A Sermon, preached at the Tower, 1641.

A Sermon, preached on Whitsunday in Norwich, printed 1644.

A Sermon, preached on Whitsunday at Higham, printed 1652.

A Sermon, preached on Easter day at Higham, 1648.

The Mourner in Sion.

A Sermon, preached at Higham, printed 1655.

The Women's Veil, or a Discourse concerning the Necessity or Expedience of the close Covering the Heads of Women.

Holy Decency in the Worship of God.

Good Security, a Discourse of the Christian's Assurance.

A Plain and Familiar Explication of Christ's Presence, in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood.

A Letter for the Observation of the Feast of Christ's Nativity.

A Letter to Mr. William Struthers, one of the Preachers at Edinburgh.

Epistola D. Baltasari Willio. S.T.D.

Epistola D. Lud. Crocio. S.T.D.

Reverendissimo Marco Antonio de L'om. Archiep. Spalatensi.

Epistola decessus sui ad Romam dissuasiva.

A Modest Offer.

Certain Irrefragable Propositions, worthy of serious Consideration.

The Way of Peace in the Five Busy Articles, commonly known by the name of Arminius.

A Letter concerning the Fall Away from Grace.

A Letter concerning Religion.

A Letter concerning the frequent Injection of Temptations.

A Consolatory Letter to one under Censure.

A Short Answer to the Nine Arguments which are brought against the Bishops sitting in Parliament.

For Episcopacy and Liturgy.

A Speech in Parliament.

A Speech in Parliament, in Defence of the Canons made in Convocation.

A Speech in Parliament, concerning the Power of Bishops in secular things.

The Anthems for the Cathedral of Exeter.

All these are printed in 4to, and were published 1660. There are also other Works of this author. An Edition of the whole has been printed in three Vols. folio.

Besides these works, Bishop Hall is author of Satires in Six Books, lately reprinted under the title of Virgidemiarum, of which we cannot give a better account than in the words of the ingenious authors of the Monthly Review, by which Bishop Hall's genius for that kind of poetical writing will fully appear.

He published these Satires in the twenty third year of his age, and was, as he himself asserts in the Prologue, the first satirist in the English language.

I first adventure, follow me who list, And be the second English satyrist.

And, if we consider the difficulty of introducing so nice a poem as satire into a nation, we must allow it required the assistance of no common and ordinary genius. The Italians had their Ariosto, and the French their Regnier, who might have served him as models for imitation; but he copies after the ancients, and chiefly Juvenal and Persius; though he wants not many strokes of elegance and delicacy, which shew him perfectly acquainted with the manner of Horace. Among the several discouragements which attended his attempt in that kind, he mentions one peculiar to the language and nature of the English versification, which would appear in the translation of one of Persius's Satires: The difficulty and dissonance whereof, says he, shall make good my assertion; besides the plain experience thereof in the Satires of Ariosto; save which, and one base French satire, I could never attain the view of any for my direction. Yet we may pay him almost the same compliment which was given of old to Homer and Archilochus: for the improvements which have been made by succeeding poets bear no manner of proportion to the distance of time between him and them. The verses of bishop Hall are in general extremely musical and flowing, and are greatly preferable to Dr. Donne's, as being of a much smoother cadence; neither shall we find him deficient, if compared with his successor, in point of thought and wit; but he exceeds him with respect to his characters, which are more numerous, and wrought up with greater art and strength of colouring. Many of his lines would do honour to the most ingenious of our modern poets; and some of them have thought it worth their labour to imitate him, especially Mr. Oldham. Bishop Hall was not only our first satyrist, but was the first who brought epistolary writing to the view of the public; which was common in that age to other parts of Europe, but not practised in England, till he published his own epistles. It may be proper to take notice, that the Virgidemiarum are not printed with his other writings, and that an account of them is omitted by him, through his extreme modesty, in the Specialities of his Life, prefixed to the third volume of his works in folio.

The author's postscript to his satires is prefixed by the editor in the room of a preface, and without any apparent impropriety. It is not without some signatures of the bishop's good sense and taste; and, making a just allowance for the use of a few obsolete terms, and the puerile custom of that age in making affected repetitions and reiterations of the same word within the compass of a period, it would read like no bad prose at present. He had undoubtedly an excellent ear, and we must conclude he must have succeeded considerably in erotic or pastoral poetry, from the following stanza's, in his Defiance to Envy, which may be considered as an exordium to his poetical writings.

