The Country Wife

At the start of Act II, Pinchwife spies on his wife, Mrs. Margery Pinchwife, as she talks with his sister, Alithea. Margery doesn’t understand why Pinchwife becomes so upset when she wants to dress up or walk around town. Alithea explains that Pinchwife is jealous and worried that she will find another man. Margery wonders how she is supposed to fall for another man when she isn’t allowed to meet any. Pinchwife enters and reprimands his befuddled wife and makes her cry. Then he yells at his sister for “keep[ing] the men of scandalous reputations company” (61) and attempting to turn his wife into “a jill-flirt, a gadder, a magpie, and—to say all—a mere notorious town woman” (59) like herself. Alithea protests that her reputation is untarnished. Margery interjects and defends Alithea, claiming that she refuses to tell her anything about the city, no matter how much Margery asks. He chides his wife for liking the actors in the play but becomes calmer when she assures him that she does not love them. Pinchwife insists that to love him, she must hate London. He tells her that they will not go to any more plays, although Margery tells him that this only makes her want to go.