On the 9th of Novemb. 1671, D'Avenant's company removed to their new theatre in Dorfet was afterwards named by Sir Henry Herbert, at D'Avenant's requeft, The Nonpareilles, or the Matchlefs Maids. In 1668 was published Sir William D'Avenant's Voyage to the other World, with his Adventures in the Poet's Elizium, written by Richard Flecknoe, which I fubjoin to the memoirs of that poet. Confifting of only a fingle fheet, the greater part of the impreffion has probably perished, for I have never met with a fecond copy of this piece: "Sir William D'Avenant being dead, not a poet would afford him fo much as an elegie; whether because he fought to make a monopoly of the art, or strove to become rich in fpight of Minerva: it being with poets as with mushrooms, which grow onely on barren ground, inrich the foyl once, and then degenerate: onely one, more humane than the reft, accompany'd him to his grave with this eulogium: • Now Davenant's dead, the ftage will mourn, • Since he it was, this later age, • Great was his wit, his fancy great, And more advantage none e'er made And living machins made of men, "Another went further yet, and ufing the privilege of your antient poets, who with allmoft as much certainty as your divines, Gardens, which was opened, not with one of can tell all that paffes in the other world, did thus relate his voyage thither, and all his adventures in the poets' elyzium. "As every one at the inftant of their deaths, have paffports given them for fome place or other, he had his for the poets' ely zium; which not without much difficulty he obtained from the officers of Parnaffus: for when he alledg'd, he was an heroick poet, they afk'd him why he did not continue it? when he said he was a dramatick too, they afk'd him, why he left it off, and onely ftudied to get mony; like him who fold his horfe to buy him provender and finally, when he added, he was a poet laureate, they laugh'd, and faid, bayes was never more cheap than now; and it fince Petrarch's time, none had ever been legitimately crown'd. "Nor had he lefs difficulty with Charon, who hearing he was rich, thought to make booty of him, and afk'd an extraordinary price for his paffage over; but coming to payment, he found he was fo poor, as he was ready to turn him back agen, he having hardly fo much as his naulum, or the price of every ordinary paffenger. 66 6 Being arriv'd, they were all much amaz'd to fee him there, they having never heard of his being dead, neither by their weekly gazets, nor cryers of verfes and pamphlets up and down; (as common a trade there, almost as it is here :) nor was he lefs amaz'd than they, to find never a poet there, antient nor modern, whom in fome fort or other he had not disoblig'd by his difcommendations; as Homer, Virgil, Taffo, Spencer, and especially Ben. Johnson; contrary to Plinies rule, never to discommend any of the fame profeffion with our felves: for either they are better or worse than you (fays he); if better, if they be not worthy commendations, you much lefs; if worfe, if they be worth commendations, you much more: fo every ways advantagious 'tis for us to commend others. Nay, even Shakespear, whom he thought to have found his greatest friend, was as much offended with him as any of the reft, for fo fpoiling and mangling of his plays. But he who moft vext and tormented him, was his old antagonist Jack Donne, who mock'd him with a hundred paffages out of Gondibert; and after a world of other railing and fpightful language (at which the doctor was excellent) fo exafperated the knight, at laft, as they fell together by the ears: when but imagine • What tearing nofes had been there, Had they but noses for to tear.' John Donne, the eldest fon of Donne the poet, was a Civilian. He is faid to have met with a misfortune fimilar to that of D'Avenant, Shakspeare's plays, but with Dryden's comedy called Sir Martin Marall." "Mean time the comick poets made a ring about them, as boys do when they hifs dogs together by the ears; till at laft they were feparated by Pluto's officers, as diligent to keep the peace and part the fray, as your Italian Sbirri, or Spanish Alguazilo; and fo they drag'd them both away, the doctor to the stocks, for raising tumult and difturbances in hell, and the knight to the tribunal, where Minos, Æacus, and Rhadamanthus were to fit in judgement on him, with Momus the common accufer of the court. "Here being arriv'd, and filence commanded, they ask'd him his quality and profeffion: to whom he answer'd, he was a Poetlaureate, who for poetry in general had not his fellow alive, and had left none to equal him now he was dead: and for eloquence, "How never any hyperbolies "Were higher, or farther firetch'd than his; "Made things compar'd more clear and plain. Then for his plays or dramatick poetry. "How that of The Unfortunate Lovers To which Momus anfwered: that though they were never fo good, it became not him to commend them as he did; that there were faults enough to be found in them; and that