The drama, especially Comedy of Manners proved to be one of the most important genres in
the Restoration Era. It started developing after reopening of the theatres in
1660. The cynical decadence of the
age was alien to the spirit of the Elizabethan romantic comedy. However,
Restoration comedy was indebted to the Jonsonian
school as well as to Beaumont and Fletcher. The continental influence was
also strong; especially those of Moliere and Calderon.
The Restoration comedy is called comedy of Manners
as it presented the superficial habits and manners of only a section of the
society – the elegant aristocracy
with their vices, intrigues and outward glamour of polished behaviour. The
manners displayed were the affections and the cultured veneer of the society. Amorous intrigue played a very crucial
part in the action of the drama. As an artistic piece of literature, the
Restoration comedy of manners mirrored the dilettante society of the day.
The exquisite poetry of Elizabethan comedy yields
place to prose in Restoration comedy, the poetry being reserved for the more
rapturous moments. The main plot is very often accompanied by sub-plots,
sometimes more than one, all revolving around the extra-marital affairs and
sexual intrigue.
In the comedy of manners the passion and emotion are
replaced by a rapier-sharp wit with a crystalline polish and hardness. Bonamy Dobree called this bonanza of
wit ‘verbal
pyrotechnics’. Dr. Johnson calls the characters ‘intellectual gladiators’.
The scintillating dialogues with its quick repartees and discussions of marital
relations reflect the contemporary social milieu.
The characters of the Manner Comedy are mostly types with descriptive names. There are
sexually frustrated widows, bawds,
country squires and fops with names like Sir Fopling Flutter, Colonel
Bulley, Squire Sullen, Lady Bountiful and Sir John Brute.
Restoration comedies dealt exclusively with the
social elite and were town-based.
Hazlitt commented about Restoration Comedy, ‘What a rustle of silks, and waving
of plumes!’ They usually had London or some other fashionable resort like Bath
as their locale.
The playwrights who practised the comedies of
manners in the Restoration age were William Congreve, George Etherege, William
Wycherley, Thomas Shadwell, Sir John Vanbrugh, and Fraquhar.
Studying the social pressures on love and marriage
with wit and subtlety Congreve shows himself the master of restoration comedy.
His comedies are The Old Bachelor,
The Double Dealer, Love for Love, The Way of the World. Congreve’s
brilliance lies principally in depicting the cross-current of marital
complications.
George Etherege’s comedies blazed the track upon
which Congreve ventured. His major comedies are The Comical Revenge or Love
in a Tub, She Wou’d If She Cou’d,
The Man of Mode or Sir Fopling Flutter. The
brilliance and the grace of Etherege’s dialogues conceal the weakness of his
plot- construction.
These same features mark the comedies of Wycherley.
Within five years he has produced five plays – Love in a Wood, The
Gentleman Dancing Master, The
Country Wife, The Plain
Dealer etc. of which the last two are termed as ‘manly’ and ‘a gross
exposure of human weakness’.
Vanbrugh was an architect, but as a dramatist he was
extremely popular. His famous comedies are The
Relapse, The Provoked Wife,
The Confederacy etc.
Shadwell came from a good family and was an out and
out Whig. He was a prolific author. His best know plays are The
Sullen Lovers, Epsom
Wells, Bury Fairs
etc.
Farquhar’s comedies include Love and a Bottle, The
Constant Couple, The Beaux
Stratagem etc.
According to Charles Lamb “Restoration comedies are a world
of themselves almost as much as fairy land.” Macaulay severely criticised him. Dobree argued that
the distinguishing characteristics of the Restoration comedy down to Congreve
is that it is concerned with an attempt to rationalise sexual relationship.
In spite of these criticism and condemnations it has
to be admitted that the dramatists of the Restoration period reflected the
manners and modes of the society courageously. Without doubt the Comedy of
Manners was revived by Sheridan and Goldsmith in their comedies – The Rival, The School for Scandal and She Stoops to Conquer.
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Literature liberates and leavens our latent learning with limpid lumina. So myself a lustful literary lacky.