For Xmas this year I got a copy of the 1928 book What to Read in English Literature by Jack R. Crawford. Like a smart tour guide, Crawford offers advice on which authors and books are worth seeking out. Many names on his list are new to me. In particular, my eye was soon caught (for reasons those who know me will have no trouble identifying) by William Wycherly. Crawford observes:

William Wycherley (1640?-1716) brought comedy to the lowest point of degradation that the English stage has witnessed. It is true that he had predecessors in this art in Dryden and Mrs. Aphra Behn, but Wycherley's work is worse because it is written with skill and remarkable literary power. He is a great writer, although he chose to write filth.

Not only does The Country Wife (a comedy that the squeamish reader will not venture to read aloud in the family circle) reflect the intense enjoyment of the followers of Charles II in the only joke many of them seem to have appreciated, but it also relates dramatically the quest for the only object that appears to have been worth a Restoration gentleman's efforts. Nevertheless, the comedy has such vigour and power, such wit of epigram and is such a total negation of all decency that it succeeds with a reader by its sheer force and skill. It is a masterpiece of the pornographic, (1675).

Wow! Both filth and comedy—what's not to like? But alas, standards have changed; The Country Wife turns out to be rather milder to modern eyes than perhaps it seemed a century or more ago ...

(see [1] for discussion, and [2] or other sources for the full text) - ^z - 2010-01-04