Restoration Comedy: Crises of Desire and Identity Restoration Comedy: Crises of Desire and Identity
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John Dryden and the Late 17Th Century Dramatic Experience Lecture 16 (C) by Asher Ashkar Gohar 1 Credit Hr
JOHN DRYDEN AND THE LATE 17TH CENTURY DRAMATIC EXPERIENCE LECTURE 16 (C) BY ASHER ASHKAR GOHAR 1 CREDIT HR. JOHN DRYDEN (1631 – 1700) HIS LIFE: John Dryden was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who was made England's first Poet Laureate in 1668. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the “Age of Dryden”. The son of a country gentleman, Dryden grew up in the country. When he was 11 years old the Civil War broke out. Both his father’s and mother’s families sided with Parliament against the king, but Dryden’s own sympathies in his youth are unknown. About 1644 Dryden was admitted to Westminster School, where he received a predominantly classical education under the celebrated Richard Busby. His easy and lifelong familiarity with classical literature begun at Westminster later resulted in idiomatic English translations. In 1650 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took his B.A. degree in 1654. What Dryden did between leaving the university in 1654 and the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 is not known with certainty. In 1659 his contribution to a memorial volume for Oliver Cromwell marked him as a poet worth watching. His “heroic stanzas” were mature, considered, sonorous, and sprinkled with those classical and scientific allusions that characterized his later verse. This kind of public poetry was always one of the things Dryden did best. On December 1, 1663, he married Elizabeth Howard, the youngest daughter of Thomas Howard, 1st earl of Berkshire. -
Aphra Behn: Libertine? Or Marital Reformer?
Aphra Behn: Libertine? Or Marital Reformer? A History, with an Examination of Several Plays and Fictions By Florence Irene Munson Rouse in Partial Fulfillment for the Degree of Master ofArts in English May 12, 1998 Thesis Adviser: Iit. William C. Home Aphra Behn: Libertine? Or Marital Refiormer? A Histqry with an Examinjation ofSeveral Prays and Fictions This Thesis for the M.A. degree in English by Florence Irene Munson Rouse has been approved for the Graduate Faculty by Supervisor: Reader: Date: Aphra Behn was an important female vliter in the Restoration era. She wrote twenty or more plays which were produced on the London stage, as well as a dozen or more novels, several volumes ofpoetry, and numerous translations. She was the flrSt WOman VIiter tO Cam her living byher pen. After she became successful, a concerted attack was made on her, alleging a libertine life and inmoral behavior. Gradually, her life work was expunged from the seventeenth-century literary canon based on this alleged lifestyle. Since little factual information is available about her her life, critics have been happyto invent various scenarios. The only true understanding ofher attitudes is found in the reading ofher plays, not to establish autobiographical facts, but to understandher attitudes. Based on the evidence inher many depictions oflibertine men in her satirical comedies, she disliked male libertines and foundtheir behavior deplorable. in plays and poetry, her longing for a new social order in which men and women micht love andrespect one another in freely chosen wedlock is the dominant theme. Far from being libertine, Aphra Behn is an early pioneer for companionate marriage. -
The Eighteenth-Century Playbill at Scale
Archives, Numbers, Meaning: The Eighteenth-Century Playbill at Scale Mark Vareschi and Mattie Burkert In response to the growing prominence of quantifcation in the humanities, scholars of media and digital culture have highlighted the friction between the cultural and disciplinary roles of data and the epistemologies of humanistic inquiry. Johanna Drucker aptly characterizes the humanities as felds that emphasize “the situated, partial, and constitutive character of knowledge production,” while data are often taken to be representations of “observer-independent reality.”1 Lisa Gitelman and Virginia Jackson likewise critique the dominant assumption of data’s transparency: data, they insist, “are always already ‘cooked’ and never entirely ‘raw.’”2 The choices involved in data collection and preparation are not objective; they are shaped by the always subjective, often tacit, and sometimes shared presuppositions of the domain-specialist researcher. Practitioners of computational approaches to literature have shown that analyzing large corpora of texts “at a distance” may reveal phenomena not readily accessible through close reading of individual texts.3 Yet, the notion of distance fosters an illusion Mark Vareschi is an assistant professor in the Department of English at the University of Wisconsin– Madison. His work in eighteenth-century literature and culture is situated at the intersection of literary history, media studies, performance studies, and digital humanities. He has published articles in Eng- lish Literary History, Eighteenth-Century Life, and Authorship. He is currently completing a monograph on authorial anonymity and mediation in eighteenth-century Britain. Mattie Burkert is an assistant professor in the Department of English at Utah State University. She is currently at work on a monograph that examines the relationship between public finance and the London theatre during the decades following the 1688 Revolution Settlement. -
Restoration Comedy.Pdf
RESTORATION COMEDY (1660- 1700) For B.A. Honours Part- 1 Paper – 1 (Content compiled for Academic Purpose only from http://www.theatrehistory.com/ and other websites duly credited) Content compiled by- Dr. Amritendu Ghosal Assistant Professor Department of English Anugrah Memorial College Gaya. Email- [email protected] Topics Covered- 1. INTRODUCTION TO THE RESTORATION AGE 2. NATURE OF RESTORATION COMEDY 3. WOMEN PLAYWRIGHTS 4. APPEARANCE OF WOMEN ON THE ENGLISH STAGE 5. PERSISTENCE OF ELIZABETHAN PLAYS 6. PARODY OF HEROIC DRAMA 7. COLLIER'S ATTACK ON THE STAGE (Image from haikudeck.com) "THEN came the gallant protest of the Restoration, when Wycherley and his successors in drama commenced to write of contemporary life in much the spirit of modern musical comedy. A new style of comedy was improvised, which, for lack of a better term, we may agree to call the comedy of Gallantry, and which Etherege, Shadwell, and Davenant, and Crowne, and Wycherley, and divers others, laboured painstakingly to perfect. They probably exercised to the full reach of their powers when they hammered into grossness their too fine witticisms just smuggled out of France, mixed them with additional breaches of decorum, and divided the results into five acts. For Gallantry, it must be repeated, was yet in its crude youth. For Wycherley and his confreres were the first Englishmen to depict mankind as leading an existence with no moral outcome. It was their sorry distinction to be the first of English authors to present a world of unscrupulous persons who entertained no special prejudices, one way or the other, as touched ethical matters." -- JAMES BRANCH CABELL, Beyond Life. -
FRENCH INFLUENCES on ENGLISH RESTORATION THEATRE a Thesis
FRENCH INFLUENCES ON ENGLISH RESTORATION THEATRE A thesis submitted to the faculty of San Francisco State University In partial fulfillment of A the requirements for the Degree 2oK A A Master of Arts * In Drama by Anne Melissa Potter San Francisco, California Spring 2016 Copyright by Anne Melissa Potter 2016 CERTIFICATION OF APPROVAL I certify that I have read French Influences on English Restoration Theatre by Anne Melissa Potter, and that in my opinion this work meets the criteria for approving a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree Master of Arts: Drama at San Francisco State University. Bruce Avery, Ph.D. < —•— Professor of Drama "'"-J FRENCH INFLUENCES ON RESTORATION THEATRE Anne Melissa Potter San Francisco, California 2016 This project will examine a small group of Restoration plays based on French sources. It will examine how and why the English plays differ from their French sources. This project will pay special attention to the role that women played in the development of the Restoration theatre both as playwrights and actresses. It will also examine to what extent French influences were instrumental in how women develop English drama. I certify that the abstract rrect representation of the content of this thesis PREFACE In this thesis all of the translations are my own and are located in the footnote preceding the reference. I have cited plays in the way that is most helpful as regards each play. In plays for which I have act, scene and line numbers I have cited them, using that information. For example: I.ii.241-244. -
