My old favourite cynic, with all his rough honesty and acute discrimination, Anthony Wood, engraved a sketch of Stockdale when he etched with his aqua-fortis the personage of a brother:—“This Edward Waterhouse wrote a rhapsodical, indigested, whimsical work; and not in the least to be taken into the hand of any sober scholar, unless it be to make him laugh or wonder at the simplicity of some people. He was a cock-brained man, and afterwards took orders.”
It was published in quarto in 1673, and has engravings of the principal scene in each act, and a frontispiece representing the Duke’s Theatre in Dorset Gardens, where it was first acted publicly; it had been played twice at court before this, by noble actors, “persons of such birth and honour,” says Settle, “that they borrowed no greatness from the characters they acted.” The prologues were written by Lords Mulgrave and Rochester, and the utmost éclat given to the five long acts of rhyming bombast, which was declared superior to any work of Dryden’s. As City Poet afterwards Settle composed the pageants, speeches, and songs for the Lord Mayor’s Shows from 1691 to 1708. Towards the close of his career he became impoverished, and wrote from necessity on all subjects. One of his plays, composed for Mrs. Mynns’ booth in Bartholomew Fair, has been twice printed, though both editions are now uncommonly rare. It is called the “Siege of Troy;” and its popularity is attested by Hogarth’s print of Southwark Fair, where outside of Lee and Harper’s great theatrical booth is exhibited a painting of the Trojan horse, and the announcement “The Siege of Troy is here.”—Ed.
One of his lively adversaries, the author of the “Canons of Criticism,” observed the difficulty of writing against an author whose reputation so much exceeded the knowledge of his works. “It is my misfortune,” says Edwards, “in this controversy, to be engaged with a person who is better known by his name than his works; or, to speak more properly, whose works are more known than read.”—Preface to the Canons of Criticism.
Aristotle’s Rhetoric, B. III. c. 16.
The materials for a “Life of Warburton” have been arranged by Mr. Nichols with his accustomed fidelity.—See his Literary Anecdotes.