As Sir Jasper, Lady Fidget, and Dainty speak with Horner in Act 1, Scene 1, the subject of Horner's impotence is broached. Horner provokes the women, and they react to him with disgust, as exemplified in Lady Fidget's use of metaphor in the following passage:
SIR JASPAR. Ha, ha, ha! No, he can’t wrong your ladyship’s honour, upon my honour; he, poor man – hark you in your ear – a mere eunuch.
LADY FIDGET. O filthy French beast! foh, foh! Why do we stay? Let’s be gone. I can’t endure the sight of him.
Lady Fidget refers to Horner in the above excerpt as a "filthy French beast," referring to his sexual language, sexual proclivities, and reported status as a eunuch, which her husband confirms. Lady Fidget views Horner's impotency as degrading and bestial—and yet, there is a kind of magnetism and chemistry in her manner of bantering with him, especially in the way she expresses her disgust. While maintaining a level of remove and a sense of distaste that is acceptable in the context of this particular social interaction, Lady Fidget simultaneously demonstrates a veiled curiosity about Horner's condition. Her words convey the socially acceptable sentiment, but her actions and continued prodding hint at her interest in him.
In the middle of Act 2, Sparkish teases Pinchwife—whom he refers to as "Frank" in this passage—revealing in turn his own views on marriage through the use of metaphor:
SPARKISH. Come, dear Frank, for all my wife there that shall be, thou shalt enjoy me sometimes, dear rogue. By my honour, we men of wit condole for our deceased brother in marriage as much as for one dead in earnest. – I think that was prettily said of me, ha, Harcourt? – But come, Frank, be not melancholy for me.
In this passage, Sparkish compares marriage to a form of death, with the husband becoming a "deceased brother" on the occasion of his nuptials. Sparkish and his fellow libertines view the confines of marriage as destructive—a kind of spiritual and physical senescence, antithetical to their nature as living, breathing human beings. Frank, or Pinchwife, by contrast, views marriage as constructive: a kind of metaphorical barrier to keep out the insidious forces of societal destruction emblematized by the sexual liberation of Sparkish.
Though this metaphor is less direct, the choice to refer to Pinchwife as a "deceased brother" has the effect of evoking military service, specifically death in the line of duty. Marriage, similar to military service, can feel mandatory; and "death" in the line of marital duty seems a foregone conclusion.
Left to their own devices, in Act 2, Lady Fidget, Dainty, Mrs. Squeamish lament their position in society as well as recent shifts in the operation of social codes—namely, those that dictate the behavior of unmarried men. They use metaphor to convey their dismay:
SQUEAMISH. Ay, one would think men of honour should not love, no more than marry, out of their own rank.
DAINTY. Fie, fie upon ’em! They are come to think cross-breeding for themselves best, as well as for their dogs and horses.
LADY FIDGET. They are dogs, and horses for’t.
These three women discuss the fact that men of quality no longer court women of quality; in doing so, they equate breeding of animals with marriage amongst the upper echelons. This metaphor further expands upon the dehumanizing and reductive viewpoints shared by many of the characters in the play. To suggest that humans can be bred like dogs and horses is indeed degrading—and yet, members of the aristocracy regularly engage in this mode of thinking, inbreeding to the point of sickness. "Cross-breeding" suggests the opposite of inbreeding, at least in terms of the men discussed by these three women; and in this conversation, it is not the dehumanizing nature of upper-class courtship that the women critique, but rather a shift in the pattern of "breeding" habits. This worldview is the object of satire, just as every perspective on love, marriage, and sexuality is in The Country Wife.
Using a misogynistic metaphor, Horner demonstrates his sexist worldview in Act 2:
SIR JASPAR. Come, come, man; what, avoid the sweet society of womankind? That sweet, soft, gentle, tame, noble creature, woman, made for man’s companion –
HORNER. So is that soft, gentle, tame, and more noble creature a spaniel and has all their tricks – can fawn, lie down, suffer beating, and fawn the more; barks at your friends when they come to see you; makes your bed hard; gives you fleas, and the mange sometimes. And all the difference is, the spaniel’s the more faithful animal and fawns but upon one master.
By using this metaphor to present all women as spaniels (that is, as dogs), Horner reveals a demeaning, dehumanizing attitude towards women. Though earlier comments introduce this aspect of Horner's character, this comment serves to further solidify his misogynistic outlook. Indeed, it becomes quite clear in this passage that he assumes women are less intelligent, weaker, and more fickle than men. Though The Country Wife uses Horner to emphasize and satirize the period's stuffy, hypocritical societal practices surrounding sexuality, it's worth noting that Horner himself isn't without his own flaws—like, for instance, his blatant misogyny.
