William Wycherley, The Country Wife

Dawn Lewcock (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.05: English Writing and Culture from the Glorious Revolution to the French Revolution, 1689-1789.
Vol. editors: Paul Baines (University of Liverpool), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Pat Rogers (University of South Florida), Nicholas Seager (University of Keele)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1675

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

The Country Wife was first performed by the King's Company at Drury Lane in 1675. Wycherley was indebted to Molière's neo-classical rhymed dramas L'Ecole des maris (The School of Husbands, 1661) and L'Ecole des dames (The School of Wives, 1662) for some of the ideas and characters in The Country Wife, but the way in which he uses the characters, and his use of colloquial prose, is entirely his own. Molière's plays both concern older men who are driven by their sexual insecurity to dominate young women, who in turn outwit them. Wycherley adopts from Molière the devices of love letters, disguise, innuendos and changing identities and his major narrative source is L'Ecole des dames …

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1797 words

Citation: Lewcock, Dawn. "The Country Wife". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 August 2007 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1160, accessed 25 November 2024.]

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