RESTORATION

LITERATURE
 -the restoration/reestablishment of monarchy
under the reign of Charles II (1660-1685).
 -the supremacy of reason, common sense and
practicality ₌ strong desire of research in all
domains
 -in its desire for order it announced the period of
classicism
 -the return to a society dominated by an
atmosphere of refinement + a greater importance
to the Royal Court to the detriment of the
Parliament.
 -many of the returned Cavaliers had become
expert in French wit, gallantry/bravery and
courtesy
 -the Court Wits set the tone for the literature of
the period (the dramatic comedy)
 -they wrote as amateur versifiers for their own
amusement (their witty and polished verses = the
courtly literary fashion of the time)
 -Sir George Etherege and William Wycherley
were also members of the Court circle of Wits
 -Restoration acknowledged 2 ideals : the amoral
wit and hedonism (best reflected in the
Restoration comedy limited to the courtly circles
in London.)
 -Restoration literature was metropolitan (people
from the country are generally ridiculed)
 -Restoration= the reopening of the theatres, of
public festivals and popular entertainment= a
come-back to enjoying life to the full
 -the hedonistic outlook on life = extreme
licentiousness
 -the development of science, of the spirit of
research = the founding of the Royal Society for
the improvement of Knowledge
 -Restoration generated a new type of literature -
the outbursts of passion were subordinated to
reason.
 -Restoration drama was a class drama devoted to
the cultivation of the upper-class fundamental
values and beliefs.
 -the Elizabethan and Jacobean comedy strongly
influenced the Restoration comedy of manners:
the typical wit combat between the sexes and the
attack on marriage
 -The first accomplished Restoration dramatist
was Sir George Etherege (1634-1691)
 -The Comical Revenge, or, Love in a Tub, 1664,
combined a comic plot with a heroic subplot; it
presents the intricacies of conflicting passions
and affections (a series of rapidly changing
situations )
 -In She Would if She Could, 1668- the
conventional Rest battle between male lust and
female prudence/judiciousness
 -a variety of comic and foolish characters :
country knights or lustful wives
 -The Man of Mode, or Sir Fopling Flutter, 1676, is
Etherege’s most notable comedy
 -The wit-combats between Dorimant and Harriet
take the form of witty negotiation: terms of desire
and prudence, surrender and freedom, are
permanently mediated.
 William Congreve (1670-1729)
 -The Old Bachelor (1693) -the characteristic
Restoration attitude to marriage is given voice in
the characters, Heartwell, the old lusty bachelor,
and Fondlewife, the jealous bourgeois husband.
 -Love for Love, 1695, resembles more the
Jonsonian comedy of humours than the
Restoration comedy of manners.
 - The element of satire belongs to the Restoration
mentality: the scene where Prue, the country girl
learns the importance of saying one thing and
doing another, denounces the contrast between
public reputation and private behavior.
 -The Way of the World , 1700, was Congreve’s
finest comedy.
 -It contains standard situations of Rest. comedy
and standard characters: the witty pair of lovers,
the amorous widow, the would-be wit, the
country squire, intrigues and adulteries and all
habitual tensions between desire and reputation.
 -the dialogue and the scenes = a high sense of
order and balance; half-amused, half-sad tone
 -a partly sorrowful, partly compassionate
awareness of the ambiguities of life
 - a more serious comedy : hero and heroine keep
on playing their social games (fundamental
truths about the sadness of human condition)
 - human nature has both a tragic and a comic
face
 - Congreve’s comedies achieve the balance
between ludic (playful) and satiric comedy
(exposes human folly to ridicule) - a rational and
unsentimental approach to love.
 -main aim of Restoration comedy aims to deal
with society/ types rather than individuals; it
depicts the conflicts bet metropolitan and
provincial manners
 JOHN DRYDEN (1631-1700)

 -Dryden was the founder of the “new

versification”: “There was before the time of
Dryden no poetical diction, no system of words at
once refined from the grossness of domestic use,
and free from the harshness of terms
appropriated to particular arts.” (Samuel
Johnson)
 -His poetic style is both elevated and colloquial-
one of the landmarks of English poetry.
 -His literary career highly reflects his classical
education and his intense study of Greek and
Latin (control in the handling of the heroic
couplet is a characteristic feature of his best
writing)

 -his youthful elegy, “Upon the Death of the Lord
of Hastings”- is heavy in versification and
strongly artificial in the handling of conceits.
 -he wrote official verses on the death of Cromwell
“Heroic Stanzas on the Death of the
Protector.”(1659). (written in quatrains; the
rhyme is alternating; it lacks natural ease and
imagination)
 -he wrote a poem praising Charles II “Astraea
Redux” (Star Returning)- it welcoms the happy
Restoration;
 -it is written in heroic couplets; it contains many
poetic devices -similes and metaphors.