After the King's restoration he quitted the liv ing he held under Cromwell, and returned to Eifley near Oxon, to live on his archdeaconry; and had he not acted a temporizing part it was faid he might have been raised to a fee, or some rich deanery. His poetry however, got him a name in those days, and he ftood very fair for preferment; and his philofophy difcovered in his book de Anima, and well languaged fermons, (fays Wood) fpeaks him eminent in his generation, and fhew him to have traced the rough parts, as well as the pleasant paths of poetry. His works are, 1. Three Sermons, on the Paffion, Refurection, and Afcenfion of our Saviour, Lond. 1626. 2. Two Sermons at Paul's Crofs. 3. A Sermon on the Nature of Faith. 4. Motives to a godly Life, in Ten Sermons, Oxon, 1657. 5. Four Sermons against Disloyalty, Oxon, 1661. Technogamia; or the Marriage of Arts, a Comedy, acted publickly in Chrift's Church Hall, with no great applaufe 1617. But the Wits of thofe times being willing to diftinguish themselves before the King, were refolved, with leave, to act the fame comedy at Woodstock, whereupon (fays Wood) the author making fome foolish alterations in it, it was accordingly acted on Sunday night the 26th of August 1621, but it being too grave for the King, and too fcholaftic for the Audience, or as fome faid, that the actors in order to remove, their timidity, had taken too much wine before they began, his Majefty after two acts offered feveral times to withdraw; at length being perfuaded by fome of those who were near to him, to have patience till it was ended, left the young men fhould be difcouraged, he fat it out, tho' much against his will; upon upon which these Verses were made by a certain scholar; At Christ Church Marriage done before the King 6. Survey of the World in Ten Books, a Poem, Oxon, 1661, which was judged by Scholars to be an inconfiderable piece, and by fome not to be his. But being published just before his death, it was taken for a pofthumous work, which had been compofed by him in his younger Days +. He tranflated out of Latin into English the Satires of Perfius, Oxon. 1616, in apologizing for the defects of this work, he plays upon the word tranflate: To have committed no faults in this tranflation, says he, would have been to tranflate myself, and put off man. Wood calls this defpicable pun, an elegant turn. 7. Satires of Juvenal illustrated with Notes, Oxon. folio 1673. At the end of which is the Fourth Edition of Perfius, before mentioned. 8. Odes of Horace, Lond. 1652; this Translation Wood fays, is fo near that of Sir Thomas Hawkins, printed 1638, or that of Hawkins fo near this, that to whom to afcribe it he is in doubt. Dr. Holyday, who according to the fame author was highly conceited of his own worth, efpecially in his younger Days, but who seems not to have much reafon for being fo, died at a Village called Eifley on the 2d day of October 1661, and was three days after buried at the foot of Bishop King's monument, under the fouth wall of the ille joining on the fouth fide to the choir of Chrift Church Cathedral, near the remains of William Cartwright, and Jo. Gregory. † Athen. Oxon. P. 260. THOMAS A THOMAS NABBES. Writer in the reign of Charles I, whom we may reckon, fays Langbaine, among poets of the third rate, but who in ftrict juftice cannot rife above a fifth. He was patronized by Sir John Suckling, He has feven plays and mafks extant, befides other poems, which Mr. Langbaine fays, are entirely his own, and that he has had recourfe to no preceding author for affiftance, and in this refpect deferves pardon if not applause from the critic. This he avers in his prologue to CoventGarden. He juftifies that 'tis no borrowed flrain, 'Twas not a toil of years: few weeks brought 11 forth, This rugged iffue, might have been more worth, Matter or words to height, nor bundle up- Doth practife her low fpeculation. The reader from the above fpecimen may fee what a poet he was; but as he was in fome degree of esteem in his time, we thought it improper to omit him. The The following are his plays; 1. The Bride, a Comedy; acted in the Year 1638 at a private Houfe in Drury-Lane by their Majefty's Servants, printed 4to. 1640. 2. Covent Garden, a Comedy; acted in the Year 1632. 3. Hannibal and Scipio, an Historical Tragedy, acted in the year 1635. 4. Microcofmus, a Moral Mafque, represented at a private houfe in Salisbury Court, printed 1637. 5. Spring's Glory, Vindicating Love by Temperance, against the Tenet, Sine Cerere & Baccho friget Venus; moralized in a Masque. With other Poems, Epigrams, Elegies, and Epithalamiums of the author's, printed in 4to, London, 1638. At the end of these poems is a piece called A Prefentation, intended for the Prince's Birth-day, May 29, 1638, annually celebrated. 6. Tottenham-Court, a Comedy, acted in the year 1633, at a private house in Salisbury Court, printed in 4to. 1638. 7. Unfortunate Lovers, a Tragedy, never acted, printed in 4to. London, 1640. Mr. Philips and Mr. Winftanley, according to their old cuftom, have afcribed two other anonymous plays to our author: The Woman Hater Arraigned, a Comedy, and Charles the First, a Tragedy, which Langbaine has fhewn not to be his. VOL. II. No. 6. с JAMES A JAMES SHIRLEY, VERY voluminous dramatic author, was born in the city of London, and was defcended from the Shirleys in Suffex or Warwickfhire; he was educated in grammar learning in Merchant Taylors fchool, and tranfplanted thence to St. John's College, but in what itation he lived there, we don't find. Dr. William Laud, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, prefiding over that houfe, conceived a great affection for our author, and was willing to cherish and improve those promifing abilities early discoverable in him. Mr. Shirley had always an inclination to enter into holy orders, but, for a very particular reafon, was difcouraged from attempting it by Dr. Laud; this reafon to fome may appear whimsical and ridiculous, but has certainly much weight and force in it. Shirley had unfortunately a large mole upon his left cheek, which much disfigured him, and gave him a very forbidding appearance. Laud obferved very juftly, that an audience can scarce help conceiving a prejudice against a man whofe appearance fhocks them, and were he to preach with the tongue of an angel, that prejudice could never be furmounted; befides the danger of women with child fixing their eyes on him in the pulpit, and as the imagination of pregnant women has ftrange influence on the unborn infants, it is fmewhat cruel to expofe them to that danger, and by thefe means do them great injury, as ones |