Country Wife and its Audience

After theatres were restored once King Charles ll was embedded to the throne following the years of civil
war and death, many changes occurred. This “renaissance” of drama brought the first professional
actresses, comedies that used sexual explicitness to be the focus of the funny and diverse audiences
where aristocrats, the court, their servants and the middle-class all enjoyed a good laugh. 

William Wycherley depicts a reflection of a society that consists of upper-class citizens that were
notorious of wit (townspeople)
jealousy (Pinchwife) and
cuckoldry.
He used these characters to symbolize Restoration relationships after patriarchy style marriages
pre-Restoration became non-existent. Marriages were more a sacrament bond that granted husbands
dominance over the wife.
Since Parliament used religion as a deciding factor for everything, they taught and preached that God
created man out of love and that man was made in the image/likeness of God, making marriage
non-negotiable in the church when it came to divorce. This led to an increase in domestic marriages.
However, when King Charles l got the axe, the Civil Marriage Act of 1653 was passed
(under Oliver Cromwell) which introduced the civil ceremony for marriages making them more a
contract between wife and husband where negotiations are now required, granting some "freedoms". 

Audience Back in Day

King Charles ll supported theatre and this play so much that he attended the
first three performances faithfully. He brought in and encouraged many others spectators
who truly despised the Purtians and who also just loved the King.

                - became the official patron of the company
performing at the playhouse in Drury Lane where The Country Wife was first staged

The Country Wife ultimately generated a conversation of the current state of marriages and the
nature of some people in not only upper class culture but every class. Cuckoldry had became a
recurring problem in marriages between 1653 - 1675 when society started to redefine ‘man’ and ‘woman’, making men lose the power they once held and some couldn’t keep up.

It was well acclaimed during the Restoration era however afterwards, due to the sexual content,
it received its share of widespread bans all around until 200 years later in certain areas. 

Audience of Today

Adultery is not a widespread and constant problem within relationships as it was in the day. Therefore, the
play is used mostly as a means of entertainment and still performed frequently around

ACCORD. “A Sacramental Marriage.” A Sacramental Marriage - Accord, Ireland, www.accord.ie/resources/articles/a-sacramental-marriage.

Maybank, Diane. “An Introduction to Restoration Comedy.” The British Library, The British Library, 17 May 2018, www.bl.uk/restoration-18th-century-literature/articles/an-introduction-to-restoration-comedy.

Panton, Dominique. “Restoration Comedy and The Country Wife.” Prezi.com, 4 Dec. 2012, prezi.com/j-g_biw9yt2b/restoration-comedy-and-the-country-wife/.

“The Country Wife.” American Shakespeare Center, 5 Sept. 2019, americanshakespearecenter.com/events/the-country-wife-2013/.

“WYCHERLEY, THE COUNTRY WIFE: INTRODUCTION.” The Virginia Anthology, pages.shanti.virginia.edu/Marking_Up_Johnson/1043-2/.