Staging Male Vulnerability on the Restoration Stage

Home , The Country Wife, William Wycherley

Septiembre 2017. Núm. 21 MATERIA/QUIEBRAS ISSN: 1988-3927

Staging male vulnerability on the Restoration Stage

Jealousy and cuckoldry in The Country Wife (1675)

Laura Martínez García [*]

Abstract. Te epistemological shif of 17th century is a turning point in the history of Wes- tern thought as it triggered a movement from what Foucault called from a “a deployment of alliance” to “a deployment of sexuality”; this reformulation of what Butler describes as “the regulatory practices of gender formation and division” which had been dominant until the scientifc revolution evidenced the vulnerability of all individuals when confronted with shifs in the conception of power. Restoration drama, straddling the medieval frame of mind and the pre-modern way of thinking, brings to light the tensions this shif provoked. Taking Butler’s ideas on the performativity of gender and vulnerability, Foucault’s views on power and resistance and Wycherley’s Te Country Wife (1675) as its basis, this paper studies the vulnerable position in which men found themselves, studying their daily struggles to maintain the manhood attained through marriage and control of a household.

Keywords: Literature, Restoration drama, Wycherley, gender performativity, Foucault, Butler

Resumen. El giro epistemológico del siglo xvii fue un momento decisivo para la historia del pensamiento en Occidente, ya que supuso el comienzo de un movimiento desde lo que Foucault denomina un “dispositivo de alianza” a un “dispositivo de sexualidad”; esta refor- mulación de lo que Butler llama “las prácticas reguladoras de la formación y la separación de género” que vienen siendo dominantes desde la revolución científca, pone en evidencia la vulnerabilidad de todos los individuos cuando deben enfrentarse a los sucesivos cambios en la concepción del poder. El teatro de la Restauración, a caballo entre una forma de pensar medieval y una concepción ‘moderna’ del mundo, arroja aún más luz sobre las tensiones ocasionadas por estos cambios en la episteme. Tomando como base las ideas de Butler sobre la performatividad de género y la vulnerabilidad, las nociones foucaultianas de poder y re- sistencia y la comedia de maneras Te Country Wife (1675), escrita por William Wycherley, este ensayo estudia la posición vulnerable en la que se encuentran ciertos hombres en el Londres del siglo xvii, observando sus luchas diarias por mantener la hombría adquirida mediante el matrimonio y la regencia de una familia.

Palabras clave: Literatura, treatro de la Restauración, Wycherley, género performativo, Fou- cault, Butler

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The 17th century was a time of great chan- 1. The restoration of ideology which claimed that men and wo- ges: the end of Cromwell’s rule meant not men were biologically diferent and displayed just the return of the Monarchy, but the the monarchy and the a set of innate qualities that dictated their return of all the pastimes banned by the changing faces of gender place in the world: men were physically and Puritans: Christmas, singing, dancing and, mentally stronger and more pragmatic, whi- more importantly, theatre, all made a co- le women were naturally more prone to nur- meback. The Restoration of the Monarchy As Foucault points out in his History of Sexu- ture and far more delicate and sensitive and saw the revival of dramatic productions ality: An Introduction (1990), the 17th and 18th so, “this doctrine defned a male sphere that as well as the birth of new genres, such centuries saw the development of a society was public—one concerned with the regula- as the comedy of manners. Although this moving from “a deployment of alliance” to- ted world of government, trade business, and new type of drama was for centuries per- wards a “deployment of sexuality” [5], a shif law...—and a women’s sphere that was priva- ceived as empty and devoid of all literary that entailed a total rethinking of gender roles. te—encompassing the unregulated realm of merit [1], a mere parade of immorality, Te deployment of alliance, paradigmatic of home, family and child rearing” [12]. Tus, the second half of the 20th century saw medieval times, had the monarch as its sole the theory of the complementary spheres an intense academic study of the subject head and the spilling of blood as its main was born, along with two new archetypes: and a definite change of perspective in the symbol [6]: it was a strict and hierarchical or- the Angel in the House, as described by Co- understanding of the genre [2], so that it dering of society based on Biblical teaching ventry Patmore [13] and the honnête homme is now hailed as an accurate reflection of and the theory of humours. Te same way the described as divided “upon the heart and the the tensions present in a society that was King or feudal Lord ruled over his subjects’ intellect, sentiment and rationalism, desire transitioning from a medieval conception bodies and lives, the pater familias governed to known and scepticism concerning one’s of power, individuals and their bodies, to over his household [7]. Tis gendered social ability to know, striving for perfection, but a pre-Modern way of thinking about the order “rested upon twin pillars: the subordi- giving the impression of indiference” [14]. world and humanity [3]. nation required of women as punishment for Eve’s sin ... and an understanding of men’s and Te spread and imposition of this gender The change in the understanding of the women’s bodies ... in terms of relative strength order during the 17th and 18th centuries in world meant a reformulation of the gen- and weakness” [8]. In this thinking, men were Britain was carried out through the publica- der roles that sustained social order and the perfect copy of God, while women, built tion of advice books for both men and wo- a rethinking of the definitions ‘man’ and from Adam’s rib, were an imperfect copy of men; these vastly popular volumes insisted ‘woman’, a traumatic experience for many the frst creature [9]. on showing which gendered behaviour was who now saw their power dwindling; proper for each sex and which behaviour these struggles for power were satirised in Te Restoration saw the crumbling of this went against the ‘natural’ order of things Restoration comedies of manners, a new system and the emergence of a new one, [15], while also giving advice on how ‘men’ genre which not only rejected the ‘medie- which came about with the shif in the epis- and ‘women’ acted and carried themselves. val’ gender order, but which also eyed the teme that brought science and knowledge to Tese manuals that gave strict directions on new social order with suspicion and advo- the forefront of life. Tis meant a change in how to be a ‘man’ or a ‘woman’, reinforce But- cated for a libertine way of life based on the understanding of gender relations and a ler’s idea that gender, “which we take to be an Hobbessian ethics, a theatre “which raised division between the sexes that was no longer internal essence ... is manufactured through a more general debate about the validity based on inferiority, since “science discarded a sustained set of acts, posited through the of traditional institutions of moral au- the one-sex model in favour of ‘diference’” gendered stylization of the body” [16], that thority such as marriage” [4]. This paper [10]: the epistemological shif brought about is, that gender, rather than a biological gi- aims at showing how Restoration comedy by the scientifc revolution of the 17th and ven, is in fact a social performance [17], a of manners portrays and ridicules the vul- 18th centuries evidenced that inferiority was repetition of certain behaviours “which in nerability of a certain group of men who no longer a valid gender theory to buttress some sense institute and maintain relations are caught in between the two normative the deployment of alliance. In fact, as Flet- of coherence and continuity among sex, gender orders (deployment of alliance and cher points out, “once men saw women as gender, sexual practice, and desire” [18]. deployment of sexuality) and the liber- distinct beings, a transformation in the na- tine ideas which come to question them, ture of patriarchy, based upon a new reading In Early-Modern England, one was not born through the depiction of three flawed gen- of gender became possible” [11]. Science was a man, but became one through the perfor- dered performances. now invoked as the basis for this new gender mance and repetition of certain behaviours

