After an active service under the marquis of Newcastle, and the King’s cause declining beyond hope of recovery, Shirley came again to London, and in order to support himself and family, returned his former occupation of teaching a school, in White Fryars, in which he was pretty successful, and, as Wood says, ’educated many ingenious youths, who, afterwards in various faculties, became eminent.’  After the Restoration, some of the plays our author had written in his leisure moments, were represented with success, but there is no account whether that giddy Monarch ever rewarded him for his loyalty, and indeed it is more probable he did not, as he pursued the duke of Lauderdale’s maxim too closely, of making friends of his enemies, and suffering his friends to shift for themselves, which infamous maxim drew down dishonour on the administration and government of Charles ii.  Wood further remarks, that Shirley much assisted his patron, the duke of Newcastle, in the composition of his plays, which the duke afterwards published, and was a drudge to John Ogilby in his translation of Homer’s Iliad and Odysseys, by writing annotations on them.  At length, after Mr. Shirley had lived to the age of 72, in various conditions, having been much agitated in the world, he, with his second wife, was driven by the dismal conflagration that happened in London, Anno 1666, from his habitation in Fleet-street, to another in St. Giles’s in the Fields.  Where, being overcome with miseries occasioned by the fire, and bending beneath the weight of years, they both died in one day, and their bodies were buried in one grave, in the churchyard of St. Giles’s, on October 29, 1666.

The works of this author

1.  Changes, or Love in a Maze, a Comedy, acted at a private house in Salisbury Court, 1632.

2.  Contention for Honour and Riches, a Masque, 1633.

3.  Honoria and Mammon, a Comedy; this Play is grounded on the abovementioned Masque.

4.  The Witty Fair One, a Comedy, acted in Drury Lane, 1633.

5.  The Traitor, a Tragedy, acted by her Majesty’s servants, 1635.  This Play was originally written by Mr. Rivers, a jesuit, but altered by Shirley.

6.  The Young Admiral, a Tragi-Comedy, acted at a private house in Drury Lane, 1637.

7.  The Example, a Tragi-Comedy, acted in Drury Lane by her Majesty’s Servants, 1637.

8.  Hyde Park, a Comedy, acted in Drury Lane, 1637.

9.  The Gamester, a Comedy, acted in Drury Lane, 1637; the plot is taken from Queen Margate’s Novels, and the Unlucky Citizen.

10.  The Royal Master, a Tragi-Comedy, acted at the Theatre in Dublin, 1638.

11.  The Duke’s Mistress, a Tragi-Comedy, acted by her Majesty’s servants, 1638.

12.  The Lady of Pleasure, a Comedy, acted at a private house in Drury Lane, 1638.

13.  The Maid’s Revenge, a Tragedy, acted at a private house in Drury Lane, with applause, 1639.