ETHEREGE, sometimes written ETHERIDGE, SIR GEORGE, born about 1636, was a distinguished wit and dramatic writer of the reign of Charles IL According to the usual routine of a gentleman's education at that time, he studied law at an ion of court and travelled. In 1661 he made his first public, appearance as author of the comedy called ' Love in a Tub.' She Would if She Could' followed in 1668, and The Man of Mode, or Sir Fopliag Flutter,' in 1676. All these were received with much favour by the public. They placed him, with Buckingham, Rochester, Smiley, &c., in the first rank of the wits of the day. Ease and liveliness of dialect are their characteristic excel lence; but they have an ingrained taint of licentiousness running through the whole conception as well as the language, which has long excluded them from the stage. If the characters are supposed (which is the author's best excuse) to bo but highly-coloured copies of the fine gentlemen and ladies of the day, we shall marvel that the name and estimation of gentlemen should ever have been sullied by such a total want of truth and honour. Sir George Etherege's verses are not
numerous, and consist of occasional pieces, lampoons, songs, and short amatory poems, some of which are of a grossly licentious character. Etherege's private life may be guessed from his writings : play injured his fortune, debauchery his constitution. Ile repaired the former by marrying a rich widow, whose prico was a title; and to win her ho purchased his He was in James II.'s household, and was afterwards employed by that king as minister to Ratisbon, where, by one account, he died from a fall down stairs after a convivial enter tainment; but, according to another account, be followed James II. to France. His death seems to have occurred about or soon after the Revolution of 1688. There is an edition of his Plays and Poems in 8vo, London, 1701, and one in 12mo, London, 1715.