Works.-The best known of his dramas are Love in a Wood, The Gentleman Dancing-Master, The Country Wife, and The Plain Dealer. He also published a volume of Miscellaneous Poems, which Macaulay disposes of by the trenchant phrase, "this bulky volume of obscene doggerel." His comedies also partake of the immorality of the age, but to a less extent than some others, and are relieved by touches of wit and broad humor.

It is generally assumed by critics that Congreve is much superior to Wycherley as a dramatist. Hazlitt, however, holds that the latter has a broader humor, more natural characters, and more striking incidents; that in Congreve the workmanship overlies the material, and that we forget Congreve's characters and remember only what they say; whereas in Wycherley we remember better the characters themselves and the action. A collection of Wycherley's posthumous works, in prose and verse, was published by Theobald. Wycherley was very intimate with Charles II, and with the Duke of Buckingham and other profligate wits of the day. The anecdotes told of him are curious as illustrative of the manners of the times.

"Wycherley was a very handsome man. His acquaintance with the famous Duchess of Cleveland commenced oddly enough. One day, as he passed that Duchess's coach in the ring, she leaned out of the window and cried out, loud enough to be heard distinctly by him, 'Sir, you're a rascal! you're a villain!' Wycherley from that instant entertained hopes. He did not fail waiting on her the next morning, and, with a very melancholy tone, begged to know how it was possible for him to have so much disobliged her Grace. They were very good friends from that time."— Spence's Anecdotes. "Wycherley was in a bookseller's shop at Bath, or Tunbridge, when Lady Drogheda came in and happened to inquire for the Plain Dealer. A friend of Wycherley's, who stood by him, pushed him toward her, and said, 'There's the Plain Dealer, madam, if you want him.' Wycherley made his excuses, and Lady Drogheda said that she loved plain dealing best.' He afterwards visited that lady, and some time after married her. This proved a great blow to his fortunes; just before the time of his courtship he was designed for governor to the late Duke of Richmond, and was to have been allowed fifteen hundred pounds a year from the Government. His absence from Court in the progress of this amour, and his being yet more absent after his marriage (for Lady Drogheda was very jealous of him), disgusted his friends there so much that he lost all his interest with them. His lady died, and his misfortunes were such that he was thrown into the Fleet, and lay there seven years. It was then that Colonel Butt got his Plain Dealer to be acted, and contrived to get the King (James the Second) to be there. The colonel attended him thither. The King was mightily pleased with the play,- asked who was the author of it; and, upon hearing that it was one of Wycherley's, complained that he had not seen him for so many years, and inquired what was become of him. The colonel improved this opportunity so well that the King gave orders that his debts should be discharged out of the privy purse."-Spence's Anecdotes.

"His fame as a writer rests wholly on his comedies, and chiefly on the last two. Even as a comic writer, he was neither of the best school, nor highest in his school. He was, in truth, a worse Congreve. His chief merit, like Congreve's, lies in the style of his dialogue. But the wit which lights up The Plain Dealer and The Country Wife is pale and flickering when compared with the gorgeous blaze which dazzles us almost to blindness in Love for Love and the Way of the World. In truth, his mind, unless we are greatly mistaken, was naturally a very meagre soil, and was forced only by great labor and outlay to bear fruit, which, after all, was not of the highest flavor. He had scarcely more claim to originality than Terence. It is not too much to say that there is hardly anything of the least value in his plays of which the hint is not

to be found elsewhere. The only thing original about Wycherley, the only thing which he could furnish from his own mind in inexhaustible abundance, was profligacy. It is curious to observe how everything that he touched, however pure and noble, took in an instant the color of his mind. We pass a very severe censure on Wycherley when we say that it is a relief to turn from him to Congreve."-Lord Macaulay, Comic Dramatists of the Restoration.

Congreve.

William Congreve, 1666-1729, a native of Ireland, excelled all the men of his generation as a writer of the licentious and immoral plays then in fashion. He was one of those whose indecencies were exposed so unceremoniously by the doughty Jeremy Collier.

At the bringing out of his first play, The Old Bachelor, which could not now be read aloud in any family circle, Congreve had the support of all the great theatrical celebrities, Mr. Betterton, Mr. Powel, Mrs. Bracegirdle, Mrs. Barry; his play was commended by Dryden, as being the best he had ever heard; he received official recognition from the Government, in the bestowal by Lord Halifax of a lucrative office in the Customs; the public were in ecstasies.

Congreve's plays are published in 3 vols., 8vo. The names of some of those best known are The Double Dealer; The Mourning Bride; The Way of the World; The Judgment of Paris. He wrote some other things, but excelled only in the drama. "The powers of Congreve seem to desert him when he leaves the stage, as Antæus was no longer strong than when he could touch the ground." -Johnson.

