None of Henry Nevil Payne's plays, _The Fatal Jealousie_ (1673), _TheMorning Ramble_ (1673), _The Siege of Constantinople_ (1675), bears hisname on the title-page. Plenty of external evidence exists, however, toprove his claim to them. John Downes, in _Roscius Anglicanus_ (1708),has this to say: "_Loves Jealousy_ [i.e. _The Fatal Jealousy_], and _TheMorning Ramble_. Written by Mr. _Nevil Pain_. Both were very well_Acted_, but after their first run, were laid aside, to make Room forothers; the Company having then plenty of new Poets" (ed. MontagueSummers, London, n.d., pp. 33-34). "After the Tempest, came the Siege of_Constantinople_, Wrote by Mr. _Nevill Pain_" (_ibid._, p. 35).Langbaine's _An Account of the English Dramatick Poets_ (1691) gives noauthor for _The Siege of Constantinople_, but says of _The FatalJealousy_ that it is "ascribed by some to Mr. Pane" (p. 531) and of _TheMorning Ramble_ that this "Play is said to be written by One Mr. _Pane_,and may be accounted a good Comedy" (p. 541).We do not have to depend on the early historians of the English dramafor certain knowledge that Payne was for a time a dramatist. Though hisbrief excursion into the theater must later have seemed to him a minorepisode in his life, Payne's enemies were aware of the fact that he wasa playwright and have written their knowledge into the record of histreasonable activities. For example, the author of a burlesque life ofPayne, which contains, so far as I know, the only connected account ofhis activities, makes this useful remark: "Then [after his return fromIreland in 1672] he composes a Tragedy of a certain Emperour ofConstantinople, whom he never knew; but in whose person he vilifies acertain Prince [Charles II], whom he very well knows" (_ModestyTriumphing over Impudence_ ... 1680, pp. 18-19).As an agent of the Catholic party, Payne had excellent reasons forwishing to keep his affairs well veiled. What we know of his life hashad to be pieced together from information found in state papers, courtrecords, and "histories" of the branches of the damnable Popish plots.*The date of his birth is not known, nor of his death, unless Summers wascorrect in giving it (without supporting evidence) as 1710 (_The Worksof Aphra Behn_, 1915, V, 519). [Footnote: For this biographical sketch of Payne I have drawn on my "Henry Nevil Payne, Dramatist and Jacobite Conspirator," published in _The Parrott Presentation Volume_, Princeton, 1935, pp. 347-381.]Payne's first opportunity to serve the Catholic party came, apparently,in 1670, when he went to Ireland in the employ of Sir Elisha Leighton,who was private secretary to the new lord lieutenant, Lord Berkeley. ByApril 1672 Berkeley's pro-Catholic rule had so alienated the citycouncil of Dublin that he was ordered to return to England and the Earlof Essex was sent out in his place. From Essex we learn that Payne wasdeeply involved in the machinations of Berkeley and that he continued tostir up trouble in Ireland even after his return to England.Back in England, possibly by mid-May, 1672, Payne must have plunged atonce into work for the theater. _The Fatal Jealousy_ was performed atthe Duke's Theatre in Dorset Garden in August 1672 and _The MorningRamble_ was shown at the same theater three months later. Both playswere performed before the King (Allerdyce Nicoll, _A History ofRestoration Drama_, 1923, p. 309). Payne's third and last play, _TheSiege of Constantinople_, which reached the stage in November 1674, isof particular interest in view of his long association with the cause of