Sir George Etherege

Sir George Etherege (1636–1692) was an English Restoration dramatist, author of The Comical Revenge, She Would if She Could and The Man of Mode. He served as a diplomat at Constantinople and Ratisbon, and wrote a handful of polished songs and lyrics.

The poem here is the one printed under his name in Frederick Locker's Lyra Elegantiarum (London: E. Moxon, 1867), an anthology of vers de société and vers d'occasion by deceased authors; the texts follow that first edition.