"We have seen in Swift a humorous philosopher, whose truth frightens one, and whose laughter makes one melancholy. We have in Congreve a humorous observer of another school, to whom the world seems to have no moral at all, and whose ghastly doctrine seems to be that we should eat, drink, and be merry when we can, and go to the deuce (if there be a deuce) when the time comes."- Thackeray.

Vanbrugh.

Sir John Vanbrugh, 1666-1726, another of those corrupt dramatists, was about equally distinguished as a writer and an architect.

Career.- Vanbrugh was the descendant of a Flemish Protestant family, settled in England. Early in life he entered the French army, but did not remain in it a great while. Returning to England he gained distinction both as an architect and a writer of comedies. In the former capacity he erected Castle Howard for the Earl of Carlisle, and Blenheim for the Duke of Marlborough, besides many other man

P

sions for the nobility. In 1714 he was knighted and made Comptroller of Public Works.

Writings.

In 1697, Vanbrugh published the first of his comedies, The Relapse, which was very successful. This was followed by The Provoked Wife, which met with even greater success. The Confederacy, The Country House, The Journey to London, together with some adaptations of Molière's pieces to the English stage, comprise his other plays. He left one, The Provoked Husband, unfinished.

Character as a Writer.- Vanbrugh possessed all the merits and demerits of his age. His plays abound in wit and strokes of comic delineation, but are all disfigured by their tone of profligacy. Like Wycherley and Congreve, Vanbrugh failed to rise superior to the manuers of the reign of Queen Anne, although he is perhaps not so wholly abandoned to them as were many of his contemporaries.

"The Relapse and The Provoked Wife of Vanbrugh have attained a considerable reputation. In the former, the character of Amanda is interesting; especially in the momentary wavering and quick recovery of her virtue. This is the first homage that the theatre had paid, since the Restoration, to female chastity; and, notwithstanding the vicious tone of the other classes, in which Vanbrugh has gone as great lengths as any of his contemporaries, we perceive the beginnings of a reaction in public spirit which gradually reformed and elevated the moral standard of the stage. The Provoked Wife, though it cannot be said to give any proofs of this sort of improvement, has some merit as a comedy: it is witty and animated, as Vanbrugh usually was; the character of Sir John Brute may not have been too great a caricature of real manners such as survived from the debased reign of Charles; and the endeavor to expose the grossness of the elder generation was itself an evidence that a better polish had been given to social life."- Hallam.

Farquhar.

George Farquhar, 1678-1707, was another dramatic writer of note.

Farquhar was an Irishman by birth, and entered Trinity College, Dublin, but abandoned study and turned player. After playing for some time, he began writing for the stage, and with marked success. His plays are all in the comic vein, either Comedies or Farces, and like the other dramas of those days are licentious and immoral.

Works. The following are the principal: Love and a Bottle, a Comedy; Constant Couple, a Trip to the Jubilee, a Comedy; Sir Harry Wildair, a Comedy; The Inconstant, or the Way to Win Him, a Comedy; The Stage-Coach, a Farce; The Twin Rivals, a Comedy; The Recruiting Officer, a Comedy; The Beaux Stratagem, a Comedy; Poems, Letters, and Essays.

COLLEY CIBBER, 1671-1757, Poet Laureate to George II., began his career as an actor, but afterwards wrote plays of his own, and acquired great applause both for his authorship and his acting.

Cibber received from George I. a pension of £200, and was made Laureate by George II., in 1730, after which he did not appear on the stage except on rare occasions. A

list of thirty of his Plays is given. His best piece is The Careless Husband. He wrote An Apology for his Life, containing some curious information in regard to the social life of those days. Pope had a spite against Cibber, and gave him a conspicuous place in the Dunciad. The injustice of the thing only recoiled on Pope himself, as Cibber was anything but a dullard, and among his contemporaries had a high reputation for his liveliness and wit.

THEOPHILUS CIBBER, 1703–1758, was son of Colley Cibber, and like him an actor and a dramatist. His pieces are not numerous. He was the reputed author of a work called "Cibber's Lives of the Poets." But Johnson says that the work was written by another, and that Cibber had nothing to do with it except to put his name to it, for which service the publisher gave him ten guineas.

MRS. CHARLOTTE CHARKE,

1760, was daughter of Colley Cibber. After separating from her husband, she went upon the stage. Quarrelling with the Manager, she lampooned him in a dramatic piece, called The Art of Management, or Tragedy Expelled. Other pieces: The Lover's Treat; The History of Henry Dumont; A Narra tive of her own Life.

