English Literature / Unit 10 ENL 0912 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Wycherley and The Country Wife
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The idea
William Wycherley's The Country Wife, first performed in sixteen seventy-five, was greeted as the bawdiest and wittiest play yet seen on the English stage. The rake Horner pretends impotence to pursue married women, and an inexperienced young country wife discovers London.
In practice
A rake's trick, a country wife in town.
Where people slip
The satire targets hypocrisy and jealousy.
Your place on the trail
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