The Way of the World the Restoration Comedy of Manners Takes Its Origin

158 Chapter 4. CONGREVE: The Way of the World The Restoration Comedy of Manners takes its origin from 6oth) Jonson's English comedy of humours^s welfa^ the French comedy of Moliere. It is almost completely social in its concern and deals with the kind of appearances that make up the matrix of drawing room interaction. Like the characters in The Misanthrope, those who throng the parlours and parks of The Way of the World (1700) are also members of upper class society. When the people of England invited Charles Stuart to return to his country and grace the throne, he brought with him the lifestyle and manners that had become second nature to him and his group of nobles in exile in France. The ostentatious adoption of French styles and ideas by the aristocracy marked the deliberate distancing of Restoration England from the character of Cromwellian England. It would be possible to describe Puritan England as a phase in English history that corresponds to a culture inclined to earnestness rather than play, as Huizinga would put it. The concept of play was alien to the Puritan mind. Utilitarianism and functionality were the key notions: there was no place for frills, fripperies and entertainment, and a rigid code of morality was imposed. While Puritan England outlawed frivolous fashion and all forms of play in the world of entertainment - theatre, music, dancing - these were brought back resoundingly and even positively enshrined by the patronage extended by Charles after he was crowned. The performing arts became popular pastimes for the rich and idle who had plenty of time and inclination to play. The artifice and stylization of the sort of social behaviour considered appropriate in high society made interaction a fine and artistic form of play. The self-conscious and theatrical manner in which society ladies used the fan, the parasol and smelling salts and gentlemen used the snuff box and cane indicates a well developed awareness of their potential as stage props for an actor. The popularity of the wig and the elaborate 159 costumes worn by both men and women speak of the integration of play at every level of activity. Outstanding as an example of play is the witty conversation that is the ultimate hallmark of the "Wit", the highest apotheosis of Restoration culture. When Millamant talks of ^curling her hair using love letters written in verse, both the procedure and the arch description are examples of play. An open moral climate (and even the amoral attitudes of an Epicurean skepticism born of a reaction against Puritanism) made for an enviable degree of play available in the norms of behaviour. Rejecting conventional Christian morality, the Restoration gentry decided to adopt the carpe diem philosophy and live (and play) for the moment. While the effort of a Witwoud to approximate the role of Wit might be considered "work" because it is undertaken to achieve something (a certain status) rather than enjoyed for itself, the social life of a natural Wit is to be seen as "play* since it is an end in itself. There might be a convergence of work and play in agonistic struggles to achieve supremacy which imply both effort to attain a particular reputation and the exhilarating pleasure of the contest. High society, taken as subject in Restoration Comedy, was extremely fashion conscious and imitation of the current mode was a matter of some priority for the beau monde. These people worked hard at projecting an image of effortless wit. The important thing about dissembling the fashion ideal is that it should be imitated to exactly the right extent - this is where fancy and judgment must amalgamate in perfect proportions to create a graceful product. Those who dissemble too much (fops), those who cannot imitate well enough and those who lack the youth to appear graceful in their roles are all uniformly mocked. In this image obsessed era role playing verily attains the level of an art form. This is "role-governed play*, as Bernard Suits describes it, as opposed to "goal-governed 160 play"' and skill in imitation is the crux of it. However, when entry into a certain group or a certain level of society becomes a touchstone of acceptance, a goal too is discerned in the activity. Since the playwrights were themselves of the beau monde, their attitude was usually indulgent to the dissemblers and did not condemn but rather admired those who conformed to the social mores and maintained their chosen roles with distinction. The young aristocracy was in a state of euphoria: the impossible had happened - they had been welcomed back to England and received their property and titles again. They expressed their contempt for the middle class earnestness of the "commonwealth" era by indulging and even flaunting their extravagant lifestyle and manners. Thus heroes like Dorimant, Harcourt, Valentine and Mirabell are celebrated for their exquisite taste in dress, their fine manners and their wit. The hero's group includes only those who can imitate and conform to the rules of the game perfectly. Yet, at the same time, we are given the feeling that they sometimes despise the artificiality of their lives. Thus Dorimant refuses the perfumes offered by his valet and declares that he will smell like himself that day.