he had mar'd more good plays, than ever he had made; that all his wit lay in hyperbolies and comparifons, which, when acceffory, were commendable enough, but when principal, deferved no great commendations; that his mufe was none of the nine, but onely a The building, scenes, &c. of that theatre coft 5000l. according to a statement given in a petition prefented to Queen Anne about the year 1709, by Charles D'Avenant, Charles Killegrew, Chriftopher Rich, and others Between the year 1671 and 1682, when the King's and the Duke of York's fervants united, (about mungril, or by-blow of Parnaffus, and her beauty rather fophifticate than natural; that he offer'd at learning and philofophy, but as pullen and ftubble geefe offer'd to fly, who after they had flutter'd up a while, at length came fluttering down as fast agen; that he was with his high-founding words, but like empty hogfheads, the higher they founded, the emptier ftill they were; and that, finally, he fo perplex'd himself and readers with parenthesis on parenthefis, as, just as in a wilderness or labyrinth, all fense was loft in them. "As for his life and manners, they would not examine those, fince 'twas fuppos'd they were licentious enough: onely he wou'd fay, "He was a good companion for "The rich, but ill one for the poor; Whilft he must be a lord at least, "For whom he'd fmile or break a jeaft. "And though this, and much more, was exaggerated againft him by Momus, yet the judges were fo favourable to him, because he had left the mufes for Pluto, as they condemned him onely to live in Pluto's court, to make him and Proferpina merry with his facetious jeafts and ftories; with whom in fhort time he became fo gracious, by complying with their humours, and now and then dreffing a difh or two of meat for them, as they joyn'd him in patent with Momus, and made him fuperintendent of all their sports and recreations: fo as, onely changing place and perfons, he is now in as good condition as he was before; and lives the fame life there, as he did here. "POSTSCRIPT. "To the Actors of the Theatre in Lincolns-Inn-Fields. "I promised you a fight of what I had written of Sir William D'Avenant, and now behold it here: by it you will perceive how much they abused you, who told you it was such an abufive thing. If you like it not, take heed hereafter how you difoblige him, who can not onely write for you, but against you too. RÍCH. FLECKNOE” This feems to allude to a fact then well known. D'Avenant was probably admitted to the private fuppers of Charles the Second. which time Charles Hart,' the principal fupport of the former company, died,) King Lear, Timon of 7 From the preface to Settle's Fatal Love, 1680, it should seem that he had then retired from the flage, perhaps in the preceding year; for in the prologue to The Ambitious Statefman, 1679, are thefe lines, evidently alluding to him and Mr. Mohun: "The time's neglect and maladies have thrown "The two great pillars of our playhouse down.” Charles Hart, who, I believe, was our poet's great nephew, is faid to have been Nell Gwin's firft lover, and was the moft celebrated tragedian of his time. "What Mr. Hart delivers, (fays Rymer,) every one takes upon content; their eyes are prepoffeffed and charmed by his action before aught of the poet's can approach their ears; and to the most wretched of characters he gives a luftre and brilliant, which dazzles the fight, that the deformities in the poetry cannot be perceived." Were I a poet, (fays another contemporary writer,) nay a Fletcher, a Shakspeare, I would quit my own title to immortality, fo that one actor might never die. This I may modeftly fay of him, (nor is it my particular opinion, but the fenfe of all mankind,) that the beft tragedies on the English ftage have received their luftre from Mr. Hart's performance; that he has left fuch an impreffion behind him, that no lefs than the interval of an age can make them appear again with half their majefty from any fecond hand." In a pamphlet entitled The Life of the late famous Comedian, J. Hayns, 8vo. 1701, a characteristick trait of our poet's kinfman is preferved: "About this time [1673] there happened a fmall pick between Mr. Hart and Jo, upon the account of his late negociation in France, and there fpending the company fo much money to fo little purpose, or, as I may more properly fay, to no purpose at all. "There happened to be one night a play acted called Catiline's Confpiracy, wherein there was wanting a great number of fenators. Now Mr. Hart, being chief of the houfe, would oblige Jo to dress for one of thefe fenators, although his falary, being 50s. per week, freed him from any fuch obligation. But Mr. Hart, as I faid before, being fole governour of the play-house, and at a small variance with Jo, commands it, and the other muft obey. Soon after the theatre in Drury Lane was burnt down, Jan. 1671-2, Hayns had been fent to Paris by Mr. Hart and Mr. Killigrew, to examine the machinery employed in the French Operas. |