CARTWRIGHT, WILLIAM

born September 1611, Northway, Gloucestershire, Eng. died Nov. 29, 1643, Oxford, Oxfordshire British writer greatly admired in his day as a poet, scholar, wit, and author of plays in the comic tradition of Ben Jonson. Educated at Westminster School and the University of Oxford, Cartwright became a preacher, noted for his florid style, and a reader in metaphysics. In 1643 he was university junior proctor. On the outbreak of the English Civil Wars in 1642, he joined the war council of Charles I (who wore black on the day of Cartwright's funeral). Cartwright's plays were written before he took orders; The Ordinary (produced 1635?) mocked Puritans amusingly. His plays, fantastic in plot and stilted and artificial in treatment, have not withstood the test of time.