Hard-drinking, and what was euphoniously called gallantry, killed good-tempered Charles Hopkins, son of the Bishop of Londonderry. Had he had more discretion and less wit, he might have prospered. His tragedies, "Pyrrhus," "Boadicea," and "Friendship improved," bear traces of what he might have done. He has the merit, however, of not being indecent,—a fact which the epilogue to "Boadicea," furnished by a friend and spoken by a lady, rather deplores, and in indecent language, regrets that uncleanness of jest is no longer acceptable to the town!
Walker merits notice, less for his two pieces, "Victorious Love," and "Marry or do worse," than for the fact that this young Barbadian was the first actor whom Eton school gave to the stage. He appeared, when only eighteen, in the first-named piece, but quickly passed away to the study of the law and the exercise of the latter as a profession, in his native island. I know nothing worthy of record of the few other gentlemen who wrote plays, rather as a relaxation than a vocation, save that Boyer, a refugee Huguenot, like Motteux, and a learned man, adapted Racine's "Iphigenia in Aulis," for representation; that Oldmixon was an old, unscrupulous, party-writer; and that Crauford was historiographer for Scotland to Queen Anne, and has left no name of note among dramatic writers.
FOOTNOTES:
[51] "Valentinian" was probably produced in 1684.
[52] The Bond was entered into in 1663.
[53] Genest says that "Bellamira" is by far the best of Sedley's plays.
[54] Should be 1671.
[55] This is, of course, satirically said by the author.
[56] The Edict of Nantes was not revoked till 1685. Motteux was born in 1660.
[57] Biographia Dramatica.