Unfortunately Hoyle was reputed to be addicted to the grossest immorality, and rumours of a sinister xxxv description were current concerning him.27 There is, in fact, printed a letter28 of Mrs. Behn’s wherein she writes most anxiously to her friend stating that the gravest scandals have reached her ears, and begging him to clear himself from these allegations. Hoyle was murdered in a brawl 26 May, 1692, and is buried in the vault belonging to the Inner Temple, which is presumably in the ground attached to the Temple Church. The entry in the Register runs as follows: ‘John Hoyle, esq., of the Inner Temple was buried in the vault May ye 29, 1692.’ Narcissus Luttrell in his _Diary_, Saturday, 28 May, 1692, has the following entry: ‘Mr. Hoil of the Temple on Thursday night was at a tavern with other gentlemen, and quarrelling with Mr. Pitts’ eldest son about drinking a health, as they came out Mr. Hoil was stabb’d in the belly and fell down dead, and thereon Pitts fled; and the next morning was taken in a disguise and is committed xxxvi to Newgate.’29 30 June, 1692, the same record says: ‘This day Mr. Pitts was tryed at the Old Bailey for the murder of Mr. Hoil of the Temple, and the jury found it manslaughter but the next heir has brought an appeal.’ In September, 1676, _The Town Fop_ was acted with applause, and the following year Mrs. Behn was very busy producing two comedies (of which one is a masterpiece) and one tragedy. _The Debauchee_, which was brought out this year at the Duke’s House, a somewhat superficial though clever alteration of Brome’s _Mad Couple Well Match’d_, is no doubt from her pen. It was published anonymously, 4to, 1677, and all the best critics with one accord ascribe it to Mrs. Behn. In the autumn of 1677 there was produced by the Duke’s Company a version of Middleton’s _No Wit, No Help Like a Woman’s_, entitled, _The Counterfeit Bridegroom; or, The Defeated Widow_ (4to, 1677); it is smart and spirited. Genest was of opinion it is Aphra’s work. He is probably right, for we know that she repeatedly made use of Middleton, and internal evidence fully xxxvii bears out our stage historian.30 Both _Abdelazer_31 and _The Town Fop_ evidence in a marked degree her intimate knowledge of the earlier dramatists, whilst _The Rover (I)_ is founded on Killigrew. None the less, here she has handled her materials with rare skill, and successfully put new wine into old bottles. The critics, however, began to attack her on this point, and when _The Rover (I)_ appeared in print (4to 1677), she found it necessary to add a postscript, defending her play from the charge of merely being ’_Thomaso_ alter’d’. With reference to _Abdelazer_ there is extant a very interesting letter32 from Mrs. Behn to her friend, Mrs. Emily Price. She writes as follows:— My Dear,