BIOGRAPHIA DRAMATICA; OR, A COMPANION TO THE PLAYHOUSE: CONTAINING Historical and critical Memoirs, and original Anecdotes, OF BRITISH AND IRISH Dramatic Writers, FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF OUR THEATRICAL EXHIBITIONS; AMONG WHOM ARE SOME OF THE MOST CELEBRATED ACTORS: ALSO AN ALPHABETICAL ACCOUNT, AND CHRONOLOGICAL LISTS, OF THEIR WORKS, THE DATES WHEN PRINTED, AND OBSERVATIONS ON THEIR MERITS: TOGETHER WITH AN INTRODUCTORY VIEW of the rise and progrESS OF THE BRITISH STAGE. ORIGINALLY COMPILED, TO THE YEAR 1764, BY DAVID ERSKINE BAKER. CONTINUED THENCE TO 1782, BY ISAAC REED, F. A. S. And brought down to the End of November 1811, with very considerable IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON: PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN, T. PAYNE, G. AND W. NICOL, NICHOLS AND SON, SCATCHERD J. HARDING, J. FAULDER, and galE AND CURTIS. Grad 2 English Duston 12-16-40 42264 BIOGRAPHIA DRAMATICA. A B D 1. ABAELLINO, the Great Bandit. Play, translated from the German, and adapted to the New York theatre, by William Dunlap, Esq. 12mo. 1802. Printed at New York. 2. ABDALLA. Trag. by J. Delap, D. D. Printed at Lewes. 8vo. 1803. Never acted. If the diction of this piece be not of the highest order, the construction of the fable is certainly interesting. 3. ABDELAZAR; or, The Moor's Revenge. Trag. by Mrs. Aphra, or Afra, Behn. Acted at the Duke of York's theatre, in 1671. 4to. 1677. This play is no more than an alteration of Marioe's Lust's Dominion, or The Lascivious Queen, of which see more in its place. From it, however, Dr. Young took the hint of his admirable tragedy of The Revenge; the death of a father, and loss of a crown, being the prime motives of resentment equally in Abdelazar and Zanga. A similar reluctance appears in both at the descending to acts of villainy for the gratification of it, and both alike declare the sum of their crimes at the completion of their revenge. The plot, is intricate, much interlarded with VOL. II. ABD trivial circumstances, and the catastrophe on the whole too bloody; yet with a little alteration this tragedy might be rendered fit for the present stage. 4. ABDICATED PRINCE; or, The Adventures of four Years. TragiCom. Anon. Acted at Alba Regalis, by several persons of great quality. 4to. 1690. This piece is entirely political, and seems not to have been intended for the stage: it contains, under feigned names, the transactions of the English court and nation during the reign of James II. with the abdication of that prince, but written with great partiality; the Duke of Monmouth being made the hero; and personal abuse proceeding to so extravagant a length in it, as to charge the King with the death of his brother, Charles II. This play needs no key; Alba Regalis evidently being meant for the English court, and the very names of the personages so closely pointed to real history, as to be obvious to any one ever so slightly acquainted with the public transactions of that period. 5. THE ABDICATION OF FERDINAND; or, Napoleon at Bayonne. Historical Play, in five acts. Anon |