Page:The Lives and Characters of the English Dramatick Poets.djvu/202

180 of a good Family, his Education was most in England; he has publish'd one Play, call'd,

Victorious Love, a Tragedy, as it is acted at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, 1698. 4to. and dedicated to the Honourable James Kendal, Esq; one of the Lords of the Admiralty. He tells us in the Preface, that he acted a part himself in his Play, which I suppose was no Disadvantage to it: for it was, as we learn from the same Preface, well received by the Town. The Play seems to be a kind of Imitation of Oroonoko only here instead of one, they are all Negroe's. But, if they think the Devil white, methinks she shou'd scarce be so very Amiable in their Eyes; but under this Censure Imoinda wou'd equally fall; and 'tis very excusable in so young a Beginner as Mr. Walker. I only say it, for fear the Publick should go on, and we see nothing but Black Heroes for the Future, since the Colour spreads so fast on the Stage. The Greek Poets seldom went out of Greece for their Heroes; but ours on the contrary, find Heroes every where but in their own Country; this is no ArgnmentArgument [sic] of their Judgment or Vertue; for if Example be that they wou'd instruct by, the nearer the Example is related to us, the more force it will naturally have upon us. His Right Honourable Author was Son to Sir Fulk Grevile the Elder of Beauchamp-Court in Warwick-shire; he left Cambridge in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth; was made a Baron in the Seventeenth Year of King James the First; and was famous for Valour and Learning: among other Poems he gave us two Plays: He lies buried in Warwick-Church under a Black and White Marble, on which he's stil'd Servant to Queen Elizabeth, Counsellor to King James, and Friend to Sir Philip Sidney. See more of him in Fuller's History.

Alaham, a Tragedy, fol. 1633. This Play is built on the Model of the Ancients; the Prologue is spoken by a Ghost, and the Spectre gives an Account of each Character. The Scene of the Drama lies at the Entrance of the Persian Gulph, of which Place you may read in Mr. Herbert's Travels, fol. the Third Edition, p. 114.

Mustapha, a Tragedy, 4to. 1609. fol. 1633. This Play seems also an Imitation of the Ancients, and for the Plot consult Paulus Jovius, and other Turkish Chronicles.

These Two Plays are printed together with other Poems of his Lordships, in fol. 1633. The Life of Sir Philip Sidney before his Arcadia, is said to be written by this our Author; as also another Volume of Poems and Remains, 8vo. not printed till the Year 1670.

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