Robert Howard (playwright)
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![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bf/Robert_Howard_by_Anthony_van_Dyck.jpg/220px-Robert_Howard_by_Anthony_van_Dyck.jpg)
Sir Robert Howard (January 1626 – 3 September 1698) was an English playwright and politician. He fought for the Royalist cause in the English Civil War.
Life
He was born the 6th son of
After the
Robert Howard is the first person known to use the English phase "We the People." He used this phrase in a debate in Parliament on 28 January 1689. He said, referring to King James II:
"When he acts by his Will, and not by the Laws, he is no King; for he acts by Power and Tyranny. I have heard, "that the King has his Crown by Divine Right," and we (the People) have Divine Right too; but he can forfeit, if he break that pact and covenant with his People, who have Right, by reason of their Election, as well as in the name of Mr King— This original of power, resistance or non-resistance, is judged by the power resolved by People and King— The Constitution of the Government is actually grounded upon pact and covenant with the People."(emphasis added)[2]
He was thought of as arrogant and was caricatured in a play by Shadwell as Sir Positive-At-All, a boastful knight. Howard died on 3 September 1698 and is buried in Westminster Abbey.
Works
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Most of his writing was for the stage, although he also wrote some poetry, and two books on political questions. One of these was The Life and Reign of King Richard the Second, published anonymously in 1681, with the author described simply as 'a Person of Quality'. The book was published in octavo and contains 240 pages. In his Preface, Howard states that he 'has made it his business truly to set down naked matters of fact as he finds them related by the best authors, without obtruding his own fancies or dreams under the notion of history'. Howard was active in the London theatrical world after the
Other poets' work paid tribute to Howard. John Dryden wrote a poem entitled, "To Sir My Honored Friend, Sir Robert Howard", in which Dryden praised Howard for his poetic abilities.
Family
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Sir_Robert_Howard.jpg)
He married four times.[4] After the mother of his six children, Anne Kingsmill, died, he married an older widow, Lady Honoria (née O'Brien), and adopted the manor at
Howard was a great-grandson of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, who, jointly with his friend Sir Thomas Wyatt were known as the "Fathers of the English Sonnet" and were the first English poets to write in the sonnet form that Shakespeare later used. He had three brothers who also wrote plays — Edward Howard, Colonel Henry Howard, and James Howard. Their sister, Elizabeth Howard, was married to the influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright John Dryden.
Notes
- ^ "HOWARD, Hon. Sir Robert (1626-98), of Ashtead, Surr. and New Palace Yard, Westminster". History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 12 May 2019.
- ^ House of Commons, Grey's Debates > Grey's Debates of the House of Commons: Volume 9 > Debates in 1689: January
- New International Encyclopedia(1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
- ^ Florence R. Scott, "The Marriages of Sir Robert Howard," Modern Language Notes, Vol. 55, No. 6 (June 1940), pp. 410-15.
References
- Charles Mosley (ed.), Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th Edition, Wilmington, Delaware, 2003, vol III, pp. 3814–3817, ISBN 0-9711966-2-1
- Vander Motten, J. P. "Howard, Sir Robert". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/13935. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.). The first edition of this text is available at Wikisource: . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 834.
- The Cambridge History of English and American Literature
- The above painting of Robert Howard by Van Dyck is in the British collection of Christian Levett.
Further reading
- The standard biography is H. J. Oliver's Sir Robert Howard, 1626–1698: a Critical Biography (Durham: Duke University Press, 1963).
- Sir Robert Howard in Lives of the Poets by Theophilus Cibber
- The Indian Queen
- Samuel Pepys' diary entry on The Committee
- Dryden's To My Honored Friend Sir Robert Howard
- Petition to the House of Commons from "Sir Robert Howard's Lady, Lady Honoria"
- Hayton, David W; Cruickshanks, Eveline; Handley, Stuart (2002). The House of Commons, 1690-1715. Cambridge University Press for History of Parliament Trust 200. pp. 404–408. ISBN 9780521772211.