William Wycherley’s Followers (20)

William Wycherley

Born

Clive, Shropshire, The United Kingdom

Died

December 31, 1715

Genre

Theatre, Comedy, Poetry

edit data

William Wycherley was an English dramatist of the Restoration period, best known for the plays The Country Wife and The Plain Dealer.

Wycherley left Oxford University and took up residence at the Inner Temple, but gave little attention to the study of law. Pleasure and the stage were his only interests. His play, Love in a Wood, was produced early in 1671 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. It was published the next year. Though Wycherley boasted of having written the play at the age of nineteen, before going to Oxford, this is probably untrue. Macaulay points to the allusions in the play to gentlemen's periwigs, to guineas, to the vests which Charles ordered to be worn at court, to the Great Fire of London, etc., as showing that the comedy co William Wycherley was an English dramatist of the Restoration period, best known for the plays The Country Wife and The Plain Dealer.

Wycherley left Oxford University and took up residence at the Inner Temple, but gave little attention to the study of law. Pleasure and the stage were his only interests. His play, Love in a Wood, was produced early in 1671 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. It was published the next year. Though Wycherley boasted of having written the play at the age of nineteen, before going to Oxford, this is probably untrue. Macaulay points to the allusions in the play to gentlemen's periwigs, to guineas, to the vests which Charles ordered to be worn at court, to the Great Fire of London, etc., as showing that the comedy could not have been written the year before the author went to Oxford. However, even if the play had been written in that year, and delayed in its production till 1672, it is exactly this kind of allusion to recent events which any dramatist with an eye to freshness of colour would be certain to weave into his dialogue.

That the writer of a play far more daring than Etherege's She Would if She Could — and far more brilliant too — should at once become the talk of the court was inevitable; equally inevitable was it that the author of the song at the end of the first act, in praise of harlots and their offspring, should attract the attention of the king's mistress, Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland. Possibly Wycherley intended this famous song as a glorification of Her Grace and her profession, for he seems to have been more delighted than surprised when, as he passed in his coach through Pall Mall, he heard her address him from her coach window as a "rascal" and a "villain", and the son of a woman such as that mentioned in the song. His answer was perfect: "Madam, you have been pleased to bestow a title on me which belongs only to the fortunate." Seeing that she received the compliment in the spirit in which it was meant, he lost no time in calling upon her, and was from that moment the recipient of those "favours" to which he alludes with pride in the dedication of the play to her. Voltaire's story (in his Letters on the English Nation) that Her Grace used to go to Wycherley's chambers in the Temple disguised as a country wench, in a straw hat, with pattens on and a basket in her hand, may be apocryphal, for disguise was superfluous in her case, but it shows how general was the opinion that, under such patronage as this, Wycherley's fortune as poet and dramatist was now made. King Charles, who had determined to bring up his son, the Duke of Richmond, like a prince, sought as his tutor a man as qualified as Wycherley to impart a "princely education", and it seems clear that, if not for Wycherley's marriage, the education of the young man would actually have been entrusted to him as a reward for having written Love in a Wood.

It is, however, his two last comedies — The Country Wife and The Plain Dealer — that sustain Wycherley's reputation. The Country Wife, produced in 1672 or 1673 and published in 1675, is full of wit, ingenuity, high spirits and conventional humour.

It was after the success of The Plain Dealer that the turning point came in Wycherley's career. The great dream of all the men about town in Charles's time, as Wycherley's plays all show, was to marry a widow, young and handsome, a peer's daughter if possible — but in any event rich, and spend her money upon wine and women. While talking to a friend in a bookseller's shop at Tunbridge, Wycherley heard The Plain Dealer asked for by a lady who, in the person of the countess of Drogheda (Letitia Isabella Robartes, eldest daughter of the 1st Earl of Radnor and widow of the 2nd Earl of Drogheda), answered all the requirements. An introduction ensued, then love-making, then marriage — a secret marriage, probably in 1680, for, fearing to lose the king's patr ...more

Combine Editions
William Wycherley’s books

Average rating: 3.36 · 5,431 ratings · 323 reviews · 98 distinct works • Similar authors

	Country Wife by William Wycherley, James Ogden (Editor) 3.35 avg rating — 4,979 ratings — published 1675 — 147 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Country Wife and Other Plays by William Wycherley, Peter Dixon (Editor) 3.48 avg rating — 153 ratings — published 1971 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Plain Dealer 3.03 avg rating — 65 ratings — published 1676 — 81 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Love in a wood, or, St. James's-park. A comedy. As it is acted by Her Majesty's servants. Written by Mr. Wycherley. 3.69 avg rating — 13 ratings — published 2004 — 19 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Gentleman Dancing-Master 3.82 avg rating — 11 ratings — published 1673 — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Country Wife by William Wycherley, Maggie Smith (Narrator), Jonathan Pryce (Narrator) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 14 ratings — 39 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Plays of William Wycherley by William Wycherley, Arthur Friedman (Editor) 4.33 avg rating — 6 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Epistles to the King and Duke (1683) it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2010 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Familiar and courtly letters, written by Monsieur Voiture to persons of the greatest honour, wit, and quality of both sexes in the court of France. ... Henry Cromwel, Esq; Jos. Raphson, Esq (1700) it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2010	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	William Wycherley, Four Plays it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 1896 — 25 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by William Wycherley…

Quotes by William Wycherley (?)

“Marrying to increase love is like gaming to become rich; alas, you only lose what little stock you had before”
― William Wycherley, The Country Wife

9 likes

“A beauty masked, like the sun in eclipse, gathers together more gazers than if it shined out.”
― William Wycherley, Country Wife

4 likes

“A good name is seldom got by giving it oneself.”
― William Wycherley, Country Wife

3 likes

See all William Wycherley's quotes »

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Reading with Style: Fall 2013 RwS Completed Tasks - Fall 2013	941	159	Nov 30, 2013 09:04PM
The Seasonal Read...: Completed Tasks: PLEASE DO NOT DELETE ANY POST IN THIS THREAD	2555	479	Nov 30, 2016 09:00PM
Goodreads Librari...: Faulkner, Capote & More	40	239	Feb 11, 2019 12:34PM

More…