Page:The Lives and Characters of the English Dramatick Poets.djvu/63

Rh Dal. I see thou art implacable, more Deaf To Prayers, than Winds and Seas; yet Winds to Seas Are reconcil'd at length, and Sea to Shoar Thy anger unappeaseable still rages; Eternal Tempest never to be calm'd.

Eng. Unmov'd he stood, and deaf to all my Prayers, As Seas and Winds to sinking Mariners: But Seas grow calm, and Winds are reconcil'd; Her Tyrant Beauty never grows more mild.

Cleomenes, The Spartan Heroe, Trag. 4to. Acted at the Theatre Royal, 1692. and Dedicated to the Right Honourable the Earl of Rochester, Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter: To which is prefix'd the Life of Cleomenes, Translated from the Greek of Plutarch, by Mr. Creech. This Play was by some Enemies of the Poets, so misrepresented at Court, that it was stop'd; but by the generous Friendship of the late Lord Falkland, clear'd from the Aspersions cast on it, and Acted with great Applause. As for the Plot or Story, the Author in his Preface owns it taken from Plutarch, and that he has closely followed the Truth as he found it there; only that he has chang'd, for the sake of their sound, some Names, as that of Agathoclea, the King's Mistress, into Cassandra, and that of Nicagoras into Cænus. To the Story he has added the Love of Cassandra for Cleomenes, and has given him a second Wife, which the Story only gave him a small hint for. And indeed our Author has trod upon Plutarch so close, that the very words of that Author, are Transplanted with little variation, into the Play. You may read more of Cleomenes in Polybius, and Cornelius Nepos in his Life.

Conquest of Granada by the Spaniards, Two Parts, a Tragi-Comedy, 4to. 1678. Acted at the Theatre Royal. Almanzor is very like Ponce de Leon, in Almahide, as Mr. Langbain observes; but in my Opinion, tho' there may be many Features like Ponce in the Draught, yet Almanzor seems rather to be a Copy of the Achilles of Homer, ill understood, for he does more alone, and without an Army to back him, than Achilles with his Myrmidons; Achilles was injur'd, and desisted from fighting, but Almanzor goes over to their Enemies; nor is he fix'd there, but receiving another Injury from Abdalla, returns to Boabdelin, takes it ill that he is mistrusted, and tells them he will again change his side, if provoked: But of him enough, since no Man of good sence can think that Play's Success owing to the Excellency of the Poet's Performance, but the Extravagance; for I have always observ'd it to have the Effect of Comedy on the Audience: But Mr. Langbain will indeed have him a Knight of the Shire almost, and sent