The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) eBook

Theodore Watts-Dunton
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 352 pages of information about The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753).

The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) eBook

Theodore Watts-Dunton
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 352 pages of information about The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753).

9.  The Miser, a Comedy; acted at the theatre royal, dedicated to the earl of Dorset.  In the preface our author observes, he took the foundation of it from Moliere’s L’Avare.

10.  A true Widow, a Comedy; acted at the duke’s theatre, printed in 1679, in 4to, dedicated to Sir Charles Sidley.  The prologue was written by Mr. Dryden; for at this time they lived in friendship.

11.  The Lancashire Witches, and Teague O Divelly, the Irish priest, a comedy; acted at the duke’s theatre, printed at London 1682.  Our author has a long preface to this play, in which he vindicates his piece from the charge of reflecting upon the church, and the sacred order.  He apologizes for the magical part, and observes, that he had no hopes of equaling Shakespear in his fancy, who created his Witches for the most part out of his imagination; in which faculty no man ever excelled led him, and therefore, says he, I resolve to take mine from authority.

12.  The Woman Captain, a Comedy; acted by his royal highness’s servants.

13.  The Squire of Alsatia, a Comedy; acted by his Majesty’s servants, printed at London 1688, in 4to. and dedicated to the earl of Dorset and Middlesex.

14.  Bury-Fair, a Comedy; acted by his Majesty’s servants, printed at London 1689 in 4to. and dedicated to the earl of Dorset.  In the dedication he observes, ’That this play was written during eight months painful sickness, wherein all the several days in which he was able to write any part of a scene amounted not to one month, except some few, which were employed in indispensible business.’

15.  Amorous Bigot, with the second part of Teague O Divelly, a Comedy, acted by their Majesties servants, printed 1690 in 4to. dedicated to Charles earl of Shrewsbury.

16.  The Scowerers, a Comedy, acted by their Majesties servants, and printed in 4to. 1690.

17.  The Volunteers, or the Stock-Jobbers, a Comedy, acted by their Majesties servants, dedicated to the Queen by Mrs. Anne Shadwell, our author’s widow.

In the epilogue the character of Mr. Shadwell, who was then dead, was given in the following lines.

  Shadwell, the great support o’th’comic stage,
  Born to expose the follies of the age,
  To whip prevailing vices, and unite,
  Mirth with instruction, profit with delight;
  For large ideas, and a flowing pen,
  First of our times, and second but to Ben;
  Whose mighty genius, and discerning mind,
  Trac’d all the various humours of mankind;
  Dressing them up, with such successful care
  That ev’ry fop found his own picture there. 
  And blush’d for shame, at the surprising skill,
  Which made his lov’d resemblance look so ill. 
  Shadwell who all his lines from nature drew,
  Copy’d her out, and kept her still in view;
  Who never sunk in prose, nor soar’d in verse,
  So high as bombast, or so low as farce;
  Who ne’er was brib’d by title or estate
  To fawn or flatter with the rich or great;
  To let a gilded vice or folly pass,
  But always lash’d the villain and the ass.

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The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.