of want: for his father did not think proper to
support him. In this severe extremity, he fell
upon an expedient, which, no doubt, was dictated by
his distress, of applying to his Bookseller, who had
got considerably by his Plain Dealer, in order to
borrow 20 l. but he applied in vain; the Bookseller
refused to lend him a shilling; and in that distress
he languished for seven years: nor was he released
’till one day King James going to see his Plain-Dealer
performed, was so charmed with it, that he gave immediate
orders for the payment of the author’s debts,
adding to that bounty a pension of 200 1. per annum,
while he continued in England. But the generous
intention of that Prince to him, had not the designed
effect, purely through his modesty; he being ashamed
to tell the earl of Mulgrave, whom the King had sent
to demand it, a full state of his debts. He laboured
under the weight of these difficulties ’till
his father died, and then the estate that descended
to him, was left under very uneasy limitations, he
being only a tenant for life, and not being allowed
to raise money for the payment of his debts:
yet, as he had a power to make a jointure, he married,
almost at the eve of his days, a young gentlewoman
of 1500 l. fortune, part of which being applied to
the uses he wanted it for, he died eleven days after
the celebration of his nuptials in December 1715, and
was interred in the vault of Covent Garden church.
Besides the plays already mentioned, he published
a volume of poems 1704, which met with no great success;
for, like Congreve, his strength lay only in the drama,
and, unless on the stage, he was but a second rate
poet. In 1728 his posthumous works in prose and
verse were published by Mr. Lewis Theobald at London
in 8vo.
Mr. Dennis, in a few words, has summed up this gentleman’s
character; ’he was admired by the men for his
parts, in wit and learning; and he was admired by
the women for those parts of which they were more
competent judges.’ Mr. Wycherley was a man
of great sprightliness, and vivacity of genius, he
was said to have been handsome, formed for gallantry,
and was certainly an idol with the ladies, a felicity
which even his wit might not have procured, without
exterior advantages.
As a poet and a dramatist, I cannot better exhibit
his character than in the words of George lord Lansdowne;
he observes, ’that the earl of Rochester, in
imitation of one of Horace’s epistles, thus mentions
our author;
Of all our modern wits none seem to me,
Once to have touch’d upon true comedy
But hasty Shadwel, and slow Wycherley.
Shadwel’s unfinish’d works
do yet impart
Great proofs of nature’s force;
tho’ none of art.
’But Wycherley earns hard whate’er
he gains,
He wants no judgment, and he spares no
pains.’