Refinement meets burlesque in Restoration comedy. In this scene from George Etherege's Love in a Tub, musicians and well-bred ladies surround a man who is wearing a tub because he has lost his pants.

Restoration comedy is the name given to English comedies written and performed in the Restoration period from 1660 to 1710. After public stage performances had been banned for 18 years by the Puritan regime, the re-opening of the theatres in 1660 signalled a rebirth of English drama. Restoration comedy is famous (or notorious) for its sexual explicitness, a quality encouraged by Charles II (1660–1685) personally and by the rakish aristocratic ethos of his court. The socially diverse audiences included both aristocrats, their servants and hangers-on, and a substantial middle-class segment. These playgoers were attracted to the comedies by up-to-the-minute topical writing, by crowded and bustling plots, by the introduction of the first professional actresses, and by the rise of the first celebrity actors. This period saw the first professional woman playwright, Aphra Behn. Scene from George Etherege, Love in a Tub. ... Sir George Etherege (1635? - c. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... The word comedy has a classical meaning (comical theatre) and a popular one (the use of humor with an intent to provoke laughter in general). ... King Charles II, the first monarch to rule after the English Restoration. ... For the record label, see Puritan Records. ... Serge Sudeikins poster for the Bat Theatre (1922). ... Bold textBold textBold textBold textDrama was introduced to England from Europe by the Romans and auditoriums were constructed across the country for this purpose. ... This article is about sexual practices (i. ... Charles II (29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685) was the King of England, Scotland, and Ireland. ... The Tavern Scene from A Rakes Progress by William Hogarth. ... Forms of government Part of the Politics series Politics Portal This box:      The term aristocracy refers to a form of government where power is held by a small number of individuals from an elite or from noble families. ... Ethos (ἦθος) (plurals: ethe, ethea) is a Greek word originally meaning the place of living that can be translated into English in different ways. ... A royal or noble court, as an instrument of government broader than a court of justice, comprises an extended household centered on a patron whose rule may govern law or be governed by it. ... Look up plot in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Actors in period costume sharing a joke whilst waiting between takes during location filming. ... For other uses, see Celebrity (disambiguation). ... Actors in period costume sharing a joke whilst waiting between takes during location filming. ... A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or drama. ... A sketch of Aphra Behn by George Scharf from a portrait believed to be lost. ...

Theatre companies

Original patent companies, 1660–82

The sumptuously decorated Dorset Gardens playhouse in 1673, with one of the sets for Elkannah Settle's The Empress of Morocco. The apron stage at the front which allowed intimate audience contact is not visible in the picture (the artist is standing on it).

Charles II was an active and interested patron of the drama. Soon after his restoration, in 1660, he granted exclusive play-staging rights, so-called Royal patents, to the King's Company and the Duke's Company, led by two middle-aged Caroline playwrights, Thomas Killigrew and William Davenant. The patentees scrambled for performance rights to the previous generation's Jacobean and Caroline plays, which were the first necessity for economic survival before any new plays existed. Their next priority was to build new, splendid patent theatres in Drury Lane and Dorset Gardens, respectively. Striving to outdo each other in magnificence, Killigrew and Davenant ended up with quite similar theatres, both designed by Christopher Wren, both optimally provided for music and dancing, and both fitted with moveable scenery and elaborate machines for thunder, lightning, and waves. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1060x1579, 1456 KB)The stage of Dorset Garden Theatre set for Elkannah Settles The Empress of Morocco in 1673. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1060x1579, 1456 KB)The stage of Dorset Garden Theatre set for Elkannah Settles The Empress of Morocco in 1673. ... Elkanah Settle (January 1, 1648 - February 12, 1724), was an English poet and playwright. ... A production of Godspell performed on a 3/4 thust stage In theater, a thrust stage (also known as a platform stage or open stage [1]) is one that extends into the audience on three sides and is connected to the backstage area by its up stage end. ... Letters Patent by Queen Victoria creating the office of Governor-General of Australia Letters patent are a type of legal instrument in the form of an open letter issued by a monarch or government granting an office, a right, monopoly, title, or status to someone or some entity such as... The Kings Company was one of two enterprises granted the rights to mount theatrical productions in London at the start of the English Restoration. ... Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, King of Scotland and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. ... Thomas Killigrew (1612 - March 19, 1683), was an English dramatist. ... William Davenant Sir William Davenant (February 28, 1606 - April 7, 1668), also spelled DAvenant, was an English poet and playwright. ... James Stuart (19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scots as James VI, and King of England and King of Ireland as James I. He ruled in Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567, when he was only one year old. ... The patent theatres were the theatres that were licenced to perform spoken drama after the English Restoration of Charles II in 1660. ... Drury Lane is a street in the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. ... The Dorset Garden Theatre, on the Thames. ... Sir Christopher Wren, (20 October 1632–25 February 1723) was a 17th century English designer, astronomer, geometrician, and the greatest English architect of his time. ...

