The Country Wife

In a brief Prologue, the actor playing Harry Horner introduces the play with a message from the playwright. He tells the audience that the playwright expects the audience to be offended by the play but “his play shan’t ask your leave to live” (37). In Act I, Horner enters with the Quack, a doctor, asking if the Quack has, as Horner instructed, spread the word that Horner has become impotent from the treatment of a venereal disease. The Quack reassures him that he has done so, and Horner’s recent trip to France makes the story more believable. The Quack muses, “Well, I’ have been hired by young gallants to belie ’em t’other way, but you are the first would be thought a man unfit for women” (39). Horner asserts that he is trying a new tactic for gaining the trust of women and their husbands, and “the wisest lawyer never discovers the merits of his cause till the trial” (39). A boy announces the arrival of Sir Jaspar, Lady Fidget (his wife), and Mrs. Dainty Fidget (his sister). In an aside, Jaspar notes Horner’s seeming disinterest in the women but tests him by suggesting that Horner kiss his wife hello.