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and practices, going through a manhood-ac- Still, while characters like Horner or Dori- 2. Flawed gender quiring process which culminated in the esta- mant thrive under their ‘betrayal’ of gender blishment and ruling of one’s household, the norms, others live in fear of it: since man- performances in ultimate proof of manliness and power. Still, hood requires continuous public assertion, The Country Wife: this was not the end of the road since manly the threats are constant and the ways in “behaviour was determined by the need frst which one can be unmanned are multiplied, jealousy, cuckoldry and to establish and then continually prove man- a situation which created anxiety, violence hood, to himself and others” [19] as manhood and suspicion in certain males who see their effeminacy was a lifelong performance for the beneft of position of power threatened. observers and for the beneft of the performer Te early-modern performance of manhood himself for, as Butler explains, “one does not Tis ambivalent perception of male vul- consisted on navigating, negotiating and re- ‘do’ one’s gender alone. One is always ‘doing’ nerability and of the danger of losing one’s acting in the appropriate way to the external with or for another, even if the other is only claim to manhood and power is fascinating threats and dangers to be found in day-to- imaginary” [20]: the same way inmates in in plays like Te Country Wife (1675) which day life. Cuckoldry was one threat (real or Bentham’s Panopticon police each other in portrays a complex urban society where imagined) which males had to face daily and the absence of a guard in the central tower all individuals are caught in between three one which could be most damaging to their [21], society at large is in charge of policing discourses that preach three diferent ways manliness since “to be betrayed by a woman and pointing out abnormal gender perfor- of being. Depending on their gender perfor- ... is to be humiliated, and thus placed in a mances that might disrupt the gender order. mance, Wycherley’s characters can be divided position of vulnerability” [27]. Cuckoldry into clear groups: the libertines (Te Virtu- has been a stock motif of drama for centuries Tis threat of falling into incoherent beha- ous Gang, Horner), the new men and women now and it became even more important du- viour, whether it refers to homosocial prac- (Alithea and Harcourt) and the in-betweeners ring the Restoration since London, the centre tices or heterosocial practices that contradict (Pinchwife, Sparkish and Sir Jaspar), a group of libertinism, not only ofered ample oppor- the rules regulating gender performativity, is of characters who strive to adequate their gen- tunities for debauchery with all its hiding always present. Some subjects embrace this der performance to the established rules of places but, due to its rapid growth afer mass threat, for, since Foucault explains, power certain groups (whether it be the libertine way, migration from the country to the city, soon is not merely destructive as it also creates the deployment of alliance or the deployment saw its landscape dramatically altered: homes points of resistance [22] that give way to al- of sexuality), but are incapable of succeeding, and shops were now public/private spaces ternative modes of performing one’s sex or for as Krueger explains “men are not ‘mascu- that “did not have frm boundaries and were gender: we are talking now about disconti- line’ simply because they are biologically male, permeable” [28]; thus all that “took place in- nuous and incoherent discourses that en- but rather ... they are socially considered mas- doors was subject to legitimate scrutiny by compass all of those practices censured and culine or efeminate due to how they use their neighbours and the community” [29], so that excluded by the established order and which biological bodies and behave as men” [26]. In London becomes a place where “cuckoldry … gave way, during the Restoration to “a dis- the case of Pinchwife, Sir Jaspar and Sparkish, far from being a private matter, … was a topic tinctive (intellectual) landscape, dominated their performances are deeply fawed, a situ- of surveillance and discussion” [30]. Tis is by three ... philosophical paradigms: scienti- ation which provokes deep anxiety and panic even more important if we take into account fcally-based scepticism ...; an epicurean-ins- resulting in deviant behaviours and irregular that “loss and vulnerability seem to follow pired indulgence in all human impulses that gender performances. from our being socially constituted bodies, became known as libertinism; and an idea- attached to others, at risk of losing those at- lized quest for honesty, truth, simplicity, It is precisely this last group that will occu- tachments, exposed to others, at risk of vio- and unpretentiousness” [23] or “naturalism” py this study, for in their fawed attempts at lence by virtue of that exposure” [31], which [24]. Tese ideas were translated into the li- performing gender and in their misinter- means that the publicness of cuckoldry rather bertine lifestyle that authors like Wycherley pretation of masculinity and of the threats than cuckoldry itself is more dangerous in and Etherege defended in their works and to their manhood, these characters prove to Wycherley’s play, as it is set “in a social world practised in their daily lives, “a new hie- be the most vulnerable of all since, in spite primed by gossip … [where] adultery only rarchy of men, based not on rank, wealth, of being endowed with all the attributes of became serious when publicly exposed” [32]. patriarchal respectability or the dignity of invulnerability (rich, white, middle-aged, a particular trade or calling, but on sexual married men) they are not only unmanned, Cuckolds can be divided into two groups, attractiveness and sexual performance” [25]. but, more importantly, ridiculed. those who accept their horns or “wittols” [33]

