Dowden, Edward (1843–1913)

Irish scholar and critic. He was an expert on Shakespeare, he published Shakspeare: His Mind and Art (1875) and Shakspeare Primer (1877). He also edited many of the plays. He was a close friend of the US poet Walt Whitman, and published some volumes of verse.

Born in Cork and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1867, four years after he had graduated, Dowden was appointed professor of English there, a post which he held until the end of his life.