WYCHERLEY, WILLIAM, a comic dramatist of the period of the restoration, was born at Clive, near Shrewsbury, in 1640. His father, a cavalier squire of £600 a year, sent his son to France at the age of 15; and during his residence on the banks of the Charente, the youth was a favorite at the court o the governor of Angouleme, whose accomplished wife, the Mme. Rambouillet of Voiture, converted him to the creed of the church of Rome. On his return to England in 1660 Wycherley studied a short time at Oxford, where he was reconciled to the Anglican church, and he was entered of the middle temple. His first comedy, Lore in a Wood, was acted with great applause, and published in 1672, and it was followed by three other successful comedies, The Gentle man Daneing-master (1673)- The Country Wife (1675); and The Plain Dealer (his best work, 1677). About 1680 the dramatist was married to a young and rich widow, the countess of Drogheda, whom he had met at Tunbridge. The lady was distractedly jealous of him, kept him from frequenting the Court, which lost him the favor of the king, and watched him closely wherever he went. She did not live long, and she left him the whole of her fortune; but his succession to the estate was disputed, and an expensive lawsuit ensued, the costs of which, added to personal debts, fairly broke down the unlucky dramatist. He was committed to the Fleet, and suffered to languish there neglected for seven years. He was partly relieved Eby the bounty of James IL—prob ably because he returned to the communion of the church of Rome—and he succeeded to the patrimonial estate in Shropshire by the death of his father. This did not,•how
ever, much relieve him, as the estate was heavily mortgaged, and strictly entailed. He was on bad terms with the heir-at-law, his nephew; and on purpose to injure this rela tive, Wycherley, at the age of 75, married a young girl, on whom he settled a jointure; and eleven days after this trausaction—the last and perhaps the most scandalous act of his life, as Macaulay describes it—the old dramatist died. His death took place in Dec., 1715, and he was interred in St. Paul's church, Covent garden. Besides his comedies, Wycherley published a volume of wretched Miscellany Poems (1704), and another volume, partly consisting of "moral reflections," was published after his death. The comedies of Wycherley, on which his fame rests', reflect the literary taste, the manners, and vices of the times in which he lived. They are, in truth, grossly and profligate. They have, however, some literary excellence. The language is clear and forcible, the dialogues often witty and lively, some of the characters vigorously drawn, and the observations and maxims scattered throughout the different scenes are shrewd and sen sible, and expressed in a terse, sententious style. Wvcherley was the founder of that school of artificial comedy which Congreve, Farquhar, and Sheridan carried to its highest perfection, imparting to it an airy grace and brilliancy far above the reach of its first master.