Not long after, he was commissioned in the army, and began to write plays in the style and moral tone of the age.

Among his nine comedies, those which present that tone best are his _Love in a Bottle_, _The Constant Couple_, _The Recruiting Officer_, and _The Beaux' Stratagem_.

All his productions were hastily written, but met with great success from their gayety and clever plots, especially the last two mentioned, which are not, besides, so immoral as the others, and which are yet acted upon the British stage.
ETHEREGE .-- Sir George Etherege, a coxcomb and a diplomatist, was born in 1636, and died in 1694.

His plays are, equally with the others mentioned, marked by the licentiousness of the age, which is rendered more insidious by their elegance.

Among them are _The Comical Revenge, or Love in a Tub_, and _The Man of Mode, or Sir Fopling Flutter_.
TRAGEDY.
The domain of tragedy, although perhaps not so attractive to the English people as comedy, was still sufficiently so to invite the attention of the literati.