John Langbaine

“ Laws, who compos’d the Musick, dedicating it to the Right Honourable, John, Lord Viscount Brackley, Son and Heir Apparent to John, Earl of Bridgewater, Viscount Brackley, Lord President of Wales, and one of his Majesty’s most Honourable Privy Council; before whom it was presented. He writ besides, divers Pieces in Poetry and History, as Paradise Lost, 8 vo. and Fol. with Sculptures ”

“ John’s-College of Cambridge, and Christ-Church of Oxon finish’d, where he took his Master of Arts Degree; Necessity drove him thence, to follow his Father-in-Law’s Trade of a Bricklayer; working at Lincoln’s-Inn, with a Trowel in his Hand, and Horace in his Pocket, he found a Patron that set him free from that Slavish Employment. ”

“ He was Comptroller to King Charles the First. An excellent Musician and Poet: made a Campaign with Gustavus, and was in Five Sieges, Three Battles, &c. he was at the Expence of 12000 l. to raise a Troop for the King. He writ Four Plays, viz.
Aglaura, a Tragi-Comedy, fol. and 8 vo. presented at the private House in Black-Fryars. The Author has so alter’d the last Act, that ’tis at the Pleasure of the Actors to make it a Tragedy or Tragi-Comedy.
Brenoralt; or, The Discontented Colonel; a Tragedy, 8 vo. presented by his Majesty’s Servants, / at the private House in Black-Fryars. ”

“ The Malone Society, Collections, II. 3 (1931) , 235-236. Based on evidence in the Account Greg later corrected his attribution from Kirkman to Langbaine: "Gerard Langbaine the Younger and Nicholas Cox," The Library, N. S., XXV. 1 & 2 (1944) , 67-69.
[13] It is, however, impossible that Phillips, published in 1675, was "led into [error] by my Catalogue printed 1680."
[14] John Dryden: Some Biographical Facts and Problems, revised Edition (Gainesville, Fla., 1965) , p. 235.
[15] About 30 plays which appear in An Exact Catalogue, usually wrongly attributed, are not brought into Momus. ”

“ Langbain has always, a good Word for Quality, he can see no Blemish in that Person that has a Title, tho’ he be so sharp sighted in all those of a lower Station; and he is so transported on this worthy Nobleman, that he baulks the Curiosity of his Reader, for some Account of his Life, to vent a clumsey Flattery. ”

“ After all, I am of Opinion, that it is but a weak Refuge to fly to the Opinion or Taste of a Foreign Nation, from the Judgment of our own; for I’m satisfy’d that there are not fewer Men of Sence, in England, and a great many more of Learning, than Italy affords us. Aminta might please there, but if we judge by our Taste of Poetry, and with ours by the Ancients, it pleas’d without Reason, and only perhaps for the Novelty, or, which is yet most likely, because it was sung in Italy, that Musical Nation minding more the Performance of the Composer, than Poet. ”

“ A Gentleman yet living, whose Father having ventured most of his Estate (which was considerable) in a Foreign Plantation, that was afterwards taken by the French, and all King Charles's Reign neglected, he took, by the Encouragement of the late famous Lord Rochester, to Dramatick Writing, and has perform'd very well both in Tragedy and Comedy; tho', with Mr. Langbain, I look on Comedy to be his Talent; he has given us a Proof of his Ability in these following Plays:
Ambitious Statesman, or The Loyal Favourite, a Tragedy, 4to. ”

“ To suppose a tempest without wind, is as bad as supposing a man to walk without feet; for if he supposes the tempest to be something distinct from the wind, yet, as being the effect of wind only, to come before the cause is a little preposterous; so that, if he takes it one way, or if he takes it the other, those two ifs will scarce make one possibility." Enough of Settle.
Marriage à-la-mode, 1673, is a comedy dedicated to the earl of Rochester; whom he acknowledges not only as the defender of his poetry, but the promoter of his fortune. Langbaine places this play in 1673. ”

“ But for the most part we are treated far otherwise; not with sound Roman Wit, as in Ben's time, but with empty French Kickshaws, which yet our Poetical Hosts serve up to us for Regales of their own Cookery; and yet they themselves undervalue that very Nation to whom they are oblig'd for the best share of their Treat. Thus our Laureat himself runs down the French Wit in his Marriage a la Mode, and steals from Molliere in his Mock Astrologer ”

