The Plays of William Wycherley

Contains four plays by the dramatist William Wycherley (1641–1715).

Peter Holland (Author)

9780521298803, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 30 July 1981

512 pages
21.6 x 14 x 2.9 cm, 0.65 kg

`Mr Wycherley is universally allowed the first place among the English comic poets who have writ since Ben Jonson. His Plain-Dealer is the best comedy that ever was composed in any language.' Yet in spite of the extreme praise many of his contemporaries accorded to his work, William Wycherley (1641–1715) is now only remembered for one play, The Country Wife. Even though The Country Wife is frequently performed by both amateur and professional companies (including a production at the National Theatre in 1977), Wycherley's three other plays, Love in a Wood, The Gentleman Dancing-Master and The Plain-Dealer, are rarely read and even more rarely performed. But Wycherley's satire is as sharp now as ever and his revelation of the follies and crimes of his society is still both wickedly funny and savagely perceptive.

1. Love in a Wood
2. The Gentleman Dancing-Master
3. The Country Wife
4. The Plain-Dealer.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]