[19] Our information respecting the closing scene of Wycherley's life is too scanty for the formation of a definite judgment. We are, however, under no necessity of believing the circumstances which attended it to have been in any way scandalous. Pope's letter, on this occasion, to Mr. Blount is here subjoined.
"Jan. 21, 1715-16.
"I know of nothing that will be so interesting to you at present, as some circumstances of the last act of that eminent comic poet, and our friend, Wycherley. He had often told me, as I doubt not he did all his acquaintance, that he would marry as soon as his life was despaired of. Accordingly, a few days before his death, he underwent the ceremony: and joined together those two sacraments, which, wise men say, should be the last we receive: for, if you observe, matrimony is placed after extreme unction in our catechism, as a kind of hint of the order of time in which they are to be taken. The old man then lay down, satisfied in the conscience of having by this one act paid his just debts, obliged a woman, who, he was told, had merit, and shown an heroic resentment of the ill-usage of his next heir. Some hundred pounds, which he had with the lady, discharged those debts: a jointure of four hundred a year made her a recompense; and the nephew he left to comfort himself as well as he could, with the miserable remains of a mortgaged estate. I saw our friend twice after this was done, less peevish in his sickness than he used to be in his health; neither much afraid of dying, nor (which in him had been more likely) much ashamed of marrying. The evening before he expired, he called his young wife to the bedside, and earnestly entreated her not to deny him one request, the last he should make. Upon her assurances of consenting to it, he told her, 'My dear, it is only this, that you will never marry an old man again.' I cannot help remarking, that sickness, which often destroys both wit and wisdom, yet seldom has power to remove that talent which we call humour. Mr. Wycherley shewed his, even in this last compliment; though I think his request a little hard, for why should he bar her from doubling her jointure on the same easy terms.
"So trivial as these circumstances are, I should not be displeased myself to know such trifles, when they concern or characterise any eminent person. The wisest and wittiest of men are seldom wiser or wittier than others in these sober moments. At least, our friend ended much in the character he had lived in: and Horace's rule for a play may as well be applied to him as a play-wright:
'——Servetur ad imum
Qualis ab incepto processerit, et sibi constet.'"I am, &c."
It is stated that the lady's name was Jackson, and that she brought Wycherley a fortune of £1,500. The following additional particulars are given, on the authority of Pope, in Spence's Anecdotes, "Wycherley's nephew, on whom his estate was entailed (but with power to settle a widow's jointure) would not consent to his selling any part of it; which he wanted much to do, to pay his debts, about a thousand pounds. He had therefore long resolved to marry, in order to make a settlement from the estate, to pay off his debts with his wife's fortune, and 'to plague his damned nephew,' as he used to express it.... After all, the woman he did marry proved a cheat; was a cast mistress of the person who recommended her to him; and was supplied by him with money for her wedding clothes." This last assertion is hardly to be reconciled with the assumption that Wycherley paid his debts with his wife's fortune. From an allusion to his nephew's "ill-carriage" to him, in a letter to Pope, dated Aug. 11, 1709, we gather that the quarrel between them was of old standing; of its origin we are completely ignorant.—Ed.
[20] It is difficult to understand in what the impropriety of these speeches is supposed to consist. They are both placed in the mouth of Sparkish, an affected fop, whose utmost ambition is to be recorded a wit, and to whom no sacrifice would seem excessive for the sake of a smart saying. His indifference to the young lady in question occasions his loss of her in the end.—Ed.
[21] Wycherley's "slowness" has been denied by both Pope and Lansdowne. The former declares that "he was far from being slow in general, and, in particular, wrote The Plain Dealer in three weeks." And Lansdowne observes, "If it had been a trouble to him to write, I am much mistaken if he would not have spared himself that trouble." It seems certain, however, that he revised and altered his plays before committing them to the public, and he by no means belonged to the class of so-called Easy Writers, with respect to whom a bon-mot of his is recorded in the ninth Tatler. "The town has for half an age been tormented with insects called Easy Writers, whose abilities Mr. Wycherley one day described excellently well in one word: 'That,' said he, 'among these fellows is called Easy Writing, which anyone may easily write.'"—Ed.
[22] A remarkably free translation, one would say; and the "whole scene" is, in fact, but a small portion of a scene. But see, for Wycherley's plagiarisms, the Introductions to the plays.—Ed.
[23] Democritus excludes sane poets from Helicon.—De Art Poet. 296-7.
[24] See the [Introduction to The Gentleman Dancing-Master].
[25] Some Account of the English Stage, vol i. p. 135.
[26] The Mulberry Garden was situated at the further extremity of the Mall in St. James's Park, upon the site now occupied by Buckingham Palace and its grounds. Its name was derived from a plantation of mulberry trees which James I. caused to be made there. Later, the spot was converted into a public garden, with shrubberies, walks, arbours, and a house of refreshment, and was much frequented by persons of fashion as well as citizens. Pepys found it "a very silly place, worse than Spring-garden," but "a wilderness here that is somewhat pretty." The following extract from Sedley's Mulberry Garden gives an idea of the doings at this place. The scene is laid in the Garden:—