PHILLIPS, STEPHEN ( 1808 — ) . An English poet. horn at Summertown, near Oxford. July 28, 1808, son of the Rev. Stephen Phillips, after wards precentor of Peterborough Cathedral. Having attended the grammar school at Strat ford-on-Avon and at Peterborough. lie studied for the civil service and entered Queen's College, Cambridge. in 1586, but at the end of the first term he joined F. R. Benson's company of Shake spearean players, with whom he stayed six years. He traveled through the country and played at the Globe Theatre in London. Among his parts were logo, the ghost in Hamht, Prospero. Bru tus, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek. Leaving the stage, he became a lecturer on English history in Wolffram and Needham's classes for army candi dates. hut soon he adopted literature as a pro fession. In :lune, 1590, with three other authors he published in London a booklet of verse en titled In 1894 followed Brentus, which won the praise of Symonds. .lowett, and
St opford TIrooke. Christ in Baths and Other Poems (1896; fourth edition with additions, 1897). and Poems ( 1897 ) containing pcssa," secured for the author a high rank among recent poets. The ms won from the London ma the award of one hundred guineas tor du best verse of the year. Commissioned by George Alexander to write a verse tragedy for saint James's Theatre, Phillips composed Paolo and Frane.sca OS(9), a poetic tragedy in four acts. The blank verse of this lyric tragedy calls the Elizabethans, hut its simple structure Is more nearly akin to the French classic drama. For Beerbohm Tree Phillips wrote his second plug, lit rot a tragedy in three acts on an Elizabethan theme. Ulys.ccs, a dramatic poem, appeared in 1902, and in the same year a play called Darid and Bathsheba.