The Country Wife

by

William Wycherley

Gallant or Rake Term Analysis

A gallant is a term used to describe a man who is chivalric, attentive, or courteous to women. In the Restoration, it was also used to describe a fashionable man who escorts women or a man who is very concerned with his reputation and appearance. The term is similar to that of the “rake”: a fashionable playboy, libertine, or roguish character, which was also a popular stock character in Restoration drama. The term gallant has links with medieval romance, in which knights would gallantly enter the service of ladies who were not their wives and perform daring feats in their honor. In The Country Wife, this definition of the term is ironic. Margery and the “honorable” ladies refer to Horner as their “gallant,” because he is their lover and not their husband and because he ruins his own reputation to protect their “honor.” However, Horner is the opposite of an honorable, or gallant, character and is closer to the roguish “rake” or debauched cheat of Restoration theatre. Horner is also a gallant in that he is a fashionable libertine who mingles with the upper classes and seems to be a member of the gentry in Restoration society.

Gallant or Rake Quotes in The Country Wife

The The Country Wife quotes below are all either spoken by Gallant or Rake or refer to Gallant or Rake. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Reputation, Appearance, and Hypocrisy  Theme Icon
).
Act 2 Quotes

Harcourt: Truly, madam, I never was an enemy to marriage till now, because marriage was never an enemy to me before.

Alithea: But why, sir, is marriage an enemy to you now? Because it robs you of your friend here? For you look upon a friend married as one gone into a monastery, that is dead to the world.

Related Characters: Alithea (speaker), Harcourt (speaker), Sparkish
Page Number: 33
Explanation and Analysis:

Lady Fidget: Well, that’s spoken again like a man of honor; all men of honor desire to come to the test. But, indeed, generally you men report such things of yourselves, one does not know how or whom to believe; and it is come to that pass we dare not take your words, no more than your tailor's, without some staid servant of yours be bound with you. But I have so strong a faith in your honor, dear, dear, noble sir, that I’d forfeit mine for yours at any time, dear sir.

Horner: No, madam, you should not need to forfeit it for me; I have given you security already to save you harmless, my late reputation being so well known in the world, madam.

Related Characters: Harry Horner (speaker), Lady Fidget (speaker)
Page Number: 50
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 3, Scene 2 Quotes

Margery Pinchwife: I don't know where to put this here, dear bud. You shall eat it. Nay, you shall have part of the fine gentleman’s good things, or treat, as you call it, when we come home.

Pinchwife: Indeed, I deserve it, since I furnished the best part of it. (Strikes away the orange.)

The gallant treats, presents, and gives the ball; But ’tis the absent cuckold, pays for all.

Related Characters: Margery Pinchwife (speaker), Pinchwife (speaker), Harry Horner
Page Number: 83
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 4, Scene 3 Quotes

But Harry, what, have I a rival in my wife already? But with all my heart, lord he may be of use to me hereafter! For though my hunger is now my sauce, and I can fall on heartily without, but the time will come when a rival will be as good sauce for a married man to a wife as an orange to veal.

Related Characters: Sparkish (speaker), Alithea
Page Number: 117
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 4, Scene 4 Quotes

Well, 'tis e'en so, I have got the London disease they call love; I am sick of my husband, and for my gallant. I have heard this distemper called a fever, but methinks ’tis liker an ague, for when I think of my husband, I tremble and am in a cold sweat, and have inclinations to vomit, but when I think of my gallant, dear Mr. Horner, my hot fit comes and I am all in a fever, indeed, and as in other fevers my own chamber is tedious to me, and I would fain be removed to his, and then methinks I should be well.

Related Characters: Margery Pinchwife (speaker), Harry Horner, Pinchwife
Page Number: 119
Explanation and Analysis:
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