31 William Wycherley : The Country Wife

Ms. Maria Rajan Thaliath

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Storyboard 

 

  • Section1: Historical Background and Biographical Information
    • Restoration of monarchy and its impact on English drama
    • Some features of the comedy of manners
    • Wycherley and the other comic dramatists of the period
    • Critical reception of Comedy of Manners over the years
  • Section2: The CountryWife
    • Summary
  • Section3: Characterization
    • Significance of character names
    • The philosophical paradigms
    • Truewits, Witwoulds and Lackwits in the play
  • Section4: Dramatic Structure
    • Three interlinked plots and how they fit into the scheme of the play
    • Use of puns, irony and witty dialogues
  • Section5: Themes
    • Love, Marriage and Sex
    • Marriage as a business proposition
    • Hypocrisy
    • The survival of the ablest in society
  • Section6: Conclusion
    • Some interesting facts about the play
    • Some critics on the play

Introduction

 

This lesson deals with one of the most famous examples of Restoration theatre: William Wycherley’s The Country Wife, which gained a reputation in its time for being both bawdy and witty. We will begin with an introduction to the dramatist and the form and then proceed to a discussion of the play and its elements and conclude with a survey of the criticism it has garnered over the years.

 

Section One: William Wycherley and the Comedy of Manners

 

William Wycherley (b.1640- d.1716) is considered one of the major Restoration playwrights. He wrote at a time when the monarchy in England had just been re-established with the crowning of Charles II in 1660. The newly crowned king effected a cultural restoration by reopening the theatres which had been shut since 1642. There was a proliferation of theatres and theatre-goers. A main reason for the last was the introduction of women actors. Puritan solemnity was replaced with general levity, a characteristic of the Caroline court.

 

Restoration Comedy exemplifies an aristocratic albeit chauvinistic lifestyle of relentless sexual intrigue and conquest. The Comedy of Manners in particular, satirizes the pretentious morality and wit of the upper classes. These plays abound in witty dialogues, stock characters and rapidly moving plots with several twists- usually owing to miscommunication or deception. They commonly revolve around themes like marriage, intrigues and the relationship between the sexes. Apart from Wycherley, other dramatists who can be included in this tradition are George Etherege and later dramatists like John Vanbrugh, William Congreve and George Farquhar. Etherege’s Man of Mode(1676) depicts the life of a witty, aristocratic rake and libertine. Wycherley’s The Country Wife (1675) and The Plain Dealer (1676) are notorious for their sexually explicit dialogues. The later Restoration comedies were subtler in their treatment of similar themes. Vanbrugh’s The Provoked Wife (1697), Congreve’s The Way of the World (1700) and Farquhar’s The Beaux’s Stratagem (1707) are some examples.

 

By the end of the seventeenth century there was a marked shift in taste as people turned towards more serious drama and Sentimental Comedy gained popularity. Jeremy Collier in his Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage (1698) attacked the restoration dramatists for their “smuttiness of expression; lewd application of scripture and making their top characters libertines and giving them success in their debauchery”. Thus, nearly four decades after the reopening of the theatres, some of the Puritan objections were being brought back against the drama of the period.

 

Victorian critics like William Hazlitt, though appreciative of the aesthetic quality and linguistic energy of these plays, condemned them on the grounds of moral inadequacy. This view of the Restoration comedy prevailed for a long time, until the twentieth century, when a few critics started acknowledging their intrinsic worth and made them the subject of serious academic study. John Palmer in his book Comedy of Manners (1913)focuses on how the production of comedies changed after the publication of Collier’s pamphlet. In Crabbed Age and Youth: The Old Men and Women in the Restoration Comedy of Manners (1947), problems associated with youth and old age have been examined by Elisabeth Mignon, who perceived in the comedy of manners’ a reflection of society’s obsession with aging. Newell W. Sawyer has traced the development of the genre and the relation it bears to the changes in society at large in The Comedy of Manners: From Sheridan to Maugham (1969). Margaret Lamb McDonald (The Independent Woman in the Restoration Comedy of Manners, 1976) and Pat Gill (Interpreting Ladies: Women, Wit, and Morality in the Restoration Comedy of Manners, 1994)analysed the plays for what they reveal about attitudes towards women, with special regard to their independence, intelligence and sexuality. Some critics such as David L. Hirsthave devoted their time to close readings of the texts in order to judge the comedies on their merits (Comedy of Manners, 1979).

