Write a note on Restoration tragedy or comedy or Restoration
Drama.
Ans:
The Restoration period in the history of the English literature
began in 1660. The Restoration of Monarchy with King Charles II replaced Oliver
Cromwell’s
Commonwealth and its puritan ethos and brought significant changes
not only politically and socially but also in the sphere of literature. The theatre
of Restoration was quite different from the theatre of Shakespeare as the
audience was largely upper classes. There were licensed theatres in the
Restoration period while the Elizabethan theatre was a much more thrilling institution.
The really Restoration drama flourished with two well connected persons, with
roots in the courtly and theatrical past. They were Sir William Davenant and Thomas
Killigrew. In 1656, Sir William Davenant has managed to evade the
government ban on theatre by staging an opera “The Siege of Rhodes”. Davenant’s
theatre Lincoln’s Inn Fields and Dorset Garden and Killigrew’s “Druny
Lane” were expensively designed, purpose-built and covered. The major
different between the Elizabethan theatre and the Restoration theatre was that
the Restoration theatrical performance introduced the female actor on stage
instead of the Elizabethan tradition of training boys to play female rules.
Restoration
drama includes both tragedy and comedy. The tragedy is known as the heroic tragedy and
the comedy is known as the Comedy of
Manners.
Restoration Tragedy:
Restoration tragedy developed the heroic plays of the
Restoration period. The Restoration tragedy is known as the ‘heroic
tragedy’ which has been traced to French influence particularly the
influence of heroic romances such as those of Madeline
de Seudery. There is a travesty of the chivalric ideal in the love and
honour motives which runs through such place. The main theme of the Restoration
tragedy according to Andrew Sanders is foreign politics.
The pre-occupation of much of Restoration Tragedy with politics draws its
influence from Shakespeare. Unlike Elizabethan and Jacobean tragedy,
Restoration tragedy was the tragedy of failure and not once of the over vaulting
ambitions.
Heroic play of the Restoration Period:
Heroic play is a kind of baroque tragedy or tragicomedy which groused flourished and declined
during 1660 to 1680. The heroic
tragedy of the Restoration period is much less representative than the comedy of manners. A heroic play is
like a heroic poem or an epic, which generally built around a larger than life
heroic warrior who is a master both of words man sleep and strategy ratory. The hero is almost invariably a king,
a prince or an army general and the plot of the play involves the fate of an
empire. Gallantry, adventure, love and honour, motives are the usual themes of
the heroic plays. The principal conflict faced by the hero is between love and
honour. The writers of the heroic plays aimed at the effects of the intensity
and sublimity and were keen to arouse the audience admiration more than the
specie tragic motions of piety and honour. The diction and verse used by them
in accordance with their aim. In a heroic play, heroes are always courageous and
rebellious and heroines were flawlessly pure, while villains always malignant. The
dialogues of the heroic plays were composed in rhyme heroic couplets. The characters
always talked in hyperboles.
The Tragedy or the heroic tragedy writer of
the Restoration Period:-
The vague of the heroic play lasted throughout the reign of Charles
II and the principal pratisoners were John Dryden, Elkanah Settle, Thomas Otway, Nathaniel Lee and
John Crown. The heroic play of the Restoration is supposed to have
beginning with Davenant’s “The Siege of Rhodes”
and Robert Howards’ “Indian Queen”(1664).
John
Dryden was the greatest tragedy writer or the heroic playwright of the
Restoration period. His fame as a heroic playwrights rest on: “Tyranie
Love(1669), The conquest of Grananda (1670), Amboyana (1673) and Aurengzebe
(1675):- except Tyranie Love none of them can be called as tragedies,
with respect to its ending, but all of them are heroic plays, different
from the later plays of Dryden life “All for Love”
(1677), and Don Sebastian (1690 or 89), which
used black verse rather than rhyme
and which avoid the stereotypes of heroic drama.
For subject, he chose that of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopetra.
After
Dryden, Thomas Otway was the most successful tragedy writer of the Restoration
period. He rearranged the elements of Romeo
and Juliet in his heroine’s tragedy, “The History
and Fall of Cains Marius” (1680). The other finer tragedies of Otway
were--- Don
Charlos, Prince of Spain (1676), The
Orphan or Unhappy Marriage (1680), Venice Preserv’d or Plot Discovered (1682),
and “Alcibiades (1675). Vanice Preserv’d is his finest work.
