ABSTRACT
In March 1681 it was performed at Oxford and a prior production at Drury Lane seems likely. Charles Saunders's Tamerlane the Great. A Tragedy was published by Bentley and Magnes in 1681. It has a prefatory poem byj. Bankes and D'. s Epilogue. Charles Saunders, like D., went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, from Westminster School, he did not graduate. In his Preface he says that the play 'receiv'd some Rules for Correction from Mr. Dryden himself, who also was pleas'd to Grace it with an Epilogue, to which it ows no small part of its success'. Ladies, the beardless author of this dayCommends to you the fortune of his play. A woman wit has often graced the stage, but he's the first boy-poet of our age. Early as is the year his fancies blow, like young Narcissus peeping through the snow; Thus Cowley blossomed soon, yet flourished long; this is as forward, and may prove as strong.
