LEE, NATHANIEL (1653?-1692)

—Dramatist, s. of a clergyman at Hat field, was ed. at Westminster School and Camb. After leaving the Univ. he went to London, and joined the stage both as actor and author. He was taken up by Rochester and others of the same di olute set, led a loose life, and drank himself into Bedlam, where he spent four years. After his recovery he lived mainly upon charity, and met his death from a fall under the effects of a carouse. His tragedies, which, with much bombast and frequent untrained flights of imagination, have occasional fire and tenderne , are generally based on cla ical subjects. The principal are The Rival Queens , Theodosius , and Mithridates . He also wrote a few comedies, and collaborated with Dryden in an adaptation of Œdip us , and in The Duke of Guise .