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).

7.  The Pilgrim, a Tragedy, printed in folio, London 1663; written in Paris in the year 1651, and dedicated to the countess of Carnarvon.

8.  The Princess, or Love at first Sight, a Tragi-Comedy, printed in folio, London 1663; written at Naples, and dedicated to his niece, the lady Anne Wentworth, wife to lord Lovelace.

9.  The Prisoners, a Tragi-Comedy, printed in folio; London 1663; written at London and dedicated to the lady Crompton.

10.  Don Thomaso, or the Wanderer, a Comedy in two parts, printed in folio, London 1663; and dedicated to the fair and kind friends of prince Palatine Polexander.  In the first part of this play, the author has borrowed several ornaments from Fletcher’s play called the Captain.  He has used great freedom with Ben Johnson, for not only the characters of Lopus, but even the very words are repeated from Johnson’s Fox, where Volpone personates Scoto of Mantua.  I don’t believe that our author designed to conceal his assistance, since he was so just as to acknowledge a song against jealousy, which he borrowed from Mr. Thomas Carew, cup-bearer to king Charles the Ist, and sung in a masque at Whitehall, anno 1633.  This Chorus, says he, ’I presume to make use of here, because in the first design it was written at my request, upon a dispute held between Mrs. Cicilia Crofer and myself, when he was present; she being then maid of honour.  This I have set down, lest any man should imagine me so foolish as to steal such a poem, from so famous an author.’  If he was therefore so scrupulous in committing depredations upon Carew, he would be much more of Ben Johnson, whose fame was so superior to Carew’s.  All these plays were printed together in one volume in folio, London 1664.

* * * * *

Edward Howard, Esq;

Was descended from the noble family of the earl of Berkshire, and was more illustrious by his birth than his genius; he addicted himself to the study of dramatic poetry, and produced four plays, but gained no reputation by any of them.

1.  The Man of New-Market, a Comedy, acted at the Theatre-Royal; and printed in quarto, London 1678.

2.  Six Days Adventure, or the New Utopia, a Comedy, acted at his royal highness the duke of York’s Theatre, printed in quarto 1671.  This play miscarried in the action, as he himself acknowledges in his preface; and the earl of Rochester, with his usual virulence, writ an invective against it; but, Mrs. Behn, Mr. Ravenscroft, and some other poets, taking compassion on him, sent the author recommendatory verses, which are printed before that play, and in return he writ a Pindarique to Mrs. Behn, which she printed in a Collection of Poems 1685.

3.  The Usurper, a Tragedy, acted at the Theatre-Royal, and printed 1668, in which the character of Damocles, is said to have been drawn for Oliver Cromwel, and that the play is a parallel of those times.

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