The Age of Dryden

1660-1700
The Restoration Age
The Restoration 1660
The Glorious Revolution 1688
1660: Reopening of the theatres.
Restoration
 The term restoration means the restoration of monarchy. It was a restoration not merely of monarchy
but also of the Parliament and the Church of England. The restoration gave the Royalists a golden
opportunity to recover their lost power and property. The lands of the Crown, the Church and the nobles
were immediately restored to them.
 Laws were enacted to crush Puritanism and to foster the Anglican mode of worship. Socially the
Restoration was followed by a reaction to the Puritan way of life. ‘The Restoration marks the birth of our
modern English Prose.’ – Matthew Arnold
John Dryden 1631-1700
 1st neo-classical critic/ 1st comparative critic
 The greatest man of a little age ; poet laureate in 1668 / Historiographer royal in 1670.
 The Correct School of Poetry – Dryden’s school of poetry
 ‘Dryden found English poetry brick and left it a marble.’ – Dr Johnson
 ‘It is largely due to Dryden that writers developed formalism of style, that precise, almost mathematic
elegance, miscalled classicism, which ruled the English Literature for the next century.’
 ‘Who had done his best to improve the language, and especially the poetry of his country’ – Dryden
 ‘He met Mr Dryden, the poet; and he remained Mr Dryden, the poet till the day of his death.’ – Samuel
Pepys
 1685- Changed his faith, a Roman Catholic
 HEROIQUE STANZA'S ON THE DEATH OF OLIVER CROMWELL (1659)
 His first major poem on the death of Cromwell and also first published poem. A
series of heroic stanzas
 ASTRAEA REDUX (1660)
 Celebration of Charles II’s return composed in heroic couplet
 TO HIS SACRED MAJESTY
 Celebration of Charles II’s return
 ANNUS MIRABILIS (1667)
 A poem in quatrains its subjects are the Dutch War (1665-6) and the Fire of London
 ABSALOM AND ACHITOHEL (1681)
 A mock-biblical satire based on 2 Sam. 13-19
 Absalom: Duke of Manmouth Achitohel: Shaftesbury
 Zimri: duke of Buckingham David: Charles II
 Corah: Oates Shimei: Slingsby Bethel, sheriff of London
 The poem concludes with a long speech by David
 In 1682 a second part appeared mainly written by Tate and contains 200 lines by
Dryden
 He attacks two literary and political enemies -Shadwell as Og and Settle as Doeg
 THE MEDAL
 Political poem
 Shadwell and Samuel Pordage - wrote replies
 MACFLECKNOE ( MAC FLECKNOE, OR A SATYR UPON THE TRUE-BLEW-PROTESTANTPOET,
T. S.)
 A mock-epic
  Thomas Shadwell is depicted as the true successor of Mac Flecknoe, the King of the
Kingdom of nonsense.
 Inspiration for Pope's DUNCIAD
 RELIGIO LAICI (1682)
 Thesis in support of the English Church
 THE HIND AND THE PANTHER (1687)
 Allegorical defence of the Roman Catholic Faith
 Lyrical Poetry
• TO THE PIOUS MEMORY . . . OF MRS ANNE KILLIGREW (1686)
• AN ODE, ON THE DEATH OF MR HENRY PURCELL (1696)
• SONG FOR ST. CECILIA’S DAY (1687)
• ALEXANDER’S FEAST (1697)
• UPON THE DEATH OF LORD HASTINGS (1649)
• BRITANNIA REDIVIVA (1688)
• ELEONORA ( 1696)
 Plays
• THE WILD GALLANT (1663)
 First play Comedy
• THE INDIAN QUEEN (1664)
 Collaboration with Sir Robert Howard
• THE INDIAN EMPEROUR (1665)
 Subject: the Mexican ruler Montezuma
 Heroic play
• TYRANNICK LOVE (1669) or The Royal Martyr
 A heroic play
 Based on the legend of the martyrdom of St Catherine by the Roman emperor Maximin
 It contains some of Dryden's most extravagant heroic verse
 It was ridiculed in THE REHEARSAL - Shadwell
• THE RIVAL LADIES (1663/1664)
 Hybrid between the comic and heroic species of play
• SIR MARTIN MARALL (1667)
 A comedy with Collaboration with the duke of Newcastle
• AN EVENING'S LOVE (1668) or The Mock Astrologer
 A comedy
• THE CONQUEST OF GRANADA
 In two parts, 1669 and 1670
 Tragedies
• 2 groups The heroic play & Blank-Verse Tragedies
• AURENG-ZEBE (1675)
 His best rhymed heroic play
 Tragedy
 The plot is remotely based on the contemporary events by which the Mogul Aureng-Zebe
gained the empire of India from his father and his brothers.
