William Wycherley

William Wycherly was born in Shropshire, England, into a moderately wealthy, Royalist family. He went to school in France where he briefly converted to Catholicism, returning to Protestantism after coming back to England in the 1650s. Wycherly took up residence at Oxford on his return but left Oxford for London in 1659. He joined the armed forces and was sent first to Ireland, in 1662, and later to Madrid. In 1671, Wycherly produced his first play, Love in a Wood, which was popular in the court of Charles II. It is believed to have caught the attention of Charles’s mistress, Barbara Villiers, who would afterwards patronize much of Wycherly’s work. In 1672, Wycherly was deployed with his regiment to the Isle of Wight, and, during this period, he is believed to have written The Country Wife. This play, and another, The Plain Dealer, were performed in 1675 and secured Wycherly’s reputation in Charles II’s court and in London high society. He had a reputation as a hedonist, a man’s man, and a confirmed bachelor; qualities which were encouraged and valorized during the Restoration period. In 1679, Wycherly secretly married a wealthy widow, the Countess of Drogheda. He deliberately kept the marriage a secret to protect his reputation as a libertine, but word got out and the marriage put him out of favor with Charles II. After his wife’s death in 1685, Wycherly was left with significant debts and was eventually imprisoned in London. He was released by King James II, after Charles II’s death. He married again in 1715 but died shortly after and never recovered his reputation or wealth during his lifetime. He died in 1716 and was buried in Covent Garden in London.