Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/177

 fol. Another edition appeared at Oxford in 1659, and it is included in Dodsley's ‘Old Plays.’ On 28 Sept. 1668 Pepys saw it performed—the first time ‘these thirty years,’ he declares—and condemned it as ‘but a silly play.’ In 1755 William Bromfield revised it, and presented his version to the governors of the Lock Hospital, who secured a representation of it at Drury Lane for the benefit of the charity. Bromfield's revision was issued as ‘The Schemers, or the City Match.’ In 1828 J. R. Planché constructed out of the ‘City Match’ and Rowley's ‘Match at Midnight’ a piece called ‘The Merchant's Wedding, or London's Frolics in 1638,’ which was performed at Covent Garden 5 Feb. 1828, and was printed. A second dramatic effort by Mayne—a tragi-comedy, entitled ‘The Amorous War’—was far more serious, and at most points inferior to its forerunner, but it contained a good lyric, ‘Time is a Feathered Thing,’ which is reprinted in Henry Morley's ‘King and Commons,’ p. 53. It was published in 1648, 4to, and in 1658 copies of it were bound up with the ‘City Match,’ in a volume called ‘Two Plaies: The City Match, a Comœdy; and the Amorous Warre, a Tragy Comœdy; both long since written. By J. M. of Ch. Ch. in Oxon. Oxford: Printed by Hen. Hall for Ric. Davis,’ 1658, 4to.

Mayne's more distinctly academic work was represented by a translation of Lucian's ‘Dialogues,’ which he began about 1638 for the entertainment of a distinguished patron, William Cavendish, marquis of Newcastle [q. v.] But the ‘barbarous times’ of civil war diverted Newcastle's attention from literature, and the book remained incomplete, although it was printed in 1664, with a continuation by Francis Hickes [q. v.], as ‘Part of Lucian made English from the originall, in the Yeare 1638, by Iasper Mayne … to which are adjoyned these other Dialogues … translated by Mr. Francis Hicks’ (Oxford, 1664). The volume is dedicated by Mayne to the Marquis of Newcastle. To Donne's ‘Paradoxes, Problemes, Essayes, Characters’ (1652), Mayne contributed a verse translation of the Latin epigrams, which he entitled ‘A Sheaf of Miscellany Epigrams’ (pp. 88–103). Other occasional verse attributed to him includes a poem in MS. Harl. 6931, f. 117, ‘On Mrs. Anne King's Table Booke of Pictures,’ beginning: Mine eyes were once blest with the sight; some manuscript lines signed ‘J. M.,’ in a copy of Alexander Ross's ‘Mel Heliconicum,’ 1646, formerly in Sir William Tite's library; an epitaph on some unknown friend, in the British Museum copy of Milton's English and Latin poems, 1646, signed ‘J. M. 10ber 1647’ (Times, 16 July 1868 and following days; Athenæum, 1868, ii. 83 sq.;, King and Commons, passim; Notes and Queries, 4th ser. vol. ii. passim); ‘Proteleia Anglo-Batava,’ 1641 (, manuscript Chorus Vatum), and ‘To the Duke of York on the late Seafight,’ 1665, beginning: War the supreme decider of a cause, among Matthew Wilson's manuscripts at Eshton Hall, Yorkshire (Hist. MSS. Comm. 3rd Rep. p. 295).

In middle life Mayne definitely abandoned poetry. In 1639 he accepted the college living of Cassington, near Woodstock, but during the civil war he was chiefly in Oxford, and often preached before the king. He is possibly the ‘J. M., D.D.,’ who published, 30 May 1646, ‘The Difference about Church Government ended,’ with a dedication to the parliament. The writer argues in favour of the dependence of the church on the state. On 9 Aug. 1646 he preached at Carfax Church ‘concerning unity and agreement’ (Oxford, 1646, 4to). In 1647 he defended the royalist position in a pamphlet, ‘Ochlo-machia, or the People's War, in answer to a Letter sent by a person of quality who desired satisfaction’ (25 July 1647). He also issued a sermon against false prophets ‘shortly after the surrender of the garrison.’ This evoked a reply from Francis Cheynell [q. v.], and Mayne vindicated himself from Cheynell's ‘causeless aspersions’ in a published letter entitled ‘A late printed Sermon against False Prophets … Vindicated …,’ 1647. On 3 May 1648 he was summoned before the parliamentary visitors, and 2 Oct. was removed from his studentship (Register of the Visitors, ed. Burrows, Camd. Soc., pp. 30–1, 196). He was also ejected from Cassington. At the same time the family estate of Hatherleigh was sequestrated, and Mayne's brother, John, obtained permission to compound on 4 Aug. 1652 (Cal. Committee for Compounding, p. 3033). On 30 March 1648 Mayne, however, was presented to the Christ Church living of Pyrton, Oxfordshire, and resided there at intervals for eight years. On 11 Sept. 1652 he took part in a public disputation in the neighbouring church of Watlington with John Pendarves [q. v.], and preached ‘a sermon against schism’ (1652, 4to), amid much interruption from the friends of his opponent. This he reprinted, with earlier controversial works, in ‘Certain Sermons and Letters of Defence and Resolution to some of the late Controversies of our Times,’ London, 1653, 4to.

Ejected from Pyrton in 1656, Mayne took