lived privately on an easy competence he had saved.... He was born in
1679 ... but he did not die till March 11, 1748." [Footnote: Biographia
Dramatica, by Baker, Reed and Jones, 1812, Vol. I. Part i.]

_The Masquerade_ is a clever comedy, rather free in language and
thought, chiefly about the danger of gambling. Some of the sayings are
very pointed. It has been stated that the author frequented the
principal coffee-houses in town, and picked up many pungent remarks
there; however this may be, the literary men who at the present time
frequent clubs, have, I am afraid, not the same chance. As a specimen of
free and easy--rather too easy--wit, let me mention the remarks of Mr.
Smart (Act I.) on the way he passed the night, and in what manner. "Nine
persons are kept handsomely out of the sober income of one hundred
pounds a year." I also observe the name of an old acquaintance in this
play. Thackeray's hero in the Memoirs of Mr. Charles J. Yellowplush is
"the Honourable Algernon Percy Deuceace, youngest and fifth son of the
Earl of Crabs," and in _The Masquerade_ (Act III. Sc. i) Mr. Ombre says:
"Did you not observe an old decay'd rake that stood next the box-keeper
yonder ... they call him _Sir Timothy Deuxace_; that wretch has play'd
off one of the best families in Europe--he has thrown away all his
posterity, and reduced 20,000 acres of wood-land, arable, meadow, and
pasture within the narrow circumference of an oaken table of eight
foot." _The Masquerade_ as the title of the play is a misnomer, for it
does not conduce at all to the plot. We give the greater part of the
Prologue to _The Masquerade_, spoken by Mr. Wilks:--

The Poet, who must paint by Nature's Laws,
If he wou'd merit what he begs, Applause;
Surveys your changing Pleasures with Surprise,
Sees each new Day some new Diversion rise;