attainment and polished taste.-BROWN, JOHN, 1849, Expository Discourses on the First Epistle of Peter. A man whose apostolic gentleness of conduct endeared him deeply to his contemporaries, and whose devoutly meditative eloquence made him, in our own day, the bosom-oracle of Coleridge.-SPALDING, WILLIAM, 1852-82, A History of English Literature, p. 290. It would not be good, perhaps, to read nothing but Leighton, for he lacks manliness, and would not fit us for the sterner side of Christian duty; but in an age like ours, when all is stir and bustle and push, his books furnish a first-rate alterative, and help to restore the devotional to its true place in the life of the soul.-TAYLOR, WILLIAM M., 1887, The Scottish Pulpit, p. 132. Robert Leighton is as a March swallow among Protestant theologians. Above all things a spiritual divine, he has yet the gift of tongues to put his wisdom before the world in decent and profitable shape. It is but a lax prose, not ordered into periods and paragraphs, but ebbing and flowing comment-wise, as the exigencies of a text require it. The phrase is strong and sweet, a little careless perhaps, as of one disregarding the conventions of deliberate art. But at its best it rises into passages of extraordinary height, glowing with the rich fire of jewels, ringing with the harmonies of restrained music. Nor do such passages affect one as conscious rhetoric; they are not merely purple patches; every elevation of style corresponds directly to some moment of intensity or ecstasy in the course of the preacher's thought. Only Leighton lived in an age when sermons might still be literature; before the eighteenth century had ruled that colour and imagination were out of place in the pulpit. In him, as in Jeremy Taylor or in Donne, dignity of speech is not the first consideration; they are not so far removed, Latinised though they be, from the nervous homespun of Latimer.-CHAMBERS, EDMUND K., 1893, English Prose, ed. Craik, vol. II, p. 489. Wentworth Dillon Earl of Roscommon 1633?-1684 Wentworth Dillon, Earl of Roscommon, born about 1633, nephew and godson to the Earl of Strafford. He was at the Protestant College at Caen when, by the death of his father, he became Earl of Roscommon, at the age of ten. He remained abroad, travelled in Italy till the Restoration, when he came in with the king, became captain of the band of Pensioners, took for a time to gambling, married, indulged his taste in literature, strongly under the French influence, and had a project for an English academy like that of France. He translated into verse Horace's "Art of Poetry," translated into verse Virgil's sixth Eclogue, one or two Odes of Horace, and a passage from Guarini's "Pastor Fido." Of his original writing the most important piece is "An Essay on Translated Verse," carefully polished in the manner of Boileau, sensible, and often very happy in expression. He died in 1684. MORLEY, HENRY, 1879, A Manual of English Literature, ed. Tyler, p. 421. GENERAL It was my Lord Roscommon's "Essay on Translated Verse:" which made me uneasy till I tried whether or no I was capable of following his rules, and of reducing the speculation into practice.-DRYDEN, JOHN, 1685, Second Miscellany, Preface. Nor must Roscommon pass neglected by, The best of critics, and of poets too. In all Charles' days We must allow of Roscommon, what Fenton has not mentioned so distinctly as he ought, and what is yet very much to his honour, that he is perhaps the only correct writer in verse before Addison; and that, if there are not so many or so great beauties in his compositions as in those of some contemporaries, there are Of Roscommon's works, the judgement of the -ADDISON, JOSEPH, 1694, An Account of at least fewer faults. the Greatest English Poets. publick seems to be right. He is elegant, but not great; he never labours after exquisite beauties, and he seldom falls into gross faults. His versification is smooth, but rarely vigorous; and his rhymes are remarkably exact. He improved taste, if he did not enlarge knowledge, and may be numbered among the benefactors to English literature.-JOHNSON, SAMUEL, 1779, Roscommon, Lives of the English Poets. Roscommon fills with elegant remark His verse as elegant; unspotted lines mon, proves that correctness is one of the merits least appreciated by lovers of poetry. He had, however, a far higher merit; his verses were free from the licentiousness of his times. --THOMPSON, KATHERINE (GRACE WHARTON), 1862, The Literature of Society, vol. I, p. 262. Roscommon stands on the same ground with Denham-elegant and sensible, but cold and unimpassioned. CHAMBERS, ROBERT, 1876, Cyclopædia of English Literature, ed. Carruthers. Roscommon is remarkable as the only writer between Milton and the end of the -HURDIS, JAMES, 1788, The Village century who discarded rhyme in serious