Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/217

 His works are: 1. 'Demosthenis selectæ Orationes (Philippica I) et tres Olynthiacæ orationes. Ad codices MSS. recensuit, textum, scholiasten, et versionem plurimis in locis castigavit, notis insuper illustravit Ricardus Mounteney,' Cambridge (University Press), 1731, 8vo; 2nd edit. London, 1748, 8vo; 3rd edit. Eton, 1755, 8vo (very incorrectly printed); other editions, London and Eton, 1764 and 1771, London, 1778, 1785, 1791, 1806, 1811, 1826, 1827. With reference to the second edition there appeared 'Baron Mountenay's celebrated Dedication of the select Orations of Demosthenes to the late Sir Robert Walpole, Bart. of Ministerial Memory, done into plain English, and illustrated with Notes and Comments, and dedicated to Trinity College, Dublin. By Æschines the third,' Dublin printed, London reprinted 1748, 8vo. 2. 'Observations on the probable Issue of the Congress' [i.e. of Aix-la-Chapelle], London, 1748, 8vo.

A fine portrait of Mounteney by Hogarth was in 1864 in the possession of the Rev. John Mounteney Jephson, who was maternally descended from him.

 MOUNTFORT,. SUSANNA (d. 1703), actress. [See .]

MOUNTFORT, WILLIAM (1664?–1692), actor and dramatist, the son of Captain Mountfort, a gentleman of good family in Staffordshire, joined while a youth the Dorset Garden company, carrying out as the boy an original character in Leonard's 'Counterfeits,' licensed 29 Aug. 1678. His name then and for some time subsequently appears as young Mumford. He is next heard of in 1680 as the original Jock the Barber's Boy in the 'Revenge, or a Match at Newgate,' an alteration of Marston's 'Dutch Courtezan,' ascribed to Mrs. Behn. After the union of the two companies in 1682, Mountfort, now, according to Downes, 'grown up to the maturity' of a good actor, was at the Theatre Royal the first Alphonso Corso in the ' Duke of Guise ' of Dryden and Lee. In 1684 he played Nonsense in a revival of Brome's 'Northern Lass,' and Metellus Cimber in 'Julius Caesar,' and was, at Dorset Garden, both houses being under the same management, Heart-well in the first production of Ravenscroft's 'Dame Dobson, or the Cunning Woman.' In 1685 he greatly augmented his reputation by his ' creation ' of the part of Sir Courtly Nice in Crowne's play of the same name, and in 1686 seems to have played with much success Tallboy in Brome's 'Jovial Crew.' By license dated 2 July 1686, he married at St. Giles-in-the-Fields, at the age of twenty-two, Mrs. Susanna Peircivall or Perceval [see .], the daughter of an actor who joined the company in 1673 (cf., Marriage Licenses, ed. Foster, p. 950).

In Mrs. Behn's 'Emperor of the Moon,' acted in 1687, Mountfort was the original Don Charmante, and he also played Pymero in a new adaptation by Tate of Fletcher's 'Island Princess.' To the same year may presumably be assigned the production of Mountfort's tragedy, 'The Injur'd Lovers, or the Ambitious Father,' 4to, 1688. Genest assigns it to 1688, and puts Mountfort's version of Faustus before it. The opening lines of the prologue, spoken by Mountfort, are: Jo Haynes's Fate is now become my Share, For I'm a Poet, Marry'd, and a Player, and subsequently speaks of this play as his first-begotten. His marriage and his appearance as poet may accordingly be supposed to be equally recent. In this he took the part of Dorenalus, a son of the ambitious father, Ghinotto, and in love with the Princess Oryala. It is a turgid piece, in one or two scenes of which the author imitates Marlowe, and, in spite of Mountfort's protestation in his prologue, appears to have been damned. The 'Life and Death of Dr. Faustus, with the Humours of Harlequin and Scaramouch,' London, 1697, was given at Dorset Garden Theatre and Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre by Lee and Jevon. The actor first named died in 1688, so that the time of production is 1688 or before, while the words contained in it, 'My ears are as deaf to good counsel as French dragoons are to mercy,' are held to prove it later than the revocation of the edict of Nantes. Two-thirds of the play are from Marlowe, the poetry and much of the tragedy disappear, while songs and dances are introduced, together with much broadly comic business between Scaramouch, who is a servant of Faust, and Harlequin. In 1688 Mountfort created the part of Young Belfond in Shadwell's 'Squire of Alsatia,' and Lyonel, described as a mad part with songs, in D'Urfey's 'Fool's Preferment, or the Three Dukes of Dunstable.' In 1689 he was the first Wildish in Shadwell's 'Bury Fair,' and Young Wealthy in Carlile's 'Fortune