Page:The Lives and Characters of the English Dramatick Poets.djvu/69

Rh The Banditti; or, A Ladies Distress, a Comedy, 4to. 1685. Acted at the Theatre Royal. Plot from Don Fenise, 8vo. See also the History of Don Antonio, B. 4. p. 250, Diego's turning Banditti, &c. from Pipperollo in Shirley's Sisters.

Bussy D'Ambois; or, The Husbands Revenge, a Tragedy, 4to. Acted at the Theatre Royal, 1691. newly Revised by Mr. Durfey, and Dedicated to the Right Honourable, Edward, Earl of Carlisle, Viscount Howard of Morpeth, &c. In his Epistle he owns it to be Chapman's, only challenges to himself the Merit of having Purged it of a great deal of Obsolete Phrases, and intolerable Fustain; tho' some are of Opinion, that with those Defects, he has injudiciously par'd away many of its Beauties. The Character of Tamyra, he will have us believe, he has alter'd for the better; tho' he'll hardly perswade, that Pity is due to a Woman, that quits her Honour and Virtue on any Account. You may find the Story in Thuanus Jean de Serres, and Mezeray, in the Reign of Henry III. of France, and the particular Intrigue of Bussy with Tamyra in Rosset, in his Histoires Tragiques de Nôtre temps, under the Names of Lysis and Siluie, Hist. 17. p. 363.

Commonwealth of Women, a Tragi-Comedy, 4to. 1686. Acted by their Majesty's Servants at the Theatre Royal, and Dedicated to the truly Noble and Illustrious Prince Christopher, Duke of Albemarle. This Play is borrowed from Fletcher's Sea Voyage.

Cinthia and Endimion; or, Loves of the Deities; a new Opera, as it was designed to be Acted at Court before the late Queen, and now Acted at the Theatre Royal by his Majesty's Servants, 1697. 4to. Dedicated to the Right Honourable Henry, Earl of Rumney, Viscount Sidney, &c. Our Author is not contented in the Title Page, to let his Patron know the Honour her late Majesty design'd this Off'ring of his Muse, but repeats it in the Epistle, which had indeed been the more pardonable piece of Vanity; but that's a small fault in a Poet, especially when there are so many greater in the Work it self. For by a sort of Poetick License, unknown to our great Master Horace, he perverts all those known Characters given us by Ovid; he has made the Chaste Favourite of Diana, (Daphne) both a Whore and a Jilt; and so sordid, as to contemn the God of Wit and Light, for a pitiful dull Country Lad: and fair Syrinx must loose her Reputation, in the unknown ignomy of an envious, jilting, mercenary, infamous Woman. Tho' this Play took, yet it merits not a nice Enquiry into its Virtues and Vices; but as I have given a specimen of one, my impartiality obliges me to own, that there are many Lines in it above the Genius which generally appears in his other Works. The Versification is often good, and the Expression often significant and Poetical. The Story of Cynthia and Endimion, as well as the others contained in this Opera, you may find beautifully done in their Original, in the several parts Rh