Adolphus William Ward

“ Having, in the spirit of his age, “tried the waves” with Captain Clarke in his expedition to Terceira and the Canaries, Lodge in 1591 made a voyage with Thomas Cavendish to Brazil and the Straits of Magellan, returning home by 1593. During the Canaries expedition, to beguile the tedium of his voyage, he composed his prose tale of Rosalynde, Euphues’ Golden Legacie, which, printed in 1590, afterwards furnished the story of Shakespeare’s As You Like It. ”

“ It has been frequently reprinted. Before starting on his second expedition he had published an historical romance, The History of Robert, Second Duke of Normandy, surnamed Robert the Divell; and he left behind him for publication Catharos, Diogenes in his Singularity, a discourse on the immorality of Athens (London) . Both appeared in 1591. Another romance in the manner of Lyly, Euphues Shadow, the Battaile of the Sences (1592) , appeared while Lodge was still on his travels. His second historical romance, the Life and Death of William Longbeard (1593) , was more successful than the first. ”

“ Early in 1606 he seems to have left England, to escape the persecution then directed against the Catholics; and a letter from him dated 1610 thanks the English ambassador in Paris for enabling him to return in safety. ”