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.