Witnesse, ye muses, how I wilful sung These heady rhimes, withouten second care; And wish'd them worse my guilty thoughts among; The ruder satire should go ragg'd and bare, And shew his rougher and his hairy hide, Tho' mine be smooth, and deck'd in carelesse pride.

Would we but breathe within a wax-bound quill, Pan's seven-fold pipe, some plaintive pastoral; To teach each hollow grove, and shrubby hill, Each murmuring brook, each solitary vale To found our love, and to our song accord, Wearying Echo with one changelesse word.

Or lift us make two striving shepherds sing, With costly wagers for the victory, Under Menalcas judge; while one doth bring A carven bowl well wrought of beechen tree, Praising it by the story; or the frame, Or want of use, or skilful maker's name.

Another layeth a well-marked lamb, Or spotted kid, or some more forward steere, And from the paile doth praise their fertile dam; So do they strive in doubt, in hope, in feare, Awaiting for their trusty empire's doome, Faulted as false by him that's overcome. Whether so me lift my lovely thought to sing, Come dance ye nimble Dryads by my side, Ye gentle wood-nymphs come; and with you bring The willing fawns that mought their music guide. Come nymphs and fawns, that haunts those shady groves, While I report my fortunes or my loves.

The first three books of satires are termed by the author Toothless satires, and the three last Biting satires. He has an animated idea of good poetry, and a just contempt of poetasters in the different species of it. He says of himself, in the first satire.

Nor can I crouch, and writhe my fawning tayle, To some great Patron for my best avayle. Such hunger-starven trencher-poetrie, Or let it never live, or timely die.

He frequently avows his admiration of Spenser, whose cotemporary he was. His first book, consisting of nine satires, appears in a manner entirely levelled at low and abject poetasters. Several satires of the second book reprehend the contempt of the rich, for men of science and genius. We shall transcribe the sixth, being short, and void of all obscurity.

A gentle squire would gladly entertaine Into his house some trencher-chaplaine; Some willing man that might instruct his sons, And that would stand to good conditions. First, that he lie upon the truckle-bed, While his young maister lieth o'er his head. Second, that he do on no default, Ever presume to sit above the salt. Third, that he never change his trencher twise. Fourth, that he use all common courtesies; Sit bare at meales, and one halfe raise and wait. Last, that he never his young maister beat, But he must ask his mother to define, How manie jerkes she would his breech should line. All these observed, he could contented bee, To give five markes and winter liverie.

The seventh and last of this book is a very just and humorous satire against judicial astrology, which was probably in as high credit then, as witchcraft was in the succeeding reign.

The first satire of the third book is a strong contrast of the temperance and simplicity of former ages, with the luxury and effeminacy of his own tines, which a reflecting reader would be apt to think no better than the present. We find the good bishop supposes our ancestors as poorly fed as Virgil's and Horace's rustics. He says, with sufficient energy,

Thy grandsire's words favour'd of thrifty leekes, Or manly garlicke; but thy furnace reekes Hot steams of wine; and can a-loose descrie The drunken draughts of sweet autumnitie.

The second is a short satire on erecting stately monuments to worthless men. The following advice is nobly moral, the subsequent sarcasm just and well expressed.

Thy monument make thou thy living deeds; No other tomb than that true virtue needs. What! had he nought whereby he might be knowne But costly pilements of some curious stone? The matter nature's, and the workman's frame; His purse's cost: where then is Osmond's name? Deserv'dst thou ill? well were thy name and thee, Wert thou inditched in great secrecie.

The third gives an account of a citizen's feast, to which he was invited, as he says,

With hollow words, and [2] overly request.

and whom he disappointed by accepting his invitation at once, and not Maydening it; no insignificant term as he applies it: for, as he says,

Who looks for double biddings to a feast, May dine at home for an importune guest.

After a sumptuous bill of fare, our author compares the great plenty of it to our present notion of a miser's feast—saying,

Come there no more; for so meant all that cost; Never hence take me for thy second host.

