Page:The Lives and Characters of the English Dramatick Poets.djvu/70

50 of Ovid's Metamorphoses, and that of Psyche in the 4th, 5th, and 6th Books of Lucius Appuleius de Asino Aureo.

The Comical History of Don Quixot, Acted at the Queens Theatre in Dorset-Garden, by their Majesties Servants, Part I. 1694. 4to. Dedicated to the Dutchess of Ormond. This Play met with an extraordinary Applause; and is taken entirely from that famous, and much Celebrated Antick Romance of the same Name, written by Michael Cervantes, a Spaniard.

Part II. Acted at the same Theatre, in the same Year, and Dedicated by an Epistle in Heroick Verse, to the Right Honourable Charles, Earl of Dorset and Middlesex, &c. This as well as the former, is taken from the foresaid Romance, and met with great Applause, which encouraged our Author to proceed to

Part III. adding to the Title of that only, With the Marriage of Mary the Buxome. This was Acted and Printed 1696. and Dedicated to the Right Honourable Charles Montague, Esq; one of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, &c. in which he will not allow that its innate Defects are so obnoxious as are supposed; but owns its want of Success, which never Poet yet attributed to himself: This is as the other two Parts borrowed from the incomparable Cervantes.

The Fond Husband; or, The Plotting Sisters, a Comedy, 4to. 1678. Acted at the Dukes Theatre, and Dedicated to his Grace the Duke of Ormond: This when Presented first was accounted a good Play.

The Fool turn'd Critick, a Comedy, 4to. 1678. Acted at the Theatre Royal by their Majesties Servants. The Characters of Old Wine Love, Tim, and Small Wit, are something like Simo, Astu, and Balio in Randolph's Jealous Lovers.

A Fool's Preferment; or, The Three Dukes of Dunstable, a Com. 4to. 1688. Acted at the Queens Theatre in Dorset-Garden, by their Majesties Servants, with Songs set by Mr. Henry Purcell, and Dedicated to the Honourable Charles, Lord Morpeth, transcribed from Fletcher's Noble Gentleman, except one Scene from the Novel of the Humours of Bassett.

The Injured Princes; or, The Fatal Wager, a Tragi-Comedy, 4to. 1682. Acted at the Theatre Royal by their Majesties Servants; the Prologue to this Play is the same with the Epilogue of another of his own, call'd, The Fool turn'd Critick; and the Foundation of the whole Play from Shakespear.

The Intrigues of Versailles; or, A Jilt in all Humours, a Comedy; Acted at the Theatre in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. 1697. 4to. This Play had not the Success the Author desired; who in his Epistle to the two Sir Charles Sidley's, is pleased to Condemn the Taste of the Town for not liking it, when they had approv'd others of his Plays of less value, and Merit, it having been approv'd by two such Judges as Mr. Congreve and Mr. Betterton, as he tells