William Percy
William Percy was an English poet and playwright born in 1575, the third son of Henry Percy, the eighth Earl of Northumberland. Raised in a politically charged environment, he received religious instruction in Catholicism in France but returned to England due to familial pressures. His family faced significant political troubles, with his father imprisoned and his elder brother, Henry Percy, later confined due to suspicions related to the Gunpowder Plot. Percy attended Oxford University, where he became involved in literary circles, publishing his poetry collection "Sonnets to the Fairest Coelia" in 1594. His life included tumultuous episodes, such as a duel in 1596 that resulted in the death of his opponent, Henry Denny. Although he faced financial difficulties and was later imprisoned, he wrote several notable plays, including "The Cuck-Queans and Cuckolds Errant," which reflect a blend of comedy and tragedy. His works contributed to the evolution of drama during his time, marking him as a precursor to the melodramatic style that defined Jacobean tragedy. Percy died in 1648 and was buried in Oxford, leaving behind a legacy of six surviving plays, although much of his writing remains lost to history.
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Subject Terms
William Percy
Playwright and Poet
- Born: 1575
- Birthplace: Probably at Topcliffe, Thirsk, England
- Died: May 1, 1648
Biography
William Percy was born in 1575, the third son of Henry Percy, the eighth earl of Northumberland, and Katherine, née Neville. In 1583, the family’s tutor sent Percy and his brothers to Paris to obtain religious instruction in Catholicism (an unsafe procedure in Elizabethan England), but the boys eventually were summoned home at the earl’s insistence. The earl then became involved in political activity in support of Mary, Queen of Scots, and was imprisoned in the Tower, where he was found dead in his bed in 1585. Percy’s elder brother Henry, the ninth earl, was also imprisoned for many years in the Tower after being heavily fined on suspicion of being privy to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. While in the Tower, Henry Percy cultivated the reputation of being the “Wizard Earl” by virtue of his scientific research.
William Percy entered Gloucester Hall, Oxford University, in 1589, where he became interested in contemporary literature, joining a coterie whose leading member was poet Barnabe Barnes, with whom he became close friends; poet Thomas Campion was a late addition to the group. In 1594, Percy published a volume of poetry, Sonnets to the Fairest Coelia. He was in London by 1595, heavily in debt; the debts were discharged, but the problem was to recur. In February, 1596, he fought a duel with a man named Henry Denny, who was wounded in the neck. The injury seemed slight, but Denny subsequently sickened and died, the delay being just long enough to keep Percy out of trouble.
Percy appears to have been living in Sussex in 1603, but his brother’s misfortunes presumably put an end to his career as a dramatist in London. He was in prison in Oxford in 1611, and the only subsequent record of him is that he was living obscurely in that city in the late 1630’s. He died in 1648 and was buried in Oxford on May 28, 1648. He never married.
The full extent of Percy’s writings is unknown but six plays survive, all but one dating from the early 1600’s. The most significant of the earlier items, in retrospect, is perhaps The Cuck-Queans and Cuckolds Errant: Or, The Bearing Downe the Inne, a comedy set in 1588. The play concludes with a panegyric to Francis Drake and describes the adventures of a group of undergraduates. The Aphrodysial: Or, Sea Feast, a Marinall and The Faery Pastoral: Or, The Forest of Elves are interesting for their use of folkloric motifs. Percy mixed comedy and tragedy with reckless abandon, describing one of his productions as a “tragaecomodye,” but he might be considered a significant precursor of the fervently melodramatic work that ultimately came to be characterized as “Jacobean tragedy.” His last play, Necromantes: Or, The Two Supposed Heads, which may have been written long before the date of its surviving version, is something of a grotesque, in the tradition ancestral to modern pantomime.