Nathaniel Lee Quotes (6 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

Nathaniel Lee Quotes

Nathaniel Lee was an English dramatist. He was the son of Dr Richard Lee, a Presbyterian clergyman who was rector of Hatfield and held many preferments under the Commonwealth; Dr Lee was chaplain to George Monck, afterwards Duke of Albemarle, but after the Restoration he conformed to the Church of England, and withdrew his approval for Charles I's execution.

Lee was educated at Westminster School , and at Trinity College, Cambridge, taking his B.A. degree in 1668. Coming to London, perhaps under the patronage of George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, he tried to earn his living as an actor, but acute stage fright made this impossible. His earliest play, Nero, Emperor of Rome, was acted in 1675 at Drury Lane. Two tragedies written in rhymed heroic couplets, in imitation of John Dryden, followed in 1676: Sophonisba, or Hannibal's Overthrow and Gloriana, or the Court of Augustus Caesar. Both are extravagant in design and treatment.

Lee's reputation was made in 1677 with a blank verse tragedy, The Rival Queens, or the Death of Alexander the Great. The play, which deals with the jealousy of Alexander's first wife, Roxana, for his second wife, Statira, was a favourite on the English stage right up to the days of Edmund Kean. Lee followed this with Mithridates, King of Pontus ; Theodosius, or the Force of Love ; and Caesar Borgia , an imitation of the worst blood and thunder Elizabethan tragedies. Lee was also named as a collaborator with Dryden in an adaptation of Oedipus . The Princess of Cleve is an adaptation of Madame de La Fayette's 1678 novel of the same name. The Massacre of Paris was written about this time but not published until 1690.

Lucius Junius Brutus gave offence at court. The play was suppressed after its third representation for some lines on Tarquin's character that were taken to be a reflection on King Charles II. He therefore joined Dryden in The Duke of Guise , a play which directly advocated the Tory point of view. In it part of the Massacre of Paris was incorporated. Lee was now thirty, and had already achieved a considerable reputation. Constantine the Great followed.

He had lived in the dissipated society of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, and his associates, and imitated their excesses. As he grew more disreputable, his patrons neglected him, and by 1684 his mind was allegedly completely unhinged. He spent five years in the notorious Bedlam Hospital. He lamented his situation with the following missive: "They called me mad, and I called them mad, and damn them, they outvoted me". He recovered and was released.

Lee died in a drunken fit in 1692. He was buried on 6 May in St. Clement Danes, Strand.

Lee's Dramatic Works were published in 1734. In spite of their extravagance, they contain many passages of great beauty. Copies of Lee's books remain sought after in bibliographic circles. Wikipedia

✵ 1653 – 6. May 1692

Works

The Rival Queens

Nathaniel Lee

Nathaniel Lee: 6 quotes 0 likes

Famous Nathaniel Lee Quotes

“Vows with so much passion, swears with so much grace,
That ’t is a kind of heaven to be deluded by him.”

Nathaniel Lee The Rival Queens

Act i., Sc. 3.
The Rival Queens, or the Death of Alexander the Great (1677)

“They called me mad, and I called them mad, and damn them, they outvoted me.”

Nathaniel Lee

Remark after being incarcerated in Bedlam for five years, as quoted in the Introduction of A Social History of Madness : The World Through the Eyes of the Insane (1987) by Roy Porter; also in "The Madness of King Jesus : Why was Jesus Put to Death, but his Followers were not?" by Justin J. Meggitt in Journal for the Study of the New Testament, Vol. 29, No. 4 (June 2007) http://jnt.sagepub.com/content/29/4/379.abstract.

“Man, false man, smiling, destructive man!”

Nathaniel Lee

Theodosius, or the Force of Love (acted 1680), Act iii., Sc. 2.

“Then he will talk—good gods! how he will talk!”

Nathaniel Lee The Rival Queens

Act i., Sc. 3. "It would talk,— Lord! how it talked!", Beaumont and Fletcher, Scornful Lady (c. 1613; printed 1616), Act v., Sc. 1.
The Rival Queens, or the Death of Alexander the Great (1677)

“T is beauty calls, and glory shows the way.”

Nathaniel Lee The Rival Queens

Act iv., Sc. 2. In stage editions, it is "Leads the way" with various interpolations, among them—
See the conquering hero comes!
Sound the trumpet, beat the drums!—
which was first used by Handel in "Joshua," and afterwards transferred to "Judas Maccabæus." The text of both oratorios was written by Dr. Thomas Morell, a clergyman.
The Rival Queens, or the Death of Alexander the Great (1677)