Background
He was born, probably in 1646, at Walthamstow, Essex, though both the date and place of his birth are uncertain.
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( Title: The Rival Queens, etc. Publisher: British Libra...)
Title: The Rival Queens, etc. Publisher: British Library, Historical Print Editions The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is one of the world's largest research libraries holding over 150 million items in all known languages and formats: books, journals, newspapers, sound recordings, patents, maps, stamps, prints and much more. Its collections include around 14 million books, along with substantial additional collections of manuscripts and historical items dating back as far as 300 BC. The POETRY & DRAMA collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. The books reflect the complex and changing role of literature in society, ranging from Bardic poetry to Victorian verse. Containing many classic works from important dramatists and poets, this collection has something for every lover of the stage and verse. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ British Library Lee, Nathaniel; 1694. 55 p. ; 4º. 644.h.65.
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He was born, probably in 1646, at Walthamstow, Essex, though both the date and place of his birth are uncertain.
After attending the Charterhouse School in London, he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1665, where he received his B. A. degree in 1669.
When he came to London afte studies, he acted a few minor roles in the Duke's Company; but failing to achieve any success as an actor, he turned to writing plays instead. His early productions were semihistorical tragedies strongly marked with the characteristics of heroic drama. Nero (1674) met with little success, but the next two plays, Sophonisba (1675) and Gloriana (1676), were both very popular. The fourth play, The Rival Queens, or the Death of Alexander the Great (1677), is usually regarded as his masterpiece and was often revived during the 18th century; it was the first Restoration tragedy to be written in blank verse instead of in heroic couplets.
In 1678 Lee produced two plays, Mithridates and Oedipus; the latter, which he wrote in collaboration with John Dryden, was a Restoration version of Sophocles' famous tragedy. At this point, however, Lee's career met with a serious setback.
His next play, The Massacre of Paris, was banned because of its political references to the so-called Popish Plot which was then disturbing all England. The following play, Caesar Borgia (1679), was not well received. Lee retaliated by writing his one comedy, The Princess of Cleve (1680), based on the French novel by Mme. de La Fayette, but intended by Lee as a scurrilous and satirical attack on the degeneracy of his age. The next play, Theodosius (1680), a sentimental tragedy, proved more successful; but Lucius Junius Brutus, produced later the same year, was banned after six nights because of its republican principles. For the next two years Lee wrote no more plays. Then, in 1682, having shifted his allegiance from the Whigs to the Tories, he collaborated with Dryden again in The Duke of Guise, a play designed to please the court of Charles II. His only other production, Constantine the Great (1683), also contained much Tory propaganda.
Lee's last years were tragic. In November 1684, he was declared insane and committed to Bedlam, where he remained until 1688. After his release he wrote no more plays, though his earlier Massacre of Paris was finally produced on the stage after the accession of William and Mary.
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( Title: The Rival Queens, etc. Publisher: British Libra...)
His only other production, Constantine the Great (1683), also contained much Tory propaganda. Lee's last years were tragic.
Quotes from others about the person
As Joseph Addison later remarked in The Spectator, "Among our modern English poets, there is none who was better turned for tragedy than Lee; if, instead of favouring the impetuosity of his genius, he had restrained it, and kept it within its proper bounds. "