The Country Wife

William Wycherley's The Country Wife both surprised and shocked me, considering the time in which this play was written. I always thought that sex jokes and promiscuity were frowned upon and that anything sexual was kept hush hush. However, it appears that keeping mum on such a topic was not important. However to move on to one of the scenes that I cannot get out of my head is Pinchwife's conversation with Mrs. Pinchwife:

Pinch. Come, begin:—“Sir”—
[Dictates.
Mrs. Pinch. Shan’t I say, “Dear Sir?”—You know one says always something more than bare “Sir."
Pinch. Write as I bid you, or I will write whore with this penknife in your face.
Mrs. Pinch. Nay, good bud—“Sir”—
[Writes.
Pinch. “Though I suffered last night your nauseous, loathed kisses and embraces”—Write!
Mrs. Pinch. Nay, why should I say so? You know I told you he had a sweet breath.
Pinch. Write!
Mrs. Pinch. Let me but put out “loathed.”
Pinch. Write, I say!
Mrs. Pinch. Well then.
[Writes.
Pinch. Let’s see, what have you writ?—[Takes the paper and reads.] “Though I suffered last night your kisses and embraces”—Thou impudent creature! where is “nauseous” and “loathed?”
Mrs. Pinch. I can’t abide to write such filthy words.
Pinch. Once more write as I’d have you, and question it not, or I will spoil thy writing with this. I will stab out those eyes that cause my mischief.
[Holds up the penknife.
Mrs. Pinch. O Lord! I will. (IV.ii.92–114)

However this misfires, like many of Pinchwife’s attempts and as a result Mrs Pinchwife sends Horner a fan letter.

I just wanted to add that scene into my blog just because, as I had already said, it is the one scenes that jumps out at me when I reflect on the play. Although this play was an okay read, it was not as enjoyable as Marriage A La Mode. But this play it was definitly way ahead of it's time considering the blunt sexual jokes and language would have definitly been frowned down upon, or at least that is what I though. I wonder if Wycherley had any trouble performace wise: would he even be allowed to present such a play at that time? How would the audience have reacted?
I considered the play to be very sexual so I cannot imagine what people from the 18C thought of it.