One of the three leading tragedians of his day, Nathaniel Lee, as J. M. Armistead observes, led the move away from "awe-inspiring characters and happy endings--typical of tragi-comedies and heroic plays of the 1660s--to the more vulnerable and pathetic figures, and to the homicidal or suicidal conclusions, which characterized the tragedies of the later 1670s and 1680s." In the process, Lee preceded John Dryden in turning from heroic couplets to blank verse as the medium for serious drama. The most-notable quality of Lee's dramatic language, however, is what Armistead calls its "impassioned lyricism," which enables the playwright to express the torment of his self-destructive heroes and the desperate passion of his yearning lovers.

Lee's life is not heavily documented. After attending Cambridge, and earning a B.A. in 1669, young Nathaniel, the son of Richard and Elizabeth Lee, was attracted to the London stage, beginning as an actor in...