138 ALEXANDER GORDON, THE ANTIQUARY, 



ing those whose employment is to promote the most pernicious error 

 that ever deluded mankind." The scenes of the Drama are laid in 

 ISTaples ; and Lupone, a Dominican friar, is styled chief Inquisitor. 

 The author does not seem to have aspired to the tempting profits of 

 the stage, though to few men of his day could its rewards have proved 

 more acceptable. He would seem rather to have been inspired by 

 somewhat of the protestant zeal which at a later date animated the 

 notorious Lord George Gordon, a son of this same youthful Duke to 

 whom the author of "Lupone" addressed his approving dedication. 

 It was, indeed, an age of protestant ascendency, in which the lineal 

 claimants to the throne of James II. helped to keep alive the spirit 

 of antagonism which his bigoted folly had evoked. The lives of the 

 Borgias appealed to this prevailing sentiment ; and Gordon character- 

 istically writes in the preface : " Some zealous partizans may perhaps 

 give out that this is solely published as a protestant piece of malice, 

 to depreciate that church of which this scandalous Pope whose life I 

 now write was head. But they may please know that it's neither my 

 choice or design to disparage the religion of any church or mortal, 

 but to leave theological controversy to our ecclesiastical champions 

 of profession. I therefore hope, as a lay admirer of truth, without 

 choice, or design to arraign any particular system of religion in a 

 wicked professor, and even head thereof, I may be allow'd so far to 

 enjoy the glorious liberty of a countiy un terrified with Inquisitions, as 

 to acq^^ai^t the world with matter of fact, by collecting from Roman 

 Oatholick authors the scatter'd life of an infamous Pope; which dis- 

 agreeable subject I, perhaps, would not have undertaken, were not 

 the contemporary facts in his pontificate the most surprising, and 

 the revolutions which then happen'd the most extraordinary and 

 curious, of any to be match'd in history." 



Such is the style in which the author appeals to the popular Eng- 

 lish sentiment of his day, while deprecating the charge of producing 

 " a protestant piece of malice." As a dramatist, as well as a historian, 

 he derives his inspiration, not from English, but Italian proceedings ; 

 and he no doubt hoped for some pecuniary returns from this novel 

 literary venture ; , for his experiences in the battle of life were such 

 as are only too familiar to the literary enthusiast. Nichols, in his 

 " Literary Anecdotes," reproduces a note, written by John Whiston, 

 a London bookseller, which says of Gordon, " He was but in narrow 

 circumstances. . For some time he was in partnership with Mr, 



