Peter Levi, poet, 68

["Deathwatch Central" <cdw@slick.org>]

Wednesday February 2 9:50 AM ET

British Poet Peter Levi Dies

LONDON (AP) - Peter Levi, a poet who claimed to have discovered an unknown
poem by William Shakespeare, has died at age 68.

Levi died Tuesday, his family said. The cause of death was not announced.

Levi, then professor of poetry at Oxford University, announced in 1988 that
he had found a previously unknown poem by Shakespeare in a manuscript at the
Huntington Library in San Marino, Calif.

This verse was cited by Levi as evidence:

``Witty, pretty, virtuous and fair,

``Compounded all of fire and air,

``Sweet, measure not my thought and me

``By golden fruit from fruitless tree.''

Levi told reporters that ``it could be Shakespeare and I think the whole
thing is by him.'' The weight of academic opinion disagreed. Scholars citing
strong evidence that the initials on the poem were of a less-famous 17th
century poet, William Skipwith.

Levi was a prolific if uneven writer, ``capable of brilliance, but also of
slapdash work and dabbling,'' said an obituary in The Daily Telegraph.

His works included a poorly reviewed translation of the Psalms in 1976, and
a well-regarded translation of Pausanias, the second-century Greek traveler
and geographer. He also published biographies of Tennyson, Edward Lear,
Virgil, Horace and John Milton, and 22 volumes of poetry.

Levi was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1964, and taught at Campion Hall, a
Jesuit institution within Oxford University, from 1965 to 1977. He left the
priesthood in 1977 and married Deirdre Connolly, three years after the death
of her husband, the writer Cyril Connolly.

He spent a year as archaeological correspondent for The Times newspaper
before returning to academic life. In 1984, he was elected Oxford's
professor of poetry, a largely honorary appointment which he held until
1989.

Levi is survived by his wife. Funeral arrangements were not immediately
announced.


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