John Vanbrugh

Sir John Vanbrugh ({bapt.} 24 January 1664, London — 26 March 1726, Westminster), knighted in 1714, was an English dramatist and architect who designed several notable UK buildings, such as Blenheim Palace, Castle Howard, and Grimsthorpe Castle. Vangrugh authored two seminal Restoration comedies, The Relapse, or Virtue in Danger (1696) and The Provoked Wife (1697), which both caused significant controversy at the time of the initial publication; as puritanism views grew stronger in Britain, The Relapse was soon deemed too explicit and unacceptable for its tolerance towards adultery, replaced for many years by Sheridan's "moralized" adaptation, A Trip to Scarborough (1777).