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and those who rail against the knowledge honest respectability” [40]. Towards the 18th and settle down” [47]. In his attempt at per- or suspicion; unlike wittols, ‘real men’ were century and with the strengthening of this forming a masculinity far from that of the expected to take action when faced with the deployment of sexuality, jealousy came to be Hobbesian rakes who had been his friends threat of cuckoldry [34] but their reactions “treated as a serious threat to marital har- until recently, Pinchwife becomes a miso- were still highly encoded gendered practices mony that must be difused” [41]. gynistic and cruel man who openly displays and, as such, they required the observance a deep-seated hatred towards the female of gender rules or these males would run the For the Hobbesian Restoration playwrights, sex, in a deeply fawed gender performance risk of unwittingly publicizing “their shame jealousy was not only useless, but senseless, which emasculates him in the eyes of not through their undisciplined reactions” beco- since it contradicted all the principles of li- only the libertines, but of both deployments. ming thus “stock butts of laughter” [35]. bertinism and so they sought to treat it as a comic resource which not only portrays the Although he declares to have had several Such is the case of Pinchwife, whose fear of Hobbesian-inspired sexual competitiveness mistresses, he has decided to marry and losing his manhood coupled with the anxie- of the rakes, but which also serves as a social to abandon his life as rake and a libertine. ty of discovery, is at the core of his violent- commentary on the inferiority of cits and Tus, he has taken to the country where he ly jealous outbursts. Jealousy was seen as a their “apparent pusillanimity” [42]. has tried to fnd a foolish wife that will not most dangerous and emasculating passion be cunning enough to know how to betray in all three systems: under the deployment Wycherley’s play portrays the triumph of the him “’Tis my maxim, he’s a fool that marries, of alliance it was perceived “as chiefy a libertine philosophy of life in the ascendancy but he’s a greater fool that doesn’t marry a male characteristic which originates from of Horner, the false eunuch who not only gets fool. What is wit in a wife good for but to men’s concern to adhere to honour codes away with his having cuckolded most of the make a man a cuckold?” [48]. Tis senten- which lay emphasis on male control of wo- gentlemen in the play, but whose deceit is lef ce clearly displays the fact that his “peculiar men” [36]. Te feudal system required men undiscovered, thus allowing him the oppor- horror of cuckoldry mainly springs from to become the Kings of their own domestic tunity to continue seducing the wives of un- his accurate perception of what is, in fact, Commonwealths and, as such, they were ex- suspecting cits, stripping these males of their a sexual act committed by a man on ano- pected to control all of the members of their manliness, while asserting his stance as the ther man” [49], a public vexation that, at the household (or subjects), to be “master of all alpha-male of the libertine community. Te time, would make “nonsense of the gender those who lived under his roof” [37] displa- “Dance of Cuckolds” at the end of the play is order” [50] and which would ultimately be ying thus manly strength and superiority. a testimony of Horner’s ability and a celebra- seen as a confrmation not so much of fema- Any man who gave in to feelings of jealousy tion of the victory of the Hobbesian libertine le wantonness, but of Pinchwife’s inability to was immediately seen as efeminate and lost who not only believes in the right to freedom perform his role as a man. Pinchwife is in his manhood by showing not just his lack of and pleasure, but who is also extremely scep- no way unaware of the fact that, at the time, confdence in his authority, but also by ad- tical and harbours a deep mistrust of all tradi- “cuckoldry was frequently linked to a hus- mitting that he was afraid of losing control tional institutions like marriage [43]. band’s poor sexual performance” [51]: ra- over the women under his rule. Tus, at the ther than the wife’s fault, cuckoldry is seen as time, “jealousy could have been interpreted Pinchwife, a former libertine who returns to the triumph of a ‘real man’ and the result of as a sign of weakness—an admission that London a married man, is full of anxiety at a fawed gender performance on the part of a man feared that he was losing the sexual the prospect of being reunited with the rakes the husband, who proves to be less of a man, control over his wife” [38]. that he used to call friends for, although “ma- unable to perform his role properly and run- rried men had a greater claim to trustwor- ning the risk of being mocked by a society According to the teachings and ‘truths’ as- thiness” [44] it is also true that “maintaining on the lookout for any misdemeanours. sociated to the deployment of sexuality, authority over household subordinated— “jealousy and other extreme emotions that and particularly wives—was a constant la- To prevent this loss of manhood, Pinchwi- stem from passion were … deemed unrea- bour rather than a given” [45] and that “the fe resorts to an obsessively jealous monito- sonable” [39] and unmanly as they betra- real test for most men was simply everyday ring of Margery’s activities and company, yed an instability of mind and an inability living within a marriage partnership” [46]. which has him suspecting not just the inno- to control one’s emotions that contradicted Pinchwife feels this anxiety acutely and “at cent girl, but his own sister and his so-ca- the proper performance of manhood which forty-nine, [he] illustrates the problem of lled friends. In her study of the evolution of required “discretion, reason, moderation, the man growing old, attempting to eman- cuckoldry in Britain, Corcoran argues that self-sufciency, strength, self-control and cipate himself from the society of the rakes during the 16th and 17th centuries violence