 

Section Two: Summary

 

The Country-Wife opens with a humorous prologue uttered by the so-called gentleman and protagonist, Mr Horner invoking the sympathy of the audience for the actors, who must willingly submit themselves to the whims of the audience.

 

The play is set in London and Scene One begins with a conversation between Mr. Horner and a Quack at the former’s residence. The Quack, as per the instructions of Horner has spread rumours throughout the city that Horner had contracted a venereal disease while in France, the cure of which has left him no better than a “eunuch”. Mr. Horner, an incurable philanderer hopes to get close to the women of the city, with the consent of their  unsuspecting husbands via this tale. Just as they are discussing the possibilities this ploy will open up for Horner, SirJasper Fidget,an old businessman comes visiting with his wife, Lady Fidget and his sister, Dainty Fidget. Sir Jasper, having heard of Horner’s “disease” teases him by introducing his wife and requesting Horner to “salute” her. Horner affects an aversion for women, thereby bolstering Sir Jasper’s belief in the story. Sir Jasper now invites Horner for dinner and a game of cards at his home, convinced of Horner’s “innocence”. After their exit, Mr.Dorilant and Mr. Frank Harcourt, two acquaintances of Horner call on him to confirm the reports they have heard. They are joined by Mr.Sparkish, a foolish fop who is despised by them and yet considers himself to be a wit and their friend. After he has his fill of mocking Horner he exits, only to be replaced by Mr. Pinchwife, a cunning old man who has recently married a pretty young, countrywife. Pinchwife, having been out of town, has heard nothing of the rumours and wants to save his wife’s “honour” and himself from becoming a cuckold by keeping her out of Horner’s sight. Horner had however spotted the young woman at the play with her husband and avows to be “in love with her”.

 

Act Two introduces Margery Pinchwife, wife of Mr. Pinchwife and Alithea, sister of the same Mr. Pinchwife deep in conversation about the ways of men. Margery is unhappy at the way her husband refuses her any company, but his. Alithea comforts her by telling her that it his love for her and his jealousy for her “honour” that bids him do so. Inadvertently the countrywife expresses her admiration for the actors she saw at the play, in the hearing of her husband, Jack Pinchwife. He resolves to keep her away from the actors and the gallants who may see her and steal her away. Just as he locks her away, Mr.Sparkish who is Alithea’s fiancé enters with Mr. Harcourt. As the introductions are made, Harcourt falls in love with Alithea and flirts with her brazenly. Sparkish however, laughs it off. All three of them proceed to go to the play house. Now, Lady Fidget, Dainty Fidget and their cousin Mrs. Squeamish arrive to take Mrs. Pinchwife to the new play. Though Pinchwife does his best to ward them off, he has to finally slip away unnoticed in order to avoid them. They are joined by Sir Jasper, Mr. Horner and Mr. Dorilant. Sir Jasper owing to a prior commitment leaves the ladies in the company of the two men, who are to escort them to the play. Horner takes Lady Fidget into his confidence and reveals the fact that his “disease” was a mere hoax. Lady Fidget, who had nothing but contempt for him up till then, reconciles herself to him. Meanwhile Mrs. Pinchwife is sickening away for a taste of city life. Mr. Pinchwife decides to take her out in the guise of a man so as not to excite the curiosity of other men.

 

After the play, Horner, Dorilant, Harcourt and Sparkish meet Mr.Pinchwife, his wife (in man’s clothing) and Alithea. Alithea hates Harcourt for trying to make love to her, while Sparkish wants his fiancée and his friend to put aside their differences. Harcourt meanwhile, tries desperately to win Alithea’s love. Finally Pinchwife intervenes and sends Harcourt on his way. Horner recognizes Margery and pretending to be taken up with the young gentleman who claims to be Mrs. Pinchwife’s “brother”, wants to take him to supper. From his words, Mrs. Pinchwife realizes that Horner is in love with her and she too falls in love with him. In the split second that it takes for Mr. Pinchwife to see to the coach, Horner drags away Mrs. Pinchwife and on the pretext of giving her some fruit kisses her, to which she acquiesces.

 

The next Act opens with the imminent marriage of Sparkish and Alithea. The bride confides of her love for Harcourt to her maid, Lucy. As she does not want to injure her fiancé’s reputation she swears to go through with the marriage. Harcourt endeavours to break the match by coming dressed as Rev. Ned Harcourt, brother of Frank Harcourt and pretends to be the chaplain who has to perform the service. Alithea sees through the trick and warns Sparkish, who is too foolish to see that he is being used. After the “marriage” Alithea runs off, denying her marriage.