The audience of the early Restoration period was not exclusively courtly, as has sometimes been supposed, but it was quite small and could barely support two companies. There was no untapped reserve of occasional playgoers. Ten consecutive performances constituted a smash hit. This closed system forced playwrights to be extremely responsive to popular taste. Fashions in the drama would change almost week by week rather than season by season, as each company responded to the offerings of the other, and new plays were urgently sought. The King's Company and the Duke's Company vied with one another for audience favour, for popular actors, and for new plays, and in this hectic climate the new genres of heroic drama, pathetic drama, and Restoration comedy were born and flourished. A royal or noble court, as an instrument of government broader than a court of justice, comprises an extended household centered on a patron whose rule may govern law or be governed by it. ... Look up genre in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... John Dryden, who formulated and wrote the heroic drama in the 1670s. ... The term she-tragedy refers to a popular vogue in the late 17th and early 18th centuries for tragic plays focused on the sufferings of an innocent and virtuous woman. ...

United Company, 1682–95

Both the quantity and quality of the drama suffered when in 1682 the more successful Duke's Company ate the struggling King's Company, and the amalgamated United Company was formed. The production of new plays dropped off sharply in the 1680s, affected by both the monopoly and the political situation (see Decline of comedy below). The influence and the incomes of the actors dropped, too. In the late 80s, predatory investors ("Adventurers") converged on the United Company, while management was taken over by the lawyer Christopher Rich. Rich attempted to finance a tangle of "farmed" shares and sleeping partners by slashing salaries and, dangerously, by abolishing the traditional perks of senior performers, who were stars with the clout to fight back. Refinement meets burlesque in Restoration comedy. ... Christopher Rich (1657—1714) was a lawyer and theatrical manager in London in the late 17th and early 18th century, and the father of the important impresario John Rich. ...

War of the theatres, 1695–1700

The company owners, wrote the young United Company employee Colley Cibber, "who had made a monopoly of the stage, and consequently presum'd they might impose what conditions they pleased upon their people, did not consider that they were all this while endeavouring to enslave a set of actors whom the public were inclined to support." Performers like the legendary Thomas Betterton, the tragedienne Elizabeth Barry, and the rising young comedienne Anne Bracegirdle had the audience on their side and, in the confidence of this, they walked out. Colley Cibber, actor, playwright, Poet Laureate, first British actor-manager, and head Dunce of Alexander Popes Dunciad. ... Thomas Betterton (c. ... Elizabeth Barry changed like Nature which she represents, from Passion to Passion, from Extream to Extream, with piercing Force and with easy Grace. Elizabeth Barry (1658–November 7, 1713) was an English actress. ... Anne Bracegirdle, (c. ...

The actors gained a Royal "licence to perform", thus bypassing Rich's ownership of both the original Duke's and King's Company patents from 1660, and formed their own cooperative company. This unique venture was set up with detailed rules for avoiding arbitrary managerial authority, regulating the ten actors' shares, the conditions of salaried employees, and the sickness and retirement benefits of both categories. The cooperative had the good luck to open in 1695 with the première of William Congreve's famous Love For Love and the skill to make it a huge box-office success. William Congreve (January 24, 1670 – January 19, 1729) was an English playwright and poet. ...

London again had two competing companies. Their dash to attract audiences briefly revitalized Restoration drama, but also set it on a fatal downhill slope to the lowest common denominator of public taste. Rich's company notoriously offered Bartholomew Fair-type attractions — high kickers, jugglers, ropedancers, performing animals — while the cooperating actors, even as they appealed to snobbery by setting themselves up as the only legitimate theatre company in London, were not above retaliating with "prologues recited by boys of five, and epilogues declaimed by ladies on horseback" (Dobrée, xxi). The demand for new plays stimulated William Congreve and John Vanbrugh into writing some of their best comedies, but also gave birth to the new genre of sentimental comedy, which was soon to replace Restoration comedy in the public favour. Bartholomew Fair is a play in five acts by Ben Jonson. ... Sir John Vanbrugh in Godfrey Knellers Kit-cat portrait, considered one of Knellers finest portraits. ...

Actors

First actresses

Nell Gwynn was one of the first actresses and the mistress of Charles II.

Restoration comedy was strongly influenced by the introduction of the first professional actresses. Before the closing of the theatres, all female roles had been played by boys, and the predominantly male audiences of the 1660s and 1670s were both curious, censorious, and delighted at the novelty of seeing real women engage in risqué repartee and take part in physical seduction scenes. Samuel Pepys refers many times in his famous diary to visiting the playhouse in order to watch or re-watch the performance of some particular actress, and to how much he enjoys these experiences. Nell Gwyn by Peter Lely. ... Nell Gwyn by Peter Lely. ... Nell Gwyn (or Gwynn or Gwynne), (February 1650 - 14 November 1687), the most famous of the many mistresses of King Charles II, was called pretty, witty Nell by Samuel Pepys. ... Samuel Pepys, FRS (23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament, who is now most famous for his diary. ...