“ A Gentleman that has set together a Play, called:
The Generous Enemies, or The Ridiculous Lovers, a Comedy, Acted at the Theatre Royal, 4to. 1672. This Play is patch'd up out of four several Poets: The chief Design is borrowed from Quinault's La Genereuse Ingratitude ”

“ THis Gentleman now Living, has made himself a Name by several Books, both in Prose and Verse, which he has Published, but for none more than his Critical Observations on the so much Celebrated Prince Arthur, writ by Sir Richard Blackmore, in which he has shewed himself a perfect Critick, and Master of a great deal of Penetration and Judgment ”

“ This Author has given us no Proof of his Talent in Flattery, for he has dedicated neither of those Plays he has appeared in; but he has that part of a Poet however, of flattering himself (as indeed every Man does more or less) in defending what the Town has once condemned, for tho’ a bad Play may take, yet we hear very few Instances that a good one miscarried; ’tis true, this is like other general Rules, not without its Exception. This particular Play met with pretty good Success, for the Season of the Year, considering it the first Essay of a young Writer, unacquainted with the Town. ”

“ Langbaine is so far generous, that he does all he can to draw obscure men into light, but then he cannot be acquitted of envy, for endeavouring to shade the lustre of those whose genius has broke through obscurity without his means, and he does no service to his country while he confines his panegyric to mean versifiers, whom no body can read without a certain degree of contempt. ”

“ For the sedater Passions (which our Author himself attributes to a Shepherd’s Life) of these Innocent People represented in a Pastoral, cannot afford so lively Pleasure to an Audience, as may ballance the Length of their Attention, that must of necessity grow languid, and tyr’d, with so very calm an Emotion, which is still kept active by the more violent Passions, proper for Tragedy. ”

“ But at the same time I cannot but blame him for taxing others with stealing Characters from him, (as he does Settle in his Notes on Morocco) when he himself does the same, almost in all the Plays he writes; and for arraigning his Predecessours for stealing from the Ancients, as he does Johnson; which tis evident that he himself is guilty of the same. I would therefore desire our Laureat, that he would follow that good Advice which the modest History Professor Mr. Wheare gives to the young Academick in his Antelogium, to shun this, Confidence and Self-love, as the worst of Plagues ”

“ The Story is to be found in Plutarch's Life of Sertorius, Velleius Paterculus, l. 2. Florus, l. 2. c. 22. &c. Whatever the Fate of this Play was, his other had no ill Success, and may claim a Place of equal Rank with several celebrated Tragedies of this Age. ”

“ At college Wood tells us that the young Langbaine was put under the charge of a good tutor; yet by the fondness of his indulgent mother, then a widow, he became idle, a great jockey, married, evidently at an early age, and ran out of a good part of the estate descended to him. ”

“ But of him enough, since no Man of good sence can think that Play's Success owing to the Excellency of the Poet's Performance, but the Extravagance; for I have always observ'd it to have the Effect of Comedy on the Audience: But Mr. Langbain will indeed have him a Knight of the Shire almost, and Represent the Extravagant Heroes of two or three Romances more; as the Osmin of Gusman, and Artaban of Cleopatra, Boabdeline, Almahide, Ferdinand, Isabella, Arcos, Hamet, Gomel, from the Romance of Almahide, Ozmin, and Benzaida, from Ozmin and Alibech in Ibraim, &c., see also Grand Cyrus, S. ix. ”

“ He was born about the year 1592. began his Studies at Westminster-School, finish’d them at Christ-Church, Oxon, whether he remov’d at Eighteen. He went out Batchelor of Divinity, and had the Living of East-Clandon in Surrey, and a Xantippe to his Wife, whose Tongue, &c. ”

“ Samuel Daniel, who had been her Tutor, we have had many Pretenders to the Muses of that Sex, but I do not remember that I have read of any one, that having Power, did ever exert it in the Encouragement and Patronage of any particular Poet, or Poetry in general. 'Tis true indeed, the Catalogue of Men that have done it, is far from being numerous, tho' this may be said of them, which cannot of our little Politicians, That they have been the greatest Men of their Age, and perhaps of any Age. ”

“ As this statement suggests, his general literary principles are neo-classically sound and standard: "it being nobler to contemplate the general History of Nature, than a selected Diary of Fortune" ( [A4v] ) , as is his unprejudiced attitude toward borrowings and the need for models. For Langbaine the end of literature is moral, "Decency and Probability" ( [A4v] ) , and there is a sense of balanced fairness which extends even to Dryden:
[Pg viii]
Mr. ”

