Theophilus Cibber - The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753)
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Theophilus Cibber >> The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753)
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23 Preparer's Note: This e-text is taken from a facsimile of the
original 18th-century volume. The spelling, punctuation, and
other quirks have largely been retained. Only the most obvious
printer's errors have been corrected, and are marked [like this].
Anglistica & Americana
A Series of Reprints Selected by Bernhard Fabian, Edgar Mertner, Karl
Schneider and Marvin Spevack
17
GEORG OLMS VERLAGSBUCHHANDLUNG
HILDESHEIM
THEOPHILUS CIBBER
The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland
(1753)
Vol. II
1968
GEORG OLMS VERLAGSBUCHHANDLUNG
HILDESHEIM
Note
The present facsimile is reproduced from a copy in the possession of
the Library of the University of Goettingen.
Shelfmark: H. lit. biogr. I 8464.
Although the title-page of Volume I announces four volumes, the work
is continued in a fifth volume of the same date. Like Volumes II, III,
and IV, it is by "Mr. CIBBER, and other Hands" and is "Printed for R.
GRIFFITHS".
M.S.
Reprografischer Nachdruck der Ausgabe London 1753
Printed in Germany
Herstellung: fotokap wilhelm weihert, Darmstadt
Best.-Nr. 5102040
THE
LIVES
OF THE
POETS
OF
GREAT BRITAIN and IRELAND.
Compiled from ample Materials scattered in a Variety of Books, and
especially from the MS. Notes of the late ingenious Mr. COXETER and
others, collected for this Design,
By Mr. CIBBER, and other Hands.
VOL. II.
LONDON:
Printed for R. GRIFFITHS, at the Dunciad in St. Paul's Church-Yard.
MDCCLIII
VOLUME II.
Contains the
LIVES
OF
Brewer Newcastle, Duchess
May Newcastle, Duke
Taylour Birkenhead
Habington Boyle, E. Orrery
Goldsmith Head
Cleveland Hobbs
Holiday [sic] Cokaine
Nabbes Wharton
Shirley Killegrew, Anne
Howel Lee
Fanshaw Butler
Cowley Waller
Davenant Ogilby
King Rochester
[Massinger] Buckingham
Stapleton Smith
Main Otway
Milton [Oldham]
Philips [Roscommon]
* * * * *
_Just Published,_
In one small Octavo Volume, Price bound in Calf 3s.
A TRANSLATION of the Ingenious Abbe DE MABLY'S _Observations on the_
ROMANS. A learned and curious Performance; wherein the Policy of that
People is set in so clear a Light, and the Characters of their great
Men drawn with such a masterly Pen, as cannot but recommend it to all
Lovers of Classical Learning.
In this Work many new Lights are cast upon the Characters and Conduct
of the following celebrated Personages:
Romulus, | Pompey, | Otho,
Tarquin the Elder, | Cato, | Vitellius,
Servius Tullus, | Caesar, | Vespasian,
Brutus, | Cicero, | Titus,
The Gracchi, | Antony, | Domitian,
Marius, | Augustus, | Nerva,
Sylla, | Tiberius, | Trajan,
Crassus, | Caligula, | Antoninus,
Scipio, | Claudius, | Marcus Aurelius,
Hannibal, | Nero, | Diocletian,
Pyrrhus, | Galba, | Constantine the Great
&c. &c. &c.
Printed for R. GRIFFITHS, in _Paul's Church-Yard_.
* * * * *
THE
LIVES
OF THE
POETS
ANTHONY BREWER,
A poet who flourished in the reign of Charles I. but of whose birth
and life we can recover no particulars. He was highly esteemed by some
wits in that reign, as appears from a Poem called Steps to Parnassus,
which pays him the following well turned compliment.
Let Brewer take his artful pen in hand,
Attending muses will obey command,
Invoke the aid of Shakespear's sleeping clay,
And strike from utter darkness new born day.
Mr. Winstanley, and after him Chetwood, has attributed a play to our
author called Lingua, or the Contention of the Tongue and the Five
Senses for Superiority, a Comedy, acted at Cambridge, 1606; but Mr.
Langbaine is of opinion, that neither that, Love's Loadstone,
Landagartha, or Love's Dominion, as Winstanley and Philips affirm, are
his; Landagartha being written by Henry Burnel, esquire, and Love's
Dominion by Flecknoe. In the Comedy called Lingua, there is a
circumstance which Chetwood mentions, too curious, to be omitted here.