• ALL FOR LOVE, OR THE WORLD WELL LOST (1678)
• Dramatic masterpiece Dryden's most performed and his best-known play
• Blank verse tragedy
• acknowledged imitation of Shakespeare's ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
• It concentrates on the last hours in the lives of its hero and heroine
 Tragicomedies
• SECRET LOVE (1667)
 • MARRIAGE-À-LA-MODE (1672)
 The play contains some of Dryden's finest songs
 Embodies the principles of comic writing outlined in his preface to An Evening's Love
• THE ASSIGNATION (1672)
 Plays wrote after revolution
• DON SEBASTIAN (1689)
 A tragi-comedy
 The play is based on the legend that King Sebastian of Portugal survived the battle of
Alcazar
 Dryden's most complex dramatic treatment of a number of important political,
• CLEOMENES (1692)
• LOVE TRIUMPHANT (1694)
• AMBOYNA (1673)
• MR LIMBERHAM (1679) or The Kind Keeper
 A sexually explicit comedy
• KING ARTHUR (1691)
 A dramatic opera
 Prose
• ESSAY OF DRAMATIC POESIE (1668 & 1669)
 Longest single prose work
 Major piece of English literary criticism.
 In the form of a dialogue Between Eugenius (Sackville), Crites (Sir Robert Howard), Lisideius
(Sedley), and Neander (Dryden himself)
 a boat on the Thames on the day of the battle between the English and Dutch navies in
June 1665
 Discuss the comparative merits of English and French drama
 The old and new in English drama
 Justifying Dryden's current practice as a playwright
 Contains admirable appreciations of Shakespeare, John Fletcher, and Jonson
• Adaptation of THE TEMPEST (1667)
 With D'Avenant
• Adaptation of TROILUS AND CRESSIDA (1679)
• AMPHITRYON (1690)
 A Comedy
 Adapted from the comedies of Plautus and Molière on the same subject
• Represents the story of Jupiter's seduction of Alcmena in the guise of her husband Amphitryon
• CLEOMENES (1692)
• A DEFENCE OF AN ESSAY (1668)
• HIS MAJESTY'S DECLARATION DEFENDED (1681)
• LIFE OF PLUTARCH (1683)
• VINDICATION OF THE DUKE OF GUISE (1683)
• CHARACTER OF ST EVRÉMOND (1692)
• CHARACTER OF POLYBIUS (1693)
• LIFE OF LUCIAN (1711)
 Essays
• OF HEROICK PLAYS (1672)
• HEADS OF AN ANSWER
 To Rymer written in 1677 published 1711
• THE GROUNDS OF CRITICISM IN TRAGEDY
 Prefixed to preface to TROILUS AND CRESSIDA (1679)
 • Operatic adaptation of PARADISE LOST
 Under the title THE STATE OF INNOCENCE, AND FALL OF MAN
 Translations
• Maimbourg's THE HISTORY OF THE LEAGUE (1684)
• Bouhours' LIFE OF ST FRANCIS XAVIER (1686)
• Du Fresnoy's DE ARTE GRAPHICA (1695)
•
Restoration Comedy
 Jeremy Collier I650-1726 Attacked restoration plays
o SHORT VIEW OF THE IMMORALITY AND PROFANENESS OF THE ENGLISH STAGE (1698)
• Attacked Dryden, Wycherley, Congreve, Vanbrugh, D'Urfey, and Otway
• Complaining particularly of profanity in stage dialogue and mockery of the clergy
 William Congreve 1670-1729
 Greatest of the restoration comedy writers
 Plays are a faithful reflection of the upper-class life of his day
• INCOGNITA (1691) A novel of intrigue
• THE OLD BACHELOR (1693) First comedy
o THE DOUBLE DEALER (1693)
