born 1678, Londonderry, County Derry, Ire.
died April 29, 1707, London, Eng.
Irish playwright.
His early experience as an actor in Dublin was the source of the originality of dialogue and stage sense that gave his work its great comic power. His plays, written for the London stage and enthusiastically received, included Love and a Bottle (1699), The Constant Couple (1699), and Sir Harry Wildair (1701). His real contribution to English drama came with The Recruiting Officer (1706) and particularly The Beaux' Stratagem (1707), in which he introduced a verbal vigour and love of character reminiscent of Elizabethan dramatists.