When this play was acted at Cambridge, Oliver Cromwel performed the
part of Tactus, which he felt so warmly, that it first fired his
ambition, and, from the possession of an imaginary crown, he stretched
his views to a real one; to accomplish which, he was content to wade
through a sea of blood, and, as Mr. Gray beautifully expresses it,
shut the Gates of Mercy on Mankind; the speech with which he is said
to have been so affected, is the following,
Roses, and bays, pack hence: this crown and robe,
My brows, and body, circles and invests;
How gallantly it fits me! sure the slave
Measured my head, that wrought this coronet;
They lie that say, complexions cannot change!
My blood's enobled, and I am transform'd
Unto the sacred temper of a king;
Methinks I hear my noble Parasites
Stiling me Caesar, or great Alexander,
Licking my feet,--&c.
Mr. Langbaine ascribes to Brewer the two following plays,
Country Girl, a Comedy, often acted with applause, printed in 4to.
1647. This play has been revived since the Restoration, under the
title of Country Innocence, or the Chamber-maid turned Quaker.
Love-sick King, an English Tragical History, with the Life and Death
of Cartesmunda, the Fair Nun of Winchester; printed in 4to. London,
1655; this play was likewise revived 1680, and acted by the name of
the Perjured Nun. The historical part of the plot is founded upon the
Invasion of the Danes, in the reign of King Ethelred and Alfred.
This last play of Anthony Brewer's, is one of the best irregular
plays, next to those of Shakespear, which are in our language. The
story, which is extremely interesting, is conducted, not so much with
art, as spirit; the characters are animated, and the scene busy.
Canutus King of Denmark, after having gained the city of Winchester,
by the villainy of a native, orders all to be put to the sword, and at
last enters the Cloister, raging with the thirst of blood, and panting
for destruction; he meets Cartesmunda, whose beauty stops his ruffian
violence, and melts him, as it were, into a human creature. The
language of this play is as modern, and the verses as musical as those
of Rowe; fire and elevation run through it, and there are many strokes
of the most melting tenderness. Cartesmunda, the Fair Nun of
Winchester, inspires the King with a passion for her, and after a long
struggle between honour and love, she at last yields to the tyrant,
and for the sake of Canutus breaks her vestal vows. Upon hearing that
the enemy was about to enter the Cloister, Cartesmunda breaks out into
the following beautiful exclamation:
The raging foe pursues, defend us Heaven!
Take virgin tears, the balm of martyr'd saints
As tribute due, to thy tribunal throne;
With thy right hand keep us from rage and murder;
Let not our danger fright us, but our sins;
Misfortunes touch our bodies, not our souls.
When Canutus advances, and first sees Cartesmunda, his speech is
poetical, and conceived in the true spirit of Tragedy.
Ha! who holds my conquering hand? what power unknown,
By magic thus transforms me to a statue,
Senseless of all the faculties of life?
My blood runs back, I have no power to strike;
Call in our guards and bid 'em all give o'er.
Sheath up your swords with me, and cease to kill:
Her angel beauty cries, she must not die,
Nor live but mine: O I am strangely touch'd!
Methinks I lift my sword, against myself,
When I oppose her--all perfection!
O see! the pearled dew drops from her eyes;
Arise in peace, sweet soul.
In the same scene the following is extremely beautiful.
I'm struck with light'ning from the torrid zone;
Stand all between me, and that flaming sun!
Go Erkinwald, convey her to my tent.
Let her be guarded with more watchful eyes
Than heaven has stars:
If here she stay I shall consume to death,
'Tis time can give my passions remedy,
Art thou not gone! kill him that gazeth on her;
For all that see her sure must doat like me,
And treason for her, will be wrought against us.
Be sudden--to our tents--pray thee away,
The hell on earth is love that brings delay.
* * * * *
THOMAS MAY,
A Poet and historian of the 17th century, was descended of an ancient,
but decayed family in the county of Sussex, in the reign of Queen
Elizabeth[1], and was educated a fellow commoner in Sidney Sussex
College in Cambridge. He afterwards removed to London, and lived about
the court, where he contracted friendships with several gentlemen of
fashion and distinction, especially with Endymion Porter esquire, one
of the gentlemen of the bedchamber to King Charles I. while [sic] he
resided at court he wrote five plays, which are extant under his name.
