Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 31.djvu/388

 cause ‘his nonsensical play’ had been the cause of his imprisonment, telling him, moreover, that ‘he was more of a fool than a poet.’ A scuffle followed, and Howard complained to the king, who again silenced the company on 20 April 1667. To 1669 Genest assigns ‘The Dumb Lady, or the Farrier made a Physician.’ This is a miserable and highly indecent piece, far coarser than the originals compounded by Lacy from ‘Le Médecin malgré lui’ and ‘L'Amour Médecin’ of Molière. It was not printed until 1672, and no cast is given, but Lacy, no doubt, played Drench (Sganarelle).

Lacy was on 7 Dec. 1671 the original Bayes of the ‘Rehearsal,’ the prologue to which says that if the burlesque exercises the desired effect Lacy will boast that he had reformed the stage. At Lincoln's Inn, whither, after the destruction of the Theatre Royal, Killigrew's company migrated, Lacy was the original Alderman Gripe in Wycherley's ‘Love in a Wood, or St. James's Park,’ and in 1675, at the new theatre in Drury Lane, was the original Intrigo in Sir Francis Fane's ‘Love in the Dark, or the Man of Business.’ His editors doubtfully assert that he also played the French Dancing-Mistress in a play so named. Genest says that he probably acted Bobadil, and was the original Frenchlove in the ‘English Mounseer,’ by the Hon. James Howard, 1666; Pinguister in ‘All Mistaken, or the Mad Couple,’ by the same author, 1667; Tartuffe in ‘Tartuffe, or the French Puritan,’ adapted from Molière by Matthew Medbourne [q. v.], 1670; French Valet in ‘Mock Duellist, or the French Valet,’ by P. B., 1675, and the English Lawyer in the play of that name adapted by Ravenscroft from the Latin play of ‘Ignoramus.’ He also played Falstaff, in which, according to Davies, he succeeded Cartwright, and in ‘Variety,’ by the Duke of Newcastle. Lacy died on 17 Sept. 1681, in Drury Lane, two doors off Lord Anglesey's house, and near Cradle Alley, and was buried the Monday following ‘in the farther churchyard’ of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. On 19 Oct. 1681, 20l. was ordered to be paid by Edward Griffin, esq., treasurer of the chamber, to John Lacy, assignee of Charles Killigrew, master of the revels, for two plays acted before his majesty in February and March 1678–9 (see, Secret Service Money, Camd. Soc., p. 34). Lacy gave lessons to Nell Gwynn, and is said to have been one of her lovers.

After Lacy's death appeared, in 1684, at Dorset Garden Theatre, a comedy, entitled ‘Sir Hercules Buffoon, or the Poetical Squire,’ which was published in the same year. A prologue by D'Urfey describing Lacy as the author and an epilogue by Joe Haines [q. v.] were spoken by the latter. Genest speaks of the play disparagingly.

Lacy was praised in his own day. His dancing seems to have been his chief attraction until age disabled him. Downes commends his acting of Scruple in the ‘Cheats,’ Jonny Thump, Teague, and Bayes. Pepys seldom mentions him without praise, and describes, under date 19 Jan. 1668–9, the dances which he introduced between the acts of ‘Horace,’ ‘a silly tragedy.’ Langbaine says that Lacy ‘performed all parts that he undertook to a miracle, insomuch that I am apt to believe that as this age never had, so the next never will have his equal, at least not his superior.’ Lacy, says Langbaine, was so approved by Charles II that the king caused his picture to be drawn in three several figures in the same table, viz. that of Teague in the ‘Committee,’ Mr. Scruple in the ‘Cheats,’ and M. Galliard in the ‘Variety;’ the picture is still at Windsor Castle. A copy was sold in 1819. A second, or the same, painted by M. Wright (1675), is in the Garrick Club.

 LACY, JOHN (fl. 1737), pseudo-prophet, was born at Saffron Walden, Essex, in 1664. He received some classical education, and as a younger son was sent to London to earn his own living in 1680. In 1706 he was a married man with a family, in good repute for his parts and piety, and one of the wealthiest members of Dr. Calamy's congregation at Westminster. The loss of a lawsuit in that year preyed upon his mind, and at the same time he fell under the influence of the so-called ‘French prophets,’ then lately arrived in England. In 1707 he published a translation of the ‘Théâtre Sacré des Cévennes,’ by Francis Maximilian Misson [q. v.], as ‘A Cry from the Desert, or Testimonials of the Miraculous Things lately come to pass in the Cevennes verified upon Oath and by other proofs,’ London, 8vo. A second edition, with an able preface in favour of the miraculous character of the phenomena, appeared the same year. This he followed up with ‘Prophetical Warnings of Elias Marion,