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Dramatists during the Restoration Age

Main dramatists of the Restoration Age were George Etherege, William Wycherley, William Congreve, Aphra Behn, John Vanbrugh and George Farquhar.

 Brief description of the above mentioned dramatists is given below :


1. George Etherege (1635-1691)

Restoration playwright George Etherege was born in Maidenhead, South England in 1635. His mother was Mary Powney. Etherege studied at Lord Williams's School and later studied law at Clement's Inn, London.

Literary Career and Works : 

Etherege's first play, The Comical Revenge or Love in a Tub (1664) premiered at the Duke's theatre in 1664. This play introduced a style of wit hitherto unknown upon the English stage. In 1668, he brought out She Would if She Could (1668), a comedy in many respects admirable, full of action, wit and spirit, and immoral at the same time. His last play, The Man of Mode (1676), is famous for its creation of the great fop, Sir Fopling Flutter.

It is believed that it was Etherege who introduced the comedy of manners to the English theatre. Etherege was knighted in 1680 and married a rich widow. He was sent by Charles II on a mission to the Hague and in March 1685, was appointed resident minister in the imperial German court at Regensburg. His years spent as English minister to Ratisbon (1685-89) are recorded in his Letterbook. Etherege died in Paris, probably in 1691.




2. William Wycherley (1640-1715)

English dramatist William Wycherley was born in Clive in the English county of Shropshire. His father, Daniel was High Steward in the household of the Marquess of Winchester and his mother, Bethia was a lady-in-waiting to the Marchioness.
At the age of fifteen, Wycherley was sent to be educated in France, where he was brought up in the household of the Duke of Montausier. Here, he also became a Roman Catholic. In 1660, Wycherley entered Oxford but soon left without taking a degree.

Literary Career and Works :

His first play, Love in a Wood was performed by the King's Men at Theatre Royal, in 1671. The play was an instant success and established him as a fashionable and witty writer. His two greatest and most successful comedies were The Country Wife, acted in 1675 and The Plain Dealer, in 1677. The Country Wife was centered on an inexperienced young country wife, Mrs Margery Pinchwife. The Plain Dealer was based on Moliere's Le Misanthrope and featured mainly, a misanthrope disgusted with the hypocrisies of ordinary social behaviour. The Gentleman Dancing Master (1672) was also written by him. He died in 1715.




3. William Congreve (1670-1729)

English poet and playwright William Congreve was born in Yorkshire, England in 1670. His father was William Congreve (1637-1708) and mother, Mary nee Browning.

Since, his father was an officer in the army and the commander of a Garrison near Cork in Ireland, Congreve was educated at Kilkenny and then at Trinity College, Dublin with Jonathan Swift. In 1691, he studied law in Middle Temple, London. Though he entered Lane College, Congreve felt the pull towards literature and started writing.

Literary Career and Works :

At the age of 17, Congreve wrote his first book, Incognita, a romantic novel published few years later, in 1692. His first play, The Old Bachelor, was first acted in January, 1693 and was so successful that it soon established him as a playwright of repute. The old bachelor of the title was Heartwell. This play was followed by other plays such as The Double-Dealer, Love for Love, The Mourning Bride, and The Way of the World.

His best known play was The Way of the World, which was based on the love story of Mirabell and Millamant. However, even though the play earned him critical acclaim, it did not prove to be successful on stage. After this, Congreve wrote no more plays.

He became embroiled in a controversy with Jeremy Collier on the morality of the stage. He suffered from gout and bad sight. Finally, at the age of thirty, he became an elder statesman of letters. Congreve died at the age of 58, on 19th January, 1729.




4. Aphra Behn (1640-1689)

Early Life
Aphra Behn was born in Wye, near Canterbury in 1640. Considered to be the first professional woman writer, nothing conclusive is known of her parentage or education. It is surmised that she was born to Bartholomew Johnson, a barber and Elizabeth Denham. It is believed that Behn had a Catholic upbringing. She is supposed to have married a merchant named Behn in 1664, who might have died early.

Literary Career and Works : 

Her first play, The Forc'd Marriage appeared in 1670. This was followed by The Amorous Prince and her sole tragedy, Abdelazer. After this, she turned to writing witty comedies of sexual intrigue such as The Town Fop, (1676), The Debauchee, (1677), and The Counterfeit Bridegroom. Her best known play, The Rover was so famous that King Charles II's mistress and famous actress Nell Gwyn came out of retirement to play the role of the whore, Angelica Bianca. The play centers around two pairs of lovers, Helena and Willmore, Florinda and Belvile.

Apart from writing numerous plays at a time, when women were censured for taking up writing as a career, Behn also wrote a short novel, Oroonoko. It is about an African prince, Oroonoko who falls in love with a young woman, Imoinda. When their love is discovered, Imoinda is sold into slavery to Suriname. One day, Oroonoko, who is a slave owner himself, is lured by the captain of an English ship and taken as a slave to Guiana. Here, he is united with his beloved. He tries to attain freedom but is caught and badly beaten. Realising that there is no way out, he kills his love and their unborn child. As soon as he is about to kill himself, he is captured and later executed.