The fourth is levelled at Ostentation in devotion, or in dress. The fifth represents the sad plight of a courtier, whose Perewinke, as he terms it, the wind had blown off by unbonnetting in a salute, and exposed his waxen crown or scalp. 'Tis probable this might be about the time of their introduction into dress here. The sixth, which is a fragment, contains a hyperbolical relation of a thirsty foul, called Gullion, who drunk Acheron dry in his passage over it, and grounded Charon's boat, but floated it again, by as liberal a stream of urine. It concludes with the following sarcastical, yet wholesome irony.

Drinke on drie foule, and pledge Sir Gullion: Drinke to all healths, but drink not to thyne owne.

The seventh and last is a humorous description of a famished beau, who had dined only with duke Humfrey, and who was strangely adorned with exotic dress.

To these three satires he adds the following conclusion.

Thus have I writ, in smoother cedar tree, So gentle Satires, penn'd so easily. Henceforth I write in crabbed oak-tree rynde, Search they that mean the secret meaning find. Hold out ye guilty and ye galled hides, And meet my far-fetched stripes with waiting sides.

In his biting satires he breathes still more of the spirit and stile of Juvenal, his third of this book being an imitation of that satirist's eighth, on Family-madness and Pride of Descent; the beginning of which is not translated amiss by our author. The principal object of his fourth satire, Gallio, would correspond with a modern Fribble, but that he supposes him capable of hunting and hawking, which are exercises rather too coarse and indelicate for ours: this may intimate perhaps, that the reign of the great Elizabeth had no character quite so unmanly as our age. In advising him to wed, however, we have no bad portrait of the Petit Maitre.

Hye thee, and give the world yet one dwarfe more, Such as it got when thou thy selfe was bore.

His fifth satire contrasts the extremes of Prodigality and Avarice; and by a few initials, which are skabbarded, it looks as if he had some individuals in view; though he has disclaimed such an intention in his postscript (now the preface) p. 6. lin. 25, &c. His sixth sets out very much like the first satire of Horace's first book, on the Dissatisfaction and Caprice of mankind—Qui fit Mecaenas; and, after a just and lively-description of our different pursuits in life, he concludes with the following preference of a college one, which, we find in the Specialities of his life, he was greatly devoted to in his youth. The lines, which are far from inelegant, seem indeed to come from his heart, and make him appear as an exception to that too general human discontent, which was the subject of this satire.

'Mongst all these stirs of discontented strife, Oh let me lead an academick life; To know much, and to think we nothing know; Nothing to have, yet think we have enowe; In skill to want, and wanting seek for more; In weele nor want, nor wish for greater store. Envy, ye monarchs, with your proad excesse, At our low sayle, and our high happinesse.

The last satire of this book is a severe one on the clergy of the church of Rome. He terms it POMH-PYMH, by which we suppose he intended to brand Roma, as the Sink of Superstition. He observes, if Juvenal, whom he calls Aquine's carping spright, were now alive, among other surprising alterations at Rome,

—that he most would gaze and wonder at, Is th' horned mitre, and the bloody hat, The crooked staffe, their coule's strange form and store, Save that he saw the fame in hell before.

The first satire of the fifth book is levelled at Racking Landlords. The following lines are a strong example of the taste of those times for the Punn and Paronomasia.

While freezing Matho, that for one lean fee Won't term each term the term of Hillary, May now, instead of those his simple fees, Get the fee-simples of faire manneries.

The second satire lashes the incongruity of stately buildings and want of hospitality, and naturally reminds us of a pleasant epigram of Martial's on the same occasion, where after describing the magnificence of a villa, he concludes however, there is no room either to sup or lodge in it. It ends with a transition on the contumely with which the parasites are treated at the tables of the great; being a pretty close imitation of Juvenal on the same subject. This satire has also a few skabbarded initials.

In his third, titled, [Greek: KOINA PHIAON], where he reprehends Plato's notion of a political community of all things, are the following lines:

Plato is dead, and dead is his device, Which some thought witty, none thought ever wise: Yet certes Macha is a Platonist To all, they say, save whoso do not list; Because her husband, a far traffick' man, Is a profess'd Peripatician.

