accordingly, he resolved to punish my lady
for her lack of good taste. It therefore became his habit to speak of
her intrigues before the court, and to name the individuals who received
her favours. Now Wycherley, being amongst these, grew fearful his amour
with the duchess should become known to the king, from whom at this time
he expected an appointment. Accordingly, he besought his good friends,
Lord Rochester and Sir Charles Sedley, to remonstrate on his behalf with
the duke. These gentlemen undertook that kindly office, and in order
to make the rivals acquainted, besought his grace to sup with the
playwright. The duke complying with their request, met Wycherley in a
friendly spirit, and soon professed himself delighted with his wit; nay,
before the feast was over he drank his health in a bumper of red wine,
and declared himself Mr. Wycherley's very good friend and faithful
servant henceforth.

Moreover, he was as good as his word; for, being master of the horse, he
soon after appointed Wycherley an equerry, and subsequently gave him a
commission as captain of a regiment of which he was colonel. Nor did the
duke's services to the dramatist end here; for when occasion offered he
introduced him to the merry monarch, and so pleased was the king
with the author's conversational powers that he admitted him to his
friendship. His majesty's regard for Wycherley gradually ripened, and
once when he lay ill of fever at his lodgings in Bow Street, Covent
Garden, the merry monarch visited him, cheered him with words of
kindness, and promised he would send him to Montpelier when he was well
enough to travel. For this good purpose Charles sent him five hundred
pounds, and Wycherley spent the winter of 1679 abroad.

Previous to this date he had written, besides his first comedy, three
others which had been received with great favour by the town, viz., "The
Gentleman Dancing Master," "The Country Wife," and "The Plain Dealer."
Soon after his return to England the crisis of his life arrived, and he
married. His introduction to the lady whom fate ordained to become his
wife is not the least singular episode in a remarkable biography. Being
at Tunbridge Wells, then a place of fashion and liberty, he was one
day walking with a friend named Fairbeard. And it happened as they were
passing a book-stall they overheard a gentlewoman inquire for the "Plain
Dealer."

"Madam," says Mr. Fairbeard, uncovering, "since you are for the 'Plain
De