The date of his birth is not known, nor of his death, unless Summers was
correct in giving it (without supporting evidence) as 1710 (_The Works
of Aphra Behn_, 1915, V, 519).

[Footnote: For this biographical sketch of Payne I have drawn
on my "Henry Nevil Payne, Dramatist and Jacobite Conspirator,"
published in _The Parrott Presentation Volume_, Princeton, 1935,
pp. 347-381.]

Payne's first opportunity to serve the Catholic party came, apparently,
in 1670, when he went to Ireland in the employ of Sir Elisha Leighton,
who was private secretary to the new lord lieutenant, Lord Berkeley. By
April 1672 Berkeley's pro-Catholic rule had so alienated the city
council of Dublin that he was ordered to return to England and the Earl
of Essex was sent out in his place. From Essex we learn that Payne was
deeply involved in the machinations of Berkeley and that he continued to
stir up trouble in Ireland even after his return to England.

Back in England, possibly by mid-May, 1672, Payne must have plunged at
once into work for the theater. _The Fatal Jealousy_ was performed at
the Duke's Theatre in Dorset Garden in August 1672 and _The Morning
Ramble_ was shown at the same theater three months later. Both plays
were performed before the King (Allerdyce Nicoll, _A History of
Restoration Drama_, 1923, p. 309). Payne's third and last play, _The
Siege of Constantinople_, which reached the stage in November 1674, is
of particular interest in view of his long association with the cause of
James, Duke of York. Payne found his plot in the _General Historie of
the Turkes_ by Knolles, but he altered history to produce a work which
would compliment James. It is significant that there is no prototype in
Knolles for Thomazo (James), the brother of the last Christian emperor