Question

Rule a wife and have a wife

Accepted Answer

Rule a Wife and Have a Wife is a late Jacobean stage comedy written by John Fletcher. It was first performed in 1624 and first published in 1640. It is a comedy with intrigue that tells the story of two couples that get married with false pretenses.

A programme printed on silk for a performance of Rule a Wife and Have a Wife in Jersey on 20 December 1809
The play was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, on 19 October 1624. It was performed by the King's Men, who performed it at Court twice in that season. The 1640 quarto was printed at Oxford by Leonard Lichfield, the printer to the University of Oxford. It was later reprinted in the second Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1679. It was revived in the Restoration era in an adaptation, like many of Fletcher's plays; the revised version was printed in 1697 and repeatedly thereafter, and proved to be among the dramatist's most popular works.

External evidence, including Herbert's entry in his records and the 1640 quarto, assigns the play to Fletcher alone. The play's internal evidence of style and textual preferences confirms Fletcher's solo authorship: "Fletcher's sole responsibility for it has never been questioned." It is the last play he wrote on his own with no co-author.

The play's title refers to an old saying ("Every man can rule a shrew but he that has her"), which suggests that men who offer advice have such easy expertise — but if you actually have such a wife, it's not that easy.

Wife Rule Performed Printed Play Comedy Performance Fletcher