SOURCE: Young, Douglas. “The Play-World of William Wycherley.” In The Feminist Voices in Restoration Comedy, pp. 85-157. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1997.

In the following essay, Young offers brief synopses of Wycherley's plays, a discussion of society in Wycherley's time, and an examination of women's roles in the plays.

William Wycherley was a contemporary of Sir George Etherege and, like Sir George, was a well-known figure in the real beau monde of the Restoration aristocracy. Recent research has established 28 May 1641, “as the most probable date” of his birth (Cook and Swannell, eds., Introduction xvii). Wycherley died on New Year's Eve 1715, and was buried at St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden, “a stone's throw from the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane” (xxvi), and a “spot of a walk past Will's Coffee House” (Connely 335). Wycherley was born at Clive Hall near Shrewsbury, the eldest child of Daniel Wycherley who managed the...