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The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) - Volume III by Theophilus Cibber
page 15 of 351 (04%)
of those enchantresses: Killegrew went one day into his apartment
dress'd like a pilgrim, bent upon a long journey. The king being
surprized at this extraordinary frolic, asked him the meaning of it,
and to what distant country he was going, to which Killegrew bluntly
answered, the country I seek, may it please your majesty, is hell; and
what to do there? replies the king? to bring up Oliver Cromwel from
thence, returned the wag, to take care of the English affairs, for his
successor takes none.--We cannot particularly ascertain the truth
of these relations, but we may venture to assert that these are not
improbable, when it is considered how much delighted king Charles the
IId. was with a joke, however severe, and that there was not at court a
more likely person to pass them than Killegrew, who from his long exile
with the king, and being about his person, had contracted a kind of
familiarity, which the lustre that was thrown round the prince upon his
restoration was not sufficient to check.

Tho' Sir John Denham mentions but six, our author wrote nine Plays in
his travels, and two at London, amongst which his Don Thomaso, in two
parts, and his Parson's Wedding, will always be valued by good judges,
and are the best of his performances. The following is a list of his
plays.

1. Bellamira's Dream, or Love of Shadows, a Tragi-Comedy; the first part
printed in folio 1663, written in Venice, and dedicated to the lady Mary
Villiers, duchess of Richmond and Lennox.

2. Bellamira's Dream, the second part, written in Venice; printed in
folio, London 1663, and dedicated to the lady Anne Villiers, countess of
Essex.

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