The City Wit

The City Wit, or the Woman Wears the Breeches is a Caroline era stage play, written by Richard Brome. It is sometimes classed among his best works, and draws upon the rich tradition of earlier city comedies for many of its elements. The City Wit shows the same tendency that Brome displays in other works, like The Weeding of Covent Garden and The Sparagus Garden, of exploiting the actual locations of London for the settings of his scenes. In Act III, scene i, Crack specifically compares the play's three charlatan characters, Master Crasy, himself, and Mistress Tryman, to Subtle, Face, and Doll in The Alchemist. In turn, Brome's derivative play spawned a derivation of its own: Restoration playwright George Powell's comedy A Very Good Wife, staged and printed in 1693, borrowed heavily from The Citywit and from Brome’s The Court Beggar. It was first published in the Five New Plays of 1653, the collection of Brome works published by Humphrey Moseley, Richard Marriot, and Thomas Dring.