lt, with
a design of making him a priest; but after five years study there, he
found his inclination direct him to a quite different course of life.
When he was nineteen years old he returned to England, and as soon as he
was of age, and capable of enjoying the pleasures of gaiety, he came
to London, where he spent the greatest part of his paternal estate.
At about the age of twenty-three, to crown his other imprudences, he
married, without improving his reduced circumstances thereby.

During the reign of King James II. he dedicated his time to the study
of the prevailing controversies, and he somewhere declares, it cost him
above seven years close application to books, before he could entirely
overcome the prejudices of his education. He never believed the absurd
tenets of the church of Rome; nor could he embrace the ridiculous
doctrine of her infallibility: But as he had been taught an early
reverence to the priesthood, and a submissive obedience to their
authority, it was a long while before he assumed courage to think freely
for himself, or declare what he thought.

His first attempt in the drama, was not till he had arrived at his 32d
year; and he himself in his essays tells us, that necessity (the general
inducement) was his first motive of venturing to be an author.

He is the author of three plays, viz.

1. The Roman Bride's Revenge, a Tragedy; acted at the Theatre-Royal
1697. This play was written in a month, and had the usual success of
hasty productions, though the first and second acts are well written,
and the catastrophe beautiful; the moral being to give us an example, in
the punishment of Martian, that no consideration ought to make us delay
the service of our country.

2. Phaeton, or the Fatal Divorce; a Tragedy, acted at the Theatre-Royal
1698, dedicated to Charles Montague, Esq; This play is written in
imitation of the ancients, with some reflexions on a book called a Short
View of the Immorality of the English Stage, written by Mr. Collier, a
Non-juring Clergyman, who combated in the cause of virtue, with success,
against Dryden, Congreve, Dennis, and our author. The plot of this play,
and a great many of the beauties, Mr. Gildon owns in his preface, he has
taken from the Medea of Euripides.

3. Love's. Victim, or the Queen of Wales; a Tragedy, acted at the
Theatre in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields.

He introduced the Play called the Younger Brother, or the Amorous Jilt;
written by Mrs. Behn, but not b