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Wycherley was born in 1640,
and died in 1715.

CONGREVE.--William Congreve, who is of the same school of morals, is far
superior as a writer; indeed, were one name to be selected in illustration
of our subject, it would be his. He was born in 1666, and, after being
educated at Trinity College, Dublin, was a student at the Middle Temple.
His first play, _The Old Bachelor_, produced in his twenty-first year, was
a great success, and won for him the patronage of Lord Halifax. His next,
_The Double Dealer_, caused Dryden to proclaim him the equal of
Shakspeare! Perhaps his most famous comedy is _Love for Love_, which is
besides an excellent index to the morality of the age. The author was
quoted and caressed; Pope dedicated to him his Translation of the Iliad;
and Voltaire considered him the most successful English writer of comedy.
His merit consists in some degree of originality, and in the liveliness of
his colloquies. His wit is brilliant and flashing, but, in the words of
Thackeray, the world to him "seems to have had no moral at all.


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