Sweet ladies, be not frighted; I'll be civil;
I'm what I was, a little harmless devil.

"O poet, damned dull poet, who could prove
So senseless, to make Nelly die for love!
Nay, what's yet worse, to kill me in the prime
Of Easter term, in tart and cheesecake time!
"As for my epitaph, when I am gone,

I'll trust no poet, but will write my own :

Here Nelly lies, who, though she lived a slattern
Yet died a princess, acting in St. Catherine."

Her delivery of this Epilogue is said to have delighted the king and audience beyond measure.

Almanzor and Almahide; or, the Conquest of Granada, by the Spaniards. T. In two parts, and written in heroic verse. Acted 1670.

Marriage-à-la-Mode. C. This successful comedy was produced in 1672, at Lincoln's Inn, by the King's Company, their old house having been burnt down. In 1674 they removed to the new theatre in Drury Lane, built from Sir C. Wren's design.

The Assignation; or, Love in a Nunnery. C. Was produced in 1672, and was unsuccessful.

Amboyna. T. Acted 1673. Its object was to stir up popular feeling against the Dutch, with whom we were then at war.

The State of Innocence, and Fall of Man. Opera in Heroic verse. Altered from Milton's " Paradise Lost." Aureng-Zebe; or, the Great Mogul. Acted 1675. The last of Dryden's rhyming tragedies.

All for Love; or, the World Well Lost. T. Acted at the King's Theatre in 1678. Dryden says, in his preface to the play, "In my style I have professed to imitate the divine Shakespeare, which, that I might perform more freely, I have disencumbered myself from rhyme.". This

tragedy treats of the loves of Antony and Cleopatra, and is considered the best of Dryden's plays.

The Kind Keeper; or, Mr. Limberham. C. Acted at the Duke's Theatre in 1678. Various reasons are assigned for its not having been produced at the King's Theatre; but it was only played three times, a failure which, from its coarseness, it deserved; but coarseness alone in those days would not have sufficed to damn it.

Edipus. This tragedy was produced in 1678 at the Duke's Theatre. At this time Dryden was under an engagement with the King's Company to furnish them with three plays annually, which he neglected to do. They therefore complained to the Lord Chamberlain of the production of this play at the rival house as a breach of agreement; but it does not appear that they obtained any redress. In the " Vindication of the Duke of Guise," Dryden says he wrote the first and third acts, and drew the scenery of the play, the remainder was the work of Nathaniel Lee.

Troilus and Cressida; or, Truth Found Too Late. T. Adapted from Shakespeare. Acted 1679, at the Duke's Theatre.

The Spanish Friar; or, the Double Discovery. This tragi-comedy, produced at the Duke's Theatre in 1681, was a source of annoyance to Dryden when he became a Roman Catholic, for it contains a severe attack upon the priesthood; so that, although one of his best plays, he wished to suppress it. It was prohibited by James II.; but, after the Revolution, was the first play commanded by Queen Mary,

The Duke of Guise. T. 1682, Acted by the now united companies the King's Servants, and the Duke's Company. It was the joint production of Lee and Dryden.

Albion and Albanius. An opera first acted publicly in 1685, when, after running six nights, the news of the landing of Monmouth and the ensuing panic stopped its career, and caused great loss to the theatre.

Don Sebastian. T. Brought out in 1690. This was his first appearance as dramatic author after the Revolution had deprived him of his pensions, to which he refers in his Prologue :

"The judge removed, though he's no more 'my lord,'
May plead at bar, or at the council board;

So may cast poets write; there's no pretension

To argue loss of wit from loss of pension.

And

you well know a play's of no religion.

Take good advice, and please yourselves this day; No matter from what hands you have the play.". Amphitryon; or, the Two Sosias. A very successful comedy. Acted 1690.

King Arthur; or, the British Worthy. A dramatic opera, acted at the Theatre Royal in 1691. The music was composed by Purcell, and the opera was a great

success.

Cleomenes; or, the Spartan Heroe. T. Acted in 1692. At the time when Dryden was engaged upon this play, he was suffering so severely from gout that he entrusted the completion of it to Southern.

Love Triumphant; or, Nature Will Prevail. A tragicomedy, acted in 1693. It was a complete failure. Dryden had intended it for his last play, a resolution which its failure may probably have strengthened.

"Now, in good manners, nothing shall be said

Against this play, because the poet's dead."

It is said that he wrote one scene of a comedy called

The Mistaken Husband, which was acted at the Theatre Royal, 1675.

So flexible, so generous as thine,

Immortal Dryden! From her copious fount
Large draughts he took, and unbeseeming song
Inebriated sang. Who does not grieve

To hear the foul and insolent rebuke
Of angry satire from a bard so rare,
To trace the lubricous and oily course
Of abject adulation, the lewd line

Of shameless vice from page to page, and find
The judgment bribed, the heart unprincipled,
And only loyal at the expense of truth,

Of justice, and of virtue?"

THOMAS SHADWELL.

(1688-1692.)

Shadwell, the great support o' the comic stage,
Born to expose the follies of the age.
To whip prevailing vices, and unite
Mirth with Instruction, Profit with Delight.
For large ideas and a flowing pen,

First of our times, and second but to Ben.
Shadwell, who all his lines from Nature drew,
Copied her out, and kept her still in view.
Who ne'er was bribed by title or estate,
To fawn and flatter with the rich and great.
To let a gilded vice or folly pass,

But always lashed the villain and the ass.”
EPILOGUE TO "THE VOLUNTEERS."

THOMAS SHADWELL was born at Lanton Hall, in Norfolk, in 1640, and educated at Caius College, Cambridge. He was intended for the profession of the law, and studied for some time at the Inner Temple; but deserting its shady courts and dusty books, he went to travel on the Continent, whence he returned full of ambition to shine as a poet.

In that art he was also unsuccessful; but turning his attention to the drama, his really great talents won for him fame and reward, and perhaps a wife, for he married a lady connected with the theatre.