Elkanah Settle

Born in Dunstable in 1648, Elkanah Settle was an English poet and playwright who studied at Trinity College, Oxford, though he left without taking a degree. He made his name early in the Restoration theatre, and his tragedy The Empress of Morocco became his best-known success.

For a time, his plays were popular enough to put him in competition with John Dryden, and that rivalry helped make him a recognizable literary figure in London. He wrote for the stage, produced poems and pageants, and remained active in the city’s literary world across several decades.

Settle’s later life was much less secure than his early fame might suggest. He is often remembered as a writer whose career rose quickly, became entangled in literary quarrels, and then faded into harder circumstances—making him an especially vivid example of how uncertain an author’s fortunes could be in his period.