dence, and propriety, were held up to constant ridicule, as if amusement could be obtained only by obliterating the moral feelings and virtues. Dryden expressly ascribes the licentiousness of the stage to the example of the king; and if this be true, awful was the inheritance of vice which that monarch bequeathed to the English nation. In part, however, we should, perhaps, ascribe it to the ascetic puritanism which prohibited all public amusements during the time of the commonwealth. Had the puritans been satisfied with regulating and purifying the theatres they would have conferred a benefit on the whole nation; but by closing them entirely, and denouncing all public recreations, they provoked a counteraction in the taste and manners of the people, the overwhelming power of which was felt as soon as the restraints were removed.

As we descend toward the close of this period, dramatic literature becomes more polished and artificial, but unfortunately not less licentious. In tragedy, a few writers still possessed the power of stirring the passions, but their language is feeble, compared with that of the great dramatists; and their general style is low and unimpressive. In comedy the national taste is apparent in its faithful and witty delineations of polished life, of which the dramas of Wycherley, Congreve, and their associates, are full. The essays of Steele and Addison, published in the Tatler and the Spectator, tended greatly to improve the taste and moral feelings of the public, and a partial reformation of those nuisances of the drama which the Restoration had introduced, followed. The master of the Revels, by whom all plays, had, at this time, to be licensed, aided also in this work of improvement; but a glance at even those improved plays which were popular during the reigns of William the Third, Queen Anne, and George the First, will satisfy us that ladies visiting the theatre, acted prudently by concealing their faces behind a mask. This picture of the drama is not an agreeable one, and we, therefore, leave it without any additional touches, to examine more minutely the various materials of which it is composed.

The earliest professed dramatists of this period are Etherege, Shadwell, Wycherley, Crowne, and Mrs. Behn.

SIR GEORGE ETHEREGE was descended from an ancient family of Oxfordshire, and was born in Middlesex, near London, in 1636. He spent some time at the University of Cambridge, and afterward travelled in France and Flanders, but apparently without any other purpose than to see the world. On his return to his own country he repaired to London, and entered the Inns of Court as a student of law; but his position in society, and his natural inclinations, soon combined to divert his mind from all serious and laborious pursuits, and, with an ample fortune, he became one of the professed wits of the day. His first comedy was The Comical Revenge, or Love in a Tub. This play, written in 1664, was dedicated to the Earl of Dorset, and was remarkably successful. In 1668 he produced his second

comedy, She would if she could, with greater success than the first. His third and last drama, The Man of Mode, or Sir Fopling Flutter, appeared eight years after, and was even more successful than either of the former. In this play Sir George gave a more sprightly air to the comic drama than it had before presented; and it also contains the first appearance of that lively humor and witty dialogue which Congreve and Farquhar afterward carried so near to perfection.

Etherege was a gay libertine in his habits, and though frequently honored with public trusts, his morals were not improved by them. While plenipotentiary at Ratisbon, he was one evening taking leave of a festive party to return to his own house, when he accidentally fell down stairs and killed himself. This event occurred, 1694. From this author's 'Comical Revenge' we select the following scene :—

[Enter Beaufort and Sir Frederick, and traverse the stage. Enter Bruce and Lovis at another door.]

Bruce. Your friendship, noble youth, 's too prodigal;

For one already lost you venture all:

Your present happiness, your future joy;

You for the hopeless your great hopes destroy.

Lovis. What can I venture for so brave a friend?

I have no hopes but what on you depend.

Should I your friendship and my honour rate
Below the value of a poor estate?

A heap of dirt. Our family has been

To blame, my blood must here atone the sin.

[Enter the five villains with drawn swords.]

First Villain [pulling off his vizard].-Bruce, look on

First Villain. Fall on and sacrifice his blood to my revenge.
Lovis. More hearts than one shall bleed if he must die.

[Enter Beaufort and Sir Frederick.]

[They fight.]

Beau. Heavens! what is this I see? Sir Frederick, draw.
Their blood's too good to grace such villains' swords.
Courage, brave men; now we can match their force!
Lovis. We'll make you slaves repent this treachery.

Beau. So.

[The villains run.]

Bruce. They are not worth pursuit; we'll let them go.
Brave men! this action makes it well appear

'Tis honour, and not envy, brings you here.

Beau. We come to conquer, Bruce, and not to see

Such villains rob us of our victory.

Your lives our fatal swords claim as their due;

We'd wrong'd ourselves had we not righted you

THOMAS SHADWELL, a popular rival and personal enemy of Dryden, was descended from a good family, and was born at Stanton-Hall, Norfolk,

in 1640. He received his education at Caius College, Cambridge, and then, for some time, studied law in the Middle Temple; after which he passed some years on the continent. On his return from his travels, Shadwell applied himself to dramatic writing, and soon became conspicuous. He was the author of seventeen comedies, in all of which he affected to follow Ben Jonson. Though only known to us as the Mac-Flecknoe of Dryden's satire, still Shadwell possessed no inconsiderable degree of comic power. His pictures of society are too coarse for quotation, but they are often true and welldrawn. When the Revolution threw Dryden and other excessive loyalists into the shade, Shadwell was promoted to the office of poet laureate. His death occurred on the ninth of December, 1692, and a marble monument was afterward erected to his memory in Westminster Abbey by his son, Sir John Shadwell.

