The Lives and Characters of the English Dramatick Poets/Edward Ravenscroft
A Gentleman of an Ancient Family, and tho’ design’d for the Law, and once a Member of the Middle Temple, was pleased to quit the rugged Paths of Business for Poetry, in which he has performed with various Success. So omitting Mr. Langbain’s Personal Reflections, which savour strongly of the University, I shall proceed to an Account of the Plays.
The Anatomist; or, The Sham Doctor, a Comedy, 4 to. 1697. acted at the Duke’s Theatre in Little-Lincoln’s-Inn-Fields, and dedicated to Thomas Ravenscroft, Esq; late High-Sheriff of Flintshire. This Play met with extraordinary Success having the Advantage of the excellent Musick of The Loves of Mars and Venus perform’d with it.
The Canterbury Guests; or, A Bargain Broken, a Comedy, 4 to. 1695. acted at the Theatre Royal, and dedicated to Rowland Eyre, Esq; this Play had not that Success the Poet desired, as may be gathered from the Epistle.
The Careless Lovers, a Comedy, 4 to. 1673. Acted at the Duke’s Theatre. Part of this Play borrowed from Molliere’s Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, 8 vo.
The Citizen turn’d Gentleman, a Comedy, 4 to. 1675. acted at the Duke’s Theatre, and dedicated to his Highness, Prince Rupert. Borrowed from the same Author he made use of in the fore-going Play, and Molliere’s le Burgois Gentlehome.
Dame Dobson; or, The Cunning Woman, a Comedy, 4 to. 1684. acted at the Duke’s Theatre. Translated from La Deveniresse, a French Comedy.
English Lawyer, a Comedy, 4 to. 1678. acted at the Theatre Royal, translated from the Latin Ignoramus.
The Italian Husband, a Tragedy, 4 to. 1697. acted at the Theatre in Little Lincoln’s-Inn-Fields. To this Play, besides the Prologue, is prefixt a Dialogue, which he calls, The Prelude. This Discourse is managed by the Poet, a Critick, and one Mr. Peregrine, the Poet’s Friend; Mr. Peregrine and the Poet would make it out, that the Italian Way of writing a Tragedy in Three Acts, is very commendable; That I shall leave to the Decision of our great Master Horace, who will have the Dramma neither more nor less than Five. Then the Poet seems under another Mistake, in thinking, that because an Italian Lady would esteem you a dull, heavy, and Phlegmatick Lover, if you should waste time in idle Ceremony and Complement; it is Excuse enough for her yielding so soon in his Play: For if they are such, they are no fitter for a Tragedy, than one of our English Prostitutes, and can here merit no more Pity. And tho’ it is an extraordinary thing to make us pity the Guilty, (which I know none but Otway could do) yet the Audience must be very Compassionate, to pity so willing an Adultery as this; and her Repentance proceeds from Fear, more than a Sense of the Crime, or at least from the seeming Generosity of the Husband, join’d with a Fear of Death. Our Poet is under, the same Mistake with other of our modern Writers, who are fond of cruel, barbarous, and bloody Stories, and think no Tragedy can be good, without some Villain in it; but of this elsewhere. As for the Laconic way he affects, I shall only say this, That it was in use only with the Lacedemonians, who were also Masters of their Passions; and never the more natural for being short, for very few Passions, and only some part of then, are to be drawn in that snip snap way. I only say this in respect to the Ancients, whose Practice is natural, and directly contrary to our Author’s.
King Edgar and Alfreda, a Tragedy, 4 to. 1677. Plot from English Chronicles; see also The Annals of Love, 8 vo.
The London Cuckolds, a Comedy, 4 to. 1683. acted at the Duke’s Theatre. Plot part from Scarron’s Novels, 8 vo. Nov. 1. (viz.) The Fruitleß Precaution. Part from Les-Contes Du-Sieur D’ouville, 8 vo. part 2. pag. 121. And part from Boccace’s Novels, Day 7. Nov. 6, 7.
Scaramouch a Philosopher, Harloquin a School-Booy, Bravo a Merchant and Magician; a Comedy after the Italian Manner, 4 to. 1677. acted at the Theatre Royal. Part of this Play taken from Molliere’s Le Bourgeois Gentlehomme; and part from Le Marriage Force, 8 vo.
The Wrangling Lovers; or, The Invisible Mistress, a Comedy, 4 to. 1677. acted at the Duke’s Theatre. Compare this with a Play called, Les Engagements du Hazard, by Corneille; and a Romance, called, Deceptio Visus; or, Seeing and Believing are two Things, 8 vo.
The Tragedy of Titus Andronicus, by Shakespear, was about the time of the Popish Plot, revived and altered by this our Author; who, in his Epistle, denies it to be Shakespear’s, and then boasts of his own Labour and Pains therein, by making great Alterations and Additions, and that he had not only refined the Language, but made many Scenes entirely new.