English playwright whose heroic plays were popular but marred by extravagance.

The son of a Presbyterian minister, Lee was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge. In London he tried to earn his living as an actor, but acute stage fright made this impossible. His earliest play, Nero, was performed in 1674. It was written in heroic couplets, a form he continued to use for other plays early in his career. A blank-verse tragedy, The Rival Queens (1677), made his reputation; it remained popular until the 19th century. Lucius Junius Brutus (1680) was prohibited for antimonarchical sentiments. Lee collaborated with John Dryden in Oedipus (1678) and The Duke of Guise (1682). Beginning in 1684, he was confined to Bedlam for five years..