William Wycherley the dramatist who attempted to reconcile in his plays a personal conflict between deep-seated puritanism and an ardent physical nature. He perhaps succeeded best in The Country-Wife (1675), in which satiric comment on excessive jealousy and complacency was blended with a richly comic presentation.Though a man of strong intellectual power, Wycherley was a fine gentleman a responsible being afterward.
Background
Ethnicity:
William Wycherley (c. 1640 – 31 December 1715) was an English dramatist of the Restoration period, best known for the plays The Country Wife and The Plain Dealer.
He was born at Clive, Shropshire near Shrewsbury, where his family was settled on a moderate estate of about £600 a year. Like John Vanbrugh, Wycherley spent some years of his adolescence in France.
Education
Wycherley was sent to France for his education. He spent several years there studying with the Duchesse de Montausier and her circle of intellectuals.
He left Oxford without taking a degree.
Religion
Both the literary and the religious attitudes of this circle influenced him, and he converted to Roman Catholicism. Shortly before the Restoration, at about age 18, he returned to England and, upon going up to Oxford, reconverted to Protestantism.
Views
Quotations:
Thy books should, like thy friends, not many be, yet such wherein men may thy judgment see.
Good fellowship and friendship are lasting, rational and manly pleasures.
Women of quality are so civil, you can hardly distinguish love from good breeding.
I weigh the man, not his title: "it is not the king's stamp can make the metal better".