The least unsuccessful of those who directed themselves by the light of Molière was William Wycherley (1640?-1716?). Here we sketch his career and that of his successors, reserving for a separate section the great name of Dryden. Wycherley was of an old family in Shropshire, had a handsome person, was brought up, in boyhood, at Paris, in the literary circle of Madame de Montausier, later resided at Oxford, and, if we could believe what Pope says that Wycherley reported of himself, wrote his first play, "Love in a Wood," before he came to London, to the Middle Temple. This would make Wycherley prior to Etherege, but either his own or Pope's memory is supposed to have been incorrect. The play was not acted till 1672: it was not much in advance of Etherege in merit. Of "The Gentleman Dancing Master" (1673), "The Country Wife" (1673), and "The Plain Dealer" (1674) the last is by far the best. In the Prologue, the line And with faint praises one another damn, was remembered, unconsciously, by Pope, in his "Damn with faint praise" (in the character of "Atticus," Addison). "The Plain Dealer" is a comedy of humours, like Jon son's, the chief humorist being the benevolent railing Manly, taken from the Alceste of Molière's "Le Misanthrope". Manly "of an honest, surly, nice humour," is a gallant British sea captain, who holds all the world in contempt but his friend and his love, who, of course, betray him. He is beloved by Fidelia, who, for his sake, has abandoned her large fortune, and taken service as a seaman with Captain Manly. Many scenes of conversation, in imitation of Molière, are vigorous; one perhaps was in Sheridan's mind when he wrote "The School for Scandal". Wycherley defends his "Country Wife" from the assaults of a false prude, who, at least, shows us that, even under Charles II, "The Country Wife" was thought superfluously indecent. The Widow Blackacre, a female Peter Peebles, a litigious she-lawyer, with her oaf of a son, is "in very gracious fooling". The intrigue, and the part assigned to Fidelia, are odious enough, and impossible enough, but the nobility of Fidelia is demonstrated by allowing her, occasionally, to talk in blank verse. When we remember Wycherley's French education, we may suppose that he dealt so much in matter which a French audience would not have endured, because he knew the taste of the theatre-going part of his countrymen. Wycherley is said to have suffered much from a jealous wife of noble birth, who caused him a world of legal troubles by the bequest of her money. He married again at 75, and shortly afterwards died. The most interesting thing in his later years was his acquaintance with Pope, then a lad, and the characteristic use which Pope made of his opportunity. Congreve. Heaven, that but once was prodigal before, To Shakespeare gave as much, she could not give him more