CROWNE, JOHN (c. 164o-1703), British dramatist, was a native of Nova Scotia and was born about 164o. His father "Colonel" William Crowne, accompanied the earl of Arundel on a diplomatic mission to Vienna in 1637, and wrote an account of his journey. He emigrated to Nova Scotia, where he received a grant of land from Cromwell, but the French took possession of his property, and the home government did nothing to uphold his rights. Crowne came to England, and began his literary career with a romance, Pandion and Amphigenia, or the History of the coy Lady of Thessalia (1665). In 1671 he produced a dull play, Juliana, or the Princess of Poland. The earl of Rochester pro cured for him a commission to supply a masque, Calisto, which gained him the favour of Charles II. Crowne's heroic play, The Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus Vespasian (1677), contained a thinly disguised satire on the Puritan party, and c. 1683 he pro duced The City Politiques, satirizing the Whig party and contain ing characters which were readily recognized as portraits of Titus Oates and others. This made him many enemies, and he petitioned the king for a small place that would release him from the neces sity of writing for the stage. The king exacted one more comedy, which should, he suggested, be based on the No puede ser guardar una mujer of Moreto. This had already been unsuccessfully adapted, as Crowne discovered later, by Sir Thomas St. Serfe, but in Crowne's hands it developed into Sir Courtly Nice, It Cannot Be (1685), an entertaining comedy which kept its place as a stock piece for nearly a century. Of his many other pieces the best are the two comedies, The English Friar (16qo), which owes something to Moliere's Tartu ff e, and The Married Beau based on the "Curioso Impertinente" in Don Quixote. It is stated that Crowne was still living in i 7 03, but nothing is known of his later life.
See The Dramatic Works of John Crowne (1873) , edited by James Maidment and W. H. Logan for the Dramatists of the Restoration.