Born 1640.
Love in a Wood, 1671 (written 1659?).
The Gentleman Dancing Master, 1672 (written 1662?).
The Country Wife, 1675.
The Plain Dealer, 1676 (written 1666? and 1676).
Died 1716.

PERHAPS no figure in the Restoration period appears so
strange as that of Wycherley. What are we to make of
the character of this handsome person, endowed, as Pope
said, with so much of the 'nobleman look', yet a being all
angles and unwieldy muscular lumps, shot with unexpected
streaks of grace? Certainly he had something of the giant
deformity of Chapman, his great love of physical life, with
its thew and bone and warm rushing blood, but all tinged
with a deep pessimism, a fierce hatred, the saeva indignatio
of Swift. He was for ever striving after the absolute, but
always bewildered as to which extreme to choose. Born a
Protestant, he became a Catholic in his early youth in
France, and on his return became Protestant once more.
Perhaps he went to sea and fought against the Dutch, but
at any rate, we see him at the age of thirty-two carried to
Court by the Duchess of Cleveland, the irresistible Castle-
maine, where, probably not quite at his ease, yet wondering
if life lived like that might not after all be the best, he
seems to us like some splendid uncut diamond amid the
polished stones. Outwardly he is the outspoken witty man
of fashion, admirably suited to shine in a brilliant court;

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