OF ALL THE
- Comedies,
- Tragi-Comedies,
- Masques,
- Tragedies,
- Opera's,
- Pastorals,
- Interludes, &c.
Both Ancient and Modern, that were ever yet Printed in English. The Names of their Known and Supposed Authors. Their several Volumes and Editions: With an Account of the various Originals, as well English, French, and Italian, as Greek and Latine; from whence most of them have Stole their Plots.
By GERARD LANGBAINE Esq;
Indice non opus est nostris, nec vindice Libris:
Stat contra dicitq; tibi tua Pagina, Fures. Mart.
LONDON: Printed for Nicholas Cox, and are to be Sold by him in Oxford. MDCLXXXVIII.
[The Preface.]
If it be true, what Aristotle[40] that great Philosopher, and Father of Criticism, has own'd, that the Stage might instruct Mankind better than Philosophy it self. If Homer was thought by Horace[41] to exceed Crantor and Chrystippus in the Precepts of Morality; and if Sophocles and Euripides, obtained the title of Wise, for their Dramatich Writing, certainly it can be no discredit for any man to own himself a lover of that sort of Poetry, which has been stiled, The School of Vertue and good Manners? I know there have been many severe Cato's who have endeavoured all they could, to decry the use of the Stage; but those who please to consult the Writings of the Learned Dr. Gager, Albericus Gentiles, Sir Philip Sidney, Sir Richard Baker, Heywood, the Poet and Actor both in one; not to mention several others, as the famous Scaliger, Monsieur Hedelin, Rapin, &c. will find their Objections fully answered, and the Diversion of the Theatre sufficiently vindicated. I shall therefore without any Apology, publickly own, that my inclination to this kind of Poetry in particular, has lead me not onely to the view of most of our Modern Representations on the Stage, but also to the purchase of all the Plays I could meet with, in the English Tongue; and indeed I have been Master of above Nine Hundred and Fourscore English Plays and Masques, besides Drolls and Interludes; and having read most of them, I think am able to give some tollerable account of the greatest part of our Dramatick Writers, and their Productions.