English literary critic, educated at St Johns College, Cambridge, where he took his degree in 15721573. He was tutor to the two sons of Edward Sulyard of Flemyngs, Essex, and later to the children of Henry Grey of Pirgo in the same county. A letter from him is prefixed to the 1592 edition of Tancred and Gismunda, 1 written by his friend, Robert Wilmot. In 1586 he published A Discourse of English Poetrie, dedicated to his patron, Edward Sulyard. Webbe argued that the dearth of good English poetry since Chaucers day was not due to lack of poetic ability, or to the poverty of the language, but to the want of a proper system of prosody. He abuses this tinkerly verse which we call ryme, as of barbarous origin, and comments on the works of his contemporaries, displaying enthusiasm for Spensers Shepheardes Calendar, and admiration for Phaers translation of Virgil. He urged the adoption of hexameters and sapphics for English verse, and gives some lamentable examples of his own composition.
The Discourse was reprinted in J. Haslewoods Ancient Critical Essays (18111815), by E. Arber in 1869, and in Gregory Smiths Elizabethan Critical Essays (1904).