JAMES, a successful English dramatist, was born in London on the 13th September 1593. He had his education at Merchant Taylors' School, London, and at St John's College, Oxford, where he gave signal marks of future distinction. The duration of his residence at this university cannot now be ascertained, as the public records of Oxford do not mention his name. He next proceeded to Catherine Hall, Cambridge, where he took his degree. His earliest publication was a poem, entitled, Echo, or the Infortunate Lovers, which appeared in 1618, and which was in all probability the same as the Narcissus of 1646. Having finished his academical course, he adopted the ecclesiastical profession, and was appointed to a living in or near St Alban's, Hertfordshire, which he shortly resigned, from his having become a convert to Roman Catholicism. Resigning the clerical profession, he taught for some time during the years 1623 and 1624 in the Grammar School of St Albans. Disliking the drudgery of tuition, he went up to London, lived in Gray's Inn, and devoted himself to the composition of plays. Love Tricks, or the School of Complement, was his earliest production. It was published in 1631, but had been licensed five years earlier. It was evidently a youthful production, but it gave good promise of future excellence in the peculiar walk which he had chosen. Of the thirty-three regular dramas which flowed from his exuberant invention, there are great varieties of excellence. Unquestionably his highest effort was the *Traitor*, licensed in 1631 and published in 1635. "As- suredly, since his decease," says Dyce, "no tragedy of equal excellence has graced the British stage." The truth and vigour which waited on his pen in the composition of this drama must have disliked the work; for they seem in a great measure to have deserted him on its completion. This play was plagiarized by one Rivers in 1692, and has been fre- quently revived. It was partly recast by Richard Sheil, in his *Ecades, or the Statue*, which was acted with success at Covent Garden in 1819. Shirley, however, who should have been a good judge of the quality of plays, esteemed his *Cardinol*, which was published in 1652, as "the best of his flock."

In September 1642, an order went forth from both Houses of Parliament for the suppression of stage plays throughout the kingdom; and Shirley, who was a mon- archist, gave in his adherence to his munificent patron, the Duke of Newcastle, whom he had assisted largely in the composition of his plays. The King's cause declining, and the dramatist's prospects being of the gloomiest de- scription, he retired obscurely to London, where he con- ceived, by industriously pursuing his former occupation of a teacher, to support his wife and family for the remainder of his days. He was soothed by the intimate friendship of Thomas Stanley, author of the *History of Philosophy*, and of Sir Edward Sherburne, now principally remembered by his translation of a portion of *Manilius*. Of Shirley's com- petency for this office, he has left us a pledge in his excel- lent grammatical treatises. With the exception of giving occasional assistance to John Ogilby in his literary under- takings, Shirley seems to have henceforward renounced the use of his pen. The restoration of Charles II. could not prevail upon him to break his resolution, and while the degenerate race of playwrights hurried eagerly forward to hold up their bombast and obscenity to that licentious age, the gentle and modest old Shirley wore out the remainder of his days away from the corruption of the court and the dissolute practices of his contemporaries. Shirley was burned out of his house in Fleet Street by the great fire of London in 1666, and being obliged to withdraw to the suburbs, he and his wife, overcome with fright and fatigue, both died in the same day (October 29), and were buried in the same grave. The orphan children of the dramatist were most probably thrown destitute on the world. In Anthony à Wood's day, one of his sons held the office of butler at Furnival's Inn. *Sic transit gloria mundi!*

Dryden has satirized Shirley in his *MacFleeknoe*, but he possessed much greater merits than his appearance there would imply. His language is always correct, and his inven- tion sometimes successful; but he has only a limited stock of the objects of fancy to draw upon. His humour, how- ever, is broad and genial; his wit is sometimes sprightly, but more frequently strained; his characters are well drawn, although he never rises into any of the nicer shades which discriminate one personality from another. He delineates passion well, yet he is better at the description of it than he is in making us feel the thing itself. His plays, although many of them well worth reading, are no longer acted. He had not the anticipatory genius, enabling him to deli- neate with words the passions of men throughout all times. This prerogative was given to Shakspeare alone of all our English dramatists. The best edition of Shirley's *Dra- matic Works and Poems* is that of Gifford and Dyce, 6 vols. 8vo, London, 1833.