JOHN, an English dramatic writer, who lived in the time of James I. Wood says he was a student in Corpus Christi college, Oxford; but neither his family nor the time of his birth is known. He produced eight plays for the stage, which were all acted at Blackfriars with applause; and one of them, called the Dutch Courtesan, was once revived since the Restoration, under the title of the Revenge, or a Match in Newgate. There is no account when he died; but we find his works were published after his death by Shakespeare, and may thence reasonably conclude that it happened about the year 1614. He was a chaste and pure writer; avoiding all that obscenity, ribaldry, and scurrility, which too many of the playwrights of that time, and indeed much more so in some periods since, have made the basis of their wit, to the great disgrace and scandal of the stage.