life; and to his executors, administrators, or assigns, for the space of three years afterwards. He was also chosen one of the representatives for Boroughbridge, in Yorkshire, in the first parliament of that King, who conferred the honour of Knighthood upon him, April 28, 1715, and, in August following, he received five hundred pounds from Sir Robert Walpole, for special services. Thus highly encouraged, he triumphed over his opponents in several pamphlets wrote in this and the following year. In 1717, he was appointed one of the commissioners for inquiring into the estates forfeited by the late rebellion in Scotland. This carried him into that part of the united kingdom, where, how unwelcome a guest soever he might be to the generality, yet he received from several of the nobility and gentry the most distinguishing marks of respect. In 1718 he buried his second wife, who had brought him a handsome fortune, and good estate in Wales; but neither that, nor the ample additions lately made to his income, were sufficient to answer his demands. The thoughtless vivacity of his spirit often reduced him to little shifts of wit for its support; and the project of the Fish-pool this year owed its birth chiefly to the projector's necessities, The following year he opposed the remarkable Peerage Bill in the House of Commons, and, during the course of this opposition to the court, his licence for acting plays was revoked, and his patent rendered ineffectual, at the instance of the Lord Chamberlain. He did his utmost to prevent so great a loss, and, finding every direct avenue of approach to his royal master effectually barred against him by his powerful adversary, he had recourse to the method of applying to the public, in hopes that his complaints would reach the ear of his Sovereign, though in an indirect course, by that canal. In this spirit he formed the plan of a periodical paper, to be published twice a week, under the title of The Theatre; the first number of which came out on the 2d of January, 1719-20. In the mean time, the misfortune of being out of favour at court, like other misfortunes, drew after it a train of more. During the course of this paper, in which he had assumed the feigned name of Sir John Edgar, he was outrageously attacked by Mr. Dennis, the noted critic, in a very abusive pamphlet, entitled, The Character and Conduct of Sir John Edgar, To this insult our author made a proper reply in The Theatre.

While he was struggling, with all his might, to save himself from ruin, he found time to turn his pen against the mischievous South-Sea scheme, which had nearly brought the nation to ruin, in 1720. And the next year he was restored to his office and authority in the playhouse, in Drury-lane. Of this it was not long before he made an additional advantage, by bringing his cele-, brated comedy, called The Conscious Lovers, upon that stage, where it was acted with prodigious success; so that the receipt there must have been very cousiderable, besides the profits accruing by the sale of the copy, and a purse. of five hundred pounds given to him by the King, to whom he dedicated it. Yet, notwithstanding these ample. recruits, about the year following, being reduced to the utmost extremity, he sold his share in the play-house, and soon after commenced a law-suit with the managers, which, in 1726, was determined to his disadvantage. During these misfortunes of Sir Richard, there was once an execution in his house. Being, however, under the necessity of receiving company a few days aftewards, he prevailed on the bailiffs to put on liveries, and pass for his servants. The farce succeeded but for a short time; for the Knight enforcing his orders to one of them in a manner which this vermin of the law thought too authoritative, the insolent rascal threw off the mask, and discovered his real occupation. Soon after, Sir Richard retired to a small house on Haverstock-hill, in the road to Hampstead. Part of this building remains, and is now a cottage. Here Mr. Pope and other members of the Kit-cat club (which during summer was held at the Upper Flask, on Hampstead Heath) used to call on him, and take him in their carriages to the place of rendezvons. Having now, therefore, for the last time, brought his fortune, by the most heedless profusion, into a desperate condition, he was rendered altogether incapable of retrieving the loss, by being seized with a paralytic disorder, which greatly impaired his understanding. In these unhappy circumstances he retired to his seat at Langunnor, near Caermarthen, in Wales; where he paid the last debt to nature, on the 21st of September, 1729, and was privately interred, according to his own desire, in the church of Caermarthen.

Of three children which Sir Richard had by his second wife, Elizabeth, being the only one then living, was married young, in 1731, to the Honourable John Trevor,