Page:The Lives and Characters of the English Dramatick Poets.djvu/67

Rh Sir John Moodys being set up in their Altitudes, from Shakerlys Marmion's Fine Companions, Act. 4. Sc. 1. &c.

The Spanish Fryar, or, The double Discovery, a Tragi-Comedy, 4to. 1681. Acted at the King's Theatre. The Comical part built on the Novel, call'd, The Pilgrim.

The State of Innocence, or, The Fall of Man, an Opera, 4to. 1678. Taken from Milton's Paradice Lost, tho' guilty of many absurdities, which are not in Milton, whose being a Narration of things done long since, made room for several things, which had he placed it in Action, cou'd never have been brought in; to give one Instance; Mr. Dryden makes Lucifer (before the world was made, or at least before the Devil knew any thing of its Form, Matter, or Vicissitudes.) compare the prostrate Devils to Leaves in Autumn, before there was an Autumn, &c.

The Tempest, or, Inchanted Island, a Comedy, 4to. 1676. Acted at the Duke's Theatre. This is an Alteration only of one of Shakespear's, by Sir William D'Avenant and Mr. Dryden.

Troilus and Cressida, or, Truth found out too late, a Tragedy 4to. 1679. Acted at the Duke's Theatre. One of Mr. Shakespear's, altered by Mr. Dryden. The Story is to be found in Lellius a Lombard, in Latin, and in our old Chaucer in ancient English.

Tyrannick Love, or, The Royal Martyr, a Tragedy, 4to., 1679. Acted at the Theatre Royal. For the Plot see Zosimus, lib. 4. Socrates, lib. 5. c. 14. Herodian, l. 6, 7, and 8. Jul. Capit. in cit. Mac. Jun.

The Wild Gallant, a Comedy, 4to. 1669. Acted at the Theatre Royal. This was his first Play, published 1669, being about Twenty eight Years since, and by which he was near Thirty eight years old when this was Play'd.

His Gentleman is second Son to the abovesaid great Poet of that Name, and is now living in Rome, in the Pope's Service, as a Gentleman of the Bed-Chamber, where he wrote a Play, call'd,

The Husband his own Cuckold, a Comedy 4to. 1696. Acted at the Theatre in Lincolns-Inn-Fields, by his Majesty's Servants, and Dedicated to the Right Honourable Sir Robert Howard, &c., and is usher'd into the World by a Preface of his Father, who in it indeed shews the tenderness of a Parent, but I think not the Impartiality and Justice of a true Critick, when he excludes all from Poetry and Nature but his Friends, at least since the Revolution. The young Gentleman in his Epistle, has gone a little too far for a  ginner,