Curate. nondramatic verse. GOSSE, EDMUND, 1888, A History of Eighteenth Century Literature, p. 32. He has nothing of the salt and savour of Rochester's more serious poetry, and is at best an elegant versifier, who, in his only considerable original poem, the "Essay on Translated Verse," thinks justly, reasons clearly, and expresses himself with considerable spirit when the subject requires. The most original feature of his literary character is his preference in a rhyming age for blank verse, which he enforces in theory, but is far from recommending by his practice. In his rhymed pieces he is a better versifier than poet, and in his blank verse the contrary.GARNETT, RICHARD, 1895, The Age of Dryden, p. 48. Thomas Otway 1652-1685 Born, at Trotton, Sussex, 3 March 1652. Educated at Winchester College, till 1669. Matriculated, Christ Church, Oxford, 27 May 1669; left in 1672, without degree. To London; devoted himself to writing plays. Produced, at Dorset Gardens Theatre, "Alcibiades," 1675; "Don Carlos," 1676; "Titus and Berenice," 1677;' "The Cheats of Scapin," 1677; "Friendship in Fashion," 1678. Enlisted, to serve in army in Holland, 1678. Ensign in Duke of Monmouth's regiment, Feb. 1678; Lieutenant, Nov. 1678. Returned to England, 1679. Produced, at Dorset Gardens Theatre, "The Orphan," Feb. 1680; "History and Fall of Caius Marius," 1680; "The Souldier's Fortune," 1681; "Venice Preserved," Feb. 1682; "The Atheist," 1684. Died, in London, April 1685. Buried in St. Clement Danes Churchyard. Works: "Alcibiades," 1675; "Don Carlos," 1676; "Titus and Berenice With a farce called The Cheats of Scapin" (adapted from Racine and Molière), 1677; "Friendship in Fashion," 1678; "The Orphan," 1680; "History and Fall of Caius Marius," 1680; "The Poet's Complaint of his Muse," 1680; "The Souldier's Fortune,' 1681; "Venice Preserv'd," 1682; "The Atheist," 1684. Posthumous: "Windsor Castle," 1685; "The History of the Triumvirates" (trans. from the French), 1686. Collected Works: in 2 vols., 1713; in 3 vols., ed. by W. T. Thornton, 1813.-SHARP, R. FARQUHARSON, 1897, A Dictionary of English Authors, p. 218. PERSONAL An Author who was well known to most Persons of this Age, who are famous for Wit and Breeding.-LANGBAINE, GERARD, 1691, An Account of the English Dramatick Poets, p. 395. In this play ["The Jealous Bridegroom"] Mr. Otway, the poet, having an inclination to turn actor, Mr Behn gave him the King in the play for a probation part; but he, being not used to the stage, the full house put him to such a sweat and tremendous agony, that being dash't spoilt him for an actor.-DoWNES, JOHN, 1708, Roscius Anglicanus; or, an Historical View of the Stage, p. 34. Otway had an intimate friend (one Blackstone), who was shot; the murderer fled toward Dover; and Otway pursued him. In his return, he drank water when violently heated, and so got a fever which was the death of him.-DENNIS, JOHN, 1728-30, Spence's Anecdotes, ed. Singer, p. 33. But wherefore need I wander wide Deserted stream, and mute? Been soothed by pity's lute. To him thy cell was shown; His person was of the middle size, about, 5 ft. 7 in. in height, inclinable to fatness. He had a thoughtful speaking eye. OLDYS, WILLIAM, C1761, MS. note to Langbaine's Account of the English Dramatic Poets. He died April 14, 1685, in a manner which I am unwilling to mention. Having been compelled by his necessities to contract debts, and hunted, as is supposed, by the tarriers of the law, he retired to a publick-house on Tower-hill, where he is said to have died of want; or, as it is related by one of his biographers, by swallowing, after a long fast, a piece of bread which charity had supplied. He went out, as is reported, almost naked in the rage of hunger, and, finding a gentleman in a neighbouring coffee-house, asked him for a shilling. The gentleman gave him a guinea; and Otway going away bougnt a roll, and was choaked with the But first mouthful. All this, I hope, is not true; and there is this ground of better hope, that Pope, who lived near enough to be well informed, relates in Spence's Memorials, that he died of a fever caught by violent pursuit of a thief that had robbed one of his friends. that indigence, and its concomitants, sorrow and despondency, pressed hard upon him, has never been denied, whatever immediate cause might bring him to the grave. JOHNSON, SAMUEL, 1779, Otway, Lives of the English Poets. If Lee died tipsy outside a public house, Otway died half-starved within one, at the Bull on Tower Hill.