SOURCE: Cohen, Derek. “The Country Wife and Social Danger.” Restoration and 18th Century Theatre Research 10, no. 1 (summer 1995): 1-14.

In the essay below, Cohen examines the tension and energy inherent in the social situation presented in the play The Country Wife.

The Country Wife is a play which is carried by the energy of constant present danger. The threat of social collapse, which a single simple exposure implies, is omnipresent. What if, we are constantly thinking, the ruse is exposed as a ruse? What consequences would ensue from such exposure? Like many another farce, the results of exposure would produce tragedy in one or many forms. Those characters who have carefully and, in one or two cases, almost deliberately, insulated themselves from the knowledge of the truth surrounding Horner and their wives, would be compelled by the full force of public humiliation to depths and degrees of self knowledge...