Wycherley

WILLIAM, the dramatist, was bom about 1640, and was converted to Romanism by the beautiful Duche de Montausier during an early visit to France, but on his return to England he became a Fellow-Commoner of Queen’s College, Oxford, and returned to the Protestant fold. He wrote " Love in a Wood ” when he was nineteen, and "The Gentleman Dancing- Master ” two years later, but both must have been written up to date afterwards, as they contain allusions to events subsequent to the years 1659 and 1661. He became a great favourite with the infamous Duche of Cleveland and her friend the king; but neither his natural ability nor his favour in high places could keep him out of strongest—but debt, for which he spent many years in prison. His also his coarsest—play was “ The Country Wife," and amongst the rest, " The Way of the World ’’ and " The Plain Dealer ” are conspicuously excellent. For the latter James II. paid all the author’s debts at the time, thus freeing him from the Fleet prison, and gave him a pension of £200 a year. Wycherley was much the cleverest nlayw right of the Restoration.