at the Theatre Royal in Lincoln’s-Inn Fields;[1] as his Tragedy intitled, Heroic Love, was in the year 1696.[2] He wrote likewiſe a Dramatic Poem, intitled, The Britiſh Enchanters: or, no Magic like Love,[3] which was performed at the Queen’s Theatre in the Hay-Market; and altered Shakeſpeare’s Merchant of Venice, under the title of The Jew of Venice, which was acted with great applauſe, and the profits of it were deſigned for Mr. Dryden, but upon his death, given to his ſon. In 1702 he tranſlated into the Engliſh the ſecond Olynthian of Demoſthenes. He was returned Member for the County of Cornwall in the Parliament which met in November 1710, and ſoon after made Secretary of War, next Comptroller of the Houſhold, and then Treaſurer, and ſworn one of the Privy Council. The year following, by Letters Patents bearing date December the 31ſt, he was created Baron Lanſdowne of Biddeford in Devonſhire. In 1719 he made a ſpeech in the Houſe of Lords againſt repealing the Bill to prevent Occaſional Conformity.[4] His Lordſhip died in February 1735. By his Lady, Mary, widow of Thomas Thynn Eſq.; (Father of Thomas Lord Viſcount Weymouth,) and daughter of Edward Villiers Earl of Jerſey, he had iſſue four daughters, Anne, Mary, married March the 14th 1729 to William Graham of Platten near Drogheda in Ireland Eſq.; Grace, and Elizabeth. His Lordſhip’s works have been printed together in London in 4 to. and 12 mo. His Lady died but a few days before him.
- ↑ He afterwards altered this Comedy, and publiſhed it among his other works under the title of Once a Lover, an always a Lover, which, as he obſerves in the preface, "is a new building upon an old foundation. It appeared firſt under the name of the She Gallant; and by the preface then prefixed to it is ſaid to have been but the Child of a Child. By taking it ſince under examination ſo many years after, the author flatters himſelf to have made a correct Comedy of it. He found it regular to his hand; the ſcene conſtant to one place; the time not exceeding the bounds preſcribed; and the action intire. It remained only to clear the ground; and to plant, as it were, freſh flowers in the room of thoſe, which were grown into weeds, or faded by time; to retouch and vary the characters; enliven the painting; retrench the ſuperfluous; and animate the action, where it appeared the young author ſeemed to aim at more than he had yet ſtrength to perform.”
- ↑ Mr. Charles Gildon tell us,[reference] that “this is one of the beſt of our modern Tragedies, and writ after the manner of the antients, which is much more natural and eaſy than that of our modern Dramatiſts.” The Prologue to it was written by Henry St. John Eſq.; and the Epilogue by Bevill Higgons Eſq.; Mr. Dryden wrote a copy of verſes to our author upon this Tragedy, which begins thus:
Auſpicious Poet, wert thou not my friend,
How could I envy, what I muſt commend!
But ſince ’tis nature’s law in love and wit,
That youth ſhould reign, and with’ring age ſubmit,
With leſs regret thoſe laurels I reſign,
Which dying on my brow, revive on thine.
- ↑ In the preface our author obſerves, that this “was the firſt eſſay of a very infant muſe, rather as a taſk at ſuch hours as were free from other exerciſes, than any way meant for public entertainment. But Mr. Betterton having had a caſual ſight of it many years after it was written, begged it for the ſtage, where it found ſo favourable a reception, as to have an uninterrupted run of at leaſt forty days. The ſeparation of the principal Actors, which ſoon followed, and the introduction of the Italian Opera put a ſtop to its farther appearance.” Mr. Addiſon wrote the Epilogue.
- ↑ It is printed among his works. In this ſpeech, among other things, he ſays thus: “I always underſtood the Toleration to be meant as an indulgence for tender conſciences, not a licence for hardened ones; and that the act to prevent Occaſional Conformity was deſigned only to correct a particular crime of particular men, in which no ſect of Diſſenters was included, but thoſe followers of Judas, who came to the Lord’s Supper for no other end but to ſell and betray him. This crime, however palliated and defended even by ſo many Right Reverend Fathers of the Church, is no leſs than making the God of Truth, as it were in perſon, ſubſervient to acts of hypocriſy; no leſs than ſacrificing the myſtical Body and Blood of our Saviour to worldly and ſiniſter purpoſes: an impiety of the higheſt nature! which in juſtice called for protection, and in charity for prevention. The bare receiving the Holy Euchariſt could never be intended ſimply as a qualification for an office, but as an open declaration, an indubitable proof of being and remaining a ſincere member of the Church. Whoever preſumes to receive it with any other view, profanes it; and may be ſaid to ſeek his promotion in this world, by eating and drinking his own damnation in the next.”
- Reference
- ↑ Continuation of Mr. Langbaine’s Lives and Characters of the Engliſh Dramatic Poets, p. 66.
LARROQUE (MATTHEW DE) in Latin Larroquanus, one of the moſt illuſtrious Miniſters the Reformed ever had in France, was born at Leirac, a ſmall city of Guienne, near Agen in the year 1619. He was hardly paſt his youth when he loſt his father and mother, who by their condition and by their virtue were the chief perſons in their city. This misfortune was ſoon followed by the loſs of his whole patrimony; nor could it be known by what fatality it happened, or to whoſe fraud it was owing. But this was ſo far from diſcouraging him, that on the contrary it animated him more ſtrongly to comfort himſelf by ſtudying, and to add to polite Literature, which he had already learnt, the knowledge of Philoſophy, and above all that of Divinity. He made a conſiderable progreſs in theſe Sciences, and was admitted a Miniſter with great applauſe. Two years after he had been inſtalled in his office, he was obliged to go to Paris to anſwer the cavils of thoſe, who intended to ruin his Church. He could not prevent the effect of their artifices, but he happened to meet with ſuch circumſtances as proved favourable to him. He preached ſometimes at Charenton, and was ſo well liked by the Ducheſs de la Tremouille, that ſhe appointed him Miniſter of the Church of Vitré in Britany, and gave him afterwards a great many proofs of the particular eſteem ſhe had