WILLIAM WYCHERLEY, the greatest of the comic dramatists of this class, was of a genteel family, and was born at Cleve, Shropshire, in 1640. When in the fifteenth year of his age, he was sent to France, and continued to reside in the western part of that country until a short time before the Restoration, and then returned to England and entered Queen's College, Oxford, a gentleman commoner. From the university he passed, without taking a degree, and immediately after entered the Middle Temple, as a student of law. Wit and gayety were unfortunately, at this period, the favorite roads to distinction, and Wycherley, therefore, quitted his legal pursuits, and followed the inclination of his own genius, and the taste of the age. He lived gayly upon town,' and, according to Pope, had 'a true nobleman look." He wrote a number of comedies, between 1672 and 1677, the principal of which are, Love in a Wood, the Gentleman Dancing Master, the Country Wife, and the Plain Dealer. In 1704, he published a volume of miscellaneous poems, the style and versification of which are below criticism—and the morals, those of Rochester. In advanced age, Wycherley continued to indulge in all the follies and vices of youth. His name, however, stood high as a dramatist, and even Pope was proud to receive the notice of the author of the Country Wife.' At the age of seventy-five he married a young girl, in order to defeat the expectations of his nephew, and died eleven days afterwards, in December, 1715.

The subjects of most of Wycherley's dramas are borrowed from French and Spanish plays. He wrought up his dialogues and scenes with great care, and with considerable liveliness and wit, but without sufficient attention to character or probability. Destitute himself of moral feeling or propriety of conduct, his characters are equally objectionable, and his once fashionable plays may now be said to be 'quietly inurned' in their own profligacy and corruption.

MRS. APHRA BEHN, a contemporary of Wycherley, was a native of Canterbury, but the period of her birth is unknown. Her father being appointed

governor of Surinam, she accompanied him thither, and there became acquainted with Prince Oronoko, on whose story she founded a novel, that supplied Southerne with materials for a tragedy on the unhappy fate of the African prince. She afterwards returned to England, and was employed by Charles the Second as a political spy. While residing at Antwerp in this capacity, she was enabled, through the aid of one of her lovers, to give information to the British government with regard to the intended attack of the Dutch upon Chatham. Her death occurred on the sixteenth of April, 1689, and she was buried in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey.

The comedies of Mrs. Behn are so grossly indelicate, that of the whole seventeen which she wrote, not one is now read, or even remembered. She was the authoress of various novels and poems also, and some of her songs, as the following, display much genius:

FROM THE MOOR'S REVENGE.

Love in fantastic triumph sat,

Whilst bleeding hearts around him flow'd,
For whom fresh pains he did create,

And strange tyrannic power he show'd.
From thy bright eyes he took his fires,
Which round about in sport he hurl'd;
But 't was from mine he took desires
Enough t' undo the amorous world.

From me he took his sighs and tears,
From thee his pride and cruelty;
From me his languishment and fears,
And every killing dart from thee:
Thus thou, and I, the god have arm'd,
And set him up a deity;

But my poor heart alone is harm'd,
Whilst thine the victor is, and free.

JOHN CROWNE, another dramatic writer of this period, was the son of a clergyman of the independent church of Nova Scotia, and was born in that province, about 1640. Being a man of some genius, he resolved to go to England and try to make his fortune by his wits. At first he was unsuccessful, but eventually his writings recommended him to the notice of the court, and he was employed by Charles the Second, on the recommendation of Rochester, to write the Masque of Calipso. He afterwards produced seventeen dramas, two of which, the tragedy of Thyestes and the comedy of Sir Courtly Nice, evince considerable dramatic talent. The latter is founded on an old Spanish play, and was recommended to Crowne by King Charles himself, as containing a good plot for an English comedy; and the former is based upon the following repulsive classical story:-Atreus invites his banished brother, Thyestes, to the court of Argos, and there, at a banquet, sets before him the mangled limbs of his own son, of which the father

unconsciously partakes. The return of Thyestes from his retirement with the fears and misgivings that follow, are thus vividly described :

THYESTES-PHILISTHENES-PENEUS.

Thy. O wondrous pleasure to a banish'd man,
I feel my lov'd long-looked-for-native soil!
And oh my weary eyes, that all the day

Had from some mountain travell'd towards this place,
Now rest themselves upon the royal towers
Of that great palace where I had my birth.
O sacred towers, sacred in your height,
Mingling with clouds, the villas of the gods,
Whither for sacred pleasures they retire:
Sacred, because you are the work of gods;
Your lofty looks boast your divine descent;
And the proud city which lies at your feet,
And would give place to nothing but to you,
Owns her original is short of yours.

And now a thousand objects more ride fast

On morning beams, and meet my eyes in throngs:

And see, all Argos meets me with loud shouts!

Phil. O joyful sound!

Thy. But with them Atreus too-

Phil. What ails my father that he stops, and shakes,
And now retires?

Thy. Return with me my son,

And old friend Peneus, to the honest beasts,

And faithful desert, and well-seated caves;

Trees shelter man, by whom they often die,

And never seek revenge; no villany

Lies in the prospect of a humble cave.

Pen. Talk you of villany, of foes, of fraud?
Thy. I talk of Atreus.

Pen.

What are these to him?

Thy. Nearer than I am, for they are himself.

Pen. Gods drive these impious thoughts out of your mind.

Thy. The gods for all our safety put them there.

Return, return with me.

Pen. Against our oaths?

I can not stem the vengeance of the gods.

Thy. Here are no gods; they 've left this dire abode.

Pen. True race of Tantalus! who parent-like

Are doom'd in midst of plenty to be starved,

His hell and yours differ alone in this:

When he would catch at joys, they fly from him;
When glories catch at you, you fly from them.
Thy. A fit comparison; our joys and his
Are lying shadows, which to trust is hell.

'Of Otway,' says Johnson, 'one of the first names in the English drama, little is known; nor is there any part of that little which his biographer can take pleasure in relating.'