Farquhar comes late among the Restoration dramatists, and by this time the cynical immorality of the age seems to have worn thin. His temper is certainly more genial, and his wit, though it has lapses, is more decorous. _The Beaux’ Stratagem_ (see pp. 225–6) is a lively and ingenious comedy with a cleverly engineered plot. RESTORATION TRAGEDY With regard to tragedy, Dryden is amply representative of his age. The period is less rich in tragedy than it is in comedy, for several reasons. (_a_) The spirit of the time was too irresponsible and vivacious to provide a healthy breeding-ground for this type of play. (_b_) The average poetical standard was not high; and tragedy of a superior type needs a high level of poetic merit. (_c_) There was a lack of fresh models, the tragedians being dependent on the Elizabethan plays (which were not popular), and on the classical French tragedies. Yet there are a few tragedians who deserve a brief mention. =1. Thomas Otway (1651–85).= As was so often the case with the dramatists of the time, Otway had a varied and troubled career, closed with a miserable death. His first play, _Alcibiades_, was produced about 1675; then followed _Don Carlos_ (1676), _The Orphan_ (1680), and his masterpiece, _Venice Preserved_ (1682). _Venice Preserved_ (see p. 226) for long held the reputation of being the best tragedy outside Shakespeare, and that reputation has kept it in the forefront. It shows his work at its best. It has a rugged and somber force, and reveals a considerable skill in working out a dramatic situation. But Otway tends to lay on the horrors too thickly; his style is unreliable, and his comic passages are farce of the coarsest kind. If he is second to Shakespeare, he is a very bad second. =2. Nathaniel Lee (1653–92).= Lee’s life is the usual tale of mishaps, miseries, and drunkenness, with a taint of madness as an additional calamity. He wrote many tragedies, some of which are _Nero_ (1673), _Sophonisba_ (1676), _The Rival Queens_ (1677), and _Mithridates_ (1678). He also collaborated with Dryden in the production of two plays. During his own time Lee’s name became a byword to distinguish a kind of wild, raving style, which in part at least seems to have been a product of his madness. But he can write well when the spirit is in him; he has a command of pathos, and all through his work he has touches of real poetic quality. =3. Elkanah Settle (1648–1724).= Settle was in some ways the butt of his literary friends, and Dryden has given him prominence by attacking him in his satires. In his day he obtained some popularity with a heroic play, _The Empress of Morocco_ (1673). It is a poor specimen of its kind, but his other dramas are worse.