The Certain Hour (Dizain des Poëtes) Page 17

  OLIVIA'S POTTAGE

  "_Mr. Wycherley was naturally modest until King Charles' court, thatlate disgrace to our times, corrupted him. He then gave himself up toall sorts of extravagances and to the wildest frolics that a wanton witcould devise. . . . Never was so much ill-nature in a pen as in his,joined with so much good nature as was in himself, even to excess; forhe was bountiful, even to run himself into difficulties, and charitableeven to a fault. It was not that he was free from the failings ofhumanity, but he had the tenderness of it, too, which made everybodyexcuse whom everybody loved; and even the asperity of his verses seemsto have been forgiven._"