Thomas, a dramatic writer, well known as the hero of Dryden's satire of *MacFlecknoe*, was born in Norfolk in 1640 of an ancient Staffordshire family. He was educated at Caius College, Cambridge, and subsequently went to study law at the Inner Temple. Disgusted with the drudgery attendant upon legal pursuits, he quitted law and London together, and spent some time in foreign travel. Returning to England, he betook himself to writing for the stage, and gained considerable reputation among the reigning wits of the time, of whom the chief were Dryden, Otway, and Rochester, as a smart, witty talker, but he was pronounced much too hasty a writer. Shadwell, who was a large, round, unwieldy man, set up as a second Ben Jonson, and in eating and drinking he must be confessed to have rivalled his master, but came very far short of him in genius. He rose to be poet-laureate and historiographer to the king on the retirement of Dryden in 1688, and was one of the most important writers of the Whig party. Dryden, who had formerly been his friend, has immortalized him in perhaps the keenest personal satire in the English language. Conceived, as the *MacFlecknoe* is, in a thoroughly satirical spirit, of course all hope of fairness is at once banished from the mind on reading the first line of it. Yet with such immense gusto does the poet bring all the resources of his wonderful art to crush his opponent, and with such singular relish does he heap upon him the most unmeasured contempt, that one cannot help excusing the satirist while one laughs hugely at *MacFlecknoe*. Dryden has often blamed for the untruthfulness of his representation; he should have been blamed rather for being a satirist. Not satisfied with the bruising which Shadwell had received in the *MacFlecknoe*, Dryden has drawn another immortal portrait of him on his way home from a treason-tavern—

"Round as a globe, and liquored every chink, Goodly and great, he sails behind his link;" skill was below mediocrity. This nobleman further adds:

"If Shadwell had burnt all he wrote, and printed all he spoke, he would have had more wit and humour than any other poet." Shadwell died in 1692 in consequence of too large a dose of opium, which he is reported to have been in the habit of taking.

A complete edition of Shadwell's works was published in 1720, in 4 vols. 12mo. His dramatic works are:—The Soldier Lover, 1688; The Royal Shepherdess, 1689; The Humorist, 1671; The Minor, 1672; Epsom Wells, 1673; Pyeke, 1675; The Ladies, 1676; The Virtuous, 1678; Times of Queen Anne, 1679; True Widow, 1679; The Woman Coggin, 1680; The Lancashire Witch, 1682; The Squire of Alatia, 1688; Barry Fair, 1689; The Amorous Rigot, 1690; The Scouerers, 1691; and The Volunteers, 1693.