:chief supporter of pleasance now living, the See also:Atlas of Poetrie and See also:Primus verborum artifex, whose first encrease, the Arraignement of Paris, might plead to your opinions his pregnant dexteritie of wit and manifold varietie of invention, wherein (me judice) hee goeth a step beyond all that write." This praise was not unfounded . The See also:credit given to Greene and Marlowe for the increased dignity of English dramatic diction, and for the new smoothness infused into blank verse, must certainly be shared by Peele . See also:Professor F . B . Gummere, in a See also:critical See also:essay prefixed to his edition of The Old Wives Tale, puts in another claim for Peele . In the contrast between the romantic See also:story and the realistic See also:dialogue he sees the first instance of See also:humour quite See also:foreign to the comic " business " of earlier comedy . The Old Wives Tale is a See also:play within a play, slight enough to be perhaps better described as an interlude . Its background of rustic folk-See also:lore gives it additional See also:interest, and there is much fun poked at See also:Gabriel See also:Harvey and See also:Stanyhurst . Perhaps Huanebango,' who parodies Harvey's hexameters, and actually quotes him on one occasion, may be regarded as representing that See also:arch-enemy of Greene and his See also:friends . Peele's See also:Works were edited by See also:Alexander See also:Dyce (1828, 1829-1839 and 1861) ; by A . H . Bullen (2 vols., 1888) .

An examination of the metrical peculiarities of his See also:

work is to be found in F . A . R . Lammerhirt's Georg Peele, Untersuchungen fiber sein Leben and See also:seine Werke (See also:Rostock, 1882) . See also Professor F . B . Gummere, in Representative English Comedies (1903); and an edition of The Battell of Alcazar, printed for the See also:Malone Society in 1907 . PEEP-OF-See also:DAY BOYS, an Irish See also:Protestant See also:secret society, formed about 1785 . Its See also:object was to protect the Protestant peasantry, and avenge their wrongs on the See also:Roman Catholics . The " Boys " gained their name from the See also:hour of See also:dawn which I Mr Fleay goes so far as to see in the preposterous names of Huanebango's kith and See also:kin puns on Harvey's father's See also:trade . Polymachaeroplacidus " he Interprets as " Polly-make-a-ropelass " Origin of See also:Peerage . they See also:chose for their raids on the Roman See also:Catholic villages .

End of Article: GEORGE PEELE (1558-c. 1598)
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