recreation were not the most auspicious. 'The muses,' he says, 'have seldom employed your thoughts but when some violent fit of gout has snatched you from affairs of state, and, like the priestess of Apollo, you never come to deliver your oracles but unwillingly and in torment' (Dedication prefixed to The Rivals). Commenting on this, Walpole remarked that the gout was a 'very impotent muse.' Like his relative Richard, second earl of Burlington, Orrery was on terms of intimate friendship with many eminent men of letters—among others Davenant, Dryden, and Cowley. Besides several dramas he was the author of 'A Poem on his Majesty's happy Restoration,' which he presented to the king, but which was never printed; 'A Poem on the Death of Abraham Cowley,' 1677, printed in a 'Collection of Poems' by various authors, 1701, 3rd edition, 1716, republished in Budgell's 'Memoirs of the Family of the Boyles,' and prefixed by Dr. Sprat to his edition of Cowley's works; 'The Dream'—in which the genius of France is introduced endeavouring to persuade Charles II to become dependent on Louis XIV—presented to the king, but never printed, and now lost; and 'Poems on most of the Festivals of the Church,' 1681. Several of the tragedies of Orrery attained a certain success in their day. They are written in rhyme with an easy flowing diction, and, if somewhat bombastic and extravagant in sentiment, are not without effective situations, and manifest considerable command of pathos. The earliest of his plays performed was 'Henry V,' at Lincoln's Inn Fields, as is proved by the reference of Pepys, under date 13 Aug. 1664. He then saw it acted, and he makes a later reference, under date 28 Sept. of the same year, to 'The General' as 'Lord Broghill's second play.' Downes asserts that 'Henry V' was not brought out till 1667, when the theatre was reopened, but it was then only revived, and was performed ten nights successively. The play was published in 1668. It is doubtful if Orrery was the author of 'The General'—at least there is no proof of his having acknowledged it. 'Mustapha, the Son of Solyman the Magnificent,' was brought out at Lincoln's Inn Fields 3 April 1665, and played before their majesties at court 20 Oct. 1666 (Evelyn). 'The Black Prince,' published 1669, and played for the first time at the king's house 19 Oct. 1667 (Pepys), was not very successful, the reading of a letter actually causing the audience to hiss. 'Tryphon,' a tragedy, published in 1672, and acted at Lincoln's Inn Fields 8 Dec. 1668, met with some applause, but showed a lack of invention, resembling his other tragedies too closely in its construction. These four tragedies were published together in 1690, and now form vol. i. of his 'Dramatic Works.' Of Orrery's two comedies, 'Guzman' and 'Mr. Anthony,' 'the former,' according to Downes, 'took very well, the latter but indifferent.' Pepys, who pronounced 'Guzman' to be 'very ordinary,' mentions it as produced anonymously 16 April 1669. It was published posthumously in 1693. 'Mr. Anthony' was published in 1690, but is not included in the 'Dramatic Works.' Two tragedies of Orrery's were published posthumously, 'Herod the Great,' in 1694, along with his four early tragedies and the comedy 'Guzman;' and 'Altemira' in 1702, in which year it was put upon the stage by his grandson Charles Boyle. The 'Complete Dramatic Works of the Earl of Orrery,' including all his plays with the exception of 'Mr. Anthony,' appeared in 1743. The Earl of Orrery is the reputed author of 'English Adventures, by a Person of Honour,' 1676, entered in the catalogue of the Huth Library.
[State Letters of Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery, containing a series of correspondence between the Duke of Ormonde and his lordship, from the Restoration to the year 1668, together with some other letters and pieces of a different kind, particularly the Life of the Earl of Orrery by the Rev. Mr. Thomas Morrice, his lordship's chaplain, 1742; Budgell's Memoirs of the Boyles, 34-93; Earl of Orrery's Letter Book whilst Governor of Munster (1644-49), Add. MS. 25287; Letters to Sir John Malet, Add. MS. 32095, ff. 109-188; Ludlow's Memoirs; Whitelocke's Memorials; Clarendon's History of the Rebellion; Oldmixon's History of the Stuarts; Carte's Life of Ormonde; Cal. State Papers (Dom.), especially during the Protectorate; Pepys's Diary; Evelyn's Diary; Ware's Writers of Ireland (Harris), iii. 177; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iii. 1200-1; Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors (Park), v. 191-7; Genest's History of the Stage; Biog. Brit. (Kippis), ii. 479-92; Lodge's Irish Peerage (1789), i. 178-192.]
BOYLE, ROGER (1617?–1687), bishop of Clogher, was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he was elected a fellow. On the outbreak of the rebellion in 1641 he became tutor to Lord Paulet, in whose family he remained until the Restoration, when in 1660-1 he became rector of Carrigaline and of Ringrone in the diocese of Cork. Thence he was advanced to the deanery of Cork, and on 12 Sept. 1667 he was promoted to the see of Down and Connor. On 21 Sept. 1672 he was translated to the see of Clogher. He died at Clones on 26 Nov. 1687, in the seventieth year of his age, and was buried in the church