-DORAN, JOHN, 1863, Annals of the English Stage. Dryden and Otway were contemporaries, and lived, it is said, for some time opposite to each other in Fetter Lane. One morning the latter happened to call upon his brother bard about breakfast-time, but was told by his servant that his master was gone to breakfast with the Earl of Pembroke. "Very well," said Otway, "tell your master that I will call to-morrow morning." Accordingly he called about the same hour. "Well, is your master at home now?" "No, sir, he is just gone to breakfast with the Duke of Buckingham." "The d- he is!" said Otway; and, actuated either by envy, pride, or disappointment, in a kind of involuntary manner he took up a piece of chalk which lay on a table . . . and wrote over the door, "Here lives Dryden, a poet and a wit." The next morning Dryden recognized the handwriting, and told the servant to go to Otway and desire his company to breakfast with him; in the mean time Otway's line of "Here lives Dryden, a poet and a wit," he added, to "This was written by Otway, opposit." When Otway arrived he saw that his line was linked with a rhyme, and, being a man of rather petulant disposition, he took it in dudgeon, and, turning upon his heel, told Dryden he was welcome to keep his wit and his breakfast to himself.—THORNBURY, WALTER, 1872, Old and New London, vol. 1, ch. viii. Except that Otway's life in London was generally disreputable, little is recorded. of it. The low ale-house in which he perished miserably is the only spot mentioned as being in any way positively associated with him, and only the name of that is known now. He was buried in the churchyard of St. Clement Danes, April 16, 1685. No stone marks the spot.-HUTTON, LAURENCE, 1885, Literary Landmarks of London, pp. 229, 231. Weak rather than vicious, ill-used and luckless, Otway's unhappy end makes a pitiful story. There are few sadder pictures in literary history than that of the sensitive soul, famished and despairing, making known his misery in a public place, and for lack of bread startling the careless stranger with the words, "I am the poet Otway.' "Alas! poor Castalio!" -SANDERS, H. M., 1899, Thomas Otway, Temple Bar, vol. 118, p. 386. DON CARLOS 1676 Tom Otway came next, Tom Shadwell's dear zany, And swears for heroicks he writes best of any; Don Carlos his pockets so amply had fill'd, That his mange was quite cured, and his lice were all kill'd But Apollo had seen his face on the stage, And prudently did not think fit to engage The scum of a play-house, for the prop of an age. -ROCHESTER, JOHN WILMOT, EARL, 1680? Session of the Poets. Although "Alcibiades" had been a partial failure, Betterton accepted another tragedy from the young author in the following year. "Don Carlos" is as great an advance on its predecessor as it could possibly be. It is difficult to believe that they were written by the same hand. The rhyming tragedies were on their last legs, but "Don Carlos" was a crutch that might have supported the falling fashion. for years. The supple, strong verse, unEnglish in character but worthy of Corneille or at least of Rotrou, assists instead of hampering the dramatic action: the plot is well-considered, tragical, and moving; the characters, stagey though they be, are vigorously designed and sustained. I think we should be justified in calling "Don Carlos" the best English tragedy in rhyme; by one leap the young Oxonian sprang ahead of the veteran Dryden, who thereupon began to "weary of his longloved mistress, rhyme."-GOSSE, EDMUND, 1883, Seventeenth-Century Studies, p. 279. Might have been a good play if it had not been written in rhyme. The action is highly dramatic, and the characters, though artless, are not ineffective; but the pathos in which the poet excelled is continually disturbed by the bombastic couplets, ever trembling on the brink of the ridiculous. The remorse of Philip after the murder of his wife and son is as grotesque an instance of the forcible. feeble as could easily be found, and is a melancholy instance indeed of the declension of the English drama, when contrasted with the demeanour of Othello in similar circumstances. Otway, however, was yet to show that his faults were rather his age's than his own.-GARNETT, RICHARD, 1895, The Age of Dryden, p. 103. THE ORPHAN 1680 Notwithstanding its real beauties, could hardly have taken so prodigiously, as it hath done, on our stage, if there were not somewhere a defect of good taste as well as of good morals.--HURD, RICHARD, 1757, Notes on the Art of Poetry, vol. I, p. 42. This is one of the few plays that keep possession of the stage, and has pleased for almost a century, through all the vicissitudes of dramatick fashion. Of this play nothing new can easily be said. It is a domestick tragedy drawn from middle life. Its whole power is upon the affections; for it is not written with much comprehension of thought, or elegance of expression. But if the heart is interested, many other beauties may be wanting, yet not be missed.