William Wycherley

The Gentleman Dancing Master William Wycherley

Mr. James Formal, who made his living in trade with the Spanish and who admired their pride and gallantry to the point of affecting their manners, had confined his fourteen-year-old daughter Hippolita, recently returned from boarding school, to the house for a period of a year. During his absence his sister, the widow Caution, acted the part of a duenna to see that Hippolita's virtue was protected in the Spanish manner. In spite of the soured old woman's puritanical wishes-she was adept at sensing sin since it was always on her mind-from her balcony the young girl carried on a flirtation with a young gentleman who frequented a neighboring inn. Several days before Mr. Formal was due to return, Mr. Paris, his nephew and a suitor for the hand of Hippolita, arrived in London after a brief stay in France which had made of him a slavish imitator of French dress, manners, and idiom without in the least understanding his own ridiculousness. Since only he had access to the young lady's presence, she made of him a willing dupe in order to make the acquaintance of the tall, handsome Gerrard. As a jest, M. de Paris-as the silly coxcomb called himself-challenged Gerrard to contrive a meeting with the young lady whom he had seen only from a distance but of whom he was enamored.