Tag Archives: William Wycherley

When a Novel Affected Clock Sales

Friday I have lots of thoughts about the Congressional hearings on Donald Trump’s January 6 coup attempt, which opened last night, and am working up a post that references Milton’s rebel angels. I’ll end this week, however, on a lighter note, an interesting footnote that my English professor son alerted me to. Apparently, Laurence Sterne’s […]

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Wycherley Describes Self-Deceiving GOP

In Wycherley’s “Country Wife,” self deception defines the society. The parallels with Trump’s GOP are startling.

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Barr’s Spin, a Restoration Comedy

Friday I’ll write more extensively about the release of the Barr-redacted Mueller Report next week but a quick note here. When the Attorney General attempted to spin the report prior to its release, thereby functioning as the president’s press agent rather than the country’s chief law enforcement officer, I thought of Dr. Quack in William […]

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Trump Scandal as Comedy of Manners

White House scandals are coming into the open. William Wycherley could write a Restoration comedy about it all.

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From Wycherley to Crazy, Stupid, Love

In my “Restoration and 18th Century Couples Comedy” class, my students paired old rom-coms with contemporary films, including “Ten Things I Hate about You,” “How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days, “Friends with Benefits,” and others.

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A Literary History of the Insult “Cuck”

“Cuck” has become a favorite insult amongst alt-right types. In today’s post I trace literary references to cuckolds going back to Chaucer.

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Women Battling the Marriage Plot

Although men got the quest plot while women were relegated to the marriage plot in the 18th century, a number of women writers found imaginative ways to circumvent it. Among these were Aphra Behn, Eliza Haywood, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.

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On Supply Side and Self Deception

In Wycherley’s “Country Wife,” the entire society grasps at an implausible story to sustain its self deception. Sounds like the GOP and supply side economics.

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The Horror of Sex without Love

Sex without love, the subject of several sex comedies this past summer, was also an issue explored by poets and playwrights in the British Restoration.

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