-JOHNSON, SAMUEL, 1779, Otway, Lives of the English Poets. But the reputation of Otway for pathetic powers was, by the success of his "Orphan," justly exalted above all the dramatists of his own and succeeding times. The characters, by being brought nearer to the condition of the audience, more deeply interest their passions than the fate and fortune of persons who are eminently placed above them.-DAVIES, THOMAS, 1784, Dramatic Miscellanies, p. 183. In the 'Orphan' there is little else but this voluptuous effeminacy of sentiment and mawkish distress, which strikes directly at the root of that mental fortitude and heroic cast of thought which alone makes tragedy endurable---that renders its sufferings pathetic, or its struggles sublime. Yet there are lines and passages in it of extreme tenderness and beauty; and few persons, I conceive (judging from my own experience) will read it at a certain time of life without shedding tears over it as fast as the "Arabian trees their medicinal gums." Otway always touched the reader, for he had himself a heart. We may be sure that he blotted his page often with his tears, on which so many drops have since fallen. from glistening eyes, "that sacred pity had engendered there." He had suceptibility of feeling and warmth of genius; but he had not equal depth of thought or loftiness of imagination, and indulged his mere sensibility too much, yielding to the immediate impression or emotion excited in his own mind, and not placing himself enough in the minds and situations of others, or following the workings of nature sufficiently with keenness of eye and strength of will into its heights and depths, its strongholds as well as its weaksides. -HAZLITT, WILLIAM, 1820, Lectures on the Literature of the Age of Elizabeth, Lecture viii. The plot of the "Orphan" is as clumsy as it is indelicate.-NEELE, HENRY, 1827, Lectures on English Poetry, Lecture iv. The story of the "Orphan" is domestic, and borrowed, as I believe, from some French novel, though I do not at present remember where I have read it: it was once popular on the stage, and gave scope for good acting, but is unpleasing to the delicacy of our own age. -HALLAM, HENRY, 1837-39, Introduction to the Literature of Europe, pt. iv, ch. vi, par. 45. Has drawn more tears from female eyes than almost any other play. The nature of its central incident has kept it from the stage for the last eighty years, but from the time that Mistress Barry first played Monimia the character has been a favourite one with many of our best actresses, down to Miss O'Neill; while Betterton's part, Castalio, has given opportunities for pathos to an equally long list of his successors. "The Orphan" was the best work that Otway had yet given to the stage. It shows at its highest Otway's power of moving compassion, the continued tension of its unhappiness when once the earlier scenes are disposed of-being absolutely painful. In Monimia he has created a victim of love ill-fated, worthy for sadness to rank with Penthea in "The Broken Heart," though she is altogether more lovable and life-like than that somewhat shadowy personage. Indeed, Otway might be called a belated Ford, with tempered horrors and mitigated gloom, yet with fully as intense a sympathy for ill-starred love and the sickness of a heart broken with griefs as he who drew the wretched Annabella; but while Ford in all probability found his sadness in the hearts of others, his own strong and silent nature enabling him to draw coolly with lines not blurred with passion, Otway had in his own breast all too faithful a realisation of the sorrows he portrayed. SANDERS, H. M., 1899, Thomas Otway, Temple Bar, vol. 118, p. 378. CAIUS MARIUS 1680 How little Otway understood the true rules of composition may be inferred from this, that he has taken the half of the scenes of his "Caius Marius" verbally, or with disfiguring changes, from the "Romeo and Juliet" of Shakspeare. Nothing more incongruous can well be conceived than such an episode in Roman manners and in a historical drama. This impudent plagiarism is in no manner justified by his confessing it.-SCHLEGEL, AUGUSTUS WILLIAM, 1809, Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature, tr. Black, Lecture xii, p. 396. VENICE PRESERVED 1682 I will not defend every thing in his "Venice Preserved;" but I must bear this testimony to his memory, that the passions are truly touched in it, though perhaps there is somewhat to be desired both in the grounds of them and in the height and elegance of expression. But nature is there, which is the greatest beauty.-DRYDEN, JOHN, 1695, Du Fresnoy's Art of Painting, Preface. His last and greatest dramatick work, "Venice Preserved," a tragedy, which still continues to be one of the favourites of the publick, notwithstanding the want of morality in the original design, and the despicable scenes of vile comedy with which he has diversified his tragick action. By comparing this with his "Orphan," it will appear that his images were by time |