# The Lives and Characters of the English Dramatick Poets/Charles Gildon

Charles Gildon.
THis Author, being known too late to be brought in the Order of the Alphabet, I have plac'd him here in the Appendix, with an Account of those two Plays he has already Publish'd, and are own'd by him, tho' his Name, without his Consent, was omitted in the Impressions of the Plays.
He is, as I'm inform'd, a Gentleman born at Gillingham, near Shaftsbury, in the County of Dorset. His Parents and Family were all of the Romish Persuasion, and in the time of the Civil War, doubly incur'd the Penalties of the Prevailing Side; both as engag'd in the Royal Party, and as Recusants in Religion; for which, after the Plunderings of the War, his Grandfather paid two thirds of his Estate, all the Time of that Government. His Father was of the Honourable Society of Grays-Inn, and tho' a great Zealot for the Faith he was born in, he cou'd not convey that Zeal to his Son, our Author, whom he dying, left but Nine Years of Age, having sold the best part of the Estate that our Author was born to, before he died. Gillingham, the Place of his Nativity, gave our Author the first Rudiments of Learning, under a very Honest and Learned Master, one Mr. Young. Thence his Relations sent him to the English Colledge of Secular Priests at Doway in Hainault, with a design of making him a Priest, if his Inclination cou'd away with that Function; which was suppos'd the best Support of a Gentleman whose Fortunes and Religion could promise him no greater Advantage. But after Five Years Study there, he found his Inclinations point him another way; and at the Age of about Nineteen he returns for England; and as soon as One and Twenty, put it into his Power of enjoying those Pleasures that Age generally pursues, he came to London, where having spent the Remainder of his Paternal Estate, betwixt Two or Three and Twenty he married, and most of the Reign of King James, he spent in reading the Controversies of that Time; being dissatisfied with several of the Tenents of the Church of Rome, that he had imbib'd with his Mother's Milk, as they say. In him there was an Example how difficult a thing it is, to overcome the Prejudice of Education; for I am assur'd that it cost him above Seven Years Study and Contest, before he could entirely shake off all those Opinions that had grown up with him from a Child; tho' he cou'd not answer to ​himself the Conviction of his Reason in the Points of Religion, yet he did what is said of Medea, by Ovid:
Video meliora probq; Delesiosa sequor————
I have heard him say, that the first Book that gave him the greatest Conviction was, the Discourse of the late pious and ingenious Dr. Tillotson, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, against Transubstantiation, lent him by a Lawyer, that at the same time cheated him of about Four Hundred Pounds, tho' he made way for that Peace of Mind that this Book first opened the Door to.
If I shou'd do with our Author, what some other writers of Lives have done, I might here tell you of his Inclinations to Poetry from his Childhood, and talk of his Performances; but he being my Friend, I shall forbear all things that may argue me guilty of Partiality; and shall only say, as he tells us in a Letter of his Essays, that Necessity was the first Motive of his venturing to be an Author. His first attempt in the Drammatick way, was not till he was was past Thirty Two Years of Age; and then in about a Month's time, he gave us a Tragedy, call'd, The Roman Bride's Revenge; but of that in its Order: for we must first speak of a Play of the late famous Mrs. Behn's, which he introduc'd by the Importunity of a Friend of hers and his, on the Stage: It was called, The Younger Brother; or, the Amorous Jilt; out of the Respect to her Memory, and a Deference, which was too nice, to her Judgment, he durst not make any Alterations in it, but what were absolutely necessary, and those only in the first and second Acts, which reflected on the Whigs; when if he had alter'd the jejune Stile of the three last Acts, betwixt Prince Frederick and Mirtilla, which was too heavy, in all Probability it would have been more to the Advantage of his Purse. But now I shall proceed to his own Plays, which are two in Number; the first in our Alphabetical Order, is,
Phæton; or, The Fatal Divorce; a Tragedy, acted at the Theatre Royal, written in Imitation of the Ancients, &c. 1698. 4to. and dedicated to the Right Honourable, Charles Montague, Esq; &c. the most Noble and Generous Patron of the Muses that our Nation has Produc'd. Tho' it was a very bold Undertaking of a Young Author, to attempt to bring so very different a way of Writing on so corrupt a Stage as ours; yet the Success justified his Opinion, that the Irregular, Prophane, and Obscene Plays took only because our Audience saw no other, through the Poets Fault. The Plot, and a great many of the Beauties of the Play, the Author fairly owns that he has taken from the Medea of Euripides; ​and in his Preface you may find his Reasons for altering the Names and Characters from what they were in the Original that he has here copied.
The Roman Bride's Revenge, a Tragedy, acted at the Theatre Royal, 1697. 4to. dedicated by the Bookseller to William Gregory, Esq; This Play was our Author's first; and as it was writ in a Month, so it had the Fate of those untimely Births, as hasty a Death. Tho' notwithstanding the Faults of this Play, which must be confess'd numerous enough, there is so much Merit in the First, and part of the Second Act, and the Beauty of the Catastrophe, that if the Voice of the Town had not been influenc'd by the Ill Representation, it must have met with a less rigorous Censure. But the Author's Faults lie generally in the Stile, and the Incidents of the Third and Fourth Acts. The Stile is too near an Imitation of Mr. Lees (the worst Qualification of that Poet, who had Beauties enough to make amends for it) I mean in many Places, for in others 'tis Just enough. The Incidents were too numerous, and not so distinct as to be well discern'd by the Audience, especially in the Fourth Act. Tho' I think there is no Incident in this Play so unnatural, as some of our celebrated Plays are esteem'd for; and then the Confusion of the Action contributed to the making them seem less prepar'd. The Plot I take to be of the Author's own Invention, allowing for a Hint taken from Camma of Galata, which is thus far improv'd, that the Husband here is alive after the Wife has drank the Poison, which heightens the Distress of the Chief Characters. But the Moral is one of the most noble of any of our Modern Plays, it being to give us an Example in the Punishment of Martian, that no Consideration in the World, ought to make us delay the Service of our Country.