ABSTRACT
From fAn Account of The English Dramatick Poets. Or, Some Observations and Remarks on the Lives and Writings of all those that have Published either Comedies, Tragedies ... in the English Tongue1. Gerard Langbaine (1656-92) was a son of the Provost of
Quteen's College, Oxford, and spirited amateur of the drama. In the 'Account1, Langbaine recorded titles of over a thousand plays and short accounts of over two hundred authors, providing a bedrock upon which later historians would build. Often happily cavalier in his approach (Thomas Southerne is 'An Author of whom I can give no further Account, than that he has two plays in print'), nevertheless his entry on Webster held good for over a century, and even F.L. Lucas was able to add only a few details by 1927.