Daringly suggestive comedy scenes involving women became especially common, although of course Restoration actresses were, just like male actors, expected to do justice to all kinds and moods of plays. (Their role in the development of Restoration tragedy is also important, compare She-tragedy.) The term she-tragedy refers to a popular vogue in the late 17th and early 18th centuries for tragic plays focused on the sufferings of an innocent and virtuous woman. ...

A new speciality introduced almost as early as the actresses was the breeches role, which called for an actress to appear in male clothes (breeches being tight-fitting knee-length pants, the standard male garment of the time), for instance in order to play a witty heroine who disguises herself as a boy to hide, or to engage in escapades disallowed to girls. A quarter of the plays produced on the London stage between 1660 and 1700 contained breeches roles. Playing these cross-dressing roles, women behaved with the freedom society allowed to men, and some feminist critics, such as Jacqueline Pearson, regard them as subversive of conventional gender roles and empowering for female members of the audience. Elizabeth Howe has objected that the male disguise, when studied in relation to playtexts, prologues, and epilogues, comes out as "little more than yet another means of displaying the actress as a sexual object" to male patrons, by showing off her body, normally hidden by a skirt, outlined by the male outfit. A breeches role (also pants role or trouser role) is a role in which an actress appears in male clothes (breeches being tight-fitting knee-length pants, the standard male garment at the time breeches roles were introduced). ... This articles is about cross-dressing in general, that is the act of wearing the clothing of another gender for any reason. ... A bagpiper in military uniform. ...

Successful Restoration actresses include Charles II's mistress Nell Gwyn, the tragedienne Elizabeth Barry who was famous for her ability to "move the passions" and make whole audiences cry, the 1690s comedienne Anne Bracegirdle, and Susanna Mountfort (a.k.a. Susanna Verbruggen), who had many breeches roles written especially for her in the 1680s and 90s. Letters and memoirs of the period show that both men and women in the audience greatly relished Mountfort's swaggering, roistering impersonations of young women wearing breeches and thereby enjoying the social and sexual freedom of the male Restoration rake. Nell Gwynn was one of the first English actresses and the mistress of King Charles II. Nell Gwyn (or Gwynn or Gwynne), born Eleanor, (2 February 1650 - 14 November 1687), was one of the earliest English actresses to receive prominent recognition, and a long-time mistress of King Charles II... Elizabeth Barry changed like Nature which she represents, from Passion to Passion, from Extream to Extream, with piercing Force and with easy Grace. Elizabeth Barry (1658–November 7, 1713) was an English actress. ... Anne Bracegirdle, (c. ... Susanna Verbruggen (c. ... The Tavern Scene from A Rakes Progress by William Hogarth. ...

First celebrity actors

Thomas Betterton played the irresistible Dorimant in George Etherege's Man of Mode. Betterton's acting ability was praised by Samuel Pepys, Alexander Pope, and Colley Cibber.

During the Restoration period, both male and female actors on the London stage became for the first time public personalities and celebrities. Documents of the period show audiences being attracted to performances by the talents of particular actors as much as by particular plays, and more than by authors (who seem to have been the least important draw, no performance being advertised by author until 1699). Although the playhouses were built for large audiences—the second Drury Lane theatre from 1674 held 2000 patrons — they were of compact design, and an actor's charisma could be intimately projected from the thrust stage. Portrait of Thomas Betterton by Godfrey Kneller The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ... Portrait of Thomas Betterton by Godfrey Kneller The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ... Thomas Betterton (c. ... Sir George Etherege (1635? - c. ... Samuel Pepys, FRS (23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament, who is now most famous for his diary. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Colley Cibber, actor, playwright, Poet Laureate, first British actor-manager, and head Dunce of Alexander Popes Dunciad. ... For other uses, see Celebrity (disambiguation). ... A production of Godspell performed on a 3/4 thust stage In theater, a thrust stage (also known as a platform stage or open stage [1]) is one that extends into the audience on three sides and is connected to the backstage area by its up stage end. ...

With two companies competing for their services from 1660 to 1682, star actors were able to negotiate star deals, comprising company shares and benefit nights as well as salaries. This advantageous situation changed when the two companies were amalgamated in 1682, but the way the actors rebelled and took command of a new company in 1695 is in itself an illustration of how far their status and power had developed since 1660. Look up share on Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

The greatest fixed stars among Restoration actors were Elizabeth Barry ("Famous Mrs Barry" who "forc 'd Tears from the Eyes of her Auditory") and Thomas Betterton, both of them active in organising the actors' revolt in 1695 and both original patent-holders in the resulting actors' cooperative. Thomas Betterton (c. ...

