Wycherley, Sir William

Wycherley, Sir William (1640–1716), Restoration dramatist, whose comedies, though coarse and often frankly indecent, show so much strength and savagery in their attack on the vices of the day that their author has been labelled ‘a moralist at heart’. He was to some extent influenced by Molière, but transmuted his borrowings by his own particular genius, and his style has an individuality seldom found in other writers of his time. His first play, Love in a Wood; or, St James's Park (1671); was followed by the somewhat uncharacteristic The Gentleman Dancing-Master (1672), based on Calderón's El maestro de danzar. The best of his plays was The Country Wife (1675), in which the comedy hinges on the efforts of a jealous husband to keep his young but naturally wanton country wife from the temptations of London. It was a great success, and was revived many times up to 1748. It received a new lease of life when Garrick adapted it as The Country Girl (1766) and produced it at Drury Lane with Dorothy Jordan in the title-role. The original version has been seen in London several times since the Phoenix Society first revived it in 1924. Wycherley's last play, The Plain-Dealer (1676), was successful enough for its author to be nicknamed ‘Manly’ Wycherley, after the name of its hero, with whose outspoken and misanthropic bent he doubtless had much sympathy. It was occasionally revived, and in 1765 was revised by Isaac Bickerstaffe for Drury Lane; his version held the stage until 1796.