Aphra Behn is a radical writer, who championed the cause of women and their sexual desire at a time when it was believed that women should be seen and not heard. Women such as Behn who wrote or acted on the stage were seen as whores. Undeterred by this stereotypical typecasting, Behn manages to break new ground.

 Acknowledging her importance, Virginia Woolf had stated, "All women together, ought to let flowers fall upon the grave of Aphra Behn... for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds." Behn died on 16th April, 1689.

Major Works :
Plays
  • The Forc'd Marriage (1670)
  • The Amorous Prince (1671)
  • The Dutch Lover (1673)
  • Abdelazer (1676)
  • The Town Fop (1676)
  • The Rover, Part 1 (1677) and Part 2 (1681)
  • Sir Patient Fancy (1678)
  • The Feigned Courtesans (1679)
  • The Young King (1679)
  • The Roundheads (1681)
  • The City Heiress (1682)
  • Like Father, Like Son (1682)
  • The Emperor of the Moon (1687)
Novels
  • Love-Letters between a Nobleman and His Sister (1684)
  • Oroonoko (1688)
  • Short Stories
  • The History of the Nun, or, the Fair Vow-Breaker (1688)
  • The Dumb Virgin, or, The Force of Imagination (1700)
Poetry
  • Poems upon Several Occasions, with A Voyage to the Island of Love (1684)
  • Lycidus, or, The Lover in Fashion (1688)



5. John Vanbrugh (1664-1726)

English dramatist and architect John Vanbrugh was born in the parish of St Nicholas Acons in the City of London in 1664. His father, Giles was a businessman in Chester, while his mother was Elizabeth Carleton. He studied at King's School, Chester and later travelled to France to study arts.

Literary Career and Works : 

It was during his imprisonment that he wrote first comedy, The Relapse: Or Virtue in Danger, sequel to Colley Cibber's Love's Last Shift. This was followed by another play, The Provok'd Wife which was criticised for its immorality. After his stint as a playwright, Vanbrugh changed his career and turned to architecture. The reasons for this remain unclear. In the words of Jonathan Swift, Vanbrugh's genius "without thought or lecture... hugely turned to architecture." Vanbrugh was not a trained architect, but had a natural talent for it. In 1699, he began designing Castle Howard, Yorkshire, for the Earl of Carlisle and later the Blenheim Palace. Vanbrugh is considered to be a leading exponent of the English Baroque style.

He again wrote for the stage for a short while during his later years. Vanbrugh died on 26th March, 1726.

Major Works : 
  • The Relapse: Or Virtue in Danger (1696)
  • The Provok'd Wife (1697)
  • Aesop (1697)
  • The False Friend (1702)
  • The Confederacy (1705)
  • The Mistake (1705)




6. George Farquhar (1677-1707)

Irish playwright George Farquhar was born in Londonderry, Ireland, in 1677. His father was an Irish clergyman. Farquhar entered Trinity College, Dublin, as a sizar or servitor, a class of poor scholars who received a college allowance in return for performing menial duties. He did not remain there for long and soon started acting on the Dublin stage through the acquaintance of the actor Robert Wilks.

Literary Career and Works : 

On encouragement of Wilks, he went off to London to write comedy. His first comedy, Love and a Bottle (1698) was performed at Drury Lane in 1699. This was followed by other plays such as The Constant Couple (1699), Sir Harry Wildair (1701), The Inconstant (1702) and The Twin Rivals (1702).

Later, he joined the military as a lieutenant and secured a scanty income by helping to recruit men and raise troops. Three years later, he returned to playwriting with his hugely successful The Recruiting Officer (1706). On his deathbed, he completed his masterpiece, The Beaux Stratagem (1707), a witty, realistic comedy set in the country. Farquhar died on 29th April, 1707, a few days after his last play opened to great success.





7. John Dryden (1631-1700)

John Dryden was one of the greatest prose writers of this period. His prefaces and his famous "Essay on Dramatic Poesy" make him the leader of the modern prose in which the style is plain, simple and free from all exaggerations.

John Dryden was not only an acclaimed prose writer or just a poet, but also the greatest literary figure of the Restoration Age. In fact, he was a perfect and true representative of the Restoration Age.
English poet, playwright and critic John Dryden was born in Aldwinkle, Northamptonshire in 1631. He was the eldest of 14 children of Erasmus Dryden and Mary Pickering. He studied at King's School at Westminster as a king's scholar under Richard Busby. Dryden married the daughter of the Earl of Berkshire, Lady Elizabeth Howard (1638-1714), who bore him three sons.

