Edward Ravenscroft

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Edward Ravenscroft (1654?–1707), English dramatist, belonged to an ancient Flintshire family.

He was entered at the Middle Temple, but devoted his attention mainly to literature. Among his pieces are

• Mamamouchi, or The Citizen turned Gentleman (Dorset Garden, 1671, pr. 1675)
• The Careless Lovers (Dorset Garden, 1673, pr. 1673), a comedy of intrigue
• Scaramouch a Philosopher, Harlequin a Schoolboy, Bravo a Merchant and Magician (Theatre Royal, 1677)
• English Lawyer (Theatre Royal, 1678), an adaptation of George Ruggle's Latin play of Ignoramus, presented before James I at Cambridge in March 1615;
• The London Cuckolds (Dorset Garden, 1681, pr. 1683), which became a stock piece, but was struck out of the repertory by David Garrick in 1751
• The Italian Husband (Lincoln's Inn Fields, 1697).

He wrote a total of twelve plays, in which he adapted freely from Molière and others. He ventured to decry the heroic drama, and John Dryden retaliated by satirizing his Mamamouchi, a foolish adaptation from Molière's Bourgeois Gentilhomme and Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, in the prologue to the Assignation (Dryden, Works, ed. Scott, iv. 345 seq.)

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• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition article "Edward Ravenscroft", a publication now in the public domain.

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