THOMAS D'URFEY, 1723, generally known as Tom D'Urfey, was of French Protestant descent, and was destined for the law. But a love of gay company and of light literature soon carried him into other paths. He had the dangerous accomplishments of being able both to write and to sing a good song, and consequently was much in demand in scenes of revelry. He wrote many dramatic pieces, which were played, and he had the general reputation of being a good fellow. But his talents brought him little money, and in his old age he was in extremely narrow circumstances. By the influence of Addison, one of D'Urfey's Plays was acted for his benefit, and with considerable pecuniary returns. A collection of his Songs, Satires, etc., was also published with the same benevolent end, under the title of Laugh and Be Fat, or Pills to Purge Melancholy.

THOMAS SOUTHERNE, 1660-1746, a native of Ireland, and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, was a lawyer, a soldier, and a dramatist. It is only in the latter capacity that he gained distinction. His plays were pecuniarily successful. The two most known to readers are The Discovery, and Oroonoko.

"Southerne's Discovery, latterly represented under the name of Isabella, is almost as familiar to the lovers of our theatre as Venice Preserved itself; and for the same reason, that whenever an actress of great tragic powers arises, the part of Isabella is as fitted to exhibit them as that of Belvidera. The choice and conduct of the story, however, are Southerne's chief merits; for there is little vigor in the language, though it is natural, and free from the usual faults of his age. A similar character may be given to his other tragedy, Oroonoko, in which Southerne deserves the praise of having first of any English writer denounced the traffic in slaves and the cruelties of the West India bondage. The moral feeling is high in this tragedy, and it has sometimes been acted with a certain success; but the execution is not that of a superior dramatist." Hallam.

JOHN DENNIS, 1657-1734, was noted in his day as a critic, and as a dramatic and political writer. He was a native of London, and was educated at Cambridge. His principal works are: Plot and No Plot; Rinaldo and Armida; Orpheus and Emidia, a Masque; The Comical Gallant, etc. He criticised Addison's Cato and Pope's Essay on Criticism with great severity, and was rewarded for the latter by being put into

the Dunciad.

"Dennis attained the ambiguous honor of being distinguished as 'the critic,' and he may yet instruct us how the moral influences the literary character, and how a certain talent that can never mature itself into genius, like the pale fruit that hangs in the shade, ripens only into sourness.” — D`Israeli.

MRS. SUSANNAH CENTLIVRE, 1667-1722, was thrice married; the last time to Joseph Centlivre, chief cook to Queen Anne. Mrs. Centlivre was a woman of note in the theatrical world, partly as an actress, but chiefly as a writer of plays. She was in great favor with Steele, Rowe, Budgell, and others of that set. Her works have been published in 3 vols. She wrote nineteen Plays; among them, A Bold Stroke for a Wife, and The Perjured Husband, are considered worthy of special mention. She was celebrated for her wit and beauty, as well as for her literary accomplishments. "If we do not allow her to be the very first of our female writers for the stage, she has but one above her, and may justly be placed next to her predecessor in dramatic glory, the great Mrs. Behn."- Biog. Dram.

MRS. CATHERINE Cockburn, 1679–1749, had considerable success as a dramatic writer. A Tragedy of hers, written when she was only seventeen years old, was played with great success in the Theatre Royal. The names of some of her plays are: Agnes de Castro, a Tragedy; Fatal Friendship, a Tragedy; The Unhappy Penitent; The Revolution of Sweden. She wrote A Letter in Vindication of Locke's Essay; and Remarks upon Rutherford's Essay on the Nature and Obligations of Virtue.

ROBERT DODSLEY, 1703–1764, is noted both as an author and a publisher. He began life as apprentice to a tradesman, and afterwards he was a footman. His first publication, made when he was twenty-nine years old, was a collection of poems, called The Muse in Livery, or The Footman's Miscellany. His next essay was a drama, The Toy Shop. The manuscript being sent to Pope for examination, he pronounced a warm verdict of approval, which led to its being played at Covent Garden Theatre. Dodsley then opened a bookstore, and was successful in the business. He combined it, however, with authorship and with the patronage of authors. He wrote several other plays, The King and the Miller of Mansfield; The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green; Cleone, a Tragedy, besides numerous poems. He published a Collection of Old Plays, 12 vols., and wrote The Economy of Human Life, etc. But the greatest service he did to literature was his establishment of the Annual Register, begun in 1758 at the suggestion of Edmund Burke (who had the charge of it for some time) and continued to the present time. Dodsley was the first to give employment to Johnson, and his relations generally with the men of letters in his day were of the most pleasant kind.

Jeremy Collier.

JEREMY COLLIER, 1650-1726, an English Nonjuring Bishop, and a man of great celebrity, had in a high degree what the English call pluck, and neither fear nor favor could make him swerve a hair from what he deemed to be right and true. Collier was not a dramatist, but he is considered in this connection, because his greatest celebrity grew out of the battle which he had with the play-writers.

The work to which reference has been made was A Short View of the Profaneness and Immorality of the Stage. At no time in the history of the world has there been a