e been to the parched New England soul of our first American
dramatist.

Two days afterwards, inspiration began to burn, and he dashed off, in a
period of a few weeks, the comedy called "The Contrast," not so great a
"contrast," however, that the literary student would fail to recognize
"The School for Scandal" as its chief inspiration.

Our young dramatist, whose original name, William Clark Tyler, was
changed, by act of Court, to Royall, was born in Boston on July 18,
1757, near the historic ground of Faneuil Hall. His father was one of
the King's Councillors, and figured in the Stamp Act controversy. From
him, young Tyler inherited much of his ability. The family was wealthy
and influential. Naturally, the father being a graduate of Harvard, his
son likewise went to that institution. His early boyhood, when he was at
the grammar school, was passed amidst the tumult of the Stamp Act, and
the quartering of troops in Boston. When he entered Harvard as a
freshman, on July 15, 1772, three days before he was fifteen years old,
he was thoroughly accustomed to the strenuous atmosphere of the coming
Revolution.

There were many students in his class, who afterwards won distinction as
chief justices, governors and United States senators, but at that time
none of them were so sedate as to ignore the usual pranks of the college
boy. Tyler's temperament is well exhibited by the fact that he was one
of the foremost instigators in a fishing party from his room window,
when the students hooked the wig of the reverend president from his head
one morning as that potentate was going to chapel.

Tyler graduated with a B.A. degree from Harvard in July, 1776, the
Valedictorian of his class; and was similarly honoured with a B.A. by
Yale (1776). Three years after, he received an M.A. from Harvard and, in
later life (1811), from the University of Vermont. He read law for three
years with the Hon. Francis Dana, of Cambridge, and the Hon. Benjamin
Hichbourne, of Boston, during that time being a member of a club which
used to meet at the rooms of Colonel John Trumbull, well known to all
students as a soldier and painter. Unfortunate for us that the life-size
canvas of Royall Tyler, painted by Trumbull, was destroyed by fire. We
are assured by Trumbull, in his "Reminiscences," that during those long
evenings, they "regaled themselves with a cup of tea instead of wine,
and discussed subjects of literature, politics and war." In 1778, Tyler
f