Restoration Comedy: Crises of Desire and Identity Restoration Comedy: Crises of Desire and Identity

Home , Aphra Behn, Restoration comedy, Thomas Otway, Thomas Southerne

RESTORATION COMEDY: CRISES OF DESIRE AND IDENTITY RESTORATION COMEDY: CRISES OF DESIRE AND IDENTITY

Edward Burns

Lecturer in English University of Liverpool

Palgrave Macmillan ISBN 978-1-349-18762-1 ISBN 978-1-349-18760-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-18760-7 © Edward Bums, 1987 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1987 978-0-333-39747-3

First published in the United States of America in 1987

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bums, Edward, 1955- Restoration comedy. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. English drama-Restoration, 1660-170~History and criticism. 2. English drama (Comedy)-History and criticism. 3. Literature and society-England-History -17th century. 4. Social history in literature. 5. London (England) in literature. I. Title. PR698.C6B86 1987 822'0523'09 86--11827 ISBN 978-0-312-67789-3 Contents

Preface vii

Introduction What Is Restoration Comedy? 1 Jonsonian Moralists, and Caroline Decorum 2 'A Lantskip of These Kingdoms' 5 The Scene, London; the Time Equal to that of the Presentation 13

1 FROM 'DECORUM' TO 'NATURE' - ETHEREGE AND THE WITS 19 Comedies of Restoration 19 Park and Playhouse 25 Comedies 'a la Mode' 36

2 WILLIAM WYCHERLEY 48

3 'THE WITS GARDEN' - COURT FORMS AND LIBERTINE PHILOSOPHIES 63

4 PROFESSIONAL DRAMATISTS - SHADWELL AND CROWNE 87 Shadwell and the Wits 87 John Crowne 100

5 THOMAS OTWAY 109

6 APHRA BEHN 123

7 MARRIAGE AND THE COMEDY OF THE 1690s - DRYDEN'S AMPHITRYON AND CROWNE'S THE MARRIED BEAU 142

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8 THE ETHEREGEAN REVIVAL - SOUTHERNE, CIBBER AND VANBRUGH 156 Thomas Southerne 157 Cibber and Vanbrugh 165

9 CONGREVE 183

10 THE LAST RESTORATION COMEDIES - FARQUHAR, CENTLIVRE AND STEELE 212

Conclusion: Newgate Pastoral - John Gay and The Beggars Opera' 237

Appendix: a Chronological Checklist of Plays 245

Notes 252

Bibliography 272

Index 274 Preface

The stage comedy of the late seventeenth century has a curious status in English studies. As 'Restoration comedy' it has enjoyed a continuous and popular theatrical currency and a secure place in literary history - at least as school and university syllabi define it. Until recently, however, the attention paid to it by literary criticism has been sparse and grudging. An impressive body of American work has mapped out the field in factual and statistical detail, but here too the effect has too often been to marginalize the plays as objects of literary study. What follows is an account of Restoration comedy. The introduc• tion offers an historical definition of the form, while the following chapters make up a narrative of its development. This 'narrative' proceeds as a series of readings of individual texts and of writers' careers. By reconsidering Restoration comedy critically and historically, I hope to open up a series of texts, some still popular, many ob• scure, to sympathetic and attentive interpretation, as well as to suggest a new evaluation of the form and of that larger historical phenomenon - a Restoration 'culture' - of which the plays are a part. What is Restoration comedy? Or, as Robert Hume would put it, 'is Restoration comedy?' (in 'The Development of Ellglish Drama in the Late Seventeenth Century'.)l What pleasures do the plays offer us, what pleasures did they offer their immediate audience, and what might such pleasures mean? Simple questions, but too rarely posed, let alone answered. The genesis of this book was a thesis supervised by Anne Barton, whose very positive encouragement pushed the work forward at crucial stages in its tentative early development. I'm very grateful for this, and for the range of knowledge and interest she brought to bear on it. I'd like also to thank Louise Aylward, for typing early stages and for her always sensible advice on structure and clarification, and the typists at Liverpool - Cathy Rees, Joan

vii viii Preface

Welford, Tina Benson and Beryl Drabble - for their patience in constructing the final Frankenstein monster of a typescript. The book is dedicated to my parents, my brothers and my sister. The author and publishers wish to thank the following who have kindly given permission for the use of copyright material: the University of Chicago Press, for the extracts from Herbert Davis (ed.), The Complete Plays of William COl1greve (1967). Note Dates in the text are, when possible, the dates of first perfor• mance. My source is The London Stage.

University of Liverpool EDWARD BURNS