Nathaniel
Lee, was another successful tragedy writer of the Restoration period. He wrote
many tragedies some of which are--- Nero, Lucius,
Junius Brutus, Soponisbha, The Rival Queens and Mithridates. He
collaborated with Dryden in production of his two plays- ‘Oedipus’ and ‘The Duke of Guise’.
Elkanah
Settle as a writer of heroic drama is chiefly known for his tragedy, “The
Empress of Morocco (1673).
Nicholas
Rowe is one of the notable tragedy writers of the Restoration period. His best
known plays are – Tamerlane, the Fair
Penitent and the Popular Jane Shore.
John Crowne
was another tragedy writer of the Restoration period whose tragedies are—Caligula, a heroic
play and Thyestes, in blank verse.
The cult of heroic drama which lasted for about two decades
after the Restoration was largely a product of the French influence. English
heroic drama was extremely artificial both in content and style. The careers of
heroic plays were soon replaced by more advanced Restoration tragedy.
Restoration
Comedy:
The
glory of the Restoration drama primarily rest on comedy. Restoration comedy is
better known as the comedy of manners, as it deals with the externals of life
in upper classes’ society, interested in the fashions of time, its manners, its
speeches, its interest and for the scene drawing upon the parlors, coffee houses, streets, parks and gardens of
London, and choosing the character chiefly the people fashion and for the theme
mostly love intrigue developed by the clever dialogue, the subject matter of the
Restoration comedy consisted of amorous themes like sexual attraction, intrigue
and sexual conquest. The tone of the plays is known to be pre-judicial to
morality. It is the result of a section against the Puritan sternness and
fanaticism. These themes are represented in the comedies as reflecting the flavorous
concern of the aristocrat who had recently recent from exile at the French
Court. Though Restoration Comedy draws heavily from French Courtly culture,
however, the French drama of the period exiles in its theme and reaches the
zenith of achievement in the works of Racine and Molire. Moreover, the new comedy lakes
any of the philosophical concerns found in Shakespeare’s earlier comedies and
Behn Johnson’s comedies of humour. The women characters of the Restoration
comedies are shown as young widows and older ladies still trying to be
attracted to young man. In these plays, hero and heroin will be foppish.
Immortality and licentiousness are the elements found on the character. It
shows the fashionable of London and a person who came to London from village or
country is insulted. The principal practitioners of the Restoration comedy
were- William
Congreve, William Wycherly, George Etheredge, Sir John Vanbrugh, George
Farqunar and Thomas Shadwell.
William Congreve (1670-1729) is
by far the most significant dramatist of the Restoration period who achieved
startling popular success with the play “The Old Bachelor (1693). And this was followed by “The
Double Dealer” (1693), “Love for Love” (1695), and “The Way of the World” (1700).
In these works, the comedy of manner reaches perfection. The way of the world
ushered in a new area. The construction characterisation and dialogue of “The
way of the World” are brilliant.
William
Wycherley was the most successful comedy writer of the Restoration
period. He produced four perfect comedies- “Love in a wood” (1671-72), “The Gentle Man”,
“Dancing Master” (1672), “The Country wife”, (1674), and “The Plain Dealer” (1676).
George Etherege was the remarkable comedy writer of
the Restoration period. His three famous comedies are—“The comical Revenge or
Love in Tub (1664), She would it she cou’d and Man of Mode or Sir Fopling Flutter
(1676).
Sir John Vanbrugh is one of the
greatest comedy writers of the Restoration period. His best three comedies
are--- The Relapse, The Provok’d wife and the
confederacy. George Farqubon is another
comedy writer who wrote seven plays and best of which are the cast two – The Recruiting officer and The Beaux Stratagen
Thomas Shadwell was the remarkable comedy writer of the Restoration
period and his best comedies are--- The Sullen Lovers,
The Squire of Alsatia and Bury Fair.
From the above discussion, we can say that Restoration drama
was a mixture both of comedy and tragedy and the characteristics of the
Restoration drama was quite different from Elizabethan drama.
Note: Dear students, here red symbol words are not being rechecked.
All the best, by Podmeswar