Rymer, Thomas (rī`mər), 1643?–1713, English critic and historiographer. Educated at Cambridge and Gray's Inn, he was called to the bar in 1673 but turned his efforts instead to literature, especially drama. Although in 1678 he did publish Edgar, or the English Monarch, a play in rhymed verse, he was especially interested in drama criticism. In his treatise The Tragedies of the Last Age (1677) he was fanatically hostile toward contemporary dramatists, and in A Short View of Tragedy (1692) he labeled Shakespeare's Othello "a bloody farce without salt or savour." Made historiographer royal in 1692, Rymer began (1693) to edit a work bringing together all public documents showing relations between England and other nations from 1101 to 1654. This work, called Foedera (1704–35), was modeled after Leibniz's Codex juris gentium diplomaticus; the last 5 of the 20 volumes were edited by Robert Sanderson.

Bibliography

See preface to T. D. Hardy's Syllabus of Rymer's "Foedera" (1869–85); C. A. Zimansky, ed., The Critical Works of Thomas Rymer (1956, repr. 1971).

Rymer, Thomas

(born 1643?, near Northallerton, Yorkshire, Eng.—died Dec. 14, 1713, London) English critic. Though called to the bar in 1673, Rymer almost immediately turned to literary criticism. He is known for introducing into England the principles of French formalist Neoclassical criticism. Among his works are The Tragedies of the Last Age (1678) and A Short View of Tragedy (1693), both highly critical of modern drama and favouring classical tragedy. His views were very influential until the 19th century. Appointed historiographer royal in 1692, he compiled most of the Foedera, a collection of treaties entered into by England that is of considerable value to the medievalist.