Jane Milling
ORE Open Research Exeter TITLE ‘“For Without Vanity I’m Better Known”: Restoration Actors and Metatheatre on the London Stage.’ AUTHORS Milling, Jane JOURNAL Theatre Survey DEPOSITED IN ORE 18 March 2013 This version available at http://hdl.handle.net/10036/4491 COPYRIGHT AND REUSE Open Research Exeter makes this work available in accordance with publisher policies. A NOTE ON VERSIONS The version presented here may differ from the published version. If citing, you are advised to consult the published version for pagination, volume/issue and date of publication Theatre Survey 52:1 (May 2011) # American Society for Theatre Research 2011 doi:10.1017/S0040557411000068 Jane Milling “FOR WITHOUT VANITY,I’M BETTER KNOWN”: RESTORATION ACTORS AND METATHEATRE ON THE LONDON STAGE Prologue, To the Duke of Lerma, Spoken by Mrs. Ellen[Nell], and Mrs. Nepp. NEPP: How, Mrs. Ellen, not dress’d yet, and all the Play ready to begin? EL[LEN]: Not so near ready to begin as you think for. NEPP: Why, what’s the matter? ELLEN: The Poet, and the Company are wrangling within. NEPP: About what? ELLEN: A prologue. NEPP: Why, Is’t an ill one? NELL[ELLEN]: Two to one, but it had been so if he had writ any; but the Conscious Poet with much modesty, and very Civilly and Sillily—has writ none.... NEPP: What shall we do then? ’Slife let’s be bold, And speak a Prologue— NELL[ELLEN]: —No, no let us Scold.1 When Samuel Pepys heard Nell Gwyn2 and Elizabeth Knipp3 deliver the prologue to Robert Howard’s The Duke of Lerma, he recorded the experience in his diary: “Knepp and Nell spoke the prologue most excellently, especially Knepp, who spoke beyond any creature I ever heard.”4 By 20 February 1668, when Pepys noted his thoughts, he had known Knipp personally for two years, much to the chagrin of his wife. -
The English-Speaking Aristophanes and the Languages of Class Snobbery 1650-1914
Pre-print of Hall, E. in Aristophanes in Performance (Legenda 2005) The English-Speaking Aristophanes and the Languages of Class Snobbery 1650-1914 Edith Hall Introduction In previous chapters it has been seen that as early as the 1650s an Irishman could use Aristophanes to criticise English imperialism, while by the early 19th century the possibility was being explored in France of staging a topical adaptation of Aristophanes. In 1817, moreover, Eugene Scribe could base his vaudeville show Les Comices d’Athènes on Ecclesiazusae. Aristophanes became an important figure for German Romantics, including Hegel, after Friedrich von Schlegel had in 1794 published his fine essay on the aesthetic value of Greek comedy. There von Schlegel proposed that the Romantic ideals of Freedom and Joy (Freiheit, Freude) are integral to all art; since von Schlegel regarded comedy as containing them to the highest degree, for him it was the most democratic of all art forms. Aristophanic comedy made a fundamental contribution to his theory of a popular genre with emancipatory potential. One result of the philosophical interest in Aristophanes was that in the early decades of the 18th century, until the 1848 revolution, the German theatre itself felt the impact of the ancient comic writer: topical Lustspiele displayed interest in his plays, which provided a model for German poets longing for a political comedy, for example the remarkable satirical trilogy Napoleon by Friedrich Rückert (1815-18). This international context illuminates the experiences undergone by Aristophanic comedy in England, and what became known as Britain consequent upon the 1707 Act of Union. -
Human Sacrifice and Seventeenth- Century Economics: Otway's Venice
