A drive circuit for driving a wire dot print head including a driving coil (5), a lever (6) for causing a print wire (7) to strike a platen (16) under the action of the driving coil, a spring member (12) for urging the lever (6) to an initial position, and a damper member (13) for absorbing kinetic energy of the lever when it returns to the initial position, comprises a circuit (30, 32, 40, 50) for causing current to flow through the driving coil (5) when the lever (6) is returning to the initial position after having struck the platen (16) in the case where the temperature of the print head is outside a set temperature range. Thus, in operation, a braking force is applied to the lever (6) as it returns to the initial position.