author

Gerard Langbaine

1656–1692

Best known for one of the earliest reference works on English playwrights, this Oxford scholar helped preserve a great deal of literary history. His writing is especially valued for its early biographical and critical notes on Restoration and earlier drama.

1 Audiobook

Momus Triumphans: or, the Plagiaries of the English Stage (1688[1687])

Momus Triumphans: or, the Plagiaries of the English Stage (1688[1687])

by Gerard Langbaine

About the author

Born on July 15, 1656, Gerard Langbaine was an English scholar, critic, and bibliographer associated with University College, Oxford. He was the son of Gerard Langbaine the elder, and he became known for his deep interest in the English stage and its writers.

His best-known book is An Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691), an early attempt to gather biographical and critical information about English playwrights. The work became important for later literary historians because it preserved details about many dramatists that might otherwise have been lost.

Langbaine died on June 23, 1692, at only thirty-five. Though his life was short, he remains a useful and often-cited figure in the history of English literary scholarship.