 Best example of the Comedy of Manners
 Skillful in characterization
o LOVE FOR LOVE (1695)
o THE WAY OF THE WORLD (1700)
 THE MOURNING BRIDE (1697) Only tragedy
 William Wycherley 1640-1715
 Four plays
 ‘Manly’ plays
 LOVE IN A WOOD (1671) or, St James's Park
 His first play, A comedy of intrigue
 Set in St James's Park
 Acted in 1671, and published in 1672
 THE GENTLEMAN DANCING-MASTER (1672)
 Performed 1671, published 1673
 Loosely based on Calderón's EL MAESTRO DE DANZAR
 THE COUNTRY WIFE (1674)
 A sharp satiric Attack on social and sexual hypocrisy and greed and
on the corruption of town manners
 Attacked: Garrick's version, THE COUNTRY GIRL (1766)
 THE PLAIN DEALER (1676)
 It was highly praised by Dryden and Dennis
 Loosely based on Molière's LE MISANTHROPE
 The Plain Dealer is also the name of a periodical established by A. Hill
 George Etheredge 1635-1691
 THE COMICAL REVENGE, OR LOVE IN A TUB (1664)
 The serious part of the plot - in heroic couplets
 The comic and farcical - in prose
 SHE WOU’D IF SHE COU’D (16680
 THE MAN OF MODE, OR SIR FOPLING FLUTTER (1676)
 Sir John Vanbrugh 1664-1726
 • THE RELAPSE (1696) or Virtue in Danger
 It is an avowed continuation of LOVE’S LAST SHIFT by C. Cibber
 The play was adapted by Sheridan as A TRIP TO SCARBOROUGH
• THE PROVOK’D WIFE (1697)
• The Provok'd Husband, or A Journey to London
 A comedy by Vanbrugh, finished by C. Cibber
• THE CONFEDERACY (1705)
 adapted from Dancourt's LES BOURGEOISES À LA MODE
 George Farquhar 1678-1707
 LOVE AND A BOTTLE (1698)
 THE CONSTANT COUPLE, OR A TRIP TO THE JUBILEE (1699)
 A less successful sequel SIR HARRY WILDAIR (1701)
 THE INCONSTANT AND THE TWIN RIVALS (1702)
 THE STAGE COACH (1704) With Motteux
 THE RECRUITING OFFICER (1706)
 Used by Brecht as the basis of his PAUKEN UND TROMPETEN (1955)
 THE BEAUX’ STRATAGEM (1707)
 Thomas Shadwell 1642-1692
 Imitated Jonson’s Comedy of Humours
 Remembered for his quarrel with Dryden, dating from 1682
 He was probably the author of THE MEDAL OF JOHN BAYES (1682)
 Dryden’s counter attack: MAC FLECKNOE and ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL
 Succeeded Dryden as poet laureate and historiographer at the revolution
in 1689
 THE SULLEN LOVERS (1668)
 Based on Molière's LES FÂCHEUX
 In its preface he proclaimed himself a follower of Jonson's comedy
of humours
 THE SQUIRE OF ALSATIA (1688)
 THE VIRTUOSO (1676)
 A satire on the Royal Society
 EPSOM WELLS (1672)
 BURY FAIR (1689)
 THE ENCHANTED ISLAND (1674)
 Opera adapting Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST
 Translation of the TENTH SATIRE OF JUVENAL (1687)
 Dedicated to Sedley

Restoration Tragedy
• Thomas Otway 1651-1685
 ALCIBIADES (1675)
 DON CARLOS (1676)
 Rhymed verse
 THE ORPHAN (1680)
 Blank verse
 VENICE PRESERV􀇯D (1682) or A Plot Discovered
 Blank verse
  Antonio is a caricature of Shaftesbury
 THE CHEATS OF SCAPIN (1676)
 Adapted from a comedy by Molière
 THE HISTORY AND FALL OF CAIUS MARIUS (1679)
 An adaptation of ROMEO AND JULIET
