doma, forifque buc ufque erraticus, beic fixus 1666. A I.... Thomas JEVORN. Perfon lately dead, and one fufficiently known to all that frequent the Theatre, both for his Excellency in Dancing and Action. He has writ a Play, or rather a Farce, call'd ? The Devil of a Wife, or A Comical Tranfformation; acted by their Majefties Servants at the Queen's Theatre in Dorfet-Garden; printed 49. Lond. 1686. and dedicated to his Friends, that frequent Locker's Ordinary. This Farce is founded on a Tale as well known as that of Mopfa, in Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia; tho' I think if compar'd with our French Farces fo frequent on our English Stage, it may deferve the Preheminence. . Thoms INGELAND. A Student in Cambridge in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth: The Author of a Play,which he ftiles, A Pretty and Merry Interlude, call'd The Difobedient Child. 'Tis writ in old Verse of Ten Syllables, and printed 4°. in an old Black Letter, (without any Date) by Thomas Colwell in Fleet-ftreet. John John JONES. An Author who liv'd in the Reign of King Charles the Firft, and writ a Play nam'd Adrafta, or The Womans Spleen, and Loves Conqueft, a Tragi-comedy, printed 4°. Lond. 1635. and dedicated to Eugenius, by which Name he defires to comprehend all his Friends, fubfcribing himself Mufophilus. This Play the Actors refus'd, and I think with Justice; it being very indifferently written. The Intrigue between Damafippus, Frail-ware, and their Wives, in the third Act, is borrow'd from Boccace's Novels Day 8. Nov.8. However the Author was of Opinion it deferved to appear in publick; and therefore prefix'd the following Saying of Horace, in his Title-page : volet hæc fub luce videri, Judicis argutum quæ non formidat acumen. Benjamin JOHNSON. I have already drawn fome strokes of this Great Man's Character, in my Defence of him against the Attempts of Mr. Dryden; and therefore fhall lefs need to make a curious and exact Description of all his Excellencies; which otherwife are very Great, Noble, and Various; and have been remark'd in parcells by feveral Hands, but exceed my fmall Capacity to collect them into one full View. I fhall therefore rather let them lye difpers'd, as Scaliger did Virgil's Prailes, thro' his whole Book of Poetry; contenting my felf at prefent with giving the Reader an Account of the private Occurrencies of his Life. To begin then with his Nativity: He was born in the City of Westminster; and tho' he fprang from mean Parents, yet his Admirable Parts have made him more Famous than thofe of a more Confpicuous Extraction. Nor do I think it any Diminution to him, that he was Son-in-law to a Bricklayer, and work'd at that Trade; fince if we take a Survey of the Records of Antiquity, we fhall find the Greatest Poets of the meaneft Birth; and moft lyable to the Inconveniencies of Life. Witnefs Homer, who begg'd from door to door; Euripides, traded in Herbs with his Mother; Plautus was forc'd to ferve a Baker; Nevius was a Captain's Man; Terence was a Slave to the Generous Lucan; Virgil, was the Son of a Basket-maker: and yet thefe thought the Obfcurity of their Extraction no Diminution to their Worth; nor will any Man of Sence reflect on Ben. JohnJon on this Account, if he feriously call to Mind that faying of Juvenal (*). Nobilitas fola eft, atq; unica Virtus. He was Bred first at a Private-School, in St. Martin's Church, then plac'd at Westminster, under the Famous Mr. Cambden, (to whom in Gratitude he dedicated his Fourteenth Epigram) afterwards he was fent to Saint John's Colledge in Cambridge; from thence he remov'd to Oxford, and was enter'd of Chrift-Church Colledge; where in the Year 1619. (as Mr. (a) Saryr. 8. Wood Wood (b) fays) he took his Master of Arts Degree: tho' Dr. Fuller fays, (c) 'He continu'd there but few Weeks, for want of Mainte "nance, being fain to return to the Trade of 'his Father-in-law; where he affifted in the New Building of Lincolns Inn, with a Trowel in his Hand, and a Book in his Pocket. But this English Maro, was not long before he found a Mecenas and a Varus, to manumit him from an Employment fo painful, and furnisht him with means to enjoy his Mufe at liberty, in pri. vate. 'Twas then that he writ his Excellent Plays, and grew into Reputation with the most Eminent of our Nobility and Gentry. 'Twas then, that Carthwright, Randolph, and others of both Univerfities, fought his Adoption; and gloried more in his Friendship, and the Title of his Sons, than in their own Welldeferv'd Characters. Neither did he lefs love, or was lefs belov'd by the Famous Poets of his Time, Shakspear, Beaumont, and Fletcher: witnefs his Copy which he writ on Shakspear, after his Death, (a) and his Verfes to Fletcher when living(). He was a Man of a very free Temper, and withal blunt, and fomewhat haughty to thofe, that were either Rivals in Fame, or Enemies to his Writings: (witnefs his Poetafter, wherein he falls upon Decker, and his anfwer to Dr. Gill, who writ against his Magnetick Lady,) otherwife of a good Sociable Humour, when amongst his Sons and Friends in the Apollo: (b) Antiq. L. 2. p. 243. (c) worthies, weltminster, p. 243. (d) See his works at the beginning. (e) See Fletcher's works. from from whofe Laws the Reader may poffibly better judge of his Temper; a Copy of which I have tranfcrib'd for the Learn'd Readers ufal. per Leges Convivales, quod fœlix fauftumque Nemo afymbolus, nifi umbra huc venito, Infipida Poemata nulla recitantur; Argumentationis totius ftrepitus abefto; Feneftras excutere, fupellectilem dilacerare ne |