"We murder poets for you on our stage": Lee's and Garrick's adaptations of "The Country Wife" for eighteenth-century audiences

Abstract

The prologue to Garrick’s version of Wycherley’s The Country Wife, spoken by Mr. Hart in the role of Moody (Pinchwife) gives a fair picture of the main reason why plays were so often revised and updated during the eighteenth century, a phenomenon that would go unrivalled at any other period in the history of British Drama. The reason for it lies mainly in the long lasting theatrical monopoly, that favoured the repeated staging of stock plays whose dramatic appeal was beyond doubt, and which, moreover, avoided the costs involved in the performance of a new play, whose success was uncertain. Theatre managers therefore tended to be rather conservative and only accepted scripts of new plays that were very likely to prove successful. The rate of new plays was, consequently, scarce as compared with that of other periods, whereas the number of revised versions of classical plays kept a steady presence on stage 2 . Although the term “classical” could only be applied to widely acknowledged playwrights of the past, mainly Shakespeare and some of his contemporaries, it would soon include some successful Restoration playwrights, such as W. Wycherley, author of the most emblematic comedy of wit: The Country Wife. Even though critics have widely differed as to the meaning of this play 3