His last book and satire, for it consists but of one, is a humorous ironical recantation of his former satires; as the author pretends there can be no just one in such perfect times as his own. The latter part of it alludes to different passages in Juvenal; and he particularly reflects on some poetaster he calls Labeo, whom he had repeatedly lash'd before; and who was not improbably some cotemporary scribler.

Upon the whole, these satires sufficiently evince both the learning and ingenuity of their author. The sense has generally such a sufficient pause, and will admit of such a punctuation at the close of the second line, and the verse is very often as harmonious too, as if it was calculated for a modern ear: tho' the great number of obsolete words retained would incline us to think the editors had not procured any very extraordinary alteration of the original edition, which we have never seen. The present one is nearly printed; and, if it should occasion another, we cannot think but a short glossary at the end of it, or explanations at the bottom of the pages, where the most uncouth and antiquated terms occur, would justly increase the value of it, by adding considerably to the perspicuity of this writer; who, in other respects, seems to have been a learned divine, a conscientious christian, a lover of peace, and well endued with patience; for the exercise of which virtue, the confusions at the latter end of his life, about the time of the death of Charles I. furnished him with frequent opportunities, the account of his own hard measures being dated in May 1647. We have met with no other poetical writings of the bishop's, except three anthems, composed for the use of his cathedral-church; and indeed, it seems as if his continual occupation after his youth, and his troubles in age, were sufficient to suppress any future propensity to satirical poetry: which we may infer from the conclusion of the first satire of his fourth book.

While now my rhimes relish of the ferule still, Some nose-wise pedant saith; whose deep-seen skill Hath three times construed either Flaccus o'er, And thrice rehears'd them in his trivial flore. So let them tax me for my hot blood's rage, Rather than say I doated in my age.

[Footnote 1: Specialities of this bishop's life prefixed to his works.]

[Footnote 2: Slight.]

* * * * *

RICHARD CRASHAW.

Son of an eminent divine named William Crashaw, was educated in grammar learning in Sutton's-Hospital called the Charter-House, near London, and in academical, partly in Pembroke-Hall, of which he was a scholar, and afterwards in Peterhouse, Cambridge, of which he was a fellow, where, as in the former house, he was distinguished for his Latin and English poetry. Afterwards he took the degree of master of arts; but being soon after thrown out of his fellowship, with many others of the University of Cambridge, for denying the Covenant during the time of the rebellion, he was for a time obliged to shift for himself, and struggle against want and oppression. At length being wearied with persecution and poverty, and foreseeing the calamity which threatened and afterwards fell upon his church and country, by the unbounded fury of the Presbyterians, he changed his religion, and went beyond sea, in order to recommend himself to some Popish preferment in Paris; but being a mere scholar was incapable of executing his new plan of a livelihood. Mr. Abraham Cowley hearing of his being there, endeavoured to find him out, which he did, and to his great surprize saw him in a very miserable plight: this happened in the year 1646. This generous bard gave him all the assistance he could, and obtained likewise some relief for him from Henrietta Maria the Queen Dowager, then residing at Paris. Our author receiving letters of recommendation from his Queen, he took a journey into Italy, and by virtue of those letters became a secretary to a Cardinal at Rome, and at length one of the canons or chaplains of the rich church of our lady of Loretto, some miles distant from thence, where he died in 1650.

This conduct of Crashaw can by no means be justified: when a man changes one religion for another, he ought to do it at a time when no motive of interest can well be supposed to have produced it; for it does no honour to religion, nor to the person who becomes a convert, when it is evident, he would not have altered his opinion, had not his party been suffering; and what would have become of the church of England, what of the Protestant religion, what of christianity in general, had the apostles and primitive martyrs, and later champions for truth, meanly abandoned it like Crashaw, because the hand of power was lifted up against it. It is an old observation, that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church; but Crashaw took care that the church mould reap no benefit by his perseverance. Before he left England he wrote poems, entitled, Steps to the Temple; and Wood says, "That he led his life in St. Mary's church near to Peterhouse, where he lodged under Tertullian's roof of angels; there he made his nest more glad than David's swallow near the house of God, where like a primitive saint he offered more prayers in the night than others usually offer in the day. There he pen'd the poems called Steps to the Temple for Happy Souls to climb to Heaven by. To the said Steps are joined other poems, entitled, The Delights of the Muses, wherein are several Latin poems; which tho' of a more humane mixture, yet are sweet as they are innocent. He hath also written Carmen Deo Nostro, being Hymns and other sacred Poems, addressed to the Countess of Denbigh. He is said to have been master of five languages, besides his mother tongue, viz. Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian, and Spanish."

