hat a _Greys Inn_ Lawyer does 'em
Who unto her was Friend in Bosom,
So not presenting Scarf and Hood
New Plays and Songs are full as good.[26]

Unfortunately Hoyle was reputed to be addicted to the grossest
immorality, and rumours of a sinister description were current
concerning him.[27] There is, in fact, printed a letter[28] of Mrs.
Behn's wherein she writes most anxiously to her friend stating that the
gravest scandals have reached her ears, and begging him to clear himself
from these allegations. Hoyle was murdered in a brawl 26 May, 1692, and
is buried in the vault belonging to the Inner Temple, which is
presumably in the ground attached to the Temple Church. The entry in the
Register runs as follows: 'John Hoyle, esq., of the Inner Temple was
buried in the vault May ye 29, 1692.' Narcissus Luttrell in his _Diary_,
Saturday, 28 May, 1692, has the following entry: 'Mr. Hoil of the Temple
on Thursday night was at a tavern with other gentlemen, and quarrelling
with Mr. Pitts' eldest son about drinking a health, as they came out Mr.
Hoil was stabb'd in the belly and fell down dead, and thereon Pitts
fled; and the next morning was taken in a disguise and is committed to
Newgate.'[29] 30 June, 1692, the same record says: 'This day Mr. Pitts
was tryed at the Old Bailey for the murder of Mr. Hoil of the Temple,
and the jury found it manslaughter but the next heir has brought an
appeal.'

[Footnote 22: In view of the extremely harsh treatment Ravenscroft
has met with at the hands of the critics it may be worth while
emphasizing Genest's opinion that his 'merit as a dramatic writer
has been vastly underrated'. Ravenscroft has a facility in writing,
an ease of dialogue, a knack of evoking laughter and picturing the
ludicrous, above all a vitality which many a greater name entirely
lacks. As a writer of farce, and farce very nearly akin to comedy,
he is capital.]

[Footnote 23: _Letters from the Dead to the Living_: The Virgin's
[Mrs. Bracegirdle] Answer to Mrs. Behn. 'You upbraid me with a
great discovery you chanc'd to make by peeping into the breast of an
old friend of mine; if you give yourself but the trouble of
examining an old poet's conscience, who went lately off the stage,
and now takes up his lodgings in your territories, and I don't
question but you'll there find Mrs. _Behn_ writ as often in black
characters, and stand as thick in some places, as the names of the