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was the most common reaction to the threat lias, but rather immerses him in a “process dence and freedom, leaving her in the com- (real or imagined) of cuckoldry and explains of transition from libertine to cuckold” [55]. pany of others while he “follows the fashion that “the shame and ridicule associated with sense of his stodgy—but ostentatiously weal- being a victim of marital infdelity, coupled If overzealousness is Pinchwife’s downfall, thy—banker friends in the city” [62]. Still, with the oppressive cult of masculine ho- lack of care is Sir Jaspar’s sin and what ultima- his strategy is designed along the same lines nour, led men to feel compelled to acts that tely leads to his loss of manhood; efeminacy as that of Pinchwife, as a way to prevent his were inherently disruptive of social life” [52] and his “deliberate neglect of women” [56] wife from ruining his manly reputation, for as and Pinchwife’s performance is the perfect not only points to hi sexual inadequacy [57] he himself declares “’Tis as much a husband’s example of this: his threats, his mistrust and but towards his incapability of performing the prudence to provide innocent diversion for a his generally violent behaviour is not a va- appropriate gender role: as a married man, Sir wife as to hinder her unlawful pleasures; and lid gender performance, but an incoherent Jaspar is supposed to guard a manhood that is he had better employ her, than let her employ discourse which does not ft into the gender inextricably linked to the honour of his wife herself” [63]. Tus, by choosing a ‘harmless roles preached by any of the three systems in all three systems; while the deployment of eunuch’ as her companion, he believes he has at work during the Restoration: neither the alliance has an authoritative man as its mo- found a “fool-proof and expedient way of pre- libertines, nor the deployment of alliance or del, the deployment of sexuality praises the venting her from dishonouring him without the deployment of sexuality justify the use of man who shows an interest in his wife’s afairs any efort or emotional investment on his violence over women and, in fact, all three and domestic life; even the libertine lifestyle part” [64]. systems see violent males as unmanly and would certainly disapprove of his blindness the object of scorn, rejection and disgust. to his wife’s real dealings with Horner. Tus, If Pinchwife’s violence and irrational beha- Sir Jaspar “at once the simpleton ... and the viour lead to his downfall, Sir Jaspar’s cold Although it is true that cuckoldry “was also negligent husband who forgets his marital indiference and lack of interest in his wife a matter of serious sexual insult and real duties” [58] is unmanned and vulnerable to justify Lady Fidget’s betrayal, as she herself anxiety for men” [53], it is not the actual act being cuckolded due to his inability to per- declares “who for business, from his wife that strips Pinchwife of his status as a man, form gender appropriately. will run // takes the best care, to have her but his reaction to the news. Pinchwife’s sus- business done” [65]: manhood was a state, picious nature ultimately leads to his down- When in Act 1 scene I he arrives with his rather than a possession, and it required fall, for in his zeal to preserve the manhood wife to Horner’s lodgings, he seems too ea- constant care and assertion, it is a lifelong he has acquired through his marriage, he ger to ‘dump’ Mrs. Fidget there and leave to performance which, if played wrong lef ma- resorts to a gender performance that dis- attend what he believes is the most impor- les in an extremely dangerous state of vulne- possess him of all his manly attributes: he tant aspect of a man’s life “Te Council will rability, at risk of losing their manhood, the is constantly nagging, threatening and ex- be sat, I must away. Business must be prefe- honour and power associated with it. Tat ploding into bouts of heinous jealousy that rred always before love and ceremony with is Sir Jaspar’s mistake, his complaisance, his make his wife fnd him despicable. Jealousy the wise” [59]. Sir Jaspar is delighted with belief that once he has acquired manhood leads him to irrational behaviours, unjusti- the idea of his wife is being tended to by an through marriage, it becomes a possession fed violence and threats that not only make innocuous eunuch who will entertain her that cannot be taken from him. the him far less appealing, but which also and who will cater to all her needs, except take away from his status as a man for he is those of a sexual nature, while he can attend Te manhood-acquiring process is not only incapable of behaving like one, according to the most important issue in life, business, based on heterosexual relations and the domi- to the canons of the age. Jealousy, which “get you gone to your business together; go, nance of the female sex, but has a homosocial in Pinchwife’s case is a preventive measure go, to your business, I say, pleasure, whilst I dimension which is also explored in Wycher- taken to dissuade his wife from cuckolding go to my pleasure, business” [60]. ley’s play. Sparkish, a fop about town, is about him, ultimately leads to Margery cheating to acquire this status through his marriage to on him and proving him unmanly. Althou- As Kachur explains, “his primary concern Alithea, Pinchwife’s sister; Sparkish seems to gh Pinchwife “goes to great lengths to avoid for his wife is to provide her the illusion of have all the makings of a proper man: he has being victimised by woman’s lust” [54], he is companionship by fnding her a safe cha- the money, the status, the fancé and he cer- instead scorned and unmanned by his own perone to accompany her at the playhouse tainly seems invulnerable, in a good position fawed performance of gender which does and other harmless diversions” [61]. Unlike to maintain his manhood and power. Before, not allow him to successfully culminate his Pinchwife, Sir Jaspar seems to trust his wife afer and during the Restoration, “assertion of transformation into a respected pater fami- and allows her a certain degree of indepen- newly-acquired manhood was all-important,

