John Drinkwater (1) (1882–1937)

To Alberta Countess of Sandwich Whose title was first Graced by Pepys's Friend my Lady of the Diary.

John Drinkwater:
British poet and playwright, born in Leytonstone, Essex; he grew up in north Oxfordshire, whence the predominantly rural imagery of much of his poetry derives, and was educated at Oxford High School. He began writing poetry while working as a clerk in insurance offices in Nottingham and Birmingham, and became manager of the Birmingham Repertory Company upon its formation in 1913. He directed and acted in many productions and wrote a number of short verse-plays, among which are Copethua (1911) and A Night of the Trojan War (1917), an allegorically effective statement against the Great War. His principal achievements as a playwright were his historical prose dramas: Abraham Lincoln (1918), Oliver Cromwell (1921), Mary Stuart (1922), and Robert E. Lee (1923). Bird in the Hand (1927) was a successful comedy in which Laurence Olivier and Peggy Ashcroft were given their first major roles. His Collected Plays appeared in two volumes in 1925. Drinkwater published over twenty books of poetry including The Death of Leander and Other Poems (1906), Poems of Love and Earth (1912), Swords and Ploughshares (1915), From an Unknown Isle (1924), and Collected Poems (3 volumes, 1923). His repute as a poet has declined with that of the Georgian movement, whose mediocre rural sentimentalism is perhaps typified by much of his verse. Certain of his poems are, however, highly memorable, like ‘Birthright’ (‘Lord Rameses of Egypt sighed | Because a summer evening passed…’) and ‘Moonlit Apples’, and have secured him a place in the modern literary tradition. He wrote numerous critical biographies, including William Morris (1912), The Pilgrim of Eternity: Byron (1925), and Pepys: His Life and Character (1930); and two volumes of autobiography, Inheritance (1931) and Discovery (1932).

Read more: John Drinkwater Biography - (1882–1937), Copethua, X = 0: A Night of the Trojan War, Abraham Lincoln, Oliver Cromwell - Poems, Poetry, Volumes, and War - JRank Articles http://www.jrank.org/literature/pages/3857/John-Drinkwater.… (mere)

To George Charles Montagu Ninth Earl of Sandwich Whose Ancestor Brought Charles Home.

John Drinkwater Achievements (Critical Edition of Dramatic Literature)

For three decades, from early in the twentieth century until he died in 1937, John Drinkwater was a consummate man of the theater—a playwright, actor, producer, director, and critic. Foremost among his achievements was his role in the organization and development of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre , one of Great Britain’s most innovative and influential companies. In addition, the popular success of his verse dramas encouraged other playwrights to work in the same genre, and his prose play Abraham Lincoln was the most notable historical-biographical play of its time. Both it and the earlier verse drama X = O were important expressions of antiwar sentiment, to which audiences responded enthusiastically, and Abraham Lincoln enjoyed long runs in London and New York. Active as he was in the theater, Drinkwater was also a prolific man of letters. He wrote critical studies of Algernon Charles Swinburne, William Morris, and William Shakespeare; biographies of such famous men as Abraham Lincoln, King Charles I, Oliver Cromwell, Samuel Pepys, and Lord Byron; a novel; essays; and film scripts. He also was a major poet in the Georgian movement. Although he was a popular poet, critics did not regard his poetry favorably, labeling it derivative, unimaginative, and sentimental.

Though public and critical interest in him had faded by the time of his death, and he and his work have been largely ignored in the decades that followed, Drinkwater merits at least a footnote in studies of modern English drama for his attempts to revitalize poetic drama in the twentieth century and to develop the chronicle play into a viable modern dramatic form. More than most playwrights, he brought to his craft (as Arnold Bennett put it) “a deep, practical knowledge of the stage.”… (mere)