lowed by their immediate successors. Decker wrote conjointly with
Webster and Middleton, and it is sometimes difficult to distinguish his
work. His power of invective was well known; and in his humour there is
such straining after strong words and effective phrases, as to seem
quite unnatural. His "Gull's Hornbook" is written against coxcombs, and
he says their "vinegar railings shall not quench his Alpine
resolutions."

Etherege and Wycherley ushered in the comic drama of the Restoration.
They were both courtiers, and the successful writers of this period took
their tone from that of "the quality."

George, (afterwards Sir George) Etherege was born in 1636. He was known
as "Gentle George" or "Easy Etherege," and it is said that he was
himself a fop, and painted the character of Dorimant in Sir Fopling
Flutter from himself. In his principal plays there is very little
humour, though he gives some amusing sketches of the affectations of the
metropolis.

_Mistress Loveit._ You are grown an early riser, I hear.

_Belinda._ Do you not wonder, my dear, what made me abroad so soon?

_Lov._ You do not use to do so.

_Bel._ The country gentlewomen I told you of (Lord! they have the
oddest diversions) would never let me rest till I promised to go
with them to the markets this morning, to eat fruit and buy
nosegays.

_Lov._ Are they so fond of a filthy nosegay?

_Bel._ They complain of the stinks of the town, and are never well
but when they have their noses in one.

_Lov._ There are essences and sweet waters.

_Bel._ O, they cry out upon perfumes they are unwholesome, one of
'em was falling into a fit with the smell of these Narolii.

_Lov._ Methinks, in complaisance, you should have had a nosegay
too.

_Bel._ Do you think, my dear, I could be so loathsome to trick
myself up with carnations and stock-gilly flowers? I begged their
pardon, and told them I never wore anything but Orange-flowers and
Tuberose. That which made me willing to go was a strange desire I
had to eat some fresh nectarines.

Wycherley was the son of a Shropshire gentleman who being a Royalist,
and not willing to trust him to the Puritans, sent him to be educated in
France. He became a Roman Catholic, but afterwards recanted.

Wycherley was remarkable for his beauty, and stalwart proportions, he
was called "manly" or "brawny" Wycherley; and the n