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William Cartwright Biography

William Cartwright Image

CARTWRIGHT, William (1611-43). An English poet and divine, born at Northway, near Tewkesbury. He graduated M.A. at Christ Church, Oxford (1635), took orders, became precentor of Salisbury Cathedral, and junior proctor of Oxford (1643), and died a few months later (November 29). Cartwright was much beloved by many friends, among whom was King Charles I. He is a good example of a once large class of "florid and seraphical. preachers." He wrote several plays, of which the Ordinary, ridiculing the Puritans, has considerable interest. His Comedies, Tragi-Comedies, with Other Poems were collected by Moseley (London, 1651). Consult: Ward, English Poets, vol. ii (London, 1881); Bullen, "William Cartwright," in Dictionary of National Biography, vol. ix (1887), an excellent article; Ward, History of English Dramatic Literature (1899).

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. IV (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 613.