 

Pinchwife is so incensed by his wife’s fascination for Horner that he forces her to write Horner a letter which testifies to her loathing for him. However, Mrs. Pinchwife switches letters and gets her husband to take him a love letter instead. In the meantime, Horner is merrily making his way among the women of the city, right under the noses of their husbands and guardians. His lovers include the “virtuous” and “noble” Lady Fidget, Dainty Fidget and Mrs. Squeamish.

 

Margery Pinchwife, by now sick with love for Horner is caught in the act of writing another love letter to him, by her husband. She saves herself by saying that it was Alithea who made her write it and that it was the latter who was planning to elope with Horner. Pinchwife, who is relieved at the turn of events, decides to give his sister in marriage to Horner. The wily wife comes veiled as Alithea and is thus led by her husband to Horner.

 

In the final act Mr. Pinchwife tells Sparkish of Alithea’s “treachery”. Sparkish confronts Alithea with allegations of infidelity. Alithea realizes that Sparkish deserves none of her sympathy and decides to marry Harcourt. All of them go to Horner’s residence to clear up matters. Mrs. Pinchwife almost admits her affair with Horner. Eventually, the quick wits of Lucy and the quack save the day. The quack reaffirms Horner’s “disease” and Lucy tells Pinchwife that his wife had only staged her elopement as a revenge for his jealousy.Thus, Horner keeps his secret and the play instead of ending with his reformation, ends where it began, with him continuing to enjoy the benefits of his affected impotence.

 

Section Three: Characterization

 

Like most comedies of manners, The CountryWife has characters, who are shallow and light hearted. There is no attempt to portray them as anything but licentious pleasure seekers. “Morality” and “honour” are used as mere veils of deception. Ironically, the names of the characters are suggestive of their character too. For instance, Pinchwife is a play boy, past his prime who has “pinched” for himself a young country wench as a wife, in the hope that she will be innocent to the ways of the world, unlike a city bred woman. Horner, which literally means “cuckold-maker”, is the name given to the young rakish hero of the play who will go to any length of trouble to seduce the women of the city. He willingly spreads rumours of his impotence, thereby even injuring his reputation as a Casanova so as to move freely among the wives without arousing the suspicion of their husbands. Sparkish believes himself to be endowed with a sparky sense of wit, whereas in reality we see him for who he is- a pretentious fool, who literally shoves his intended into the arms of another man. Interestingly the word “sparkish” also means “foppish and showy”. Lady Fidget as her name would suggest likes “playing around” in private as long as it does no lasting damage to her honourable image in the public eye. Dainty Fidget likewise is aptly named, for though she may be delicate and pretty, she is as promiscuous as her sister-in-law. Mrs Squeamish is equally disposed but not as daring, fearing the censure of her grandmother and the infamy it might bring her.

 

One of the prerequisites of a comedy of manners is that the characters must be witty. In the seventeenth century wit was considered an essential attribute of the code of an aristocrat because it would mark a person as intellectually sophisticated. Thus, the dramatis personae are frequently observed making witty observations about people and society. For instance Lady Fidget remarks – “Methinks birth—birth should go for something; I have known men admired, courted, and followed for their titles only.” (II.ii) Here she implies that a woman ought to marry for title alone and that a man’s qualities are only a secondary consideration.

 

Restoration intellectualism can be said to have had three philosophical paradigms-one, Scepticism dominated by a scientific disdain of faith, spirituality and of all things beyond human understanding; two, Libertinism that championed the cause of hedonistic pursuits and three, Naturalism which was an idealized quest for truth and unpretentiousness. These three philosophies were in stark contrast to the preceding Commonwealth austerity, which by then the people had begun to hate. Thomas H. Fujimura’s The Restoration Comedy of Wit (1952) explores the relationship between the nature of the plays staged and the dominant ideology that governed the times. Most of the restoration plays have characters that belonged to the intellectual code of those days. Horner easily fits into it as he is a libertine who is sceptical of societal codes of “propriety”,while he channels his life towards an open unpretentious pursuit of sexual gratification. His clear perception of himself and his needs enable him to outwit the other characters in the play. ThePinchwifes, the Fidgets and the Squeamishes must eventually fall prey to his brilliant manipulation.These characters, due to their excessive concern for social conventions, seem at their best inferior to Horner.

