WILLS, WILLIAM GORMAN (1828-1891) , Irish dram atist, was born at Kilmurry, Ireland, on Jan. 28, 1828, the son of James Wills (I790-1868), author of Lives of Illustrious and Distinguished Irishmen (1839-47). The son was educated at Waterford grammar school and Trinity college, Dublin. Wills was a Dublin journalist, then a portrait-painter, and finally "dramatist to the Lyceum." He had written several plays under this agree
ment when he made a great success with Charles I. (1872) and with Olivia (1873), an adaptation of the Vicar of Wakefield. Wills also wrote ballads, the best known of which is "I'll sing thee songs of Araby." He died on Dec. 13, 1891.
See F. Wills, William Gorman Wills (1898) .