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per, to one who endeavoured to destroy his reputa"tion, so dear to all men, but the very darling of

In the Biographia Britannica it is said of Shadwell -"his friend Dr. Brady preached his funeral sermon, ، wherein he assures us, that our author was a man "of great honesty and integrity, and had a real love "of truth and sincerity, an inviolable fidelity and "strictness to his word, an unalterable friendship "wherever he professed it; and a much deeper "sense of religion, than many others, who pretend "to it more openly-his natural and acquired abili"ties (continues the Doctor) made him sufficiently "remarkable to all that he conversed with; very few being equal to him, in all the becoming qualities "and accomplishments of a complete gentleman.””

Malone does not bring the slightest proof of his assertions-and, as Dr. Johnson observes, if accusation without proof be credited, who shall be innocent?

Shadwell, in his dedication of the Libertine to the Duke of Newcastle, says, that he had the birth and education, without the fortune of a Gentleman; and that he had the honour to be daily admitted to his Grace's public and private conversation-Shadwell was likewise intimate with the Earl of Dorset and Sir Charles Sedley-two of the leading Gentlemen of the times-such persons surely would not have suffered Shadwell to keep company with them, if his manners had been coarse.

As to the charge of profaneness, it probably arose from Shadwell's detestation of high church principles —it is certain, from the 1st scene of the Lancashire Witches, that Shadwell was a low churchman-it is

probable from the sentiments which he thus publickly expressed, that he might in conversation speak his mind very freely of the high church party—but it is hardly possible, that if his conversation had been really and habitually profane, he would not, at one time or other, have been profane in his writings.

Shadwell is ridiculed by his adversaries for his corpulency, and love of the bottle-Dryden in his Vindication of the Duke of Guise (1683) says-"Og 66 may write against the King if he pleases, so long "as he drinks for him; and his writings will never "do the government so much harm, as his drinking "does it good; for true subjects will not be much

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perverted by his libels; but the wine duties rise considerably by his claret-He has often called me "atheist in print; I would believe more charitably "of him, and that he only goes the broad way, be"cause the other is too narrow for him by his "late fall at the Old Devil he broke no ribs, because "the hardness of the stairs could reach no bones; "and for my part I do not wonder how he came to "fall, for I have always known him heavy the "miracle is, how he got up again. I have heard of "a sea captain as fat as he, who, to escape arrests, "would lay himself flat upon the ground, and let the "bailiffs carry him to prison if they could-if a "messenger or two, nay, we may put in three or "four, should come, he has friendly advertisement "how to escape them."

By a messenger Dryden means a King's messenger, intimating that Shadwell was liable to be taken up for disaffection to the government.

In a Session of the Poets, written about the same time, it is said

"Next into the crowd Tom Shadwell does wallow,

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And swears by his guts, his paunch, and his

""Tis he that alone best pleases the age;

"Himself and his wife have supported the stage.

"However to please so jovial a wit,

"And to keep him in humour, Apollo thought fit "To bid him drink on" &c.

(Malone.)

From these lines it appears that Mrs. Shadwell the actress was Shadwell's wife-she seems, after his decease, to have been possessed of one (or more) of the Adventurers' shares in the theatre, as in the petition presented to Queen Anne, Ann Shadwell, Widow, is one of the petitioners.

Shadwell wrote or altered 17 plays-all his Comedies have merit--but some of them have too much mere conversation-Epsom Wells and the Squire of Alsatia are his best plays.

T. R. 1693.

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Old Batchelor. Bellmour Powell: Heartwell = Betterton Fondlewife = Dogget: Sir Joseph Wittol = Bowen Capt. Bluffe Haines: Setter Under

hill: Vainlove

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Williams: Sharper Alexander : Lætitia Mrs. Barry Belinda Mrs. Mountfort : Araminta Mrs. Bracegirdle: Silvia Mrs. Bowman:

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Lucy Mrs. Leigh :--Congreve, having no acquaintance with the Manager of the Theatre, found means to be introduced to Southerne, who recommended him to the notice and protection of Dryden—after reading his Comedy over, Dryden declared he never saw such a first play, though from the author's inexperience it stood in need of some corrections to fit it for representation-these he readily supplied-so high was the opinion entertained of Congreve, after Dryden's perusal of his play, that for some time before its appearance on the stage, he was admitted to the freedom of the theatre-and from this period he lived in great intimacy with Dryden Malone adds that the Old Batchelor came out in Jan. 1692-3-in the Female Wits, Marsilia speaks of her play as likely to be acted 17 or 18 nights together to which Mrs. Wellfed replies-" How Madam! that is 3 or 4 more "than the Old Batchelor held out."

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Malone says "As at the time of Congreve's sitting down to compose the Old Batchelor, he is "said to have been only 19, so at that of its represen"tation, we are told, by all his biographers, that he " was but 21— ** at what time he began to write "this C., has not been ascertained either by himself "or his friend Southerne; but if, according to the "account given by the latter to Dr. Birch, 2 years only intervened between its composition and its performance he was 21, when he began to write it; "for assuredly, when it was first exhibited, he was 23 "years old—this fact is ascertained by the register

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"of Bardsey, in Yorkshire, from which it appears "that he was baptized there, Feb. 10 1669-70.”

Malone is not correct-Congreve has himself ascertained at what time he wrote his play-and that he was at that time about 19-the Old Batchelor was acted and printed in 1693-Congreve says of it in his dedication-" had it been acted when it was first "written, more might have been said in its behalf; ignorance of the town and stage would then have "been excuses in a young writer, which now, almost four years experience will scarce allow of."

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Malone has removed all doubt as to the place of Congreve's birth; but he was commonly considered as an Irishman.

Dryden says "As for Comedy, Repartee is one "of its chiefest graces, the greatest pleasure of the "audience is a chase of wit kept up on both sides, " and swiftly managed"-and in this who was ever equal to Congreve?

It is to be regretted, that Congreve, who in general is so happy in the management of his plots, should have concluded this play and Love for Love with a Marriage in a Mask; a deception which perhaps never happened and which (whether likely or not) had been introduced in so many plays, that it was stale to the last degree.

Congreve says he wrote this play to amuse himself in a slow recovery from a fit of sickness-on which Collier remarks, he will not inquire what his disease was, but it must have been a very ill one, to be worse than the remedy.

Richmond Heiress, or a Woman Once in the Right —(D'Urfey dates his dedication May 6th 1693) –