William Webbe was the author of the first extensive printed treatise to deal specifically with English poetry: A Discourse of English Poetry, Together with the Author's Judgment Touching the Reformation of Our English Verse, written and published in 1586. Almost nothing is known of Webbe's life, but the lack of biographical details makes him all the more interesting as a representative figure of late-Tudor humanism. The Discourse is not without personal idiosyncrasy, but its virtual "authorlessness" renders it a particularly important index to the typical concerns and anxieties of classically educated readers and writers in the late sixteenth century.

It is not known when or where Webbe was born, but he signed himself "William Webbe, Graduate," and it appears that he had attended Cambridge University. A William Webbe took his B.A. at Saint John's College in 1573, and another man of the same name earned a B.A. at...