F. P. Wilson

F. P. Wilson's best known work,English Drama, 1485–1585.

Frank Percy WilsonFBA(11 October 1889 – 29 May 1963) was a British literary scholar and bibliographer. Author of many works onElizabethan dramaand general editor of theOxford History of English Literature,Wilson wasMerton Professor of English Literatureat theUniversity of Oxfordfrom 1947 to 1957.

Education and early career

Wilson was born and raised inBirmingham,studying atKing Edward's School, Birmingham.He received hisBA(1911) andMA(1912) in English at theUniversity of Birmingham,and aB. Litt.atLincoln College, Oxford,in 1913, writing his thesis onThomas Dekker.

At the outbreak ofWorld War IWilson joined the army, serving in France, and sustaining serious injuries atBattle of the Sommein 1916. Recovery in hospital took over a year, and, besides, left Wilson with a permanent limp and vulnerability to recurrent infections.He returned to Oxford asUniversity Lecturerin 1921 and was promoted toReaderin 1927. He became the Tutor of C. S. Lewis in 1922. At Oxford, Wilson publishedDekker's Foure Birds of Noahs Arke(1924) andPlague Pamphlets of T. Dekker(1925). He worked on and off for many years on a four volume edition of Dekker's prose works, but it was never completed. However, the incidental,The Plague in Shakespeare's London(1925) proved popular with readers and was brought out in paperback in 1958.

Later career

During the next three decades, Wilson was to serve asProfessorofEnglish Literatureat theUniversity of Leeds(1929–1936),Hildred Carlileprofessor of English literature atBedford College,London (1936–1947), andMerton Professor of English Literatureat Oxford (1947–57), remaining at Oxford for three years more as Senior Research Fellow atMerton College.

He visited many American academic institutions during this time, includingHuntington LibraryinSan Marino, California,on three separate occasions,Columbia University,Folger Shakespeare LibraryandStanford University.In addition, he gave lectures, all later published, atUniversity of Toronto,Smith College,Johns Hopkins University,andUCLA.

WithBonamy Dobrée,Wilson became in 1935 the general editor of theOxford History of English Literature.He wrote the volume,English drama from 1485 to 1642himself. He gaveBritish Academylectures in 1941 and the Clark Lectures atTrinity College,Cambridge, in 1951, both published later in book form.

DuringWorld War II,in spite of his disability, Wilson served in theHome Guard.He became general editor of theMalone Societyin 1948 and during his dozen years at the helm edited reprints of many works were produced including those ofJohn Fletcher,Samuel Rowley,andThomas Middleton.

Critical reputation, influence, and honours

According toODNBbiographers, Jean Robertson and P. J. Connell, "The chief merits of Wilson's dramatic criticism were his constant alertness to the exigencies of the stage (he was a promising amateur actor in his early days); and, most remarkably, his unrivalled knowledge of contemporary word usage and phraseology,..." yielding ultimately hisOxford Dictionary of English Proverbs.He was, they continue, "the most learned Elizabethan scholar of his generation, as well as a master of social graces and a witty conversationalist."

Wilson was electedFellow of the British Academyin 1943 and awarded an honorary LLD of the University of Birmingham in 1947; he was made an honorary fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, in 1948. F. P. Wilson died at his home in Berkshire, on 29 May 1963.

Bibliography

• Wilson, Frank Percy (1921),The Plague-pamphlets of Thomas Dekker: With an Account of the Plague in London from 1603 to 1630,University of Birmingham, Department of English,ISBN9780781272001
• Ben Jonson; F. P. Wilson (1921),Comicall Satyre of Every Man Out of His Humor...,Malone Society,ISBN9781465505231
• Thomas Dekker(1925), F. P. Wilson (ed.),Foure Birds of Noahs Arke,D. Appleton
• Wilson, F. P.(1954),Marlowe and the Early Shakespeare,Clark Lectures atTrinity College,Cambridge, 1951, Clarendon Press,retrieved27 September2013
• Wilson, F. P. (1960),Seventeenth Century Prose: Five Lectures,Cambridge University Press,ISBN978-1-107-60712-5
• Wilson, Frank Percy (1963),The plague in Shakespeare's London,Oxford University Press
• Wilson, F. P. (1969),Oxford History of English Literature, Vol 4 Pt 1: The English Drama, 1485 - 1585,G. K. Hunter (ed), Oxford: Clarendon Press
• Wilson, Frank Percy (1970), "The English history play" and "Shakespeare's Comedies", in Gardner, Helen; Louise, Dame (eds.),Shakespearian and Other Studies,Wilson, F. P. (Frank Percy), Clarendon Press,ISBN9780198116776
• Wilson, F. P.(1970),The Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs 3 Ed. Rev. by F. P. Wilson,Oxford: Clarendon Press
• Wilson, Frank Percy (1978),The proverbial wisdom of Shakespeare,Presidential address of the Modern Humanities Research Association 1961, Folcroft Library Edition,retrieved27 September2013
• Wilson, Frank Percy (1978),Shakespeare and the Diction of Common Life,British Academy Lecture 1941, Norwood Editions,ISBN978-0-8482-6950-0,retrieved27 September2013

References

• Robertson, Jean; Connell, P. J. (rev) (2004)."Wilson, Frank Percy (1889–1963)'".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/36953.Retrieved27 September2013.(Subscription orUK public library membershiprequired.)
• H. J. Davis; H. Gardner, eds. (1959),Elizabethan and Jacobean Studies: Presented to F. P. Wilson in Honour of his 70th Birthday,Oxford: At the Clarendon Press

External links

• Frank Percy Wilson Papers.James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.