doubt intended to compliment James Duke of York, who afterwards rewarded
the poet for his service. To this Tragedy Mr. Dryden wrote the Prologue
and Epilogue, which furnished Mr. Southern with an opportunity of saying
in his dedication, 'That the Laureat's own pen secured me, maintaining
the out-works, while I lay safe entrenched within his lines; and malice,
ill-nature, and censure were forced to grin at a distance.'

The Prologue is a continued invective against the Whigs, and whether
considered as a party libel, or an induction to a new play, is in every
respect unworthy of the great hand that wrote it. His next play was a
Comedy, called the Disappointment, or the Mother in Fashion, performed
in the year 1684.--After the accession of king James the IId to the
throne, when the duke of Monmouth made an unfortunate attempt upon his
uncle's crown, Mr. Southern went into the army, in the regiment of foot
raised by the lord Ferrers, afterwards commanded by the duke of Berwick;
and he had three commissions, viz. ensign, lieutenant, and captain,
under King James, in that regiment.

During the reign of this prince, in the year before the Revolution, he
wrote a Tragedy called the Spartan Dame, which however was not acted
till the year 1721. The subject is taken from the Life of Agis in
Plutarch, where the character of Chelonis, between the duties of a wife
and daughter was thought to have a near resemblance to that of King
William's Queen Mary. 'I began this play, says Mr. Southern, a year
before the Revolution, and near four acts written without any view. Many
things interfering with those times, I laid by what I had written for
seventeen years: I shewed it then to the late duke of Devonshire, who
was in every regard a judge; he told me he saw no reason why it might
not have been acted the year of the Revolution: I then finished it, and
as I thought cut out the exceptionable parts, but could not get it