The Country Wife

Pinchwife and Margery enter at the beginning of Scene One. Pinchwife insists that she finish the letter. Margery does so, and Pinchwife is shocked to discover that she is writing the letter at the request of Alithea, who wants to escape her marriage to Sparkish. Margery tells her husband that Alithea asked her to write it because if Horner doesn’t help her escape, it won’t be in her handwriting, so she can claim that it isn’t her letter. Pinchwife wants to speak to Alithea, and Margery panics and asks him to let her confer with Alithea first. Pinchwife assumes that Alithea doesn’t want to get married because Horner wants to marry her and decides to agree: “I’d rather give him my sister than lend him my wife” (157). Margery claims that Alithea won’t speak to her brother. Pinchwife tells her to tell Alithea that if she wants to marry Horner, he will allow it. Margery goes to speak to Alithea and returns, claiming that Alithea wants Pinchwife to take her to Horner’s home so that she can talk to him first. Also, he must blow out the candle so that it will be dark, and she insists on wearing a mask.