id3316428 pdfMachine by Broadgun Software - a great PDF writer! - a great PDF creator! - http://www.pdfmachine.com http://www.broadgun.com HUMAN SACRIFICE AND SEVENTEENTH- CENTURY ECONOMICS: OTWAY’S VENICE PRESERV’D Derek Hughes University of Warwick Whereas human sacrifice in Virgil in inseparable from Aeneas’ mission, Tasso and his imitators repeatedly oppose Christian imperialism to the practice of human sacrifice, and see such imperialism as culminating in the abolition of cannibalistic sacrifice in the New World. The contrary view?? That European civilization itself embodied forms of sacrificial barbarity appears not only in the well-known condemnations of conquistador atrocities but, in England, in critical accounts of the growing culture of measurement, enumeration, and monetary exchange. Answering the contention that the East Indies trade did not justify the sacrifice of lives that it entailed, Dudley Digges responded by citing Neptune’s justification in the Aeneid of the sacrifice of Palinurusto the cause of empire: “unum pro multis [dabitur caput].” Not all authors were, however, so complacent. Particularly in the late seventeenth-century, authors such as Dryden, Otway, and Aphra Behn came to see the burgeoning trading economy as embodying systems of exchange which, in reducing the individual to an economic cipher, recreated the primal exchanges of human sacrifice. In Venice Preserv’d (1682), for example, Otway depicts an advanced, seventeenth-century trading empire, initially regulated by clocks, calendars, documents, and coinage. As the play proceeds, these are increasingly revealed to be elaborations of more primitive forms of exchange. A perpetually imminent regression to pre-social anarchy is staved off by what Otway portrays as the originary forms of economic transaction: the submissive offering of weapons to potential foes (daggers change hands far more often than coins) or the offering of the body in the act of human sacrifice. -
"Play Your Fan": Exploring Hand Props and Gender on the Restoration Stage Through the Country Wife, the Man of Mode, the Rover, and the Way of the World
Columbus State University CSU ePress Theses and Dissertations Student Publications 2011 "Play Your Fan": Exploring Hand Props and Gender on the Restoration Stage Through the Country Wife, the Man of Mode, the Rover, and the Way of the World Jarred Wiehe Columbus State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://csuepress.columbusstate.edu/theses_dissertations Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Wiehe, Jarred, ""Play Your Fan": Exploring Hand Props and Gender on the Restoration Stage Through the Country Wife, the Man of Mode, the Rover, and the Way of the World" (2011). Theses and Dissertations. 148. https://csuepress.columbusstate.edu/theses_dissertations/148 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Publications at CSU ePress. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of CSU ePress. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from LYRASIS Members and Sloan Foundation http://archive.org/details/playyourfanexploOOwieh "Play your fan": Exploring Hand Props and Gender on the Restoration Stage Through The Country Wife, The Man of Mode, The Rover, and The Way of the World By Jarred Wiehe A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of Requirements of the CSU Honors Program For Honors in the Degree of Bachelor of Arts In English Literature, College of Letters and Sciences, Columbus State University x Thesis Advisor Date % /Wn l ^ Committee Member Date Rsdftn / ^'7 CSU Honors Program Director C^&rihp A Xjjs,/y s z.-< r Date <F/^y<Y'£&/ Wiehe 1 'Play your fan': Exploring Hand Props and Gender on the Restoration Stage through The Country Wife, The Man ofMode, The Rover, and The Way of the World The full irony and wit of Restoration comedies relies not only on what characters communicate to each other, but also on what they communicate to the audience, both verbally and physically. -
