The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and
Ireland (1753), by Theophilus Cibber

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Title: The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753)
Vol. III

Author: Theophilus Cibber

Release Date: January 7, 2004 [EBook #10622]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE

LIVES

OF THE

POETS

OF

GREAT BRITAIN and IRELAND.

Compiled from ample Materials scattered in a Variety of Books, and
especially from the MS. Notes of the late ingenious Mr. COXETER and
others, collected for this Design,

By Mr. CIBBER, and other Hands.

VOL. III.

MDCCLIII.

VOLUME III.

Contains the

LIVES

OF

Denham
Killegrew
Howard
Behn, Aphra
Etherege
Mountford
Shadwell
Killegrew, William,
Howard
Flecknoe
Dryden
Sedley
Crowne
Sackville, E. Dorset
Farquhar
Ravenscroft
Philips, John
Walsh
Betterton
Banks
Chudley, Lady
Creech
Maynwaring
Monk, the Hon. Mrs.
Browne Tom.
Pomfret
King
Sprat, Bishop
Montague, E. Hallifax
Wycherley
Tate
Garth
Rowe
Sheffield, D. Buck.
Cotton
Additon
Winshelsea, Anne
Gildon
D'Urfey
Settle

THE

LIVES

OF THE

POETS.

* * * * *

Sir JOHN DENHAM.

An eminent poet of the 17th century, was the only son of Sir John
Denham, knight, of Little Horsley in Essex, and sometime baron of the
Exchequer in Ireland, and one of the lords justices of that kingdom.
He was born in Dublin, in the year 1615[1]; but was brought over from
thence very young, on his father's being made one of the barons of the
Exchequer in England 1617.

He received his education, in grammar learning, in London; and in
Michaelmas term 1631 he was entered a gentleman commoner in Trinity
College, Oxford, being then 16 years of age; where, as Wood expresses
it, 'being looked upon as a slow dreaming young man, and more addicted
to gaming than study, they could never imagine he could ever enrich the
world with the issue of his brain, as he afterwards did.'

He remain