William Wycherley
Who was William Wycherley?
English dramatist of the Restoration period
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on William Wycherley (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
William Wycherley was an English playwright born in Clive, Shropshire, in April 1641. He is widely considered one of the leading writers of Restoration comedy. Wycherley spent some time studying in France before returning to England, where he attended The Queen's College, Oxford, and later the Inner Temple, though he never became a lawyer. Instead, he turned his talents to the theater, just as the English stage had reopened after the Puritan period and was eager for wit, satire, and social insight.
Before Fame
William Wycherley was born in April 1641 in Clive, a small parish in Shropshire, England. He was the son of Daniel Wycherley, who worked as a steward for the Marquess of Winchester. When he was about 15, he went to France and lived in the Saintonge region, where he met Julie d'Angennes, Marquise de Montausier, a well-known figure in Parisian literary circles. This time in France exposed Wycherley to both the culture there and the Catholic faith, although he eventually returned to the Church of England. After coming back to England in 1660, he enrolled at The Queen's College, Oxford, and later joined the Inner Temple.
Key Achievements
- Wrote The Country Wife (1675), one of the most celebrated and frequently revived comedies of the Restoration period.
- Authored The Plain Dealer (1676), widely considered his masterwork and a landmark of English satirical drama.
- Gained royal patronage and favor at the court of King Charles II through both his dramatic work and his social connections.
- Established himself as a leading figure in the genre of Restoration comedy of manners alongside contemporaries such as George Etherege and William Congreve.
- Formed a mentoring relationship with Alexander Pope, influencing the young poet's early literary development.
Did You Know?
- 01.Wycherley earned the nickname 'Manly Wycherley' from admirers of his play The Plain Dealer, named after its blunt and uncompromising protagonist Manly.
- 02.His affair with Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland and mistress of King Charles II, reputedly began after she spotted him from her carriage and called out to him with a bawdy compliment.
- 03.Wycherley spent several years in a debtors' prison after the death of his wife, Lady Letitia Isabella Robartes, left him encumbered with her substantial debts.
- 04.He married his second wife just eleven days before his death, reportedly as a deliberate act to deprive his nephew of an inheritance by saddling the estate with a jointure.
- 05.The young Alexander Pope, more than fifty years Wycherley's junior, undertook to polish and revise the elderly playwright's poems, a process that eventually strained their friendship.