"_Mr. Wycherley was naturally modest until King Charles' court, that
late disgrace to our times, corrupted him. He then gave himself up to
all sorts of extravagances and to the wildest frolics that a wanton wit
could 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; for
he was bountiful, even to run himself into difficulties, and charitable
even to a fault. It was not that he was free from the failings of
humanity, but he had the tenderness of it, too, which made everybody
excuse whom everybody loved; and even the asperity of his verses seems
to have been forgiven._"