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Wills, William Gorman 1828-91
Irish playwright and poet

Born in Kilkenny County, he studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and became a successful portrait painter. As a playwright he had a huge success with Man o'Airlie (1866), followed by Charles I (1872), Jane Shore (1876), Olivia (1878) and Claudian (1885), as well as a version of Faust (1885). He also wrote novels, but considered verse a higher literary form. He published a long poem Melchior (1885), and his ballads include 'I'll sing thee Songs of Araby'.