Mr. Crashaw seems to have been a very delicate and chaste writer; his language is pure, his thoughts natural, and his manner of writing tender.

* * * * *

WILLIAM ROWLEY.

An author who lived in the reign of Charles I. and was some time a member of Pembroke-Hall in Cambridge. There are no particulars on record concerning this poet. He was beloved, says Langbaine, by Shakespear, Johnson, and Fletcher, and writ with the former the British Merlin, besides what he joined in writing with poets of the third class, as Heywood, Middleton, Day, and Webster.

The author has six plays in print of his own writing, which are as follows;

1. A New Wonder, a Woman never vext, a Comedy, acted Anno 1632. The Widow's finding her wedding Ring (which she dropt crossing the Thames) in the Belly of a Fish, is taken from the Story of Polycrates, in the Thalia of Herodotus.

2. A Match at Midnight, a Comedy, acted by the Children of the Revels, 1633. Part of the Plot is taken from a Story in the English Rogue, Part the fourth.

3. All's lost by Lust, a Tragedy, acted at the Phoenix in Drury-lane by the Lady Elizabeth's Servants, 1633. This is esteemed a tolerable Play.

4. Shoemaker's a Gentleman, a Comedy, acted at the Red-Bull, 1638. This Play was afterwards revived at the Theatre in Dorset-Garden. Plot from Crispin and Crispianus; or the History of the Gentle Craft.

5. The Witch of Edmonton, a Tragi-Comedy, acted by the Prince's Servants at the Cock-pit in Drury-Lane, 1658. This Play was afterwards acted at Court with Applause.

6. The Birth of Merlin, a Tragi-Comedy, 1662. The Plot from Geofrey of Monmouth. Shakespear assisted in this Play. He joined with Middleton in his Spanish Gypsies, Webster in his Thracian Wonder.

* * * * *

THOMAS NASH.

A versifier in the reign of King Charles I. was educated in the university of Cambridge, and was designed for holy orders. He was descended from a family in Hertfordshire, and was born at Leostoff in Suffolk. Whether he obtained any preferment in the church, or was honoured with any great man's patronage, is no where determined. It is reasonable to believe the contrary, because good fortune is seldom without the evidence of flattery, or envy, whereas distress and obscurity, are almost inseparable companions. This is further confirmed in some lines vehemently passionate, in a performance of his called Piers Penniless; which to say nothing of the poetry, are a strong picture of rage, and despair, and part of which as they will shew that he was no mean versifier, shall be quoted by way of specimen. In the abovementioned piece of Piers Penniless, or Supplication to the Devil, he had some reflections on the parentage of Dr. Harvey, his father being a rope-maker of Saffron-Walden. This produced contests between the Doctor and him, so that it became a paper war. Amongst other books which Mr. Nash wrote against him, was one entitled, Have with ye, to Saffron Walden; and another called, Four letters confuted. He wrote likewise a poem, called, The White Herring and the Red. He has published two plays, Dido Queen of Carthage, in which he joined with Marloe: and Summers last Will and Testament, a Comedy. Langbaine says, he could never procure a sight of either of these, but as to the play called, See me, and See me not, ascribed to him by Winstanley, he says, it is written by one Drawbridgecourt Belchier, Esq; Thomas Nash had the reputation of a sharp satirist, which talent he exerted with a great deal of acrimony against the Covenanters and Puritans of his time: He likewise wrote a piece called, The Fourfold way to Happiness, in a dialogue between a countryman, citizen, divine, and lawyer, printed in 4to. London, 1633.

In an old poem called the return to Parnassus; or a scourge for Simony, Nash's character is summed up in four lines, which Mrs. Cooper thinks is impartially done.

