whispered that it was not the production of Shadwell; on his side, however, he seldom lays claim to originality, and may be believed when he does. It was produced at the Duke's Theatre in 1673, and had gone through four editions in 1704.

Psyche, founded on the Psyche of the French stage, and the Golden Ass of Apuleius, was a vehicle for music, dancing, and scenery. It was one of those productions to which the stage had recourse in its extremity, and it was completely successful as far as the manager's objects went. The Duke's theatre was then the fashion: the music and painting by the best masters, and dancing by regular artistes, were no small attraction; and we may judge of the value of Shadwell's piece to the Duke's theatre, from Durfey's employment at Drury-lane, to ridicule it by the production of his Psyche Debauched, a poor, scurrilous, abusive, contemptible thing. Psyche was produced in 1675; and, though intended as an experiment and an exception to the rule, was one of the pieces most instrumental in degrading the stage to a place of mere amusement, where the ear and eye were to be addressed, and not the judgment. The younger Davenant is in some degree responsible for this abuse; but Shadwell must bear the blame. The rivalry of the theatres rendered it necessary to seek variety; and we may expect a revival of the Durfey and the Shadwell days, unless we prove to modern managers that, if they seek applause, their contests must be for different objects than that of transcending each other in sound and show. Davenant had found that Shakspeare and Jonson palled on the public taste before he had recourse to Shadwell ; and Killigrew had experienced the coldness of the audiences towards Massinger and Shirley, before he engaged Tom Durfey to produce that species of Burletta, as it is now called, between the antique masque and the ballet, which, with a dash of the demoniacal, still holds possession of the stage, and always to the

exclusion of better things.、 Psyche was written in rhyme which had no pretension to the name of poetry. The Libertine.. - Le Festin de Pierre of Corneille, as altered by Molière, was the origin of this play, the first introduction of Don Juan or Giovanni to the

English stage. The horrible catastrophe and the over-drawn villainy of its hero, have long since consigned it to the shades of pantomime and burlesque ; but in 1676, it was well received, and considered among the best of Shadwell's plays.

The Virtuoso was also produced in 1676, at the Duke's theatre. It had for its object to ridicule the then rising taste for the study of natural history, and is conceived in much the same spirit with Walcot's Ode to Sir Joseph Banks. Sir Nicholas Gimcrack and sir Formal Trifle were then the representatives of a new race; and formal trifling has been a true description of too much of the study ever since. Shadwell did not satirize the pursuit of knowledge, but the bye-roads men took to find it, and the trifling objects which they seized by the way. The play was much approved, especially at Oxford, and even the university noticed it. Langbaine says of Shadwell in this play, that none since Jonson's time had ever drawn so many different humorous characters with such success. Congreve paid Shadwell the compliment of borrowing his Lady Gimcrack, to be the Lady Plyant of his Double Dealer.

Timon of Athens. - The History of Timon, the man-hater of Shakspeare, was "made into a play: so the modest Shadwell tells us in 1678,-and acted at the Duke's Theatre. The audience that could tolerate this profanation were unworthy of Shakspeare. Timon never was an acting play, and Shadwell's version was not more felicitous in this respect than the original.

A True Widow was a true comedy, rich in humour, and diversified and well sustained in character; but it was less successful than the generality of Shadwell's plays, perhaps because, like The Humourists, it dealt too

freely with the patronized vices of the day. It was produced in 1679.

The Woman Captain, a meritorious and successful comedy, produced in 1680.

The Lancashire Witches, a comedy produced in 1682, was founded on Heywood's play of the same name, and on its various sources, but with a new feature prompted by the political feelings of the time. The revolution was approaching, religious feuds ran high, politics were keenly and bitterly discussed; and by the introduction of the character of Teague O'Divelly, the Irish priest, Shadwell made the theatre an arena for the struggle of parties. The Drydenites, the Roman catholics, and the Jacobites rallied against the play; and the whigs, the revolutionists, the anti-jacobites, and the future orangemen (for whiggery and orangeism were then synonymous) crowded to the support of Shadwell, and, in spite of opposition, carried The Lancashire Witches and its author through a successful career. The Amorous Bigot, with the second part of Teague O'Divelly, grew out of those strong feelings, but was vastly inferior to The Lancashire Witches.

