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.
