with the knight for his supercilious domineering manner of behaving,
that he points him out under the name of Sir Positive At All, one of his
characters in the comedy called the Sullen Lovers, or the Impertinents;
and amongst the same persons is the lady Vain, a Courtezan, which the
wits then understood to be the mistress of Sir Robert Howard, whom he
afterwards thought proper to marry.

In February 1692, being then in the decline of life, he married one Mrs
Dives, maid of honour to the Queen. The merit of this author seems to
have been of a low rate, for very little is preserved concerning him,
and none of his works are now read; nor is he ever mentioned, but when
that circumstance of the duke of Buckingham's intending to ridicule him,
is talked of.

Had Sir Robert been a man of any parts, he had sufficient advantages
from his birth and fortune to have made a figure, but the highest
notice which he can claim in the republic of letters, is, that he was
brother-in-law to Dryden.

His works are,

Poems, containing a panegyric on the King, and songs and sonnets, Lond.
1660, and a panegyric on general Monk.

His plays are six in number, viz.

1. The Blind Lady, a Comedy.

2. The Committee, or the Faithful Irishman, a Comedy, printed folio,
London 1665. This comedy is often acted, and the success of it chiefly