In 1622, he published at London, in 8vo. a translation of Virgil's
Georgics with annotations; and in 1635, a Poem on King Edward III. It
was printed under the title of the Victorious Reign of Edward III.
written in seven books, by his Majesty's command. In the dedication to
Charles I. our author writes thus; "I should humbly have craved your
Majesty's pardon for my omission of the latter part of King Edward's
reign, but that the sense of mine own defects hath put me in mind of a
most necessary suit, so beg forgiveness for that part which is here
written. Those great actions of Edward III. are the arguments of this
poem, which is here ended, where his fortune began to decline, where
the French by revolts, and private practices regained that which had
been won from them by eminent and famous victories; which times may
afford fitter observations for an acute historian in prose, than
strains of heighth for an heroic poem." The poem thus begins,
The third, and greatest Edward's reign we sing,
The high atchievements of that martial King,
Where long successful prowesse did advance,
So many trophies in triumphed France,
And first her golden lillies bare; who o're
Pyrennes mountains to that western shore,
Where Tagus tumbles through his yellow sand
Into the ocean; stretch'd his conquering hand.
From the lines quoted, the reader will be able to judge what sort of
versifier our author was, and from this beginning he has no great
reason to expect an entertaining poem, especially as it is of the
historical kind; and he who begins a poem thus insipidly, can never
expect his readers to accompany him to the third page. May likewise
translated Lucan's Pharsalia, which poem he continued down to the
death of Julius Caesar, both in Latin and English verse.
Dr. Fuller says, that some disgust was given to him at court, which
alienated his affections from it, and determined him, in the civil
wars to adhere to the Parliament.
Mr. Philips in his Theatrum Poetarum, observes, that he stood
candidate with Sir William Davenant for the Laurel, and his ambition
being frustrated, he conceived the most violent aversion to the King
and Queen. Sir William Davenant, besides the acknowledged superiority
of his abilities, had ever distinguished himself for loyalty, and was
patronized and favoured by men of power, especially the Marquis of
Newcastle: a circumstance which we find not to have happened to May:
it is true, they were both the friends of the amiable Endymion Porter,
esq; but we are not informed whether that gentleman interested himself
on either side.
In the year 1647, was published in London in folio, The History of the
Parliament of England, which began November 3, 1640, with a Short and
Necessary View of some precedent Years, written by Thomas May, Esq;
Secretary to the Parliament, and published by their authority. In 1650
he published in 8vo. A Breviary of the History of the Parliament of
England. Besides these works, Mr. Philips tells us, he wrote a History
of Henry IV. in English verse, the Comedy of the Old Wives Tale, and
the History of Orlando Furioso; but the latter, Mr. Langbaine, who is
a higher authority than Philips, assures us was written before May was
able to hold a pen, much less to write a play, being printed in 4to.
London, 1594. Mr. Winstanley says, that in his history, he shews all
the spleen of a mal-content, and had he been preferred to the Bays, as
he happened to be disappointed, he would have embraced the Royal
interest with as much zeal, as he did the republican: for a man who
espouses a cause from spite only, can be depended upon by no party,
because he acts not upon any principles of honour or conviction.
Our author died suddenly in the year 1652, and was interred near the
tomb of Camden, on the West side of the North isle of Westminster
Abbey, but his body, with several others, was dug up after the
restoration, and buried in a pit in St. Margaret's church yard[2]. Mr.
May's plays are,
1. Agrippina, Empress of Rome, a Tragedy, printed in 12mo. London,
1639. Our author has followed Suetonius and Tacitus, and has
translated and inserted above 30 lines from Petronius Arbiter; this
circumstance we advance on the authority of Langbaine, whose extensive
reading has furnished him with the means of tracing the plots of most
part of our English plays; we have heard that there is a Tragedy on
this subject, written by Mr. Gray of Cambridge, the author of the
beautiful Elegy in a Country Church Yard; which play Mr. Garrick has
sollicited him to bring upon the stage; to which the author has not
yet consented.
2. Antigone, the Theban Princess, a Tragedy, printed in 8vo. London,
1631, and dedicated to Endymion Porter, Esq; Our author in the
contexture of this Tragedy, has made use of the Antigone of Sophocles,
and the Thebais of Seneca.
3. Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, a Tragedy, acted 1626, and printed in
12mo. London, 1639, and dedicated to Sir Kenelme Digby: The author has
followed the historians of those times. We have in our language two
other plays upon the same subject, one by Shakespear, and the other by
Dryden.
4. Heir, a Comedy, acted by the company of revels, 1620; this play is
much commended by Mr. Thomas Carew, in a copy of verses prefixed to
the play, where, amongst other commendations bestowed on the stile,
and natural working up of the passions, he says thus of the oeconomy
of the play.
The whole plot doth alike itself disclose,
Thro' the five Acts, as doth a lock, that goes
With letters, for 'till every one be known,
The lock's as fast, as if you had found none.
If this comedy, is no better than these wretched commendatory lines,
it is miserable indeed.
5. Old Couple, a Comedy, printed in 4to; this play is intended to
expose the vice of covetousness.
Footnotes:
1. Langbaine's Lives of the Poets.
2. Wood's Fasti Oxon. vol. i. p. 205.
* * * * *
JOHN TAYLOUR, Water-Poet,
Was born in Gloucestershire, where he went to school with one Green,
and having got into his accidence, was bound apprentice to a Waterman
in London, which, though a laborious employment, did not so much
depress his mind, but that he sometimes indulged himself in poetry.
Taylour retates [sic] a whimsical story of his schoolmaster Mr. Green,
which we shall here insert upon the authority of Winstanley. "Green
loved new milk so well, that in order to have it new, he went to the
market to buy a cow, but his eyes being dim, he cheapened a bull, and
asking the price of the beast, the owner and he agreed, and driving it
home, would have his maid to milk it, which she attempting to do,
could find no teats; and whilst the maid and her master were arguing
the matter, the bull very fairly pissed into the pail;" whereupon his
scholar John Taylour wrote these verses,
Our master Green was overseen
In buying of a bull,
For when the maid did mean to milk,
He piss'd the pail half full.
Our Water-poet found leisure to write fourscore books, some of which
occasioned diversion enough in their time, and were thought worthy to
be collected in a folio volume. Mr. Wood observes, that had he had
learning equal to his natural genius, which was excellent, he might
have equalled, if not excelled, many who claim a great share in the
temple of the muses. Upon breaking out of the rebellion, 1642, he left
London, and retired to Oxford, where he was much esteemed for his
facetious company; he kept a common victualling house there, and
thought he did great service to the Royal cause, by writing Pasquils
against the round-heads. After the garrison of Oxford surrendered, he
retired to Westminster, kept a public house in Phaenix Alley near Long
Acre, and continued constant in his loyalty to the King; after whose
death, he set up a sign over his door, of a mourning crown, but that
proving offensive, he pulled it down, and hung up his own picture[1],
under which were these words,
There's many a head stands for a sign,
Then gentle reader why not mine?
On the other side,
Tho' I deserve not, I desire
The laurel wreath, the poet's hire.
He died in the year 1654, aged 74, and was buried in the church yard
of St. Paul's Covent-Garden; his nephew, a Painter at Oxford, who
lived in Wood's time, informed him of this circumstance, who gave his
picture to the school gallery there, where it now hangs, shewing him
to have had a quick and smart countenance. The following epitaph was
written upon him,
Here lies the Water-poet, honest John,
Who row'd on the streams of Helicon;
Where having many rocks and dangers past,
He at the haven of Heaven arrived at last.
Footnote:
1. Athen. Oxon. vol. ii. p. 393.
* * * * *
WILLIAM HABINGTON,
Son of Thomas Habington, Esq; was born at Hendlip in Worcestershire,
on the 4th of November 1605, and received his education at St. Omers
and Paris, where he was earnestly pressed to take upon him the habit
of a Jesuit; but that sort of life not suiting with his genius, he
excused himself and left them[1]. After his return from Paris, he was
instructed by his father in history, and other useful branches of
literature, and became, says Wood, a very accomplished gentleman. This
author has written,
1. Poems, 1683, in 8vo. under the title of Castara: they are divided
into three parts under different titles, suitable to their subject.
The first, which was written when he was courting his wife, Lucia, the
beautiful daughter of William Lord Powis, is introduced by a
character, written in prose, of a mistress. The second are copies to
her after marriage, by the character of a wife; after which is a
character of a friend, before several funeral elegies. The third part
consists of divine poems, some of which are paraphrases on several
texts out of Job, and the book of psalms.
