William Percy (writer)

William Percy (1574–1648), English poet and playwright, was the third son of Henry Percy, 8th Earl of Northumberland (c.1532–1585), and his wife Katharine Neville (1545/6–1596). He was probably born in Tynemouth. His elder brother Henry was a significant figure in English cultural and scientific circles in the late 16th - early 17th century.

Percy attended Oxford university where although he studied Italian and Latin his growing interest was contemporary English literature, including the works of Gabriel Harvey, Sidney and Spenser.

Writing career

At Oxford Percy belonged to a literary coterie which included Barnabe Barnes, whose Parthenophil and Parthenope was dedicated ‘To the right noble and virtuous gentleman’ William Percy ‘his dearest friend’. A year later Percy published his own collection, Sonnets to the Fairest Coelia. In the preface he claimed publication was forced on him because, having lent the manuscripts to a friend, he found they were about to be printed without his consent. He therefore added an epistle to the reader in which he described the sonnets as mere 'toyes', promising that ‘ere long I will impart unto the world another Poem which shall be both more fruitfull and ponderous’. He included a sonnet dedicated to Barnes, referred to by the name 'Parthenophil'.

Although Percy was not a very talented poet his circle included better writers such as Charles Fitzgeoffrey who, in his collection of Latin epigrams Affaniae praises Percy's skills. Others in the same group were the Mychelbourne brothers, Edward, Lawrence, and Thomas, all of whom feature in Percy's poems. A later member was Thomas Campion who praises Percy in his Epigrammatum II (1619) for his wit.

Percy also wrote plays, six of which survive. The Faery Pastoral, or, Forest of Elves was written for the visit of James I to Syon House (London home of Percy's brother the Earl) on 8 June 1603. Mostly however Percy seems to have written his plays with the intention they should be performed by either one or both of London's children's companies. Arabia sitiens, or, A Dreame of a Drye Yeare: a Tragaecomodye (1601), A Country Tragaedye in Vacunium (1602), and The Aphrodysial, or, Sea Feast: a Marinall (1602) are dedicated ‘unto the children of the Revells and of Poules’. His last play, Necromantes, or, The Two Supposed Heds: a Comicall Invention (1632) is designated ‘For Actors only’. Although none of his plays have attracted praise for literary merit Arabia sitiens, more recently known by the title Mahomet and his Heaven, is of interest because it gives some insight into contemporary English attitudes to Islam.

Death

Like his elder brother Henry, William Percy seems to have been imprisoned at points in his life; but in his case mostly for debt. He finally settled in Oxford where, according to Anthony Wood, he died in reduced circumstances: ‘an aged Bachelor, in Penny Farthing St.... after he had lived a melancholy and retired life many years; and was buried in the Cathedral of Christ Church, near to the grave of Sir Henry Gage, the 28th of May 1648’

References

Reavley Gair, ‘Percy, William (1574–1648)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004

Dimmock, Matthew, ed: William Percy's Mahomet and His Heaven: A Critical Edition Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2006.