Sir Charles Sedley (1639-1701) was the son of Sir John Sedley, Bart., of Aylesford; his mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Henry Savile, the famous provost of Eton. He was admitted a fellow-commoner of Wadham College, Oxford, in 1656, but left without taking a degree, and early in 1657 had married Catherine, the daughter of Earl Rivers. He withdrew

William III.

a countess, I will endeavour to make his daughter [Mary] a queen, for I hatc ingratitude." He had the pleasure of seeing his wishes gratified. Sedley died on the 20th of August 1701. He was a very sparkling talker, and a gay, agreeable companion; and, with Rochester, one of the best song-writers of the age.

SONG BY SIR CHARLES SEDLEY.

Phillis is my only joy,

Faithless as the winds or seas,
Sometimes coming, sometimes coy,
Yet she never fails to please;

If with a frown

I am cast down,
Phillis smiling
And beguiling

Makes me happier than before.

Though alas too late I find

Nothing can her fancy fix,
Yet the moment she is kind
I forgive her with her tricks;
Which though I see,

I can't get free,

She deceiving,

I believing,

What need lovers wish for more.

SONG BY JOHN WILMOT, EARL OF ROCHESTER (1647-1680).

William Wycherley (1640-1715) was the son of a Shropshire country gentleman, Wycherley Daniel Wycherley, of Clive, where he is said to have been born in 1640. In 1655 he was taken to France to be educated, and for some years "he resided upon the banks of the Charente." A precocious and handsome boy, he was admitted into the society of the French court, an 1 became a Roman Catholic. At the Restoration he returned to England and the English Church; he became first a student of the Inner Temple, and then a gentleman-commoner of Queen's College, Oxford, where he lived in the Provost's lodge. He left the University without taking a degree, and coming up to London threw himself into such a career of gaiety as the new reign had opened to any young man of quality and wealth. He was at one time a soldier serving in the Dutch War. It is difficult, however, to conjecture what his occupations may have been until 1671, when he produced at Drury Lane his first work, the comedy of Love in a Wood. This was a very great success, and introduced Wycherley not merely to his fellow-poets but to various great ladies, among whom the Duchess of Cleveland was the most prominent. A coarse but picturesque anecdote recounts the manner in which the latter bestowed her favour upon Wycherley, and exemplifies that readiness of badinage which we learn was one of his most dazzling ornaments. The liaison between Wycherley and the Duchess "made a great noise in the town," and excited the jealousy of the Duke of Buckingham, who threatened to ruin the poet. A meeting between them was, however, contrived, and the Duke succumbed to

VOL. III.

L

Congreve

Wycherley's wit and charm. The latter was now one of the prominent figures in London society, and he had a short period of brilliant dramatic success, with The Gentleman Dancing Master in 1672, The Country Wife in 1673, and The Plain Dealer in 1674; each of these plays was first printed somewhat later. During an illness Charles II. visited the poet in his lodgings, and poured every mark of favour upon him. Wycherley, however, gave offence by marrying the young Dowager Countess of Drogheda, who had fallen in love with him, without asking the royal consent.

From this point, about 1678, the tide of Wycherley's fortunes turned, and he endured one misfortune after another. His wife died in 1681, leaving him her large estates, but a flaw was found in the will and Wycherley became penniless. He is said to have spent seven years in a debtor's prison, and on his release lived a life of great retirement. James II. gave him a pension of £200 a year, and when at length his father died in 1697 Wycherley came in for a life-interest in the Shropshire property. In 1704, when he was sixty-four, he entered into his curious correspondence with the youthful Pope, and was encouraged to publish his "Poems." In his seventy-sixth year Wycherley persuaded a young girl of some fortune to marry him; he survived this disgraceful act

He was buried in the vault

He

only eleven days, dying at the close of the year 1715.
of Covent Garden Church. Wycherley was celebrated in his youth for a com-
bination of vivacity and physical strength which made him highly attractive.
was a very handsome man, and his success with the ladies was so great as to be
embarrassing to himself. In spite of the extreme readiness of his wit in conversation,
he was a solid, slow, and even laborious writer, and it is due, no doubt, to indolence that
he produced so little in a field where his excellence was universally admitted. His plays
would even now be read, were it not that they exhibit in their vigorous and vivacious
scenes the coarse life of the times with too cynical and even brutal an exactitude.

William Congreve (1670-1729), who belonged to an ancient Staffordshire family, was born at Bardsey, near Leeds, on the 10th of February 1670. His father, who was also William Congreve, moved into Ireland, and the poet's childhood was spent at Youghal and at Lismore. He was educated at Kilkenny school, and went in 1685 to Trinity College, Dublin. Here he made the friendship of Swift, and began to

write. In 1688 the Congreves seem to have returned to their home at Stratton, in Staffordshire. The poet composed his first play, The Old Bachelor, in a garden in 1690, while he was recovering from a long illness. Congreve came up to London in March 1691, and formed the acquaintance of Dryden, who was greatly attracted to him, and advised him in the production of his works. A novel, Incognita, belongs to 1692, and Congreve was one of those who had the honour of helping Dryden to complete his translation of Juvenal and Persius. The Old Bachelor was brought

But My to Least

this shoud' seem an Epistle Dedicatory
I conclude it assuring your Core
if I had had the confidence, to have
profied any illustrious now; beside
it your Lordat might have benn
Corks
"Sanger, "the", Igelsom,

m

my

Friends so scurvely, as that comes to,
neither who am

Mayor Jonass most oblidge, and most

humbu Servaub. Wycherby.

Extract from an Autograph Letter of Wycherley to Lord Halifax

out at the Theatre Royal in the first days of 1693, and enjoyed a signal success. Dryden said that "he never saw such a first play in his life, and Congreve at once stepped to the front rank of contemporary authorship, at the age of only twenty-three. Later, in the same year, he produced The Double Dealer, and passed under the protection of Queen Mary. Love for Love appeared at Easter 1695, and Congreve, who by this time seems to have squandered his paternal resources, was made a Commissioner of Hackney Coaches. His tragedy of The Mourning Bride was acted early in 1697, and in 1698 Congreve was much disturbed, and his prestige successfully assailed, by Jeremy Collier's attacks upon the impiety and indecency of the stage. Congreve attempted to answer Collier, but in an unfortunate style and spirit. In March 1700, The Way of the World was brought out at Lincoln's Inn; this was the most splendidly elaborate of all Congreve's plays, and he anticipated brilliant results from it. It was only partly