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JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES – VOLUME 17 (2019), 127-147. http://doi.org/10.18172/jes.3565 “DWINDLING DOWN TO FARCE”?: APHRA BEHN’S APPROACH TO FARCE IN THE LATE 1670S AND 80S JORGE FIGUEROA DORREGO1 Universidade de Vigo [email protected] ABSTRACT. In spite of her criticism against farce in the paratexts of The Emperor of the Moon (1687), Aphra Behn makes an extensive use of farcical elements not only in that play and The False Count (1681), which are actually described as farces in their title pages, but also in Sir Patient Fancy (1678), The Feign’d Curtizans (1679), and The Second Part of The Rover (1681). This article contends that Behn adapts French farce and Italian commedia dell’arte to the English Restoration stage mostly resorting to deception farce in order to trick old husbands or fathers, or else foolish, hypocritical coxcombs, and displaying an impressive, skilful use of disguise and impersonation. Behn also turns widely to physical comedy, which is described in detail in stage directions. She appropriates farce in an attempt to please the audience, but also in the service of her own interests as a Tory woman writer. Keywords: Aphra Behn, farce, commedia dell’arte, Restoration England, deception, physical comedy. 1 The author wishes to acknowledge funding for his research from the Spanish government (MINECO project ref. FFI2015-68376-P), the Junta de Andalucía (project ref. P11-HUM-7761) and the Xunta de Galicia (Rede de Lingua e Literatura Inglesa e Identidade III, ref. ED431D2017/17). 127 Journal of English Studies, vol. 17 (2019) 127-147 Jorge Figueroa DORREGO “DWINDLING DOWN TO FARCE”?: LA APROXIMACIÓN DE APHRA BEHN A LA FARSA EN LAS DÉCADAS DE 1670 Y 1680 RESUMEN. -
Drama Theatre Performance Ebook
DRAMA THEATRE PERFORMANCE PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Simon Shepherd,Mick Wallis | 272 pages | 01 Nov 2004 | Taylor & Francis Ltd | 9780415234948 | English | London, United Kingdom Drama Theatre Performance PDF Book Five comic dramatists competed at the City Dionysia though during the Peloponnesian War this may have been reduced to three , each offering a single comedy. Our live performances are the ticket to a great evening spent in Downtown Hammond. The comedies of the golden s and s peak times are significantly different from each other. Southeastern Louisiana University Hammond, Louisiana 1. View all posts. It was patronized by the kings as well as village assemblies. Indian English Drama. Pandey, Sudhakar, and Freya Taraporewala, eds. The project may engage creative practice, but the thesis itself will be a critical, written work engaging the research and dramaturgy involved in the performance or artwork. Hence this is the only generation after Amanat and Agha Hashr who actually write for stage and not for libraries. English Moral Interludes. Theatre portal. The Application Deadline is March 10th for the first round of auditions; August 10th for the second round. Mime is a form of drama where the action of a story is told only through the movement of the body. Prof Hasan, Ghulam Jeelani, J. Toggle navigation Navigation Menu. Sanskrit Theatre in Performance. The First The First. Everyman , for example, includes such figures as Good Deeds, Knowledge and Strength, and this characterisation reinforces the conflict between good and evil for the audience. -
The Heroic Tragedy
The Heroic Tragedy Heroic Tragedy is a name given to the form of tragedy which had some vogue in the beginning of the Restoration period (1660-1700). It was drama in the epic mode – grand, rhetorical and declamatory at its best and often bombastic at its worst. Its themes were love and honour, and it was considerably influenced by French classical drama, especially by the works of Corneille and Racine. John Dryden thus defined it in the preface to The Conquest of Granada (1672) : “ An heroic play ought to be an imitation, in little, of an heroic poem ; and consequently … love and valour ought to be the subject of it”. In these plays, as in an epic, the protagonist is a large-scale warrior whose actions involve the fate of an empire. A noble hero and an equally noble heroine are typically placed in a situation in which their passionate love is in conflict with the demands of honour and with the hero’s patriotic duty to his country. When the conflict ends in a disaster, the effect is a tragedy. Heroic drama was staged in a spectacular and operatic fashion, and in it one can detect the influences of opera which, at this time, was establishing itself. The two main early works of this genre were The Siege of Rhodes (1656) and The Spaniards in Peru (1658) by Sir William Davenant who was virtually the pioneer of English opera and who promoted heroic drama. The main plays thereafter were Robert Howard’s The Indian Queen (1665) and those by Dryden.