2. The Queen of Arragon, a Tragi-Comedy, which play he shewed to
Philip Earl of Pembroke, who having a high opinion of it, caused it to
be acted at court, and afterwards to be published, the contrary to the
author's inclination.
3. Observations on History, Lond. 1641, 8vo.
4. History of Edward IV. Lond. 1640, in a thin folio, written and
published at the desire of King Charles I. which in the opinion of
some critics of that age, was too florid for history, and fell short
of that calm dignity which is peculiar to a good historian, and which
in our nation has never been more happily attained than by the great
Earl of Clarendon and Bishop Burnet. During the civil war, Mr.
Habington, according to Wood, temporized with those in power, and was
not unknown to Oliver Cromwell; but there is no account of his being
raised to any preferment during the Protector's government. He died
the 30th of November, 1654.
We shall present the readers with the prologue to the Queen of
Arragon, acted at Black-Fryars, as a specimen of this author's poetry.
Ere we begin that no man may repent,
Two shillings, and his time, the author sent
The prologue, with the errors of his play,
That who will, may take his money and away.
First for the plot, 'tis no way intricate
By cross deceits in love, nor so high in state,
That we might have given out in our play-bill
This day's the Prince, writ by Nick Machiavil.
The language too is easy, such as fell
Unstudied from his pen; not like a spell
Big with mysterious words, such as inchant
The half-witted, and confound the ignorant.
Then, what must needs, afflict the amourist,
No virgin here, in breeches casts a mist
Before her lover's eyes; no ladies tell
How their blood boils, how high their veins do swell.
But what is worse no baudy mirth is here;
(The wit of bottle-ale, and double beer)
To make the wife of citizen protest,
And country justice swear 'twas a good jest.
Now, Sirs, you have the errors of his wit,
Like, or dislike, at your own perils be't.
Footnote:
1. Wood Athen. Oxon. v. 1, p, 100.
* * * * *
FRANCIS GOLDSMITH.
Was the son of Francis Goldsmith, of St. Giles in the Fields in
Middlesex, Esq; was educated under Dr. Nicholas Grey, in
Merchant-Taylor's School, became a gentleman commoner in
Pembroke-College in the beginning of 1629, was soon after translated
to St. John's College, and after he had taken a degree in arts, to
Grey's-Inn, where he studied the common law several years, but other
learning more[1]. Mr. Langbaine says, that he could recover no other
memoirs of this gentleman, but that he lived in the reign of King
Charles the First, and obliged the World with a translation of a play
out of Latin called, Sophompaneas, or the History of Joseph, with
Annotations, a Tragedy, printed 4to. Lond. 1640, and dedicated to the
Right Hon. Henry Lord Marquis of Dorchester. This Drama was written by
the admirable Hugo Grotius, published by him at Amsterdam 1635, and
dedicated to Vossius, Professor of History and Civil Arts in
Amsterdam. He stiles it a Tragedy, notwithstanding it ends
successfully, and quotes for his authority in so doing, AEschilus,
Euripides, and even Vossius, in his own Art of Poetry. Some make it a
Question, whether it be lawful to found a dramatic Poem on any sacred
subject, and some people of tender consciences have murmured against
this Play, and another of the same cast called Christ's Passion; but
let us hear the opinion of Vossius himself, prefixed to this Play. "I
am of opinion, (says he) it is better to chuse another argument than
sacred. For it agrees not with the majesty of sacred things, to be
made a play and a fable. It is also a work of very dangerous
consequence, to mingle human inventions with things sacred; because
the poet adds uncertainties of his own, sometimes falsities; which is
not only to play with holy things, but also to graft in men's minds
opinions, now and then false. These things have place, especially when
we bring in God, or Christ speaking, or treating of the mysteries of
religion. I will allow more where the history is taken out of the
sacred scriptures; but yet in the nature of the argument is civil, as
the action of David flying from his son Absolom; or of Joseph sold by
his brethren, advanced by Pharaoh to the government of Egypt, and that
dignity adored by, and made known unto his brethren. Of which argument
is Sophompaneas, written by Hugo Grotius, embassador from the Queen of
Sweden to the King of France; which tragedy, I suppose, may be set for
a pattern to him, that would handle an argument from the holy
scriptures." This is the opinion of Vossius, and with him all must
agree who admire the truly admirable Samson Agonistes of Milton.
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