Let all his faults sleep in his mournful chest, And there for ever with his ashes rest! His stile was witty; tho he had some gall: Something he might have mended——so may all

From his PIERS PENNILESS.

Why is't damnation to despair and die, When life is my true happiness disease? My soul! my soul' thy safety makes me fly The faulty means that might my pain appease, Divines, and dying men may talk of Hell; But, in my heart, her sev'ral torments dwell! Ah! worthless wit to train me to this woe! Deceitful arts, that nourish discontent! Ill thrive the folly that bewitched me so! Vain thoughts adieu, for now I will repent! And yet my wants persuade me to proceed, Since none take pity of a Scholar's need!

Forgive me God, altho' I curse my birth, And ban the air wherein I breath a wretch! Since misery hath daunted all my mirth And I am quite undone, thro' promise breach O friends! no friends! that then ungently frown, When changing fortune casts us headlong down!

Without redress, complains my careless verse, And Midas ears relent not at my moan! In some far land will I my griefs rehearse, 'Mongst them that will be moved when I shall groan! England adieu! the soil that brought me forth! Adieu unkind where still is nothing worth!

* * * * *

JOHN FORD,

A Gentleman of the Middle-Temple, who wrote in the reign of Charles I. He was a well-wisher to the muses, and a friend and acquaintance of most of the poets of his time. He was not only a partner with Rowley and Decker in the Witch of Edmonton, and with Decker in the Sun's Darling; but wrote likewise himself seven plays, most of which were acted at the Phaenix in the Black-Fryars, and may be known by an Anagram instead of his name, generally printed in the title-page, viz,

FIDE HONOR.

His genius was more turned for tragedy than comedy, which occasioned an old poet to write thus of him:

Deep in a dump, John Ford was alone got, With folded arms, and melancholy hat.

These particulars I find in Mr. Langbaine, who gives the following account of his plays;

1. Broken Heart, a Tragedy, acted by the King's Servants at the private House in Black-Fryars, printed in 4to. London 1633, and dedicated to Lord Craven, Baron of Hamstead-Marshal: The Speaker's Names are fitted to their Qualities, and most of them are derived from Greek Etymologies.

2. Fancies Chaste and Noble, a Tragi-Comedy, acted by the Queen's Servants, at the Phoenix in Drury Lane, printed 4to. London 1638, and dedicated to Lord Randel Macdonell, Earl of Antrim, in the Kingdom of Ireland.

3. Ladies Tryal, a Tragi-Comedy, acted by both their Majesties Servants, at the Private House in Drury-Lane, printed 4to. London, 1639.

4. Lover's Melancholy, a Tragi-Comedy, acted at a Private House in Black-Fryars, and publickly at the Globe by the King's Servants, printed 4to. London 1629, and dedicated to the Society of Gray's-Inn. This Play is commended by four of the author's Friends, one of whom writes the following Tetrastich:

'Tis not the language, nor the fore-placed rhimes Of friends, that shall commend to after times The lover's melancholy: It's own worth Without a borrowed praise shall see it forth.

The author, says Langbaine, has imbellished this Play with several fancies from other Writers, which he has appositely brought in, as the Story of the Contention between the Musician and the Nightingale, described in Strada's academical Prolusions, Lib. ii. Prol. 6.

5. Love's Sacrifice, a Tragedy, received generally well, acted by the Queen's Servants, at the Phoenix in Drury-Lane; printed 4to. Lond. 1663. There is a copy of verses prefixed to this Play, written by James Shirley, Esq; a dramatic writer.

6. Perkin Warbeck, a Chronicle History, and strange Truth, acted by the Queen's Servants in Drury-Lane, printed 4to. 1634, and dedicated to William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle. This Play, as several of the former, is attended with Verses written by four of the Author's friends. The Plot is founded on Truth, and may be read in all the Chronicles of Henry VII.

7. Sun's Darling, a Moral Mask, often presented by their Majesties Servants at the Cock-pit in Drury-Lane, with great Applause, printed in 4to. London 1657, dedicated to the Right Hon. Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton. This Play was wrote by our author and John Decker, but not published till after their decease. A Copy of Verses written by Mr. John Tateham is the Introduction to the Mask, at the Entry whereof the Reader will find an Explanation of the Design alluding to the Four Seasons of the Year.

