JOHN STUDLEY_.

Was one who besides other things which he wrote, contributed to the
Stage four Tragedies, _viz._ _Agamemnon_, _Hyppolitus_, _Hercules
Oetes_, and _Medea_, and therefore thought worthy to have a Place
amongst the rest of our _English_ Poets.

* * * * *

_JOHN TATHAM_.

_John Tatham_ was one, whose Muse began to bud with his Youth, which
produced early Blossomes, of not altogether Contemptible Poetry, in a
Collection of Poems entituled _Fancys Theater_; which was usher'd into
the World by divers of the Chief Wits of that age. He was afterwards
City Poet, making those Speeches and Representations used at the Lord
Mayors show, and other Publick Meetings. He also contributed to the
Stage four plays, _viz_. The _Scots Fegaries_ and _The Rump, or Mirror
of the late times_, Comedies; the _Distracted State_, a Tragedy, and
_Love crowns the End_; a Tragy-Comedy. Here a tast of his juvenile wit
in his _Fancys Theater_ speaking in the Person of _Momus_.

How now presumptuous Lad, think st thou that we
Will be disturb'd with this thy Infancy
Of Wit?--
Or does thy amorous Thoughts beget a flame,
(Beyond its merit) for to court the name
Of Poet; or is't common row a days
Such slender Wits dare claim such things as Bays? _&c._

* * * * *

_THOMAS JORDEN_.

Contemporary with him was _Thomas Jorden_, and of much like equal Fame;
indulging his Muse more to vulgar Fancies, then to the high flying wits
of those times, yet did he write three Plays, _viz._ _Mony's an Ass_;
and _The Walks of_ Islington _and_ Hogsden, Comedies; and _Fancys
Festivals_, a Mask.

* * * * *

_HUGH CROMPTON_.

He was born a Gentleman, and bred up a Scholar, but his Father not
leaving him Means enough to support the one, and the Times in that
Condition, that without Money Learning is little regarded; he therefore
betook him to a Gentile Employment, which his Learning had made him
capable to do; but the succession of a worse fate disemploying him, as
he himself saith in his Epistle to the Reader of his Book, entituled,
_Pierides, or the Muses Mount_, he betook him to his Pen, (that
Idleness might not sway) which in time produced a Volume of Poems,
which to give you a tast of the briskness of his Muse, I shall instance
in a few lines, in one or two of them.

When I remember what mine eyes have seen,