 

Barbara.AKachur points out in Etheredge and Wycherley (2004) that there are three clear character types that occur in the restoration plays and each of these parallels the class divisions of seventeenth century England. The first are the ‘truewits’ i.e. those characters that are marked by scepticism, libertinism and naturalism- the true wit of the age. Horner, Alithea and Harcourt belong to this category. Each of them knows exactly what they want and thus are the agents of deception without being deceived themselves. Secondly, there are the ‘witwoulds’- those who can only aspire to wit, as their moral hypocrisy stands in the way to true wit. The Fidgets, Sparkish, Mistress and Lady Squeamish belong to this class. The last category is that of the ‘lackwits’ like Mr. Pinchwife and his wife, who can easily be duped by all. The truewits reside in town, “London’s fashionable west side around Whitehall, St. James Palace and the royal court, where they preen in fashionable splendour.” The witwoulds hail from the city and mostly belong to the bourgeois classes. For example, Sir Jasper is a businessman. The lackwits are usually country folk like the Pinchwifes who represent the third and lowest stratum of society. Mr Pinchwife, though having formerly resided in the town, is marked in this regard by his recent marriage to a country lass and his migration to his estate there. Margery is the perfect lackwit at the beginning of the play. She asks of Alithea- “Pray, sister, where are the best fields and woods to walk in, in London?” (II.i) But by the end of the play, her stay in town has sharpened her wits so that she is quite adept at tricking her husband. Such a transformation can be seen in almost all the major characters of the play, excepting perhaps Horner himself, who is the cleverest of them all. The ladies of the play do educate themselves from ‘witwoulds’ to ‘truewits’ (Lady and Dainty Fidget, Squeamish, Margery et.al) , while the men of the play (Sir Jasper, Sparkish and Pinchwife) remain duped as to the reality of the situation or lose whatever little wit they possessed.

 

Section Four- Structure and Devices used in the Play 

 

The Country Wife has three interlinked but fairly well-defined plots. Horner’s impotence trick provides the principal story of the play. This further organizes the play as one whole for it is the link to the other two plots as well. Horner dupes everyone into believing that he is a eunuch, so that husbands literally lead their wives into his hands. He then systematically seduces the wives who are only too happy not to disabuse their husbands regarding the truth of Horner’s “disease”. There are several instances when the secret is almost revealed, but each time a character’s wit or providence saves the day. In the “China” scene (IV.iii)which is known to have drawn the censure of many moral critics of the play, Sir Jasper almost discoversHorner in Lady Fidget’s arms. However, Lady Fidget thwarts his doubts by telling him that she had only come to his quarters in order to borrow some “quality China” from him. Lady Fidget departs into Horner’s room to “find out” his best China and he follows her “to ferret her out”. These dialogues, edged with double meaning, make the scene even more preposterous for though removed from their eyes, the audience are in no doubt as to what is going on within Horner’s chamber. The only person who does not seem to catch on is Sir Jasper, the cuckold.

 

The second plot is Margery Pinchwife’s tale. This plot is based on Moliere’s School for Wives. Margery Pinchwife’s growth from a lackwit into a truewit, with generous help from her husband, forms the crux of this plot. Ironically, Pinchwife’s intense jealousy for his wife’s honour tricks him into providing her with the very knowledge with which she cuckolds him. He reveals Horner’s name in her presence, inadvertently reveals to Horner that the girl he saw at the play with himself was his wife, delivers the love letter Margery writes for Horner into his hands and finally leads his wife to Horner, mistaking a veiled Margery for Alithea. Margery is a “social innocent” until she enters London. Once there, the gaiety of the city ways and her husband’s extremely suspicious nature make her the scheming woman that she finally turns out to be. She learns that to speak admiringly (and honestly) about the city gallants and actors will earn her the anger of her husband. She learns that her husband is never going to respect or trust her. She thus, decides to gratify her urge to be loved, by adopting Horner as her lover. She is the most outspoken and straightforward character of the play. Even at the end of the play, she is prevented from blurting out Horner’s secret only by the concerted efforts of her lover, Lady Fidget, Dainty Fidget, Mrs Squeamish and Lucy. The “virtuous gang” comprising of the two female Fidgets and Squeamish must safeguard the secret, if they are to defend their “honour” in the eyes of the world. Horner cleverly arranges for this, when he tells Lady Fidget- “Nay, madam, rather than they [other women] shall prejudice your honour, I’ll prejudice theirs; and to serve you, I’ll lie with ’em all, make the secret their own, and then they’ll keep it. I am a Machiavel[li] in love, madam.” (IV.iii). “Lie” here is an intentional pun which could be interpreted as telling an untruth as well as lying in bed with them.