Betterton played every great male part there was from 1660 into the 18th century. After watching Hamlet in 1661, Samuel Pepys reports in his diary that the young beginner Betterton "did the prince's part beyond imagination." Betterton's expressive performances seem to have attracted playgoers as magnetically as did the novelty of seeing women on the stage. He was soon established as the leading man of the Duke's Company, and played Dorimant, the seminal irresistible Restoration rake, at the première of George Etherege's Man of Mode (1676). Betterton's position remained unassailable through the 1680s, both as the leading man of the United Company and as its stage manager and de facto day-to-day leader. He remained loyal to Rich longer than many of his coworkers, but eventually it was he who headed the actors' walkout in 1695, and who became the acting manager of the new company. Hamlet and Horatio in the cemetery by Eugène Delacroix For other uses, see Hamlet (disambiguation). ... The Tavern Scene from A Rakes Progress by William Hogarth. ... Sir George Etherege (1635? - c. ...

Comedies

Variety and dizzying fashion changes are typical of Restoration comedy. Even though the "Restoration drama" unit taught to college students is likely to be telescoped in a way that makes the plays all sound contemporary, scholars now have a strong sense of the rapid evolution of English drama over these forty years and of its social and political causes. The influence of theatre company competition and playhouse economics is also acknowledged.

Restoration comedy peaked twice. The genre came to spectacular maturity in the mid-1670s with an extravaganza of aristocratic comedies. Twenty lean years followed this short golden age, although the achievement of Aphra Behn in the 1680s is to be noted. In the mid-1690s a brief second Restoration comedy renaissance arose, aimed at a wider audience. The comedies of the golden 1670s and 1690s peak times are extremely different from each other. An attempt is made below to illustrate the generational taste shift by describing The Country Wife (1676) and The Provoked Wife (1697) in some detail. These two plays differ from each other in some typical ways, just as a Hollywood movie of the 1950s differs from one of the 1970s. The plays are not, however, offered as being "typical" of their decades. Indeed, there exist no typical comedies of the 1670s or the 1690s; even within these two short peak-times, comedy types kept mutating and multiplying. Forms of government Part of the Politics series Politics Portal This box:      The term aristocracy refers to a form of government where power is held by a small number of individuals from an elite or from noble families. ... A sketch of Aphra Behn by George Scharf from a portrait believed to be lost. ...

Aristocratic comedy, 1660–80

The drama of the 1660s and 1670s was vitalised by the competition between the two patent companies created at the Restoration, as well as by the personal interest of Charles II, and the comic playwrights rose to the demand for new plays. They stole freely from the contemporary French and Spanish stage, from English Jacobean and Caroline plays, and even from Greek and Roman classical comedies, and combined the looted plotlines in adventurous ways. Resulting differences of tone in a single play were appreciated rather than frowned on, as the audience prized "variety" within as well as between plays. Early Restoration audiences had little enthusiasm for structurally simple, well-shaped comedies such as those of Molière; they demanded bustling, crowded multi-plot action and fast pace. Even a splash of high heroic drama might be thrown in to enrich the comedy mix, as in George Etherege's Love in a Tub (1664), which has one heroic verse "conflict between love and friendship" plot, one urbane wit comedy plot, and one burlesque pantsing plot. (See illustration, top right.) Such incongruities contributed to Restoration comedy being held in low esteem in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, but today the early Restoration total theatre experience is again valued on the stage, as well as by postmodern academic critics. James Stuart (19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scots as James VI, and King of England and King of Ireland as James I. He ruled in Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567, when he was only one year old. ... Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, King of Scotland and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. ... Categories: Ancient Roman architecture | Theatre | Historical stubs ... Bust of Homer. ... Molière, engraved on the frontispiece to his Works. ... Sir George Etherege (1635? - c. ... Postmodernity (also called post-modernity or the postmodern condition) is a term used by philosophers, social scientists, art critics and social critics to refer to aspects of contemporary art, culture, economics and social conditions that are the result of the unique features of late 20th century and early 21st century...

The unsentimental or "hard" comedies of John Dryden, William Wycherley, and George Etherege reflected the atmosphere at Court, and celebrated with frankness an aristocratic macho lifestyle of unremitting sexual intrigue and conquest. The Earl of Rochester, real-life Restoration rake, courtier and poet, is flatteringly portrayed in Etherege's The Man of Mode (1676) as a riotous, witty, intellectual, and sexually irresistible aristocrat, a template for posterity's idea of the glamorous Restoration rake (actually never a very common character in Restoration comedy). Wycherley's The Plain Dealer (1676), a variation on the theme of Molière's Le misanthrope, was highly regarded for its uncompromising satire and earned Wycherley the appellation "Plain Dealer" Wycherley or "Manly" Wycherley, after the play's main character Manly. The single play that does most to support the charge of obscenity levelled then and now at Restoration comedy is probably Wycherley's The Country Wife (1675). John Dryden John Dryden (August 19 {August 9 O.S.}, 1631 - May 12 {May 1 O.S.}, 1700) was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator and playwright, who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles... William Wycherley in 1675. ... Sir George Etherege (1635? - c. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... For other people of this name, see John Rochester. ... Frontispiece to George Ethereges The Man of Mode (1676). ... The Plain Dealer is a Restoration comedy by William Wycherley, first performed on 11 December 1676. ... Molière, engraved on the frontispiece to his Works. ... Le Misanthrope is a 17th century comedy of manners written by French playwright Molière. ... Obscenity in Latin obscenus, meaning foul, repulsive, detestable, (possibly derived from ob caenum, literally from filth). The term is most often used in a legal context to describe expressions (words, images, actions) that offend the prevalent sexual morality of the time. ... William Wycherley in 1675. ...

