and answered, ‘then Killegrew I’ll positively go,’ which he did.—­It is likewise related, that upon the king’s suffering his mistresses to gain so great an ascendant over him as to sacrifice for them the interest of the state, and neglect the most important affairs, while, like another Sardanapalus, he wasted his hours in the apartments of those enchantresses:  Killegrew went one day into his apartment dress’d like a pilgrim, bent upon a long journey.  The king being surprized at this extraordinary frolic, asked him the meaning of it, and to what distant country he was going, to which Killegrew bluntly answered, the country I seek, may it please your majesty, is hell; and what to do there? replies the king? to bring up Oliver Cromwel from thence, returned the wag, to take care of the English affairs, for his successor takes none.—­We cannot particularly ascertain the truth of these relations, but we may venture to assert that these are not improbable, when it is considered how much delighted king Charles the IId. was with a joke, however severe, and that there was not at court a more likely person to pass them than Killegrew, who from his long exile with the king, and being about his person, had contracted a kind of familiarity, which the lustre that was thrown round the prince upon his restoration was not sufficient to check.

Tho’ Sir John Denham mentions but six, our author wrote nine Plays in his travels, and two at London, amongst which his Don Thomaso, in two parts, and his Parson’s Wedding, will always be valued by good judges, and are the best of his performances.  The following is a list of his plays.

1.  Bellamira’s Dream, or Love of Shadows, a Tragi-Comedy; the first part printed in folio 1663, written in Venice, and dedicated to the lady Mary Villiers, duchess of Richmond and Lennox.

2.  Bellamira’s Dream, the second part, written in Venice; printed in folio, London 1663, and dedicated to the lady Anne Villiers, countess of Essex.

3.  Cicilia and Clorinda, or Love in Arms, a Tragi-comedy; the first part printed in folio, London, 1663, written in Turin.

4.  Cicilia and Clorinda, the second part, written at Florence 1651, and dedicated to the lady Dorothy Sidney, countess of Sunderland.

5.  Claracilla, a Tragi-comedy, printed in folio, London 1663; written at Rome, and dedicated to his sister in-law lady Shannon; on this play and another of the author’s called the Prisoners, Mr. Cartwright has written an ingenious copy of verses.

6.  The Parson’s Wedding, a Comedy, printed in folio, London 1663; written at Basil in Switzerland.  This play was revived at the old Theatre, at little Lincoln’s Inn-Fields, and acted all by women; a new prologue and epilogue, being spoken by Mrs. Marshal in Man’s cloaths, which Mr. Langbain says is printed in the Covent-Garden Drollery.  This was a miscellaneous production of those times, which bore some resemblance to our Magazines; but which in all probability is now out of print.