 FRIENDSHIP IN FASHION (1681)
 THE ATHEIST (1683)
• Nathaniel Lee 1653-1692
 NERO (1674)
 SOPHONISBA (1676)
 THE RIVAL QUEENS (1677)
 The Rival Queens, or The Death of Alexander the Great
 In blank verse
 THEODOSIUS (1680)
 LUCIUS JUNIUS BRUTUS
 Banned for its anti-monarchical Speeches
 OEDIPUS (1679)
 Collaborated with Dryden
 THE DUKE OF GUISE (1682)
 THE PRINCESS OF CLEVE (1681)
 MITHRIDATES (1678)
 Collaborated with Dryden
• Elkananh Settle 1648-1724
 CAMBYSES (1667)
 THE EMPRESS OF MOROCCO (1673)
 A heroic play
 ABSALOM SENIOR, OR ACHITOPHEL TRANSPROS'D (1682)
 REFLECTIONS ON SEVERAL OF MR DRYDEN'S PLAYS (1687)
• John Crowne 1640-1703
 Attacked Dryden
 PANDION AND AMPHIGENIA (1665)
 A prose romance
 THE COUNTRY WIT (1675)
 CALISTO (1675)
 A court masque
 THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM (1677)
 CALIGULA (1698)
 THYESTES (1681)
 Blank verse
 SIR COURTLY NICE (1685)
 He was part author, with Dryden and Shadwell, of NOTES AND
OBSERVATIONS, a satirical attack on THE EMPRESS OF MOROCCO by Settle.
• Nicholas Rowe 1674-1718
 Poet Laureate 1715
 THE AMBITIOUS STEPMOTHER (1700)
 TAMERLANE (1701/2)
 THE FAIR PENITENT (1703)
 A tragedy in blank verse
  The plot of the play is that of Massinger and Field's THE FATAL DOWRY
 JANE SHORE (1714)
 ULYSSES (1705)
 THE ROYAL CONVERT (1707)
 LADY JANE GREY (1715)
 THE BITER (1704)
 Translation of Lucan (1718)
 'One of the greatest productions of English poetry' - Dr Johnson
 Rowe also did useful work as editor of Shakespeare's plays (1709),
dividing them into acts and scenes, supplying stage directions

Samuel Butler 1612-1680

 ‘The Elephant in the Moon’
o Satirical poem
o An attack on the Royal Society
 CHARACTERS
o Prose
 HUDIBRAS (1663)
o Biting satire on the Puritans
o Modelled upon the adventures of Don Quixote and Sancho
Panza
o In three parts, Each containing three cantos
o Part I: dated 1663, appeared in Dec. 1662
o Part II: dated 1664, was published 1663
o A revised version of both parts came out in 1674
o Part III was published 1680
o Octosyllabic
o Hudibrastic - the style of Butler's Hudibras octosyllabic couplets
and with comic rhymes
• John Bunyan 1628-1688
 GRACE ABOUNDING (1666)
 Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, or The Brief Relation of the
Exceeding
 Mercy of God in Christ to his Poor Servant John Bunyan
o A Puritan conversion Narrative
o Religious autobiography / spiritual autobiography
 THE HOLY CITY, OR THE NEW JERUSALEM (1665)
o Inspired by a passage in the Book of Revelation
 A CONFESSION OF MY FAITH, AND A REASON OF MY PRACTICE (1672)
 THE PILGRIM’S PROGRESS (1678)
o from This World to That Which Is to Come
o a prose allegory
o Part I: published 1678
o Part II: 1684
o In the form of a dream by the author
o Pt I: describes Christian’s pilgrimage through the Slough of
Despond, the Interpreter's House, the House Beautiful, the
 Valley of Humiliation, the Valley of the Shadow of Death, Vanity
Fair, Doubting Castle, the Delectable Mountains, the country
of Beulah, to the Celestial City.
