Page:The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, Volume 2.djvu/46

40 Albion and Albanius (1685) is a musical drama or opera, written, like the Duke of Guise, against the republicans. With what success it was performed, I have not found.

The State of Innocence and Fall of Man (1675) is termed, by him, an opera: it is rather a tragedy in heroick rhyme, but of which the personages are such as cannot decently be exhibited on the stage. Some such production was foreseen by Marvel, who writes thus to Milton:

It is another of his hasty productions; for the heat of his imagination raised it in a month.

This composition is addressed to the princess of Modena, then dutchess of York, in Rh