William Wycherley

born 1640/41, died 1 January 1716

Life

English dramatist, born around 1640 in Clive, near Shrewsbury, died 1 January 1716, London. Wycherley wrote comedies, best known nowadays: The Country Wife (1675) and The Plain Dealer (1677) and together with Aphra Behn, John Dryden, George Etherege and Thomas Shadwell he represents the group of Carolean writers who were born before the Civil War and the Restoration of the monarchy. Wycherley's father was the steward to the marquess of Winchester. When William Wycherley was 15 years old, he was sent to school in France. After returning to England in 1660 he entered Queen's College, Oxford to study law. He left soon without a degree. Little is known of his life in the 1660s, except that he wrote several plays and he probably fought in the naval war against the Dutch in 1665. Wycherley was taken up by Barbara Villiers, duchess of Cleveland, whose favours he shared with King Charles II, and he was admitted to the circle of wits at court. Wycherley led a rampant life at court and he fell ill in 1678. Two years later, he secretly married the countess of Drogheda: She was a rigid puritan who kept him henpecked. Due to this he lost his favour at court. Wycherley’s wife died in 1681, leaving him an enormous inheritance. But the will was contested, and Wycherley ruined himself fighting the case and was hence cast into a debtor's prison where he stayed for seven years. Only after this long period of time, he was rescued by King James II, who paid off most of his debts and even allowed him a small pension. This was lost when James was deposed in 1688. William Wycherley converted to Catholicism when he was in France, but re-converted shortly afterwards. After having been rescued from prison he converted back again to Catholicism. In his later years he became friends with the young Alexander Pope who helped him edit his works.

Works

Wycherley wrote several comedies, some are Jonsonian satires where clever knaves gull their victim, some are sex comedies focused on who is to bed whom, some are both. Love in a Wood; or, St. James's Park was Wycherley's first play and premiered successfully in 1671 making him famous. A year later The Gentleman Dancing-Master followed. These early plays have some farcical moments and followed the tradition in presenting a satiric portrait of pretentious characters, like fops, rakes and would-be wits. The most famous comedy by Wycherley is The Country Wife (1675), which tells the story of the country wife, Margery Pinchwife, who comes to London with a very naive outlook on life and manners, but learns fast. She is jealously guarded by her husband, Mr Pinchwife, and successfully seduced by Horner. Horner, the true rake and protagonist of The Country Wife, manages to convince the rest of London society that he has become impotent. While the men make fun of him, the women discover Horner as discreet and potent lover. Famous: the "china-scene", in which Sir Jasper Fidget thinks his wife buys china from Horner, but Lady Fidget, Horner and the audience know that she is having sex with him.

"Sir Jasper calls through the door to his Wife; she answers from within [i.e. from backstage]

Sir Jasper: Wife, my Lady Fidget, wife, he is coming in to you the back way.

Lady Fidget: Let him come, and welcome, which way he will.

Sir Jasper: He’ll catch you and use you roughly and be too strong for you.

Lady Fidget: Don’t trouble yourself; let him if he can." (IV, 73-74)

Wycherley’s other widely famous play is The Plain Dealer, an adaptation of Molière's Le Misanthrope, which was performed in 1676. Protagonist Manly does not believe in the human laws of politeness, but insists on "plain dealing" (=telling the truth), even if that means offending others. Ironically, he falls victim to the hypocritical and dishonest Olivia. Olivia's hypocrisy appears in a funny meta-theatrical scene, when she and her friend discuss the Country Wife and Olivia claims: "the lewdest, filthiest thing is his china; nay, I will never forgive the beastly author his china. He has quite taken away the reputation of poor china itself, and sullied the most innocent and pretty furniture of a lady's chamber; insomuch that I was fain to break all my defiled vessels. You see I have none left; nor you, I hope" (II.i).

In 2008, Wycherley was voted as one of London's most erotic writers by the magazine Time Out.

Sources

Corman, Brian: “Comedy” in The Cambridge Companion to English Restoration Theatre. Ed. D. Payne Fisk. Cambridge: CUP, 2003

Korninger, Siegfried: The Restoration Period and the Eighteenth Century. 1660 – 1780. München: Österreichischer Bundesverlag Wien, 1964.

Time Out. http://www.timeout.com/london/books/features/4312/3.html

“Wycherley.” dtv-Lexikon. München: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 2006.

"Wycherley, William." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 23 Apr. 2009 <http://www.search.eb.com/eb/article-8036>