Figures of Several Centuries

Arthur William Symons was born on February 28, 1965 in Wales. He was a British poet, magzine editor and critic. In 1884 - 1886 he edited four of Bernard Quaritch's Shakespeare Quarto Facsimiles, and in 1888 -1889 seven plays of the "Henry Irving" Shakespeare. His major editorial feat was his work with the short-lived Savoy.

His first volume of verse, Days and Nights (1889), consisted of dramatic monologues. His later verse is influenced by a close study of modern French writers, of Charles Baudelaire, and especially of Paul Verlaine. He reflects French tendencies both in the subject-matter and style of his poems.. Symons contributed poems and essays to The Yellow Book, including an important piece which was later expanded into The Symbolist Movement in Literature, which would have a major influence on William Butler Yeats and T. S. Eliot. From late 1895 through 1896 he edited, along with Aubrey Beardsley, The Savoy, a literary magazine. Noteworthy contributors included Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, and Joseph Conrad. Symons was also a member of the Rhymer's Club founded by Yeats in 1890.

In 1892, The Minister's Call, Symons's first play, was produced by the Independent Theatre Society - A Private Club. Arthur Symons passed away in January 1945.

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