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since the force of peer-pressure to perform Harcourt: (Speaks surlily) Not so much as I Sparkish: Another time! Faith, the King will could not be easily avoided” [66]. Tus, male [thought and hoped she had. [have supped. competition and sexual banter were an essen- Alithea: Mr. Sparkish, do you bring People to Harcourt: Not with the worse stomach for tial part of the manhood-acquiring process [rail at you? your absence! Tou are one of those fools that in both deployments and even more so in the Spar, How! No, but if he does rail at me, ‘tis think their attendance at the King’s meals as highly competitive libertine world. Alexan- [but in jest, I warrant. necessary as his physicians’, when you are dra Shepard explains that the performance of Alithea: He spoke so scurrilously of you, I more troublesome to him than his doctors, manliness, and boasting about one’s wit, sexual had no patience to hear him. Besides he has [or his dogs. prowess and wealth was an essential part of the [been making love to me. Sparkish: Phsaw! I know my interest, sir. performance of manhood [67], but that it was Sparkish: Pshaw, to show his parts—we wits [Prithee, hide me [75]. reserved only to the youngest males and that rail and make love ofen but to show our “with marriage men’s attentions shifed away [parts. Tis passage is illuminating and shows how, from their male friends to their wives” [68]. Alithea: He said you were a Wretch, below an in his obsession with being ‘one of the lads’, [injury. he completely forgets the manhood he has Consequently, males were expected to aban- Sparkish: Pshaw. acquired must also be maintained through don such youthful and competitive practices Alithea: A Coward. heterosexual rather than homosocial rela- once they became engaged. Sparkish seems Sparkish: Pshaw, pshaw. tions and intimacy: he avoids being alone unaware of this unwritten rule in the manual Alithea: A senseless drivelling Idiot. with Alithea [76] since it would prevent on how to successfully perform masculinity Sparkish: How, did he disparage my parts? him from communing with the fashionable and insists on faunting his newly-acquired Nay, then my honour’s concerned. I can’t put men of Court resulting in a loss of his cre- manhood in front of his so-called friends: [up with that, Sir. (Ofers to draw) [71]. dibility and reputation as a man of wit, but the beau “a fool who, in his preoccupation he cannot wait to plan private dinners and with masculine warfare, faunts her as a re- Sparkish seems to believe he belongs to a group meetings with the rakish libertines he calls presentation of his manhood” [69], seems of fashionable libertines like Te Court Wits, friends [77]. He even declares only interested in Alithea as a ‘possession’ his males who, as part of their manhood acquiring unmarried friends lack, as an ornament that process, insult each other. What Sparkish fails Well, that’s a better reason, dear friend. I places him one step above them in the ‘male’ to see, blinded by his “delight in deriding and would not go near her now, for hers or my pecking order, a symbol of status in a Hobbe- scoring points of” [72] the other wits, is that own sake, but I can deny you nothing; for sian circle of friends in which competition for the other men actually despise him and the acts though I have known thee a great while, ne- power is ferce. As he himself declares, he takes as jokes (being thrown out of rooms, ver go, if I do not love thee as well as a new rejected and insulted) are actual proofs of the acquaintance [78], ... it may be that I have pleasure in’t [parading a disdain the truewits feel towards him. Te fop wife to be around], as I have to show fne clothes is so obsessed with this group of friends and he a statement that clearly portrays his disinte- at a playhouse. I love to be envied and would feels so superior to them once his marriage to rest for Alithea and his devotion to those he not marry a wife that I alone can love [70]. Alithea has put him at the head of the group, believes are his friends. that he afects “the fashionable negligence of Sparkish’s lack of interest in the lady con- the wits in matters of jealousy” [73] believing His general disdain for the lady and his obli- trasts sharply with his passion for fraterni- this to be an appropriate gender performance viousness to the true feelings of the wits, sing with the Court and for witty male ban- and claiming that such a passion is more typical prove that “his feelings for Alithea have been ter, manly performances which are essential of country bumpkins than of the fashionable clearly subordinated to concerns for his own in the socialisation of teenagers and young man-about-town he believes himself to be [74]. masculinity and wish(es) to use her to tor- adults; in fact, he is a classic foolish fop, so ment other males” [79] a practice that puts obsessed with being perceived as witty that Sparkish: Oh hide me! Tere’s my mistress too. the manhood he has acquired in grave danger. although a cascade of insults is thrown at Harcourt: She sees you. His unwillingness to engage in a heterosexual him, he only takes ofense when his intelli- Sparkish: But I will not see her. Tis time to go afair and his defcient performance of gender gence is put into question, to Whitehall, and I must not fail the drawing renders his behaviour efeminate and cancels [room. out any value his engagement may have, thus Sparkish: What, what, now dear Rogue, has Harcourt: Pray, frst carry me, and reconcile putting him at risk of losing his manhood and [not she wit? [me to her. his position of power in the group.

