be, there rages within his soul a mean passion which tortures and
degrades him incessantly. When at last he is banished from the presence
of the fair object of his love, he resolves to brave death by devoting
himself to the destruction of her foe; but he is forestalled by his
presumed rival, Don Alphonso, who turns out to be the brother of his
mistress, and she receives him once again and for ever in her favour.
The delineation of all these passions is too fine-spun, too
argumentative to please the general public; the style is sometimes
stilted, yet passages of great beauty may be found in it. Moreover the
jealousy expressed by Don Garcia is neither sufficiently terrible to
frighten, nor ridiculous enough to amuse the audience; he always speaks
and acts as a prince, and hence, he sometimes becomes royally
monotonous.

Some scenes of this play have been imitated in _The Masquerade_, a
comedy, acted at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, 1719, London, "printed
for Bernard Linton, between the Temple Gate," which was itself partly
borrowed from Shirley's _Lady of Pleasure_. The comedy was written by
Mr. Charles Johnson, who "was originally bred to the law, and was a
member of the Middle Temple; but being a great admirer of the Muses, and
finding in himself a strong propensity to dramatic writing, he quitted
the studious labour of the one, for the more spirited amusements of the
other; and by contracting an intimacy with Mr. Wilks, found means,
through that gentleman's interest, to get his plays on the stage without
much difficulty ... he, by a polite and modest behaviour formed so
extensive an acquaintance and intimacy, as constantly ensured him great
emoluments on his benefit night by which means, being a man of economy,
he was enabled to subsist very genteelly. He at length married a young
widow, with a tolerable fortune; on which he set up a tavern in Bow
Street, Covent Garden, but quitted business at his wife's death, and