The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) - Vol. IV | Page 2

of Love, a Pastoral Opera, from the Italian; performed
at the Queen's Theatre in the Hay-market, by her majesty's servants,
1706. Scene Arcadia. Time of action, the same with that of the
representation.
11. Love Dragoon'd, a Farce.
This gentleman, who seems to have led a very comfortable life, his
circumstances being easy, was unfortunate in his death; for he lost his
life in a disorderly house, in the parish of St. Clement Danes, not
without suspicion of having been murthered; which accident happened
to him, on his birth day in the 58th year of his age, 1718. His body was
interred in his own parish church, being that of St. Mary Ax, in the city
of London.

Mrs. MANLEY,
The celebrated authoress of the Atalantis, was born in Hampshire, in
one of those islands which formerly belonged to France, of which her
father Sir Roger Manley was governor; who afterwards enjoyed the
same post in other places in England. He was the second son of an
ancient family; the better part of his estate was ruined in the civil war
by his firm adherence to Charles I. He had not the satisfaction of ever
being taken notice of, nor was his loyalty acknowledged at the
restoration. The governor was a brave gallant man, of great honour and
integrity.
He became a scholar in the midst of the camp, having left the university
at the age of sixteen, to follow the fortunes of Charles I. His temper had
too much of the Stoic in it to attend much to the interest of his family.
After a life spent in the civil and foreign wars, he began to love ease
and retirement, devoting himself to his study, and the charge of his
little post, without following the court; his great virtue and modesty,
debaring him from solliciting favours from such persons as were then
at the helm of affairs, his deserts were buried, and forgotten. In this
solitude he wrote several tracts for his own amusement, particularly his
Latin Commentaries of the Civil Wars of England. He was likewise
author of the first volume of that admired work, the Turkish Spy. One
Dr. Midgley, an ingenious physician, related to the family by marriage,
had the charge of looking over his papers. Amongst them he found that
manuscript, which he reserved to his proper use, and by his own pen,
and the assistance of some others, continued the work till the eighth
volume was finished, without having the honesty to acknowledge the
author of the first.
The governor likewise wrote the History of the Rebellion in England,
Scotland and Ireland; wherein the most material passages, battles,
sieges, policies, and stratagems of war, are impartially related on both
sides, from the year 1640, to the beheading of the duke of Monmouth
1688, in three parts, printed in octavo, in the year 1691.

His daughter, our authoress, received an education suitable to her birth,
and gave very early discoveries of a genius, not only above her years,
but much superior to what is usually to be found amongst her own sex.
She had the misfortune to lose her mother, while she was yet an infant,
a circumstance, which laid the foundation of many calamities, which
afterwards befell her.
The brother of Sir Roger Manley, who was of principles very opposite
to his, joined with the Parliamentarian party; and after Charles I. had
suffered, he engaged with great zeal in the cause of those who were for
settling a new form of government, in which, however, they were
disappointed by the address of Cromwell, who found means to transfer
the government into his own hands, and in place of instituting a
republic, restored monarchy under another name, and erected a tyranny
as dangerous, perhaps, in its consequences, as that which he had
contributed to overthrow. During these heats and divisions, Mr. Manley,
who adhered to the most powerful party, was fortunate enough to
amass an estate, and purchased a title; but these, upon the restoration,
reverted back to the former possessor; so that he was left with several
small children unprovided for. The eldest of these orphans, Sir Roger
Manley took under his protection, bestowed a very liberal education on
him, and endeavoured to inspire his mind with other principles, than
those he had received from his father. This young gentleman had very
promising parts, but under the appearance of an open simplicity, he
concealed the most treacherous hypocrisy. Sir Roger, who had a high
opinion of his nephew's honour, as well as of his great abilities, on his
death-bed bequeathed to him the care of our authoress, and her
youngest sister.
This man had from nature a very happy address, formed to win much
upon the hearts of unexperienced girls; and his two cousins respected
him