Biographies-in-miniature of 14 representative British wits extending in time from the 17th to the 20th century.

"No figure of the high Renaissance blazes down the centuries with greater brilliance than the warrior, lover, statesman who united France after the hideous blood-letting of the religious wars: Henry of Navarre, Henry IV of France, le Vert Galant, one of the most winning, vital and humorous human beings who ever lived. As Hesketh Pearson says, 'With the single exception of his grandson, Charles II of England, he was the only monarch in history who...