Restoration Drama and Prose Betl ALTA Charles II

Restoration Drama and Prose Betül ALTAŞ

• Charles II became the king in 1660. • The change in the government was as great as the change in the literature. • Theatres opened again. • New Dramatists appeared.

• One of them was John Dryden. • He wrote plays in heroic couplets. • One of his best heroic plays is The Conquest of Granada (1670). • Another of his heroic plays is Aurengzebe (1676). *restoration, return to rule by kings in 1660 after twenty years of rule by Parliament.

• In his plays, fine speeches and poor ones might follow each other in an astonishing way. • His first comedy Marriage-a-la-Mode in bad blank verse, appeared in 1672. • His well-known play, All for love (1678) which is based on Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra is in blank verse. • However, it was not valued highly.

• Don Sebastian is considered as his best play. • There is usually some good and bad writing in his plays. • Some of the men of his time found it stupid to see extra-ordinary situations in his heroic plays.

• The second Duke of Buckingham produced a comedy, The Rehearsal (1672) which satirized them. * rehearsal * satire * satirist

• Thomas Otway wrote three tragedies: Don Carlos The Orphan *Venice Preserved • A new kind of Comedy, The Comedy of Manners, appeared at the end of this century.

• This kind of comedy was bright and witty but heartless. • It was introduced by Sir George Etherege, The Man of Mode. • William Wycherley was a satirical dramatist. The Country Wife His best plays The Plain Dealer

The better than these were: • • The plays of William Congreve: His first comedy was The Old Bachelor. The Double Dealer Love for Love • These three plays followed Etherege’s style but The Way of the World is finer than any other play of the time. * Unfortunately, it was not well received, and Congreve stopped writing plays.

• Sir John Vanbrugh wrote: The Relapse (1696) The Provoked Wife (1697) The Confederacy (1705) • These plays reflect the behaviour of upper-class society of the time. • Many people were reading Paradise Lost by Milton.

• Others read the Pilgrim’s Progress , John Bunyan’s great allegory of Christian’s journey to heaven. • Olivier Goldsmith wrote She Stoops to Conquer (1773). • Richard Brinsley produced The Rivals (1775) and The School for Scandal (1777). • His third important play was The Critic, a satire.

• John Dryden’s critical works include his Essay on Dramatic Poesie (1668). • Dryden defended the use of rhyme in drama and he praised Shakespeare. • Dryden’s prose is very significant. • He compared English and French drama and mentioned the limitations which the French set themselves by keeping to unities of time and space.