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By the end of the play and since he is not capa- the requirements of each of the power systems by the very laws that seek to establish causal or expressive lines of connection among bio- ble of putting “an end to the carefree lifestyle at work and while certain behaviours were ex- logical sex, culturally constituted genders, of bachelor sociability” [80] he is portrayed as pected of ‘men’ both under the deployment of and the ‘expression’ or ‘efect’ of both in the an efeminate “fool whom playwrights ridicule alliance and sexuality and under the libertine manifestation of sexual desire through sexual onstage”[81] and he is humiliated by Alithea system, others were demonised and ridiculed practice [84]. who chooses Hartcourt instead. Although in all three systems. some authors have portrayed Sparkish’s ft Confronted with such a social prospect, Wy- of jealousy as a moment of revelation which At a time when gender notions were shif- cherley, as many of his fellow Restoration shows how “the money-grubbing ambition ting between the absolute pater familias of playwrights, creates a world where the weak- at his character’s core erases his foppish faça- the deployment of alliance and the ‘reasona- nesses of these two systems are emphasised de of urbanity” [82], this paper suggests that, ble’ and restrained man of the deployment and exposed, warning their male audiences since Sparkish’s lack of romantic interest in of sexuality, Wycherley’s Te Country Wife of the danger and vulnerable position they Alithea can be seen from the very beginning presents us with three examples of what expose themselves to when they give in to the of the play, his violent reaction is not a testa- these two systems would call deviant gende- exigencies of either deployment. Tus, not ment of his interest in money, but the fearful red behaviours which would strip any male only does “the world of the play project(s) a reaction of a male who sees his claim to man- of his manly and honourable attributes. By clearly defned hierarchy of social prestige, liness threatened. Alithea’s rejection not only showing audiences the dangers and difcul- political power and intellectual sophistica- means a loss of social status, but of gender sta- ties all males could fnd in their path towards tion” [85] but a clear gender hierarchy in tus, since as a cuckolded husband-to-be, he is manhood, Wycherley is not just portraying which heterosexual, libertine practices are unmanned and lef out not just from positions men as a most vulnerable species, but he is exhorted as the norm, a Hobbesian society of power that married men traditionally occu- also proposing an alternative mode of being in which all males are acutely aware of the py, but also from the position he believes he which allows for a wider understanding of precarious balance upon which their grasp occupies in the group of libertines who value manhood: in this theatrical world, rakes be- on power rests, making it one of the most heterosexual relations above all else. come the ideal men, the heroes of a play that insightful and thought-provoking Comedy of manners of the British 17th century. ... strove to subvert the established gender roles that were struggling for power in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, advocating an identity Conclusion based on hedonism, Epicureanism, the Hob- References besian ideas of natural order, and a thirst for Bruegge, Andrew Vorder. ‘17c Social Hierarchy and th th freedom and personal development [83]. Te 17 and 18 centuries in Britain not only Character Interpretation in the Country Wife’. Inter- saw the collapse of the discourses of truth that national Journal of Music and Performing Arts 2, no. 2 had sustained power for millennia and the While Wycherley, amongst others, perform (2014). doi:10.15640/ijmpa.v2n2a3. emergence of a new system of power relations these alternative gender roles, the two deploy- that has survived well until our days, but, more ments at war during the Restoration engage in Butler, Judith. El género en disputa: El feminismo y la subversión de la identidad. Edición: Tra. Barcelona: Edi- interestingly, the emergence of a third discour- a war for permanence and dominance, a strug- ciones Paidós, 2007. se of truth, associated with the libertine lifestyle gle to impose their discourses of truth and their of the Carolean Court. Tese three coexisting gender divisions; this dialectical confrontation Gender Trouble. New York: Routledge, 2006. systems rely on clearly defned gender roles aims at encumbering their gender models as Precarious Life: Te Power of Mourning and Vio- to function properly and although their justi- ‘canon’, as the ‘normal’ and hegemonic way of lence. Reprint edition. London; New York: Verso fcation for their gender divisions seem to be being, in opposition to alternative modes of be- Books, 2006. quite diferent, all of them insist on advising ing which are not just seen as deviant, but as Undoing Gender. New York; London: Routledge, males that, once they had acquired their status efeminate, abnormal and anti-natural. As But- 2004. as ‘men’ (whichever the practices or attitudes ler explains, each system required from them) they were to Vida precaria: el poder del duelo y la violencia. Bar- remain vigilant, since manhood needed cons- ... the spectres of discontinuity and incohe- celona: Grupo Planeta (GBS), 2006. tant attention and assertion. Teir ‘manly’ sta- rence, themselves thinkable only in relation Corcoran, Kellye. ‘Cuckoldry as Performance, 1675- tus was, then, a question of publicly enacting to existing norms of continuity and coheren- 1715’. Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 52, no. 3 highly encoded gendered performances as per ce, are constantly prohibited and produced (2012): 543+.

