limb, and then putting him upon running races ; tho' it must be owned that the performance fhews, "with what ability he could have acquitted him"felf, had he been found and entire. Such the animadverfions which critics of great name have made on Gondibert, and the refult is, that if Davenant had not power to begin and confummate an epic poem, yet by what he has done, he has a right to rank in the first clafs of poets, especially when it is confidered that we owe to him the great perfection of the theatre, and putting it upon a level with that of France and Italy; and as the theatrical are the mo rational of all amufements, the lateft pofterity fhould hold his name in veneration, who did fo much for the advancement of innocent pleafures, and blending inftruction and gaiety toge ther. The dramatic works of our author are, 1. Albovine King of the Lombards, a tragedy. This play is commended by eight copies of verfes. The ftory of it is related at large, in a novel, by Bandello, and, is tranflated by Belleforeft * 2. Cruel Brother, a tragedy. 3. Diftreffes, a tragi-comedy, printed in folio, Lond. 1673. 4. First Day's Entertainment at Rutland-House, by declamation and mufic, after the manner of the ancients. Of this we have already given fome account. 5. The Fair Favourite, a tragi-comedy, printed in folio, 1673. 6. The Juit Italian, a tragi-comedy. 7. Law against Lovers, a tragi-comedy, made up of two plays by Shakefpear, viz. Measure for Measure, and Much Ado about Nothing. * Hiftories Tragiques, Tom. IV. No. XIX. ! 8. Love and Honour, a tragi-comedy; which fucceeded beyond any other of our author's plays, both on the theatre at Lincoln's-Inn, and DorfetGarden. 9. Man's the Mafter, a tragi-comedy, acted upon the Duke of York's theatre. 10. Platonic Lovers, a tragi-comedy. II. Play House to be Let. It is difficult to fay, under what fpecies this play should be placed, as it confifts of pieces of different kinds blended together, feveral of which the author wrote in Oliver's time, that were acted separately by ftealth. The Hiftory of Sir Francis Drake, expreffed by inftrumental and vocal mufic, and by art of perfpective scenes, and the cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru, were firft printed in 4to. and make the third and fourth acts of this play. The second act confists of a French farce, translated from Mollier's Ganarelle, ou le Cocu Imaginaire, and purpofely by our author put into a fort of jargon, common to Frenchmen newly come over. The fifth act confifts of tragedy traveftie; or the actions of Cæfar, Anthony and Cleopatra in burlesque verfe. 12. Siege of Rhodes in two parts. Thefe plays, during the civil war, were acted in Stilo Recitativo, but afterwards enlarged, and acted with applaufe at the uke's theatre. Solyman the fecond took this famous city in the year 1522, which is circumftantially related by Knolles in his Hiftory of the Turks, from whence our author took the story. 13. Siege, a tragi.comedy. 14. News from Plymouth, a comedy. 15. Temple of Love, prefented by Queen Henrietta, wife to King Charles I and her ladies at Whitehall, viz. The Marchionefs of Hamilton Lady Mary Herbert; Countefs of Oxford; Berk fhire; Carnarvon: The noble Perfian Youths were represented by the Duke of Lenox, and the Earls of Newport and Desmond. 16. Triumphs of the Prince d'Amour, prefented by his Highness the Prince Elector, brother-in-law to Charles T. at his palace in the Middle Temple. This mafque, at the requeft of this honourable fociety, was devised and written by the author in three days, and was prefented by the members thereof as an entertainment to his Highness. A lift of the Mafquers names, as they were ranked according to their antiquity, is fubjoined to the Mafque. 17. Wits, a comedy; firft acted at Black-Fryars, and afterwards at the Duke of York's theatre. This piece appeared on the ftage with remarkable applaufe. Thefe pieces have in general been received with applaufe on the ftage, and have been read with pleasure by people of the beft tafte: The greatest part of them were published in the author's lifetime in 4to. and all fince his death, collected into one volume with his other works, printed in folio, Lond. 1673; and dedicated by his widow to the late King James, as has been before obferved. HENRY HENRY KING, Bishop of Chichester, HE eldeft fon of Dr. John King lord bifhop of London, whom Winftanley calls a perfon well fraught with epifcopal qualities, was born at Wornal in Bucks, in the month of January 1591. He was educated partly in grammar learning in the free fchool at Thame in Oxfordshire, and partly in the College fchool at Westminster, from which laft he was elected a ftudent, in Chrift Church 1608, being then under the tuition of a noted tutor.. Afterwards he took the degrees in arts, and entered into holy. orders, and foon became a florid preacher, and fucceffively chaplain to King James I. archdeacon of Colchester, refidentiary of St. Paul's cathedral, canon and dean of Rochefter, in which dignity he was installed the 6th of February 1638. In 1641, fays Mr. Wood, he was made bishop of Chichester, being one of those perfons of unble. mished reputation, that his Majefty, tho' late, promoted to that honourable office; which he poffeffed without any removal, fave that by the members of the Long Parliament, to the time of his death. When he was young he delighted much in the ftudy of mufic and poetry, which with his wit and fancy made his converfation very agreeable, and when he was more advanced in years he applied himself to oratory, philofophy, and divinity, in which he became eminent. * Athen. Oxon. vol. ii. p. 431. 1721 Ed. It happened that this bishop attending divine fervice in a church at Langley in Bucks, and hearing there a pfalm fung, whofe wretched expreffion, far from conveying the meaning of the Royal Pfalmift, not only marred devotion, but turned what was excellent in the original into downright burlefque; he tried that evening if he could not easily, and with plainnefs fuitable to the loweft understanding, deliver it from that garb which rendered it ridiculous. He finifhed one pfalm, and then another, and found the work fo agreeable and pleafing, that all the pfalms were in a fhort time compleated; and having fhewn the verfion to fome friends of whofe judgment he had a high opinion, he could not refift their importunity (fays Wood) of putting it to the prefs, or rather he was glad their follicitations coincided with his defire to be thought a poet. He was the more difcouraged, fays the antiquary, as Mr. George Sandys's verfion and another by a reformer had failed in two different extremes; the first too elegant for the vulgar ufe, changing both metre and tunes, wherewith they had been long acquainted; the other as flat and poor, and as lamely executed as the old one. He therefore ventured in a middle way, as he himself in one of his letters expreffes it, without affectation of words, and endeavouring to leave them not disfigured in the fenfe. This verfion foon after was published with this title; . The Pfalms of David from the New Translation of the Bible, turned into Metre, to be fung after the old tunes used in churches, Lond. 1651, in 12mo. There is nothing more ridiculous than this notion of the vulgar of not parting with their old |