Excerpt from Elkanah Settle: His Life and Works When this work was begun, it was my intention to publish a short biography of Elkanah Settle and a brief discussion of his works, with an edition of The Empress of Morocco, a play which has engaged the inter est oi the student of the drama and of stage-construction chiefly because it was the occasion of one of the most interesting literary quarrels of the Restoration period, and because it contains, as the first illustrated drama in England, the most exact information which we possess concern ing the interior of a Restoration theater. Later I decided to confine the dissertation to a study of the life and works of Settle, and to publish the play in a separate volume. The material for the edition of the play is in hand, and the volume will appear at an early date. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1910 edition. Excerpt: ..."I defy any Man to show me Half the Number of Errors, in the same Number of Lines in any of Mr. Settle's Writings.... that are in the First Six Pages of Windsor Forest." 3 Cf. Scott's estimate in The.... Works oj Dryden, ed. Scott and Saintsbury, I, 225 4 Vide Dunton, The Lije and Errors (new ed.), 183. 5 Cf. criticism in Notes and Queries, Series I, Vol. V, 52. 6 First acted in December, 1666, at the Duke's Theatre; licensed March 6, 1670; first edition, 1671. The second edition (1672) has title-page identical with that of the first edition, except the date, and the text is the same to the bottom of p. 21; from this point to p. 37 there are some changes in the speeches and arrangement of scenes, but the remainder shows no material changes. The edition published in 1675 is con plays,1 the material of history is used merely as a background for the treatment of the one predominating feature--heroic love. The action begins in this play, as it does in most of Settle's heroic tragedies, "Cambyses,," 'at the close of a successful campaign when the king or general in command returns home flushed with victory. Cambyses has just arrived from his conquests of Syria and Egypt, having brought with him as captive the young prince Osiris, "contracted to Mandana," and the Egyptian princess Mandana, whom the king loves. Theramnes, son of the late king of Syria, had come to Persia during Cambyses' "progress into Egypt," had induced Parasithes, "deputy of Persia," to support an impostor in the usurpation of the crown, had been made general of the usurper's army, and had "privately" fallen in love with Orinda, daughter of prince Otanes. Orinda's sister, Phedima, who is loved by Darius, heir to the...