(1648-1724) Poet and dramatist, educated at Oxford, was the author of a number of turgid dramas, now unreadable and unread, but which in their day were held to rival Dryden, who pilloried Settle as Doeg in the second part of Absalom and Achitophel. Settle essayed a reply in Absalom Senior. He wrote against the Papists, but recanted, and made amends by a Narrative of the Popish Plot, in which he exposed the perjuries of Titus Oates. He was appointed City Poet. Latterly he had a booth in Bartholomew Fair. He died in the Charterhouse. His plays include Cambyses (1666), Empress of Morocco (1671), Love and Revenge (1675), The Female Prelate, Distressed Innocence (1691), and the Ladies' Triumph (1718).