is to injure a person who does them the
honour to write for them, and all that; a company of proud, conceited,
humorous, cross-grain'd persons, and all that; I'll make them the most
contemptible, despicable, inconsiderable persons, and all that; &c. &c.
&c.

2. Ermina, or the chaste lady; printed in octavo, London 1665.

3. Love's Dominion; a dramatic piece, which the author says, is full of
excellent morality; and is written as a pattern of the reformed stage,
printed in octavo, London 1654, and dedicated to the lady Elizabeth
Claypole. In this epistle the author insinuates the use of plays, and
begs her mediation to gain license to act them.

4. Love's Kingdom, a Tragi-Comedy; not as it was acted at the theatre
in Lincoln's-Inn; but as it was written and since corrected, printed
in octavo, London 1664, and dedicated to his excellency William lord
marquis of Newcastle. This is no more than the former play a little
alter'd, with a new title; and after the king's return, it seems the
poet obtained leave to have it acted, but it had the misfortune to be
damned by the audience, which Mr. Flecknoe stiles the people, and calls
them judges without judgment, for want of its being rightly represented
to them; he owns it wants much of the ornaments of the stage, but that,
he says, by a lively imagination may be easily supplied. 'To the same
purpose he speaks of his Damoiselles a la Mode:

That together with the persons represented, he had set down the
comedians he had designed should represent them; that the reader might
have half the pleasure of seeing it acted, and a lively imagination
might have the pleasure of it all entire.

5. The Marriage of Oceanus and Britannia, a Masque.

Our author's other works consist of Epigrams and Enigmas. There is a
book of his writing, called the Diarium, or the Journal; divided into
twelve jornadas, in burlesque verse.

Dryden, in two lines in his Mac Flecknoe, gives the character of our
author's works.

In prose and verse was own'd without dispute,
Thro' all the realms of nonsense absolute.

We cannot be certain in what year Mr. Flecknoe died: Dryden's satire
had perhaps rendered him so contemptible, that none gave themselves the
trouble to record any particulars of his life, or to take any notice of
his death.

* * * * *

JOHN DRYDEN, Esq;

This illustrious Poet was son of Erasmus Dryden, of Tickermish in
Northamptonshire, and born at Ald