William Wycherley, The Country Wife: "O Lord, I'll have some china too. Good Master Horner, don't think to give other people china, and me none. Come in with me too."

William Wycherley, cirka 1675, by Peter Cross. ... William Wycherley in 1675. ... William Wycherley in 1675. ...

Example. William Wycherley, The Country Wife (1675):

The Country Wife has three interlinked but distinct plots, which each project sharply different moods: William Wycherley in 1675. ...

1. Horner's impotence trick provides the main plot and the play's organizing principle. The upper-class town rake Horner mounts a campaign for seducing as many respectable ladies as possible, first spreading a false rumour of his own impotence, in order to be allowed where no complete man may go. The trick is a great success and Horner has sex with many married ladies of virtuous reputation, whose husbands are happy to leave him alone with them. In one famously outrageous scene, the "China scene", sexual intercourse is assumed to take place repeatedly just off stage, where Horner and his mistresses carry on a sustained double entendre dialogue purportedly about Horner's china collection. The Country Wife is driven by a succession of near-discoveries of the truth about Horner's sexual prowess (and thus the truth about the respectable ladies), from which he extricates himself by quick thinking and good luck. Horner never becomes a reformed character, but keeps his secret to the end and is assumed to go on merrily reaping the fruits of his planted misinformation, past the last act and beyond. Impotence or, more clinically, erectile dysfunction is the inability to develop or maintain an erection of the penis for satisfactory sexual intercourse regardless of the capability of ejaculation. ... It has been suggested that Triple entendre be merged into this article or section. ... A dialogue (sometimes spelt dialog[1]) is a reciprocal conversation between two or more entities. ...

2. The married life of Pinchwife and Margery is based on Molière's School For Wives. Pinchwife is a middle-aged man who has married an ignorant young country girl in the hope that she will not know to cuckold him. However, Horner teaches her, and Margery cuts a swathe through the sophistications of London marriage without even noticing them. She is enthusiastic about the virile handsomeness of town gallants, rakes, and especially theatre actors (such self-referential stage jokes were nourished by the new higher status of actors), and keeps Pinchwife in a state of continual horror with her plain-spokenness and her interest in sex. A running joke is the way Pinchwife's pathological jealousy always leads him into supplying Margery with the very type of information he wishes her not to have. Jealousy typically refers to the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that occur when a person believes a valued relationship is being threatened by a rival. ...

3. The courtship of Harcourt and Alithea is a comparatively uplifting love story in which the witty Harcourt wins the hand of Pinchwife's sister Alithea. Look up Wit in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Decline of comedy, 1678–90

When the two companies were amalgamated in 1682 and the London stage became a monopoly, both the number and the variety of new plays being written dropped sharply. There was a swing away from comedy to serious political drama, reflecting preoccupations and divisions following on the Popish Plot (1678) and the Exclusion Crisis (1682). The few comedies produced also tended to be political in focus, the whig dramatist Thomas Shadwell sparring with the tories John Dryden and Aphra Behn. Behn's unique achievement as an early professional woman writer has been the subject of much recent study. A monopoly (from the Greek language monos, one + polein, to sell) is defined as a persistent market situation where there is only one provider of a product or service, in other words a firm that has no competitors in its industry. ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. ... The Popish Plot was an alleged Catholic conspiracy. ... The Exclusion Bill crisis ran from 1678 till 1681. ... The Whigs (with the Tories) are often described as one of two political parties in England and later the United Kingdom from the late 17th to the mid 19th centuries. ... Thomas Shadwell Thomas Shadwell (c. ... For other uses, see Tory (disambiguation). ... John Dryden John Dryden (August 19 {August 9 O.S.}, 1631 - May 12 {May 1 O.S.}, 1700) was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator and playwright, who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles... A sketch of Aphra Behn by George Scharf from a portrait believed to be lost. ...