8. 'Tis Pity she's a Whore, a Tragedy, printed in 4to. Mr. Langbaine says, that this equals if not exceeds any of our author's performances, and were to be commended did not he paint the incestuous love between Giovanni, and his Sister Annabella, in too beautiful colours. I have not been able to ascertain the year in which this author died; but imagine from circumstances, that it must have been some time before the Restoration, and before the Year 1657, for the Sun's Darling, written between him and Decker was published in 1657, which Mr. Langbaine says, was after their Decease.

* * * * *

THOMAS MIDDLETON

Lived in the reign of King Charles I. he was cotemporary with Johnson, Fletcher, Maslinger and Rowley, in whose friendship he is said to have shared, and though he fell much short of the two former, yet being joined with them in writing plays, he arrived at some reputation. He joined with Fletcher and Johnson in a play called The Widow, and the highest honour that is known of this poet, is, his being admitted to make a triumvirate with two such great men: he joined with Massinger and Rowley in writing the Old Law; he was likewise assisted by Rowley in writing three plays[1]. We have not been able to find any particulars of this man's life, further than his friendship and connection already mentioned, owing to his obscurity, as he was never considered as a genius, concerning which the world thought themselves interested to preserve any particulars.

His dramatic works are,

1. The Five Gallants, acted at the Black Fryars.

2. Blur, Mr. Constable, or the Spaniard's Night Walk, a Comedy, acted by the Children of St. Paul's School, 1602.

3. The Phaenix, a Tragedy, acted by the Children of St. Paul's, and also before his Majesty, 1607; the story is taken from a Spanish Novel, called the Force of Love.

4. The Family of Love, a Comedy, acted by the children of his Majesty's Revels, 1608.

5. The Roaring Girl, or Moll Cutpurse, acted by the Prince's Players, 1611; part of this play was writ by Mr. Decker.

6. A Trick to catch the Old One, a Comedy, acted both at St. Paul's and Black Fryars before their Majesties, with success, 1616.

7. The Triumphs of Love and Antiquity, a Masque, performed at the Confirmation of Sir William Cokain, General of his Majesty's Forces, and Lord Mayor of the city of London, 1619.

8. The Chaste Maid of Cheapside, a pleasant Comedy, acted by the Lady Elizabeth's servants, 1620.

9. The World toss'd at Tennis, a Masque, presented by the Prince's servants, 1620.

10. The Fair Quarrel, a Comedy, acted in the year 1622, Mr. Rowley assisted in the composing this Play.

11. The Inner Temple Masque, a Masque of Heroes, represented by the Gentlemen of the Inner-Temple, 1640.

12. The Changeling, a Tragedy, acted at a private house in Drury Lane, and Salisbury Court, with applause, 1653, Mr. Rowley joined in writing this play; for the plot see the story of Alsemero, and Beatrice Joanna in Reynolds's God's Revenge against Murder.

13. The Old Law, or a New Way to Please You, a Comedy, acted before the King and Queen in Salisbury Court, printed 1656. Massenger and Rowley assisted in this Play.

14. No Wit, No Help like a Woman's, a Comedy, acted in the year 1657.

15. Women, beware Women, a Tragedy, 1657. This Play is founded on a Romance called Hyppolito and Isabella.

16. More Dissemblers besides Women, a Comedy, acted 1657.

17. The Spanish Gypsies, a Comedy, acted with applause, both at the private house in Drury Lane, and Salisbury Court, 1660; in this Play he was assisted by Mr. Rowley. Part of it is borrowed from a Spanish Novel called the Force of Blood, written originally by Cervantes.

18. The Mayor of Queenborough, a Comedy, acted by his Majesty's servants, 1661. For the plot see the Reign of Vartigas, by Stow and Speed.

19. Any Thing for a Quiet Life, acted at the Globe on the Bank Side. This is a game between the Church of England, and that of Rome, wherein the former gains the victory.

20. Michaelmas Term, a Comedy; it is uncertain whether this play was ever acted.

21. A Mad World, my Masters, a Comedy, often acted at a private house in Salisbury Court with applause.

[Footnote 1: Langbaine's Lives of the Poets, p. 370.]

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End of the First VOLUME.