An account of the English dramatick poets, or, Some observations and remarks on the lives and writings of all those that have publish'd either comedies, tragedies, tragi-comedies, pastorals, masques, interludes, farces or opera's in the English tongue by Gerard Langbaine.

Thomas KYD.

An Ancient Writer, or rather Translator in the time of Queen Elizabeth, who publisht a Play call'd Pompey the Great his Fair Cornelia's Tragedy; effected by her Father and Husband's Down-cast, Death, and Fortune; printed 4^o. Lond. 1595. and dedicated to the Virtuously Noble, and rightly Honour'd Lady, the Coun∣tess of Sussex. This Play is translated from the French of Robert Garnier, who in the Reigns of Charles the Ninth, Henry the Third, and Henry the Fourth, was accounted an Excel∣lent Poet, tho' M. Rapin says, His Tragedies with those of Rotrou, Serre, and others of that time, are of a mean Character. 'Tis evident to

any that have read his Tragedies, which are Nine in Number, that he propos'd Seneca for his Model, and he was thought in those days to have happily succeeded in his Design. This Translation is writ in blank Verse, only here and there, at the close of a Paragraph (if I may so speak) the Reader is presented with a Couplet. The Chorus's are writ in several Measures of Verse, and are very sententious.