“ He is not to make Characters more deprav'd than Experience ever shew'd us; for I'm confident Callapeia never had her Fellow, on this side the Line at least, and for the Vices of those of the other, I know nothing that we have to do with them, (having Stock enough of our own) and 'tis with abundance of Reason, call'd, The Unnatural Mother; for sure there never was such an one in Nature. Bebbemeah's being put on the Couch with a Black Slave, and there found asleep, is borrowed from Mr. Settle's Incident of Cleomira, and Oirantes, in the Princess of Persia. ”

“ If Langbaine was such a momus, he certainly dipped his feather into ink, "the common Remedy" against attack (the Advertisement) , giving the lie to his enemies the Poets.
The third point of attack, that concerning the title of esquire, was perhaps intended as an insult to the humble origins of Langbaine's distinguished father and is certainly appropriate satire on a man so concerned with borrowing and on one who had left the university profligately to become "idle" and "a great jockey." ”

“ He studied first at Christ-Church, Cambridge, then at Lincolns-Inn; was Cup-bearer to the Queen of Bohemia, Secretary to Bishop Usher, and Cronologer to the City of London. He suffered Persecution by the Government then in being, for a Book called, The Loyal Convert. The Troubles of Ireland brought him to die at Home, in the Two and Fiftieth Year of his Age, Sept. 8. ”

“ To this is added, Hunger's Prevention, or the Art of Fowling, 8vo. His Epitome, 12mo. &c.—In Military Discipline he has published the Soldier's Accidence and Grammar, 4to. 1635—Besides these the second book of the first part of the English Arcadia is said to be wrote by him, in so much that he may be accounted, says Langbaine, "if not Unus in omnibus, at least a benefactor to the public, by those works he left behind him, which without doubt perpetuate his memory." Langbaine is lavish in his praise, and not altogether undeservedly. ”

“ Langbaine was entitled to style himself a gentleman [30] as he does in A New Catalogue (but not in the Account) ; ironically, Langbaine came to the address of esquire by his elections in 1690 and 1691 as inferior and then superior beadle of arts of Oxford University "in consideration of his ingenuity and loss of part of his estate." [31]
Langbaine's reactions to the trick served to intensify his source studies (though this was already promised in the Preface) and to increase his attention and antagonism to Dryden. ”

“ But not to wrong my Lord in the Judgment of the Readers, by these ridiculous Quotations; they are to consider, First, that this was the Vice of the Age, not the Poet; he having in that, as well as some other things, imitated the Vices of our admirable Shakespear, and next that these punning Fits come not very often upon him. To shew that he writes in another Strain sometimes, I must give you Three or Four Lines, (my Brevity denying more large Quotations) which will give you a Taste of his better Parts.
Love is a joy, which upon Pain depends ”

“ Translated from the French of Monsieur Corneille, being a Piece he much valued. Story from Justin., Book 34. He writ besides, a Romance, called, The English Lovers and (if we believe Mr. Winstanly) A compleat History of the late Times, and A Chronicle of the Kingdom of Portugal. ”

“ Two Wise Men, and all the rest Fools, 4to. 1619. Mr. Langbain's former Remark on this Play was, that it exceeded in the Number of Acts any Play of what Language whatever. But if he had seen the Spanish Baud, either in the Original, or the Folio Edition in English, he might have found one with three times as many Acts; the Prologue and Epilogue of this Play are both writ in Prose, as was sometimes used in those times: Mr. Chapman's Name not being to the Title of this Play, it's a question whether it be really his, tho' former Catalogues make it so. ”

“ POet and Divine in the Reign of King Charles the Frst; he was born in Devonshire, entred at Nineteen, and admitted Student of Christ-Church, Oxon; having taken most of his Degrees, was chose University-Orator, and after that commenc’d Doctor, and was made a Cannon by the King. He died March 11. 1644, and was buried at Christ-Church afore-said.
The Floating Island, a Comedy, 4 to. 1655. acted by the Students of Christ-Church, before his Majesty, at Oxon. 1639. The Airs and Songs were set by Mr. Henry Lawes. ”

“ In connection with Phillips and Winstanley (whom he avowedly follows and acridly comments, accusing them at the same time of having stolen his thunder from a previously published Catalogue) it may be well to notice Gerard Langbaine, the somewhat famous author of the Account of the English Dramatic Poets. [526] |Langbaine’s Dramatic Poets.| Of real criticism there is hardly even as much in Langbaine as in his two Esaus or Jacobs, taking it which way you please. But he is the spiritual ancestor of too many later critics ”