^ Similarly Harriet will have nothing to do with "powdering", "painting" and "patching" and even threatens to "shake [her curls] all out of order" if her maid continues her fussing (49). As Glasgow points out, such characters who deliberately and consciously reject a mask are likely to be admired for their openness. On the other hand, those who unwittingly drop it are likely to be butts of ridicule.^ Over-affectation ' Bernard Suits, The Grasshopper: Games. Life and Utopia (1978; Boston: Nonparen, 1990) 91. 2 George Etherege, The Man of Mode, ed. W.B. Camochan (London: Edward Arnold, 1967) 22. Dorimant: "I will smell as I do today, no offense to the ladies' noses." All subsequent references are to this edition and page numbers are given in parentheses. 161 is a fault for sure - so that Sir Fopling Flutter is ridiculed for carrying the dictates of fashion too far. But the numerous country folk who cannot adopt the city modes fully enough also become butts of satire. The ideal pose is his who can wear his artificial manners naturally or, in other words, the player with the grace of the born actor. There is no concept of (wrongful) deception involved here, merely an entire society's commitment to a certain ideal which they naturally attempted, to the best of their individual abilities, to achieve. There is certainly an aura of agon in their social game and role playing since each actor seeks to put in a good performance and gain the limelight to play a stellar role in his milieu. Those who are accepted as members of the inner circle achieve a sense of superiority and recognition, the experience of receiving the "strokes" that Eric Berne speaks of as the reason behind man's playing of games. The Restoration age, preoccupied with the notion of play in its several manifestations, spawned a drama depicting its own unique perspective on love, sex and marriage in an upper class urban setting. Masks and disguises form a natural part of the wardrobe of these characters as never before. The characters are sophisticated wits or would-be wits and sport an attitude of trendy skepticism. Courtship is curiously devoid of tenderness and romance, but is rather a matter of smart verbal sparring. Palmer is justified in declaring that "sex in Congreve is a battle of the wits" rather than "a battlefield of the emotions".^ It is through the superficial "verbal pyrotechnics"^ that we are to gauge the nature of the emotions that lie beneath. Thus the Restoration wits and sparks use language as a 3 R.D.V. Glasgow, Madness, Masks and Laughter: An Essay on Comedy (London: Associated Universities Press, 1995) 162. '' John Palmer, quoted by Bonamy Dobree, Restoration Drama 1660 - 1720 (1924; London: Oxford U P, 1970) 23. ^ Dobree, Restoration Drama 236 162 kind of mask that they superimpose upon the real personality. Their witty exchanges are a subtle version of the agonistic verbal battles Huizinga mentions as one variety of human play through which man tries to assert his superiority.^' The metaphor of clothes (or ornament) is often used by Dryden, for instance, for language in his essays, indicating that speech is a covering for the real substance that lies within. This is exactly how Harold Pinter's characters were to use language three centuries later in the "postmodern" manifestation of the comedy of manners. Like other Restoration comedies, Congreve's too reveal the contemporary interest in role playing. His plays make use of the popular motif of the mask, and the multiple intrigues depicted often involve dissembling and play acting on the part of the characters. Richard Bevis has, in fact, called the mask the "central symbol of Restoration theatre".^ The practice of introducing masks and disguises continued to be popular since it had established itself as a common practice in real life. Holland says that "First, there was an increasing belief that the personality is hard to know under the appearances it puts on; second, affectation (semi-conscious pretense) was uniformly condemned; third, dissimulation (conscious pretense) tended increasingly to be accepted as a necessity."^ The Restoration writers were in contact with members of the Royal Society and new scientific findings which encouraged the notion of a separation of appearance and reality came to be accepted by them and the idea incorporated in their work.

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