 

The third and final plot of the play is the rather elevating romance between Harcourt and Alithea. Initially, Alithea is contemptuous of Harcourt’s advances, for she scorns his lack of honour in courting another man’s fiancée. Harcourt transforms himself from a town rake to a true lover when he recognizes in Alithea the perfect combination of wit and honour. Alithea though sensible to Harcourt’s charms cannot bring herself to hurt the dull but apparently good-natured Sparkish, to whom she is engaged. However, the moment Alithea realizes that Sparkish can be as nasty as he is dull; she decides to marry the reformed Harcourt. When confronting Alithea over her supposed faithlessness, Sparkish claims that he was marrying her only for her wealth. This opens Alithea’s eyes and she is saved from a marriage, which would otherwise have only caused her suffering. After all, she has her sister-in-law’s illustration to show her what an unhappy marriage can do to a woman. One of Alithea’s last lines in the play edifies us to her nature- “Women and fortune are truest still to those that trust them.” (V.iv). To this Harcourt replies that he has “edified so much by example” that he is impatient to become a husband. This is the same Harcourt who in the first scene had said that “mistresses are like books. If you pore upon them too much, they doze you and make you unfit for company; but if used discreetly, you are the fitter for conversation by ’em.”

 

Thus, the three plots of the play further characterization and the action of the play until it reaches its inevitable conclusion- the union of Harcourt and Alithea, the cuckolding of husbands who are too mistrustful of their wives and the general carousing of all those who acknowledge that life is to be enjoyed.

 

Section Five- Themes: Unequal Marriages, Love vs. Sex and the Survival of the Fittest.

 

This play presents us with a rich array of themes. The most commonly discussed among these are marriage, love and hypocrisy. The CountryWife portrays the hollowness of marriages which are not based on trust or mutual understanding between the partners. The married lives of the Fidgets as well as that of the Pinchwifes are points of consideration here. Both the marriages have failed from the first- the one because of Mr Pinchwife’s insane distrust in woman’s fidelity and the other because of Sir Jasper’s neglect of his wife altogether. If Mr Pinchwife forcibly locks up Margery in a room to prevent her from straying, Sir Jasper’s idea of dealing with his wife is to provide her trivial entertainments and “safe” male companions. Interestingly, the play also gives us examples of “unequal” matrimonies. Sir Jasper and Mr Pinchwife are rich, old men who have wedded pretty, young women presumably as trophy- wives or in order to convince themselves about their youth. Pinchwife, in fact, in the very first act implies that he has married because his mistresses were deserting him. Both the husbands are presented in such an unflattering light, perhaps even exaggeratedly so, so that when the women do cheat on them, we cannot but condone their actions. Horner’s aphorism that “a foolish rival and a jealous husband assist their rival’s designs; for they are sure to make their women hate them, which is the first step to their love for another man”(III.ii), makes him more of a “catalysing agent” than a vicious and deliberate wrecker of family life according to P. F. Vernon (“Wycherley’s First Comedy and its Spanish Source”,1966) .

 

Pinchwife and Jasper are also specimens of the bourgeois man of business. Pinchwife openly talks of his marriage as a business transaction and this might be true of the Fidgets as well. Sir Fidget does say that his prime pleasure in life is business. The women are treated as property by their husbands. The physical locking up of Margery and the emotional locking up of Lady Fidget further emphasize this masculine commercial mind-set of the husbands. It is no wonder that the women feel physically and emotionally unsatisfied in such relationships founded on financial interest rather than love. W. R. Chadwick enlarges upon this in The Four Plays of William Wycherley (1975).

 

The play mocks the absurd lengths to which an impulse- as natural as the sexual drive- can push human beings. The most comic scenes of the play are those in which men or women are viewed as mere sexual objects. The “china scene” for instance reinforces the idea of lustful buffoonery rather than of any real affection between Horner and Lady Fidget. On the other hand, the romance between Harcourt and Alithea, though comical because of Sparkish, is of a different timbre. Here it is not just physical attraction between two people. It is also the acknowledgement of two minds that are compatible intellectually. Remarkably, Horner never once, not even in jest, says anything about trying to seduce Alithea. When he hears of the marriage between Sparkish and her, he mourns the loss of a match between Harcourt and Alithea. Even a rogue like Horner recognizes and appreciates qualities like intelligence in a woman. Though critics have tended to paint Horner in very misogynistic hues, he does seem to have a few redeeming features at least.

