George Whetstone
George Whetstone (1544? – 1587) was an English
Biography
Whetstone was the third son of Robert Whetstone (d. 1557), a member of a wealthy family that owned the manor of
Whetstone's first published work, the Rocke of Regard (1576), consisted of tales in prose and verse adapted from the Italian, and in 1578 he published The right, excellent and famous Historye of Promos and Cassandra, a play in two parts, drawn from the eighty-fifth novel of Giraldi Cinthio's Hecatomithi. To this he wrote an interesting preface addressed to William Fleetwood, recorder of London, to whom he claimed to be related, in which he criticizes contemporary drama.[1]
In 1582 Whetstone published his Heptameron of Civil Discourses, a collection of tales which includes The Rare Historie of Promos and Cassandra. From this prose version William Shakespeare apparently drew the plot of Measure for Measure, though he was probably familiar with the story in its earlier dramatic form. (Shakespeare probably used another Whetstone book for his Much Ado About Nothing). Whetstone accompanied Sir Humphrey Gilbert on his expedition in 1578–1579, and the next year found him in Italy.[1]
The
In 1585 Whetstone returned to the army in the Netherlands, and was present at the Battle of Zutphen (1586). His other works are a collection of military anecdotes entitled The Honourable Reputation of a Souldier (1585); a political tract, the English Myrror (1586), numerous elegies on distinguished persons, and The Censure of a Loyall Subject (1587). No information about Whetstone is available after the publication of this last book, and it was conjectured that he died shortly afterwards.[1] Papers in State Papers Holland show Whetstone was killed in a duel outside Bergen op Zoom in 1587.[2]
Notes
References
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Whetstone, George". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 587. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the