The Squire of Alsatia, produced in 1688. The scene of the play (White Friars) is now familiar under the name of Alsatia to every reader, through sir Walter Scott's Fortunes of Nigel. So much of the cant phraseology of that sanctuary, as it was in use in Shadwell's day, is introduced into this play, that a glossary is appended to the first edition. The plot is from the Adelphi of Terence. The imputations on Cumberland that he had taken his Choleric Man from this piece of Shadwell's, produced the querulous dedication of that play, which gave Sheridan occasion to apply the title of Sir Fretful to Plagiary, in the Critic, thus more distinctly pointing the satire of that character at Cumberland.

Bury Fair.-This comedy, says Shadwell, was written during the intervals of a painful sickness of eight months' duration, in which the hours devoted to writing did not

collectively exceed a month. The author draws some of his characters from Molière, and others from the duke of Newcastle. It was played in 1689.

The Scriveners.-Sir George Etherege's Man of Mode appears to have supplied a character for this comedy, which was acted with success in 1691. This was the last of our author's comedies published in his life-time.

The Volunteers, or The Stock Jobbers.—This play was posthumous, acted by their majesty's servants in 1693, and printed the same year with a dedication to queen Mary by the widow of Shadwell. An epilogue, defensive of his character from the savage assaults of Dryden, was appended, and from the pen of Tom Durfey! The play owes a character to Fletcher's Little French Lawyer; and though the seventeenth production of its author, shows that his humour was unabated, and his power of drawing characters sustained to the last. The works of Shadwell were not collected till 1720, when they appeared in four volumes, 12mo., with an account of his life and writings. The plays of his youngest son (according to Whincop) or of his nephew (according to Jacob) are sometimes confounded with those of our author; but Charles Shadwell, who served in Portugal, and afterwards settled in Dublin, with a post in the Irish revenue establishment, wrote his Hasty Wedding, Sham Prince, Rotheric O'Connor, Plotting Lovers, and Irish Hospitality, for the Irish stage only; and they were produced and printed at Dublin in 1720. The Fair Quaker of Deal, and the Humours of the Army, were acted in London, the former in 1710, at Drury-lane, and the latter at the same theatre in 1713. Neither the army nor the navy of that period is particularly obliged to Shadwell for his portrait of their humours. Yet his comedies have some bustle and incident, and are probably as well calculated to succeed on the stage as more poetical or elaborate productions.

1

WILLIAM WYCHERLEY.*

(16-1715.)

WITH NOTICES OF SEDLEY, ETHEREGE, SETTLE, DURFEY, CROWNE, TATE, BANKS, AND RAVENSCROFT.

WILLIAM WYCHERLEY, one of the most eminent of our comic poets, was the eldest son of Daniel Wycherley, esq., a gentleman of some fortune, at Cleve, in Shropshire. His education appears to have been liberal, but, during his boyhood, it was limited to such means of tuition as the schools in the neighbourhood of his father's residence afforded. At fifteen years of age he was sent to the west of France, where he lived for some time on the banks of the Charante, enjoying the advantages of a refined circle of society, and especially being admitted to a close intimacy with the celebrated Madame de Montausier, one of the most accomplished women of her day, who made a distinguished figure at court, and whose wit and talents are eulogised in the letters of Voiture. The impression which Madame de Montausier made upon the sensitive mind of the future poet must have been vivid (although it was not destined for permanency) since her influence over his feelings, during the short period of their acquaintance, had the effect of making Wycherley renounce the reformed faith, in which he had been educated, and embrace the religion of the Church of Rome. His conversion, however, seems to have been little more than

*The materials of this life are chiefly derived from some of the biographical works already cited as authorities in this volume, and from major Park's Memoirs of Wycherley, Dennis's Letters, Spence's Anecdotes, Malone's Dryden, &c.