Page:The Lives and Characters of the English Dramatick Poets.djvu/36

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Known Authors. B

The Fortune Hunters; or, Two Fools well met. Com. 4to. This was Acted with Applause, as it has been lately revived by the Patentees Company.

This Author lived in the latter end of King James I. and the beginning of King Charles I. Publish'd one Play called,

The Pragmatical Jesuit new Leaven'd, 4to. A Play tends to Morality and Vertue; so 'tis doubted whether the Author was not a Divine, there being Three Sermons Publish'd under the same Name, in the latter end of the Reign of King James I.

Of this Gentleman I can only say, that he liv'd at Fulham, and that he has writ a Play called,

Heroick Love; or, The Infanta of Spain, a Tragedy, dedicated to King Charles II. and Printed, London, 1661. 8vo.

The Name of our Author's Father and Place of Nativity, are differently Related by Mr. Wood,[1] the late Antiquarian, in his Antiquit. Oxon. and Mr. Loyd[2] in his Memoirs, the first making him Gloucestershire, and the latter Oxofordshire; but all agree he was brought up a King's Schollar at Eaton, under Dr. Olbaston, and chose Student of Christ-Church-Colledge in Oxon., where he passed thro' his Degrees of Batchelor and Master of Arts: The House made choice of him for Proctor, and was admitted by the University with Mr. Wake of Magdalen Colledge in the Year 1643. in the Winter that Year he Dy'd of a Malignant Fever, and lies Buried in the South Isle of that Church. He was belov'd by the King and Queen, and lamented by all his Acquaintance and Friends. He was expert in the Latin, Greek, French, and Italian Tongues; was extream modest, as well as handsome; and admired, not only by his Acquaintance but Strangers. Ben. Johnson among the rest writ in his Praise; and Bishop Fell gives him the highest, if not Hyperbolical Praise, in saying, He was the utmost that Man could come to. He writ four Plays, viz.

Lady Errant, a Tragi-Comedy, 8vo. 1657. This was esteemed by many about that time a good Play.


  1. Antiquit. Oxon. p. 274.
  2. Lloyd's Memoirs, p. 422.
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