Gerard Langbaine

The son of a Provost of Queen's College, Oxford, Gerard Langbaine the younger was apprenticed to a bookseller in St. Paul's churchyard before attending University College Oxford, where he later held several positions. Langbaine regarded John Dryden as responsible for the spurious title page ("Plagiaries of the English Stage") appended to his New Catalogue of English Plays (1688) and attempted to exact revenge in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691). The antiquary Thomas Hearne esteemed Langbaine as "a very great scholar, and a great judge of our English history and antiquities" Reliquae Hearniae, ed. Bliss (1869) 3:28.

TEXT RECORDS:

1691English Dramatick Poets: Abraham Cowley.

PUBLICATIONS:

An exact catalogue of all the comedies that were ever printed or published, till this present year 1680. 1680.
The hunter: a discourse on horsemanship. 1686.
Momus triumphans: or, the plagiaries of the English stage. 1687.
An account of the English dramatick poets. 1691.
The lives and characters of the English dramatick poets. 1698.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Anglican

University College Oxford

book trade
essayist

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL.

Wood, Athenae Oxonienses (1690-91; 1721); Thomas Warton, History of English Poetry (1774-81); Joseph Haslewood, "Brief Memoirs of Gerard Langbaine" Gentleman's Magazine 76 (January 1806) 37-38; Alexander Chalmers, General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17); Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Foster, Alumni Oxon (1887-91); A. Watkin-Jones, "Langbaine's account of the English Dramatic Poets" Essays and Studies 21 (1936); G. L. Anderson, Notes and Queries 203 (1958); J. M. Osburne, in John Dryden: Some Biographical Facts and Problems (1965) 234-40; Sutherland, OHEL (1969).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Gerard Langbaine:

1.	1753  Anonymous, in Advertisement to Cibber's Lives of the Poets (1753); Censura Literaria 6 (1808) 354.
2.	1806  Joseph Haslewood, in "Gerard Langbaine" Gentleman's Magazine 76 (January 1806) 38n.
3.	1836  Isaac D'Israeli, in Curiosities of Literature (1836; 1881) 3:500-02.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Gerard Langbaine:

1.	1690  Anthony Wood, Athenae Oxonienses (1690-91; 1721) 2:892-93.
2.	1781  Thomas Warton, in History of English Poetry (1774-81; 1840) 2:261n.
3.	1812  Alexander Chalmers, in General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17) 19:509-10.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(biography records)

1.	1691  John Bankes:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 7-9.
2.	1691  Barnabe Barnes:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 9-10.
3.	1691  Robert Baron:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 10-14.
4.	1691  Francis Beaumont:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 205-07.
5.	1691  Rev. William Cartwright:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 51-53.
6.	1691  Sir William Cavendish:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 385-90.
7.	1691  William Chamberlayne:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 56-57.
8.	1691  George Chapman:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 57-67.
9.	1691  Sir Aston Cokayne:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 67-71.
10.	1691  Charles Cotton:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 74-77.
11.	1691  Abraham Cowley:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 77-88.
12.	1691  Thomas D'Urfey:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 179-85.
13.	1691  Samuel Daniel:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 100-06.
14.	1691  Sir William Davenant:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 106-13.
15.	1691  Thomas Dekker:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 121-25.
16.	1691  Sir John Denham:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 125-29.
17.	1691  John Dryden:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 130-77.
18.	1691  Sir Richard Fanshawe:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 190-97.
19.	1691  Richard Flecknoe:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 199-203.
20.	1691  John Fletcher:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 203-18.
21.	1691  Abraham Fraunce:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 223-26.
22.	1691  Robert Greene:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 241-43.
23.	1691  William Habington:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 243-44.
24.	1691  Thomas Heywood:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 256-70.
25.	1691  Edward Howard:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 274-75.
26.	1691  Ben Jonson:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 281-306.
27.	1691  Rev. Henry Killigrew:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 309-11.
28.	1691  Rev. Ralph Knevet:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 316.
29.	1691  Nathaniel Lee:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 320-27.
30.	1691  Dr. Thomas Lodge:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 330-32.
31.	1691  Gervase Markham:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 340-41.
32.	1691  Christopher Marlowe:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 342-45.
33.	1691  Shakerley Marmion:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 345-46.
34.	1691  Rev. John Marston:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 347-52.
35.	1691  Philip Massinger:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 352-60.
36.	1691  Thomas May:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 360-65.
37.	1691  Thomas Middleton:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 370-75.
38.	1691  John Milton:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 375-77.
39.	1691  Thomas Nashe:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 382-83.
40.	1691  George Peele:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 401-02.
41.	1691  Katherine Philips:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 403-06.
42.	1691  Samuel Pordage:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 406.
43.	1691  Francis Quarles:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 409-11.
44.	1691  Thomas Randolph:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 411-17.
45.	1691  Joseph Rutter:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 430-33.
46.	1691  Thomas Rymer:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 433-34.
47.	1691  Sir Charles Sedley:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 485-88.
48.	1691  Thomas Shadwell:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 442-53.
49.	1691  Samuel Sheppard:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 471-72.
50.	1691  Nahum Tate:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 500-02.
51.	1691  Cyril Tourneur:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 505-06.
52.	1691  Edmund Waller:   Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 507.