The Country Wife

First staged in 1675, Wycherley’s comedy remains one of the most notorious plays of the Restoration stage, admired for its wit and condemned for its indecency in almost equal measure. The rake Horner spreads a false rumor that he has been left impotent, a ruse that lets him move freely among the wives of jealous husbands who no longer see him as a threat. Around this scheme Wycherley builds a sharp satire of London society, marriage, and reputation, capped by the celebrated ‘china’ scene that scandalized audiences for generations. Beneath the bawdy humor sits a genuinely bleak view of appetite and hypocrisy. This free PDF and EPUB edition offers a classic of English comic theater.