William Rankins

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William Rankins (fl. 1587) was an English author. He was classed by Francis Meres in his Palladis Tamia (1598) as one of the three leading contemporary satirists, with Joseph Hall and John Marston. [1]

Contents

Life

Baptised 1565, Rankins was the elder son of Henry Rankyn, master of the Barber–Surgeons' Company in 1587, and Mary Robynson. His father's will of 1597 favoured his younger brother, Henry. [2]

Rankins is regarded as a professional writer. [3] Indeed, while his anti-theatrical Mirrour of 1587 apparently allied him with Puritan criticisms, he was involved in some fashion with the theatre beforehand and afterwards. It has been suggested that he was insincere, and that, as a hack writer, he was paid for the pamphlet by the City of London corporation. [4]

Rankins died in 1609. [2]

Works

Rankins wrote: [1]

Before the Belvedere (1600) by John Bodenham are three seven-line stanzas, "A Sonnet to the Muse's Garden" by Rankins; who also contributed anonymously to the anthology Plato's Cap of 1604. [2]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Lee, Sidney, ed. (1894). "William Rankins"  . Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 38. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  2. 1 2 3 Cerasano, S. P. "Rankins, William". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/23134.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. 1 2 Glynne Wickham; Herbert Berry (2000). English Professional Theatre, 1530-1660. Cambridge University Press. p. 167. ISBN   978-0-521-23012-4.
  4. ↑ Tracey Hill, "He hath changed his coppy": Anti-Theatrical Writing and the Turncoat Player, Critical Survey Vol. 9, No. 3 (1997), pp. 59–77 at p. 66. Published by: Berghahn Books. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41561727
  5. ↑ Russell A. Fraser (8 March 2015). The War Against Poetry. Princeton University Press. p. 28. ISBN   978-1-4008-6903-9.
  6. ↑ Henry S. Turner (December 2013). Early Modern Theatricality. OUP Oxford. p. 52. ISBN   978-0-19-964135-2.
  7. ↑ Martin Wiggins; Catherine Teresa Richardson (2014). British Drama (1533–1642): A Catalogue. 1598–1602. Oxford University Press. p. 275. ISBN   978-0-19-926574-9.
  8. ↑ Martin Wiggins; Catherine Teresa Richardson (2014). British Drama (1533–1642): A Catalogue. 1598–1602. Oxford University Press. p. 275. ISBN   978-0-19-926574-9.
Attribution

Wikisource-logo.svg This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Lee, Sidney, ed. (1894). "William Rankins". Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 38. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

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