Comedy renaissance, 1690–1700

During the second wave of Restoration comedy in the 1690s, the "softer" comedies of William Congreve and John Vanbrugh reflected mutating cultural perceptions and great social change. The playwrights of the 1690s set out to appeal to more socially mixed audiences with a strong middle-class element, and to female spectators, for instance by moving the war between the sexes from the arena of intrigue into that of marriage. The focus in comedy is less on young lovers outwitting the older generation, more on marital relations after the wedding bells. Thomas Southerne's dark The Wives' Excuse (1691) is not yet very "soft": it shows a woman miserably married to the fop Friendall, everybody's friend, whose follies and indiscretions undermine her social worth, since her honour is bound up in his. Mrs Friendall is pursued by a would-be lover, a matter-of-fact rake devoid of all the qualities that made Etherege's Dorimant charming, and she is kept from action and choice by the unattractiveness of all her options. All the humour of this "comedy" is in the subsidiary love-chase and fornication plots, none in the main plot. William Congreve (January 24, 1670 – January 19, 1729) was an English playwright and poet. ... Sir John Vanbrugh in Godfrey Knellers Kit-cat portrait, considered one of Knellers finest portraits. ... This article is about the socio-economic class from a global vantage point. ... Thomas Southerne (1660 - May 22, 1746), Irish dramatist, was born at Oxmantown, near Dublin, in 1660, and entered Trinity College, Dublin in 1676. ... FOP (Formatting Objects Processor) is an XSL-FO processor written in Java, which provides the feature to convert XSL-FO files to PDF or direct-printable-files. ...

In Congreve's Love for Love (1695) and The Way of the World (1700), the "wit duels" between lovers typical of 1670s comedy are underplayed. The give-and-take set pieces of couples still testing their attraction for each other have mutated into witty prenuptial debates on the eve of marriage, as in the famous "Proviso" scene in The Way of the World (1700). Vanbrugh's The Provoked Wife (1697) follows in the footsteps of Southerne's Wives' Excuse, with a lighter touch and more humanly recognizable characters. Oxford Playhouse production of The Way of the World; 13 to 17 April, 2004 The Way of the World is a play written by British playwright William Congreve. ... Sir John Vanbrugh in Godfrey Knellers Kit-cat portrait, considered one of Knellers finest portraits. ...

Example. John Vanbrugh, The Provoked Wife (1697):

John Vanbrugh, The Provoked Wife: "These are good times. A woman may have a gallant and a separate maintenance too."

The Provoked Wife is something of a Restoration problem play in its attention to the subordinate legal position of married women and the complexities of "divorce" and separation, issues that had been highlighted in the mid-1690s by some notorious cases before the House of Lords (see Stone). Download high resolution version (874x1163, 159 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Download high resolution version (874x1163, 159 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Sir John Vanbrugh in Godfrey Knellers Kit-cat portrait, considered one of Knellers finest portraits. ... Sir John Vanbrugh in Godfrey Knellers Kit-cat portrait, considered one of Knellers finest portraits. ... The term problem plays is applied to the three plays William Shakespeare wrote between the last of his pure comedies (Twelfth Night) and the first of his pure tragedies (Othello) They are Alls Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, Troilus and Cressida. ... The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as the Lords. The Sovereign, the House of Commons (which is the lower house of Parliament and referred to as the Commons), and the Lords together comprise the Parliament. ...

Sir John Brute in The Provoked Wife is tired of matrimony. He comes home drunk every night and is continually rude and insulting to his wife. She is meanwhile being tempted to embark upon an affair with the witty and faithful Constant. Divorce is not an option for either of the Brutes at this time, but forms of legal separation have recently come into existence, and would entail a separate maintenance to the wife. Such an arrangement would not allow remarriage. Still, muses Lady Brute, in one of many discussions with her niece Bellinda, "These are good times. A woman may have a gallant and a separate maintenance too."

Bellinda is at the same time being grumpily courted by Constant's friend Heartfree, who is surprised and dismayed to find himself in love with her. The bad example of the Brutes is a constant warning to Heartfree to not marry.

The Provoked Wife is a talk play, with the focus less on love scenes and more on discussions between female friends (Lady Brute and Bellinda) and male friends (Constant and Heartfree). These exchanges, full of jokes though they are, are thoughtful and have a dimension of melancholy and frustration.

After a forged-letter complication, the play ends with marriage between Heartfree and Bellinda and stalemate between the Brutes. Constant continues to pay court to Lady Brute, and she continues to shilly-shally.

End of comedy

The tolerance for Restoration comedy even in its modified form was running out at the end of the 17th century, as public opinion turned to respectability and seriousness even faster than the playwrights did. Interconnected causes for this shift in taste were demographic change, the Glorious Revolution of 1688, William's and Mary's dislike of the theatre, and the lawsuits brought against playwrights by the Society for the Reformation of Manners (founded in 1692). When Jeremy Collier attacked Congreve and Vanbrugh in his Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage in 1698, he was confirming a shift in audience taste that had already taken place. At the much-anticipated all-star première in 1700 of The Way of the World, Congreve's first comedy for five years, the audience showed only moderate enthusiasm for that subtle and almost melancholy work. The comedy of sex and wit was about to be replaced by the drama of obvious sentiment and exemplary morality. A demographic or demographic profile is a term used in marketing and broadcasting, to describe a demographic grouping or a market segment. ... The Revolution of 1688, commonly known as the Glorious Revolution, was the overthrow of James II of England in 1688 by a union of Parliamentarians and the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau (William of Orange). ... William III Mary II The phrase William and Mary usually refers to the joint sovereignty over the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland of King William III and his wife Queen Mary II. Their joint reign began in February, 1689, when they were called to the throne by... The Society for the Reformation of Manners[1] was founded in the Tower Hamlets area of London in 1691. ... Jeremy Collier (1650-1726) was an English bishop. ... Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage is an anti-theatre pamphlet written in 1698 by the Puritan divine Jeremy Collier. ...