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Erber, Ralph, and Erber Maureen Wang. Intimate Rela- Foucauldian Interpretation of Family Relations, Sexua- tionships: Issues, Teories, and Research, Second Edition. lity, and Resistance as Psychological Power. Lewiston: Notas Psychology Press, 2016. Edwin Mellen Press Ltd, 2014. [*] Departamento de Filología Inglesa, Francesa y Fletcher, Anthony. Gender, Sex and Subordination in Owen, Susan J. ‘Drink, Sex and Power in Restoration Alemana. Universidad de Oviedo, España. England, 1500-1800. New Haven: Yale University Press, Comedy’. In A Pleasing Sinne: Drink and Conviviality in 1999. Seventeenth-Century England, 127-42. DS Brewer, 2004. Contacto con la autora: [email protected]

Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: Te Birth of Perspectives on Restoration Drama. Manchester [1] Knights, ‘Restoration Comedy’, 122. the Prison. Translated by Alan Sheridan. London: Pen- University Press, 2002. [2] Lynch, Te Social Mode of Restoration Comedy, 3. guin, 1999. Panek, Jennifer. ‘“A Wittall Cannot Be a Cookold”: [3] Martinez-Garcia, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Cen- Te History of Sexuality, Volume I: An Introduction. Reading the Contented Cuckold in Early Modern tury English Comedies as a New Kind of Drama. London: Random House, 1990. English Drama and Culture’. Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies 1, no. 2 (2001): 66-92. doi:10.1353/ [4] Turner, op. cit., 98. Vigilar y Castigar. Edición: 1. Madrid: Biblioteca jem.2001.0020. Nueva, 2013. [5] Te History of Sexuality, Volume I, 106. Patmore, Coventry Kersey Dighton. Te Angel in the Foucault, Michel, Julia Varela, Fernando Álva- House. London: Macmillan, 1863. [6] Ib., 135. rez-Uría, and Pedro Arjona. Historia de la sexualidad. 1. La voluntad de saber. Translated by Ulises Guiñazú. Ruiz, José Santaemilia. Género como conficto discursi- [7] Martinez-Garcia, op. cit., 53. Edición: 1. Madrid: Siglo XXI de España Editores, 2006. vo: la sexualización del lenguaje de los personajes cómi- cos. Universitat de València, 2000. [8] Fletcher, Gender, Sex and Subordination in England, Foyster, Elizabeth A. Manhood in Early Modern 1500-1800, xvii. England: Honour, Sex and Marriage. London: Longman Shepard, Alexandra. Meanings of Manhood in Ear- Publishing Group, 1999. ly Modern England. Oxford: Oxford University Press, [9] Martinez-Garcia, op. cit., 118. 2006. Fujimura, Tomas Hikaru. Te Restoration Comedy of [10] Ib., 135. Wit. Barnes & Noble, 1968. Thompson, Peggy. Coyness and Crime in Restoration [11] Gender, Sex and Subordination in England, 1500- Comedy: Women’s Desire, Deception, and Agency. Le- 1800, xix. Gollapudi, Aparna. Moral Reform in Comedy and Cul- xington Books, 2012. ture, 1696-1747. Burlington: Ashgate Publishing, 2013. [12] Kuersten, Women and the Law, 16. Toulalan, Sarah. Imagining Sex: Pornography and Kachur, Barbara A. Etherege and Wycherley. Palgrave Bodies in Seventeenth-Century England. OUP Oxford, [13] Patmore, Te Angel in the House. Macmillan, 2004. 2007. [14] Wade, Intellectual Origins of the French Enlighten- Kahn, Coppelia. Man’s Estate: Masculine Identity in Turner, David M. Fashioning Adultery: Gender, Sex ment, 294. Shakespeare. Berkeley: University of California Press, and Civility in England, 1660-1740. 1st ed. Cambridge 1981. University Press, 2007. [15] Foucault, Te History of Sexuality, Volume I, 105.