 

Hypocrisy of the upper classes is something that is constantly criticized within the play. When Horner tells Lady Fidget that “virtue is her greatest affectation” (I.i), he could be pointing out the problem with society at large. Almost all the characters have private lives that are in dire contrast with their public personae. In fact, the plot of the play hinges upon this disjunction between what they practice and what they preach.

 

David Cook and John Swannell in William Wycherley: The Country Wife(1977) suggest that  a major theme of the play is “man’s intellectual ascendency over those conditions which tend to hem him in and diminish him”. Viewed thus one might argue that Horner deserves the success that he has so dearly fought for, using his intellectual as well as sexual prowess. Conversely, a person like Sparkish is unworthy of attaining anything, let alone a wife, because of his moral idiocy and intellectual deficiency. In a nutshell, then, what the play promotes is a robust, Darwinian model of social survival.

Section Six- Conclusion

 

The CountryWife was one of the “bawdiest and wittiest” of plays the English stage had seen when it was first staged. The success of the restoration plays was ensured by the induction of women actors on-stage. Nell Gwyn, a leading actress of the age was the mistress of none less apersonage than Charles II himself. To each age its own peculiarities and fetishes:if the Renaissance stage was known for boy actors, who enacted female roles, the restoration stage was known for its women actors, dressed up in male guise. It is said that one of the most titillating aspects of the comedy of manners was a heroine in tight fitting male clothing, matching the male characters in repartee and wit. These “breech” scenes, like Margery being forced by Pinchwife to dress up as “her brother”, were frequently employed by dramatists to rake in crowds.

 

We are also forced to wonder if these scenes did not do more than just titillate. The CountryWife, to a certain extent, rights certain wrongs that women of that age faced on a regular basis. If not in real life, at least on-stage, women who were forced into loveless marriages could have the last say, even if it was by cheating on their deplorable husbands. It is probably not Horner’s power that deserves our focus, but rather the power the women wielded, through him, over their husbands. Their dalliance with Horner is also another way of demeaning that “honour” which is so very precious to their husbands and which has made life so very miserable for them.

Norman Holland’s 1959 work The First Modern Comedies looked upon restoration drama’s representation of a right vs. wrong approach towards the relationship between the sexes. He contrasted the ‘bad’ masculinity of Horner and Pinchwife with the ‘good’ masculinity of Harcourt who succumbs to a marriage of body and mind. Subsequent critics have disagreed with this reading of the play and have given a more complex aspect to its interpretation. Douglas Canfield’s Tricksters and Estates (1997) chooses to focus on the relationship between the action of the play and the class structures of the seventeenth century English society. Eve K. Sedgewick’s essay “The Country Wife: Anatomies of Male Homosocial Desire” (1985) explains how women in the play are only used as “conduits” for men to express their ‘homosocial’ desires for one another.

 

Whatever its failings might be, The CountryWife presents itself as an interesting case study for those who are serious about restoration drama.

 

Points to Ponder

  •  Horner pretends to hate women as a eunuch. Is this hatred partly real? His language and hostile wit implies that his true task is to “unmask” the women around him.
  • Horner believes himself to wield a certain power over women via his sexual “conquests”. Yet, are the power relations reversed when the women barge into his residence for his favours and declare themselves to be “sister sharers” of his charms?
  • Some critics feel that the play ends on a pessimistic note and that Margery will become another version of the hypocritical Lady Fidget. Do you agree?

Do you know?

  • Wycherley, who was nick-named “Manly Wycherley”, fell out of favour with Charles II for marrying the dowager countess of Drogheda and so forfeiting his “manliness”. He was considered unfit to tutor the king’s son. The appointment which was almost in the dramatist’s grasp was revoked.
  • There are several references to “orange wenches” in the play. Nell Gwyn was herself an “orange wench”- one of the scantily clad women who sold oranges andconfectionaries in the theatre, before her rise to stardom.
  • During its long absence from the stage a “cleaned up” version of the play, The Country Girl, was staged by David Garrick in 1766, wherein Margery is a virgin and Horner her romantic lover.
you can view video on William Wycherley : The Country Wife

Reference

  • Hunt, Leigh (ed.) (1840). The Dramatic Works of Wycherley, Congreve, Vanbrugh and Farquhar
  • Zimbardo, Rose A. (1965). Wycherley’s Drama: A Link in the Development in English Satire. Yale.
  • Howe, Elizabeth (1992). The First English Actresses: Women and Drama 1660–1700. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  • Ogden, James (ed., 2003.) William Wycherley: The Country Wife. London: A&C Black