The Country Wife Dramaturgical File

William Wycherley, born April 1641 and died January 1716, is an English playwright of the Restoration era. His best-known plays are The Country Wife, The Plain Dealer, and Love in a Wood. 

 

Wycherley was born in Shropshire to Daniel Wycherley and
Bethia Wycherley and spent much of his early life there
before moving to France where he became a Roman
Catholic. He remained there during the execution of King
Charles I and returned shortly before King Charles II was
restored. He attended Queen’s College in Oxford and
slowly returned to the Church of England. 

 

In 1671, Wycherley’s first play, Love in a Wood was
produced at the famous Theatre Royal, London. The play
was a hit with the royals, especially King Charles II’s mistress
who introduced him to the aristocracy. He later produced
another play, The Gentleman Dancing Master, that was
not well received. After the failure of this play, he briefly
considered being a lawyer while living at Inner Temple
before going to Ireland and serving as a solider in the
Second Anglo-Dutch war.

 

Upon return, Wycherley wrote The Country Wife, which
remains his best-known play, and was one of his greatest
successes. The next year, he wrote The Plain Dealer, which was the last play he wrote for the stage. Both of these plays were influenced by the French writer Moliere. However, due to the scandalous content of these plays, publication was restricted for the next two centuries. Other playwrights adapted the two works to make them more fit for public audiences, such as David Garrick’s The Country Girl. This play was a large success for its time. 

 

Wycherley is credited for the two phrases “nincompoop” and “happy-go-lucky”, as both appear in The Plain Dealer. 

 

In 1678, Wycherley got sick and briefly visited France in an attempt to recover. When he returned, King Charles II trusted Wycherley to tutor his illegitimate son, but was soon ousted from the position due to not being at court often enough. He lost all his royal favour as a result.

 

Wycherley secretly married the Countess of Drogheda, but it was not long lasted, for she died a year later. Her estate was so expensive that upon her death Wycherley was almost immediately put in prison for debt. After 7 years in jail, King James II freed him and paid his debts. 

 

Wycherley’s final work was a set of poems titled Miscellany Poems. He wrote them roughly 10 years before his death in 1716. He inspired many future writers, such as Voltaire.