Kaufman, Anthony. ‘Wycherley’s Te Country Wife Vance, John A. William Wycherley and the Comedy of [16] Butler, Gender Trouble, xv. and the Don Juan Character’. Eighteenth-Century Stu- Fear. University of Delaware Press, 2000. dies 9, no. 2 (1975): 216-31. doi:10.2307/2737598. [17] Ib., 33. Velissariou, Aspasia. ‘Patriarchal Tactics of Control Knights, L. C. ‘“Restoration Comedy: Te Reality and and Female Desire in Wycherley’s Te Gentleman Dan- [18] Ib., 23. the Myth” by L.C. Knights, Scrutiny, September 1937’. cing-Master and Te Country Wife’. Texas Studies in Li- [19] Foyster, Manhood in Early Modern England, 55. Scrutiny, no. 17 (1937): 122-43. terature and Language 37, no. 2 (1 July 1995): 115-126. [20] Undoing Gender, 1. Krueger, Misty. ‘“Rouse up Your Self, and Bear You Wade, Ira O. Intellectual Origins of the French Enligh- like a Man”: Masculine Anxiety and the Body in Dela- tenment. Princeton University Press, 2015. [21] Martinez-Garcia, op. cit., 399; Foucault, Discipline riviere Manley’s “Te Royal Mischief”’. Restoration and and Punish, 200. 18th Century Teatre Research 21, no. 2 (2006): 40-58. Wycherley, William. Te Country Wife. University of Nebraska Press, 1965. [22] Te History of Sexuality, Volume I, 96. Kuersten, Ashlyn K. Women and the Law: Leaders, Ca- ses, and Documents. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2003. Te Country Wife. London: A&C Black, 2014. [23] Bruegge, ‘17c Social Hierarchy and Character Interpretation in the Country Wife’, 42. Lynch, Kathleen M. Te Social Mode of Restoration Co- medy. Biblo-Moser, 1998. [24] Fujimura, Te Restoration Comedy of Wit. Martinez-García, Laura. Seventeenth and Eighteenth [25] Turner, op. cit., 101. Century English Comedies as a New Kind of Drama: A

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[26] ‘Rouse up Your Self, and Bear You like a Man’, 41. [55] Owen, ‘Drink, Sex and Power in Restoration Comedy’, 135. [27] Kahn, Man’s Estate, 132. [56] Kaufman, ‘Wycherley’s Te Country Wife and the [28] Toulalan, Imagining Sex, 168. Don Juan Character’, 226.

[29] Ib. [57] Ib., 227.

[30] Corcoran, ‘Cuckoldry as Performance, 1675-1715’, [58] Wycherley, op. cit., 1965, xiii. 544. [59] Wycherley, op. cit., 2014, 11. [31] Butler, Precarious Life, 20. [60] Ib., 53. [32] Turner, op. cit., 99. [61] Etherege and Wycherley, 152. [33] Panek, ‘“A Wittall Cannot Be a Cookold”’, 66. [62] Bruegge, op. cit., 45. [34] Turner, op. cit., 19. [63] Wycherley, op. cit., 2014, 12. [35] Ib., 10. [64] Kachur, Etherege and Wycherley, 153. [36] Foyster, op. cit., 130. [65] Wycherley, op. cit., 2014, 53. [37] Ib., 65. [66] Foyster, op. cit., 40. [38] Ib., 130. [67] Meanings of Manhood in Early Modern England, [39] Erber and Erber, Intimate Relationships, 192. 113.

[40] Shepard, Meanings of Manhood in Early Modern [68] Foyster, op. cit., 126. England, 9. [69] Vance, William Wycherley and the Comedy of Fear, [41] Gollapudi, Moral Reform in Comedy and Culture, 99. 1696–1747, 137. [70] Wycherley, op. cit., 2014, 72-73. [42] Ib., 140. [71] Ib., 64-65. [43] Ruiz, Género como conficto discursivo, 78. [72] Owen, Perspectives on Restoration Drama, 50. [44] Shepard, Meanings of Manhood in Early Modern England, 73. [73] Kaufman, op. cit., 226.

[45] Ib. [74] Wycherley, op. cit., 2014, 39.

[46] Fletcher, op. cit., 112. [75] Ib., 64-65.

[47] Owen, Perspectives on Restoration Drama, 50. [76] Ib., 34, 36, 41.

[48] Wycherley, Te Country Wife, 2014, 24. [77] Ib., 19-21.

[49] Velissariou, ‘Patriarchal Tactics of Control and [78] Ib., 65. Female Desire in Wycherley’s Te Gentleman Dan- [79] Vance, op. cit., 121. cing-Master and Te Country Wife’, 118. [80] Foyster, op. cit., 129. [50] Fletcher, op. cit., 101. [81] Kachur, op. cit., 162. [51] Turner, op. cit., 87. [82] Bruegge, op. cit., 48. [52] Corcoran, op. cit., 544. [83] Martinez-Garcia, op. cit., 256. [53] Ib., 543. [84] Gender Trouble, 23. [54] Tompson, Coyness and Crime in Restoration Comedy, 32. [85] Bruegge, op. cit., 52.