After Restoration comedy

Stage history

During the 18th and 19th centuries, the sexual frankness of Restoration comedy ensured that theatre producers cannibalised it or adapted it with a heavy hand, rather than actually performed it. Today, Restoration comedy is again appreciated on the stage. The classics, Wycherley's The Country Wife and The Plain-Dealer, Etherege's The Man of Mode, and Congreve's Love For Love and The Way of the World have competition not only from Vanbrugh's The Relapse and The Provoked Wife, but from such dark unfunny comedies as Thomas Southerne's The Wives Excuse. Aphra Behn, once considered unstageable, has had a major renaissance, with The Rover now a repertory favourite. Thomas Southerne (1660 - May 22, 1746), Irish dramatist, was born at Oxmantown, near Dublin, in 1660, and entered Trinity College, Dublin in 1676. ...

Literary criticism

Distaste for sexual impropriety long kept Restoration comedy not only off the stage but also locked in a critical poison cupboard. Victorian critics like William Hazlitt, although valuing the linguistic energy and "strength" of the canonical writers Etherege, Wycherley, and Congreve, always found it necessary to temper aesthetic praise with heavy moral condemnation. Aphra Behn received the condemnation without the praise, since outspoken sex comedy was considered particularly offensive coming from a woman author. At the turn of the 20th century, an embattled minority of academic Restoration comedy enthusiasts began to appear, for example the important editor Montague Summers, whose work ensured that the plays of Aphra Behn remained in print. // William Hazlitt (10 April 1778 – 18 September 1830) was an English writer remembered for his humanistic essays and literary criticism, often esteemed the greatest English literary critic after Samuel Johnson. ... Augustus Montague Summers (10 April 1880 - 10 August 1948) was an eccentric British author and clergyman. ...

"Critics remain astonishingly defensive about the masterpieces of this period", wrote Robert D. Hume as late as 1976. It is only over the last few decades that that statement has become untrue, as Restoration comedy has been acknowledged a rewarding subject for high theory analysis and Wycherley's The Country Wife, long branded the most obscene play in the English language, has become something of an academic favourite. "Minor" comic writers are getting a fair share of attention, especially the post-Aphra Behn generation of women playwrights which appeared just around the turn of the 18th century: Delarivier Manley, Mary Pix, Catharine Trotter, and Susannah Centlivre. A broad study of the majority of never-reprinted Restoration comedies has been made possible by Internet access (by subscription only) to the first editions at the British Library. Mary Delarivier (sometimes spelt Delariviere, Delarivière or de la Rivière) Manley (1663 or c. ... Mary Pix (1666-1709) was an English novelist and playwright. ... Catharine Trotter Cockburn (1679-1749) was a British Catholic moral philosopher, poet and playwright. ... Susanna Centlivre (c. ... British Library main building, London The British Library (BL) is the national library of the United Kingdom. ...

List of notable Restoration comedies

The Rover by Aphra Behn is now a repertory favourite.

• Charles Sedley, The Mulberry-garden (1668)
• George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, The Rehearsal (1671)
• John Dryden, Marriage-A-la-Mode (1672)
• William Wycherley, The Country Wife (1675), The Plain-Dealer (1676)
• George Etherege, Love in a Tub (1664), The Man of Mode (1676)
• Aphra Behn, The Rover (1677), The Roundheads (1681), The Rover, Part II (1681), The Lucky Chance (1686)
• Thomas Shadwell, Bury Fair (1689)
• Thomas Southerne, Sir Anthony Love (1690), The Wives Excuse (1691)
• William Congreve, The Old Bachelor (1693), Love For Love (1695), The Way of the World (1700)
• John Vanbrugh, The Relapse (1696), The Provoked Wife (1697)
• George Farquhar, Love and a Bottle (1698), The Constant Couple (1699), Sir Harry Wildair (1701), The Recruiting Officer (1706), The Beaux' Stratagem (1707)
• Susannah Centlivre, The Perjured Husband (1700), The Basset-Table, (1705), The Busie Body (1709)

