The New International Encyclopædia/Howard, Robert

HOWARD, Sir Robert (1626-98). An English dramatist, son of Thomas Howard, first Earl of Berkshire, by Elizabeth, daughter of William Cecil, Lord Burghley. During the Civil War he took the Royalist side, and was knighted (1644). He was imprisoned under the Commonwealth in Windsor Castle; but after the Restoration lucrative posts were given him, and he sat in Parliament. He is the Crites of Dryden's Essay on Dramatic Poesy. Dryden married his sister Elizabeth. Of Howard's five extant plays, The Committee (1692), caricaturing the manners of the Commonwealth, is most interesting.