Page:Life of Edmond Malone.djvu/471

451 A Lord Chancellor has occasionally dabbled in the drama. Hecuba, a tragedy, printed in 1726, was written beyond doubt by Mr. West, some time Lord Chancellor of Ireland. From the author’s preface, it appears that the piece is a translation from Euripides, and that it was damned the first night.

Congreve is said to have been only nineteen when he wrote the Old Bachelor. It is announced as ready for the stage in the Gentleman’s Journal (by Motteaux) for January, 1692–3; so it must have been written in 1692. But Congreve, instead of being nineteen as has been stated in all the books of biography, was twenty-three; for he was born some time in 1669, as appears from the register of the college where he was entered a student—Trinity College, Dublin—April 5, 1685, being then in his sixteenth year—“Annos natus sexdecim.”

It has been scarcely noticed that Aaron Hill, besides his prose and poetical compositions printed in four volumes octavo, was the author of a periodical paper called the Prompter, the first number of which was published Nov. 12, 1734, and the last, I believe, June 29, 1736. These papers were printed in folio, and have never been collected into volumes.

Dryden was sometimes aided by the profits of the dramatic productions of his friends. Mr. George Granville wrote The Jew of Venice with that view; but Dryden dying before its representation, the profits were given to his eldest son. In like manner it is