Download high resolution version (1073x1424, 1089 KB)Sketch of Aphra Behn by George Scharf (1820—1895) from a portrait believed to be lost. ... Download high resolution version (1073x1424, 1089 KB)Sketch of Aphra Behn by George Scharf (1820—1895) from a portrait believed to be lost. ... The Rover or The Banishd Cavaliers is a play in two parts written by the British author Aphra Behn. ... A sketch of Aphra Behn by George Scharf from a portrait believed to be lost. ... Sir Charles Sedley (c. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Rehearsal was a satirical play aimed specifically at John Dryden and generally at the sententious and overly ambitious theater of the Restoration tragedy. ... John Dryden John Dryden (August 19 {August 9 O.S.}, 1631 - May 12 {May 1 O.S.}, 1700) was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator and playwright, who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles... This article is about the play by John Dryden; Marriage á-la-mode is also the name of a series of pictures by William Hogarth. ... William Wycherley in 1675. ... William Wycherley in 1675. ... The Plain Dealer is a Restoration comedy by William Wycherley, first performed on 11 December 1676. ... Sir George Etherege (1635? - c. ... Frontispiece to George Ethereges The Man of Mode (1676). ... A sketch of Aphra Behn by George Scharf from a portrait believed to be lost. ... The Rover or The Banishd Cavaliers is a play in two parts written by the British author Aphra Behn. ... Thomas Shadwell Thomas Shadwell (c. ... Thomas Southerne (1660 - May 22, 1746), Irish dramatist, was born at Oxmantown, near Dublin, in 1660, and entered Trinity College, Dublin in 1676. ... William Congreve (January 24, 1670 – January 19, 1729) was an English playwright and poet. ... Oxford Playhouse production of The Way of the World; 13 to 17 April, 2004 The Way of the World is a play written by British playwright William Congreve. ... Sir John Vanbrugh in Godfrey Knellers Kit-cat portrait, considered one of Knellers finest portraits. ... John Vanbrugh (1664–1726), author of The Relapse. ... Sir John Vanbrugh in Godfrey Knellers Kit-cat portrait, considered one of Knellers finest portraits. ... George Farquhar. ... The Recruiting Officer is a 1706 play by the Irish writer George Farquhar, which follows the social and sexual exploits of two recruiting officers, Plume and Brazen, as they return to their home town of Shrewsbury. ... This page may meet Wikipedias criteria for speedy deletion. ... Susanna Centlivre (c. ...

See also

• English Restoration
• Restoration style
• Essay of Dramatick Poesie
• John Rich (producer)

King Charles II, the first monarch to rule after the English Restoration. ... Belton House, an example of Carolean architecture. ... Essay of Dramatick Poesie is a work of dramaturgy by John Dryden published in 1668. ... John Rich (1682 - 1761) was an important theater manager in 18th century London. ...

References

• Cibber, Colley (first published 1740, Everyman's Library ed. 1976). An Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber. London: J. M. Dent & Sons.
• Dobrée, Bonamy (1927). Introduction to The Complete Works of Sir John Vanbrugh, vol. 1. Bloomsbury: The Nonesuch Press.
• Howe, Elizabeth (1992). The First English Actresses: Women and Drama 1660–1700. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Hume, Robert D. (1976). The Development of English Drama in the Late Seventeenth Century. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Milhous, Judith (1979). Thomas Betterton and the Management of Lincoln's Inn Fields 1695–1708. Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press.
• Morgan, Fidelis (1981). The Female Wits - Women Playwrights on the London Stage 1660–1720 London: Virago
• Pearson, Jacqueline (1988). The Prostituted Muse: Images of Women and Women Dramatists 1642–1737. New York: St. Martin's Press.
• Stone, Lawrence (1990). Road to Divorce:England 1530–1987. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Van Lennep, William (ed.) (1965). The London Stage 1660–1800: A Calendar of Plays, Entertainments & Afterpieces Together with Casts, Box-Receipts and Contemporary Comment Compiled From the Playbills, Newspapers and Theatrical Diaries of the Period, Part 1: 1660–1700. Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press.

Further reading

This section lists a selection of seminal critical studies.

• Canfield, Douglas (1997). Tricksters and Estates: On the Ideology of Restoration Comedy. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky.
• Fujimura, Thomas H. (1952). The Restoration Comedy of Wit. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Holland, Norman N. (1959). The First Modern Comedies: The Significance of Etherege, Wycherley and Congreve. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
• Markley, Robert (1988). Two-Edg'd Weapons: Style and Ideology in the Comedies of Etherege, Wycherley, and Congreve. Oxford : Clarendon Press.
• Weber, Harold (1986). The Restoration Rake-Hero: Transformations in Sexual Understanding in Seventeenth-Century England. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
• Zimbardo, Rose A. (1965). Wycherley's Drama: A Link in the Development of English Satire. New Haven: Yale University Press.

External links

• Restoration playhouses
• The Restoration drama database project
• 17th Century Database
• Aphra Behn, The Rover
• William Congreve, Love For Love
• William Congreve, The Way of the World
• George Etherege, The Man of Mode
• John Vanbrugh, The Provoked Wife. Use with caution, this is an abridged and bowdlerised text.
• William Wycherley, The Country Wife
• William Wycherley, The Gentleman Dancing-Master