Sir John Vanbrugh

Sir John Vanbrugh (1664–1726) was an English dramatist and architect, author of The Relapse (1696) and The Provok'd Wife (1697), and designer of Castle Howard and Blenheim Palace.

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.