Elkanah Settle

The play was printed with a preface to the Earl of Norwich, in which Settle described with scorn the effusive dedications of other dramatic poets.

From 1700, he initiated what has been called a "successful racket" where he would write occasional poems, typically eulogistic or nuptial verse, have them bound up in notably ostentatious armorial bindings, which he would send to the wealthy person whose arms he used.

Settle is one of the dunces in Alexander Pope's The Dunciad, handing over his authority to Lewis Theobald and in the 1742 edition Colley Cibber.

Settle appears in Boswell's life of Dr Johnson, when John Wilkes ascribes the poet's obscurity to his 'queer' name.

[3] Settle's numerous works include, beside numerous political pamphlets and occasional poems: Shortly before the Scottish Referendum in September 2014, a copy of Settle's Carmen Irenicum: The Union of the Imperial Crowns of Great Britain, a poem supporting the union of England and Scotland that is dedicated to the monarch Queen Anne, went on sale for £3,250.

A performance of the Empress of Morocco in 1678 at the Duke's Theatre