o On the way he encounters various allegorical personages,
among them Mr Worldly Wiseman, Faithful (who accompanies
Christian on his way but is put to death in Vanity Fair), Hopeful
(who next joins Christian), Giant Despair, the foul fiend
Apollyon, and many others.
o Pt II relates how Christian's wife Christiana, moved by a vision,
sets out with her children on the same pilgrimage,
accompanied by her neighbour Mercy, despite the objections
of Mrs Timorous and others.
o It was a seminal text in the development of the realistic novel
o Symbolism influenced Dickens, Trollope, and Thackeray
 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MR. BADMAN (1680)
o Allegorical in form of dialogue
 THE HOLY WAR (1682)

• Lord Halifax 1633-1695 ('Jotham' of Dryden's ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL)

 Political tracts
 THE CHARACTER OF A TRIMMER
 A Lady's New Year's Gift, or Advice to a Daughter (1688)
o Piece of a more general character
 THE ANATOMY OF AN EQUIVALENT 1688)
o Political tract
 A LETTER TO A DISSENTER UPON OCCASION OF HIS MAJESTIES LATE
GRACIOUS DECLARATION OF INDULGENCE (1687)
 A CHARACTER OF KING CHARLES II (1750)
o Printed with POLITICAL, MORAL, AND MISCELLANEOUS REFLEXIONS
• Sir William Temple 1628-1699
 MISCELLANEA
o A series of essay on a variety of subjects, literary and general
o Published in three parts 1680, 1690 and 1701
• John Tillotson 1630-1694
 SERMONS
o ‘a standard work of its class’ - Addison
• John Locke 1632- 1704
 AN ESSAY CONCERNING HUMAN UNDERSTANDING (1690)
o Principal philosophical work
o J. S. Mill – ‘unquestioned founder of the analytic philosophy of
mind’
o The Essay is an examination of the nature of the human mind
and its powers of understanding.
o Bk I: rejects the doctrine of 'innate ideas'
o Bk II: provides an account of the origin, sorts, and extent of our
ideas
o Bk III: discusses language
 o Bk IV: defines knowledge as the perception of the agreement
or disagreement of ideas.
 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION
o Concerned with practical advice on the upbringing of 'sons of
gentlemen'
o Given to Richardson's Pamela by Mr B—, and to his son by
Chesterfield
o Their influence is seen in Rousseau's EMILE
o His greatest impact was on Sterne, who quotes him frequently
in TRISTRAM SHANDY
• The Diarists
 Samuel Pepys 1633-1703
 ‘a very worthy, industrious and curious person, none in England
exceeding him in knowledge of the navy. . . universally beloved,
hospitable, generous, learned in many things, skilled in music, a very
great cherisher of learned men’ - Evelyn
 Opens on 1660, Jan 1 and continues until May 31, 1669
 Memories relating to the state of the royal navy 1690
 John Evelyn 1620-1706
Earliest Novelist
 Mrs Aphra Behn (1640-1689)
• ORINOOKO, OR THE HISTORY OF THE ROYAL SLAVE (1698)
• Based on her visit to Surinam
• The earliest English philosophical novel