William Wycherley and the Comedy of Fear

This is a study of four plays of William Wycherley. It argues that Wycherley was not so much an attacking playwright but rather a thinking one, fascinated by the workings and motivations of fallible and insecure men and women. This book’s assessments of male relationships, of women’s sexuality, of the numerous and various sexual entendres, and the reevaluations of some three dozen characters are all new or at the very least more substantial than heretofore.