Langbain, in order to
prove him guilty of the same poetical depredation, has been industrious
to trace the plots of his plays, and the similarity of his characters
with those of other dramatic poets; but as we should reckon it tedious
to follow him in this manner, we shall only in general take notice of
those novels from which he has drawn his plots.

We cannot ascertain the year in which this man died; he had been bred
a templer, which he forsook as a dry unentertaining study, and much
beneath the genius of a poet.

His dramatic works are,

1. The Careless Lovers, a Comedy, acted at the duke's theatre, 4to.
1673. The scene Covent-Garden, part of this play is borrowed from
Moliere's Monsieur de Pourceaugnac.

2. Mamamouchi; or the Citizen turned Gentleman, a Comedy, acted at the
duke's theatre, 4to. 1675, dedicated to his Highness prince Rupert. Part
of this play is taken from Moliere's le Bourgeois Gentilliome. Scene
London.

3. Scaramouch a Philosopher, Harlequin a schoolboy, Bravo Merchant and
Magician; a Comedy, after the Italian manner, acted at the theatre-royal
1677. The poet in his preface to this play boasts his having brought a
new sort of Comedy on our stage; but his critics will not allow any one
scene of it to be the genuine offspring of his own brain, and denominate
him rather the midwife than the parent of this piece; part of it is
taken from le Burgeois Gentilhome, & la Marriage Force.

4. The Wrangling Lovers; or the Invisible Mistress, a Comedy, acted at
the duke's theatre, 4to. 1677. This play is founded upon Corneille's Les
Engagements du Hazard, and a Spanish Romance, called, Deceptio visus; or
seeing and believing are two things.

5. King Edgar, and Alfreda, a Tragedy, acted at the theatre-royal 1677.
The story is taken from the Annals of Love, a novel, and Malmesbury,
Grafton, Stow, Speed, and other English chronicles.

6. The English Lawyer, a Comedy; acted at the theatre-royal 1678; this
is only a translation of the celebrated latin comedy of Ignoramus,
written by Mr. Ruggle of Clare-hall, Cambridge. Scene Bourdeaux.

7. The London Cuckolds, a Comedy; acted at the duke of York's theatre.
This play is collected from the novels of various authors, and is
esteemed one of the most diverting, though perhaps the most offensive
play of the author's; it was first acted 1682. This play has hitherto
kept possession of the flags, a circumstance owing to the annual
celebration of the lord mayor'