Page:The Lives and Characters of the English Dramatick Poets.djvu/53

Rh March following, he was admitted a Member of Lincoln Colledge, 1621. the same Year that his Father was Mayor of that City: After some Smattering in Logick, he quitted those Studies for Poetry, which prov'd more advantagious to him than to any Modern Professor of that Art. From Lincoln-Colledge he went first into the Service of the Dutchess of Richmond, and afterwards to that of FoulkFulk [sic] Lord Brook; after whose Death he apply'd himself to writing of Plays. In the Year 1637, he succeeded Ben. Johnson as Poet Laureat; 1641 he was accused of endeavouring to Seduce the Army; Flying on a Proclamation, he was taken at Feversham in Kent, committed Prisoner to a Serjeant at Arms, was Bail'd, and fled for France; returning he was made General of the Ordinance, by the Marquess of New-Castle, he was Knighted by the King, 1643. toward the end of the Civil Wars he retired again into France, and began his Gondibert, in the Year 1650. he was taken at Sea by an English Ship, carried Prisoner to the Isle of Weight; thence removed to the Tower, and had been tried for his Life, 1651. had not the Mediation of the Divine Milton prevented it, and got him his Liberty, as Prisoner at Large. His Patrons Endimion Porter, and Mr. Jermin (afterwards Lord St. Albans) got him as a Reward of his Poetry and Services, the Place of Commissioner of the Customs, and a Patent for a Company of Actors, who first set up in the same Tenniscourt in Little Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, where they now Act: But finding the good Acting of the other Company won the Favour of the Town, he set up the Whim of Opera's. He was Laureat to Charles the I. & II. he dy'd the 7th of April, 1668. Aged 63, and is Buried among the Poets in Westminster-Abbey. His Works are Published Fol. 1673.

His Plays which follow in Order, were most of them Acted with Applause, and Printed in the Author's Life-time separately in 4to. and since together in Folio.

Albovin King of the Lombards, his Tragedy 4to. and fol. The Design is founded on History, and the whole Story related in Bandello's Histoires Tragiques, Tom. 4. Nov. 19. Paulus Diaconus de Gestis Longobardorum, lib. 2. c.28. ''Greg. Episc. Turonensis Hist. Franconum'', lib. 2. c. 28. Heylin's Cosmog. Part 1. Book I. Page 57.

Britannia Triumphans, a Masque, 4to. written by him, and Inigo Jones the King's Surveyor.

Cruel Brother, a Tragedy 4to. and fol. Dedicated to the Right Honourable the Lord Weston, Lord High Treasurer of England.

The Distresses, a Tragi-Comedy, Printed in Fol. 1673.

Entertainment at Rutland House, Printed in fol. 1673. This was presented by way of Declamation, and Musick, after the manner of