Literary Career and Works :

It was at Westminster that Dryden wrote his first verse, an elegy Upon the Death of Lord Hastings and contributed it for Lachrymae Musarum (1649). After Westminster, Dryden entered Trinity College, Cambridge and graduated in 1654. His father died in the same year. Dryden obtained work with Cromwell's Secretary of State, John Thurloe. On the death of Cromwell, he published his first important work, Heroic Stanzas.

After the Restoration, he wrote a royalist panegyric celebrating the return of Charles II, titled Astraea Redux (1660). He also wrote To His Sacred Majesty A Panegyric for the King's coronation. Dryden's poetry celebrating the restoration pleased Charles II so much that he was named Poet Laureate in 1668 and two years later, royal historiographer. After the Restoration, Dryden devoted himself to writing plays as the theatres had reopened. His first play, A Wild Gallant appeared in 1663. This was followed by other plays such as The Rival Ladies (1664) and The Indian Queen (1664).

In the 1660s, Dryden also started writing works which established him as a critic of repute. Dr Johnson called him 'the father of English criticism'. His first major critical work was the Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668), followed by A Defence of an Essay (1668) and Essay of Heroic Plays (1672).

Dryden is today best known for his satirical works, Absalom and Achitophel (1681) and Mac Flecknoe (1682). Both these works established his eminence as a verse satirist. To this era also belong the didactic poem Religio Laici (1682), which argues the case for Anglicanism and The Hind and the Panther (1687), marking his conversion to Catholicism.

After the Revolution of 1688, Dryden lost his Laureatship with the accession of William III. Because of his refusal to take an oath of allegiance, Dryden became out of favour with the court. Writing became his sole source of income. He also translated Virgil's Aeneid, Homer's Iliad, Ovid's Epistles and Metamorphoses. Dryden died on 12th May, 1700 due to an inflammation caused by Gout.

An Essay of Dramatic Poesy :

Dryden's An Essay of Dramatic Poesy was probably written in 1666 during the closure of London theatres due to plague. It was published in 1668, the essay can be seen as a defence of drama as an art form. The essay is structured as a dialogue/debate between four speakers: Eugenius, Crites, Lisideius and Neander.

These stand for William Davenant, Robert Howard, Roger Boyle and Dryden respectively. The essay begins with a reference to a naval battle between the British and Dutch on 3rd June, 1665, in the English Channel.

Four speakers named above observe this battle from a barge floating on Thames. After the battle gets over and the English navy wins, the four speakers begin discussing English drama. Eugenius literally means 'a well-born genius'. He favours the moderns over the ancients, arguing that the moderns have excelled over the ancients because of having learned and profited from their example. The name Crites comes from the Greek word 'critic' or one who is able to express a reasoned judgement on something. He argues in favour of the ancients and applauds the observance of the three unities in drama. He considers Ben Jonson as the greatest English playwright because he followed the ancients' example by adhering to the unities.

Lisideius' name is probably based on the royal emblem of France, the fleur-delis. He argues in favour of the modern day French playwrights. He believes that French drama is superior to English drama because of their adherence to the classical unities, because of their focus on one plot and one character and because of their use of narration.

The name Neander literally means 'the new man'. He favours the moderns, but does not disparage the ancients. He states that English are best at "the lively imitation of nature" (human nature), conceding that while French poesy is beautiful, it is also lifeless like 'a statue'. He critiques the barrenness of the French plays. Neander also goes on to defend the genre of tragicomedies since it increases the effectiveness of both tragic and comic elements by way of contrast. He indicates his preference for Shakespeare over Ben Jonson.

Shakespeare "had the largest and most comprehensive soul," while Jonson was "The most learned and judicious writer which any theater ever had." Before Dryden, the English had no native criticism on drama.
Dryden's essay thus breaks new ground and makes serious efforts to develop a theory of drama by discussing ancient, contemporary French and English drama and by comparing the works of various individual English dramatists and the foreign dramatists.

Major Works
  • The Indian Emperor (tragedy, 1665)
  • Annus Mirabilis (poem, 1667)
  • The Enchanted Island (comedy), 1667, an adaptation with William D'Avenant of Shakespeare's The Tempest
  • Secret Love, or The Maiden Queen (1667)
  • An Essay of Dramatic Poesie (1668)
  • An Evening's Love (comedy, 1668)
  • Tyrannick Love (tragedy, 1669)
  • The Conquest of Granada (1670)
  • Marriage a-la-Mode (1672)
  • Aureng-zebe (1675)
  • All for Love (1678)
  • Oedipus (heroic drama), 1679, an adaptation with Nathaniel Lee of Sophocles' Oedipus
  • Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
  • The Medal (1682)
  • Threnodia Augustalis (1685)
  • A Song for St. Cecilia's Day (1687)
  • Amphitryon (1690)
  • Don Sebastian (1690)
  • Love Triumphant (1694)
  • The Works of Virgil (1697)
  • Alexander's Feast (1697)
  • Fables, Ancient and Modern (1700)


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