WYOHERLEY WYKEHAM. 



129 



affair respecting the king's divorce from queen Ca- 

 tharine, Sir Thomas narrowly escaped losing the 

 royal favour, by an indiscreet expression of his opi- 

 nions on the subject; but, finding how the business 

 must terminate, he had sufficient pliability of dis- 

 position to veer about in time, and, by a facetious 

 remark on the possibility of ' a man's repenting 

 his sins without the leave of the court of Rome," 

 so met the king's humour, that his influence in- 

 creased rather than suffered any diminution. He 

 was subsequently employed on several diplomatic 

 missions to different powers, and died in 1541. His 

 poetical works, which consist principally of love 

 elegies, odes, &c., and a metrical translation of the 

 Psalms, were published in conjunction with those 

 of his contemporary and personal friend, the earl of 

 Surrey. They evince more elegance of thought 

 than imagination, while his mode of expression is 

 far more artificial and laboured than that of his | 

 friend. He must not be confounded with a Sir i 

 Thomas Wyat who headed an insurrection in the 

 reign of queen Mary. 



WYCHERLEY, WILLIAM, one of the wits and 

 dramatists of the reign of Charles II., was the eld- 

 est son of a gentleman of Cleve, in Shropshire, i 

 \vhere he was born about 1640. After receiving a 

 school education, he was sent to France, where he 

 embraced the Catholic religion. He returned to 

 England a short time before the restoration, and 

 resuming Protestantism, was 'entered a gentleman j 

 commoner of Queen's college, Oxford, which he left 

 without a degree, and took chambers in the Middle ' 

 Temple. He paid, however, little attention to the 

 law, but became a man of fashion on the town, and 

 made himself known, in 1672, as the author of 

 Love in a Wood, or St James's Park, a comedy. 

 This piece brought him into much notice : he be- j 

 came a favourite of the meretricious duchess of Cle- 

 veland, and was much regarded by Villiers, the 

 witty and profligate duke of Buckingham, who 

 made him captain-lieutenant in his own company, 

 and one of his equerries, or masters of the horse. 

 He was likewise in great favour with the king 

 himself; but he lost the king's countenance by a 

 clandestine marriage with the countess of Drogheda, 

 a young, rich, and beautiful widow, whose jealousy 

 embittered their union. At her death, she settled 

 her fortune upon him ; but, his title being disputed, 

 the costs of law and other encumbrances produced 

 embarrassment, which ended in arrest. He remain- 

 ed in confinement seven years, until released by 

 James II., who was so pleased with his comedy of 

 the Plain Dealer, that he ordered his debts to be 

 paid, and added a pension of 200 per annum. 

 Wycherley's modesty rendering him unwilling to 

 disclose the whole that he owed, he still remained 

 involved until the death of his father, whose estate 

 descended to him, but with considerable limitation, 

 which prevented him raising money on it. He, 

 however, discovered an expedient, by marrying, at 

 the age of seventy-five, a young gentlewoman with 

 a fortune of JE1500, whom he recompensed with a 

 good jointure. He died about fifteen days after the 

 celebration of the nuptials, in 1715, enjoining his 

 wife not to take an old man for her second hus- 

 band. Besides the plays already mentioned, he 

 wrote the comedies of the Gentleman Dancing- 

 Master, and Country Wife, and a volume of poems, 

 printed in 1660. The correspondence between 

 him and Pope, then a youth, is printed in the col- 

 lection of that poet's letters. He is now only re- 

 membered as a dramatist, and that principally .by 

 vu. 



his Plain Dealer, and Country Wife, the latter of 

 which is better known by the title of the Country 

 Girl a name given to a modern adaptation, which 

 gets rid of much objectionable coarseness. His 

 Plain Dealer may be deemed an English counter- 

 part of the Misanthrope of Moliere, displaying more 

 license, with considerable wit, humour, and comic 

 force of character. The Posthumous Works of 

 Wycherley, in Prose and Verse, were published by 

 Theobald, in 1728. 



WYCLIFFE. See Wickliff. 



WYCOMBE, HIGH, oa CHIPPING ; a borough 

 town in Buckinghamshire, 29 miles west by north 

 from London. Though not the largest, it is the 

 handsomest town in the county, and owes much of 

 its prosperity to the rivulet called Wycombe stream, 

 which sets in motion a considerable number of 

 corn and paper mills, and after a long winding 

 course, falls into the Thames below Mario w. It 

 consists of one large street, with several smaller 

 branching from it, and stands on the high road from 

 London to Oxford. The inhabitants are chiefly 

 employed in the paper-mills, lace manufactures, 

 and malting trade. Population in 1841, of borough, 

 3184 ; of parish, 3296. 



WYE; a small river of South Wales, which 

 rises on the mountain of Plynlimmon, and falls into 

 the Severn. It is distinguished for the beauty and 

 variety of its scenery. 



WYKEHAM, WILLIAM OF, bishop of Winches- 

 ter, and lord high chancellor of England, a distin- 

 guished prelate of the fourteenth century, was born 

 at Wykeham, a village in Hampshire, in 1324, of 

 respectable parents, but so poor, that, but for the 

 liberality of the lord of the manor of Wykeham, 

 a liberal education would have been beyond his 

 reach. On the completion of his studies, he be- 

 came private secretary to his patron, and was by 

 him recommended to the notice of Edward III. In 

 1356, Edward appointed him to superintend the 

 erection of Windsor castle as surveyor of the works. 

 (See Windsor.) On one of the towers he put an 

 inscription, This made Wykeham. His enemies 

 exclaimed against his presumption. Wykeham, 

 however, assured the king that he had intended to 

 intimate, that his diligence in forwarding the build- 

 ing had raised him, through the favour of his prince, 

 to his present rank., Wykeham, having taken holy 

 orders, rose rapidly to the highest dignities in church 

 and state. In 1366, he was elevated to the rich 

 see of Winchester, and, in 1367, reached the high- 

 est point of his career, the chancellorship of Eng- 

 land. This office he discharged with great ability 

 nearly four years, distinguishing himself by his or- 

 derly management of his diocese, and by his dis- 

 interestedness in dedicating a large portion of his 

 temporalities to the improvement of his cathedral, 

 and the foundation of a grammar school at Win- 

 chester, which still exists as a monument of his 

 munificence. (See Winchester.) In 1371, a party 

 at court opposed to the increasing wealth and influ- 

 ence of the clergy, and headed by John of Gaunt, 

 duke of Lancaster, succeeded in persuading the 

 parliament that his power was too great for a sub- 

 ject : and he was compelled to resign the seals. 

 For the remainder of this reign, he continued apart 

 from the court, consoled for his disgrace by the 

 attachment of the people. On the accession of 

 Richard, he was restored to his dignities and emolu- 

 ments. In 1386, he completed his noble founda- 

 tion of New college, Oxford. In the chapel be- 

 longing to this establishment, his crosier, or pas- 

 i 



