RESTORATION COMEDY

With the re-establishment of monarchy in England, in 1660, the theatres were reopened and there was an upsurge of dramatic activity. One of the characteristic genres of the period was Restoration comedy, the high point of the comedy of manners. Its predominant tone was witty, cynical and amoral. The plays were mainly in prose, with passages of verse for the most romantic moments; the plots were complex, characterized by intrigues, and were usually double or even triple. Wit and sparkle, repartee, and discussions of marital behaviour provide much of the interest, reflecting the fashionable manners of the day. Standard characters include fops, bawds, country squires and promiscuous widows. Respectable citizens avoided the theatres, which they saw as a source of corruption, and the playwrights came under heavy attack for frivolity, blasphemy and immorality, by such critics as Jeremy Collier.

JOHN DRYDEN: Dryden's major plays include-comedies: The Wild Gallant, Secret Love, The Assignation, or Love in a Nunnery, etc, tragi-comedies: The Rival Ladies, The Spanish Fryer, Love Triumphant, tragedies: The Indian Emperor, Tyrannick Love, or Royal Martyr, The Conquest of Granada, Aurangezebe, All of Love or the World Well Lost etc. He also made a new version of Troilus and Cressida.

Except All for Love, Dryden's plays are no true part of his mind, and he knew it. His statement that he had written no others to please himself hits the lack of sincerity of these plays, which is the worst of their many faults. Dryden wrote down to a debauched and frivolous audience, which looked in tragedy, not for human action or genuine passion, but for the rhetorical discussion of politics and love; while in comedy, no imbroglio could satisfy it unless covered with the slime of indecency.

The tragedies have many speeches of powerful rhetoric. Another strong point in them is the construction of the plot. The actions, however, are often monstrous and revolting and the events are improbable in themselves. In Shakespeare's world of imagination, these improbabilities are at home, but in Dryden's works imagination is supplanted by reason, with the result that the events and their settings are hopelessly at variance.

WILLIAM WYCHERLEY: Wycherley's major plays are Love in a Wood, The Gentleman Dancing - Master, The Country Wife and The Plain Dealer. Wycherley must not be classed with Etherege and Sidley as a mere depicter of the merry life of the time without comment or criticism. In The Country Wife, for instance, there are sardonic comparisons and a moral standard that various actions and ideas are held up for reprobation or contempt. In The Plain Dealer these traits are accentuated with energy almost fierce in its intensity. It may however be said of Wycherley that he portrays too warmly the vice that he castigates. Though not brilliant and refined as Etherege's polished dialogue, the speech of his characters is direct, terse and far more life-like. Wycherley's satire is of characters rather than abstractions. He had a keen sense of characterization as well.

THOMAS OTWAY: Otway appears to have been weak, affectionate, impulsive and utterly lacking in moral courage. His life was embittered by an unrequited passion for the tragedienne Mrs. Barry, his letters to whom show a great depth of feeling. His plays include The Orphan, The Atheist and Venice Preserv'd, of which the last is his masterpiece. His plays are full of tenderness. In expression he is simple, terse and almost without ornament.

NATHANIEL LEE: Lee was of a wild, impetuous nature with an underlying strain of madness. His plays are typically heroic, written for the stage, and full of show and rhetoric. The extravagance of metaphor in many of his speeches often passes the bounds of sense and reason. Nevertheless, that his plays were immensely effective on the stage is amply proven by theatrical history.

MRS. APHRA BEHN: Mrs. Behn's plays include The Rover, Sir Patient-Fancy, The City Heiress, etc - all comedies. Her novels are The Fair Jilt, Oroonoko, The History of The Nun, etc. She had also written poetry and translations from French. Mrs. Behn was the first professional woman writer in England. Her comedies have acquired a reputation for gross indelicacy, but are no worse in that respect than the drama of her contemporaries. Her novels have always been more popular than her plays. Her masterpiece is Oroonoko or The Royal Slave. Much of her work is marred by the haste with which she wrote.

WILLIAM CONGREVE: Congreve's major comedies are The Old Bachelor, The Double Dealer, Love for Love, and The Way of the World. He also wrote one tragedy - The Mourning Bride. In 1698 Jeremy Collier published his Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage. Congreve felt the blow deeply. (His answer, Amendments of Mr. Collier's False and Imperfect Citations, contains much excellent reasoning against Collier's petulance) Collier attacked Dryden, Wycherley, Congreve, Vanbrugh, D'Urfey and Otway, complaining particularly of indecency in stage dialogue and mockery of the clergy. The work created a great impact, Congreve and D'Urfey were prosecuted and Betterton and Mrs. Bracegirdle (actors) were fined. Although Restoration Comedy continued to flourish in the works of Congreve, Vanbrugh and Farquhar, its days were numbered.

Congreve was a dramatist of genius. In his plays there are many passages of deep feeling; the action never drags, the speeches are full of life. The Way of the World glitters with a frozen brilliance It was the fault of Congreve's age perhaps that he could not break from the restrictions of artificial comedy into broader scenes of life and a wider outlook which we can see in Vanbrugh, inferior as he is in wit and technique. However Congreve was, without doubt, the wittiest of Restoration playwrights.

SIR JOHN VANBRUGH: Vanbrugh’s comedies are characterized by a breadth of humour and a raciness of treatment. The Relapse, or Virtue in Danger, The Provok’d Wife, The Confederacy etc. are his major works. Vanbrugh had vigor, an audacity and often a dashing disregard for probability which carried him triumphantly through situations that in another writer might well provoke censure. Though in The Relapse the Dramatist is extremely careless of technique; it still is a masterly comedy.

GEORGE FARQUHAR: Farquhar was extraordinarily diffident and this may have greatly obscured his natural talents. His comedies – Love in a Bottle, The Constant Couple, etc – show recklessness and easy morals, tempered with careless good nature. Unlike other Restoration dramatists, he occasionally had a conscience and decorum.

GEORGE ETHEREGE: Etherege’s witty, licentious comedies include The Comical Revenge; or, Love in a Tub (1664) and She Wou’d If She Cou’d (1668). These set the tone of the Restoration comedy of manners that Congreve was to continue. His last play, The Man of Mode (1676), is famous for its creation of the great fop, Sir Fopling Flutter.

THOMAS SHADWELL: Shadwell’s plays, written in the tradition of Jonson’s comedy of humours, are distinguished for their realistic pictures of London life and for their frank and witty dialogue. They include The Sullen Lovers (1668), Epsom Wells (1672), and The Squire of Alsatia (1688). His devotion to Jonson instigated his feud with Dryden, whom he succeeded as poet laureate in 1689. Shadwell attacked Dryden in The Medal of John Bayes (1682) and was himself lampooned in Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel and Mac Flecknoe.