Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lewicke, Edward

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1437134Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 33 — Lewicke, Edward1893George Binney Dibblee

LEWICKE, EDWARD (fl. 1562), poet, was the author of ‘The most wonderfull and pleasaunt History of Titus and Gisippus, whereby is fully declared the figure of Perfect Friendship: drawn into English Metre,’ London, 1562. The tale was originally taken from Boccaccio by Sir Thomas Eliot, who introduces a prose version into his ‘Governor.’ Lewicke's poem is, as Mr. Collier has shown, little more than a rhymed paraphrase of Eliot's rendering. Goldsmith's ‘Tale of Alcander and Septimius’ was probably taken from Lewicke.

[Lowndes's Bibl. Manual, p. 1351; Watt's Bibl. Brit. p. 1824; Warton's Hist. of English Poetry; Payne Collier's Poetical Decameron, ii. 80.]

G. B. D.