1 II SEMESTER OPTIONAL ENGLISH HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE---RESTORATION PERIOD QUESTION BANK Prepared by: 1.What marks the beginning of Restoration period? Basavesh B The Restoration of King Charles II. S.S.C.W. 2. When did Charles II return to England? TUMAKURU In 1660. 3. When did Puritan experiment collapse? After Cromwell’s death in 1658. 4. Who returned to England following the restoration of Charles II? Caveliers. 5. What did King Charles II do? He set the tone for the court wits. 6. What did the court wits of the 17th century initiate? They set the tone for dramatic comedy. 7. What was the quickening force in the realm of spiritual ardour? The conflict between personal religion and ecclesiastical tradition. 8. What happened after the fall of Stuart Dynasty? The constitution of parliamentary England and the laws governing its progress were Fixed. 9. Why did the tone of literature change between 1600 and 1660? It changed when thought became more exacting and more laboured and intellectuality was mingled with imagination. 10.What was responsible for the literary transition from the Renaissance to Restoration? The progressive movement of a spirit of liberty. 11. Who was John Wilmot? He was a skilled practitioner of the witty and polished verses. 12. The Restoration wits were known for…………… The amoral wit and stylized hedonism. 13.Who were ridiculed in Restoration comedy? People from the country. 14. What was the salient feature of Restoration literature? It was metropolitan. 15. What happened to the theatre after the restoration of Charles II? The theatre that was closed during the Puritan government was restored. 16. What were the new changes adopted by the new theatre during the Restoration period? It had picture-frame stage, its actresses took female parts, movable scenery and artificialLights were introduced. 17. What did Restoration theatre represent? It represented the stylization of a deliberately cultivated upper-class ethos. 18. Who were the highly popular playwrights of Restoration period? 2 Beaumont and Fletcher 19. Who was the first accomplished practitioner of the Restoration comedy of manners? Sir George Etherege. 20. What did influence the British thought during the latter half of the 17th century? The continental philosophy of enlightenment. 21. What was founded during the age of Dryden? The Royal Society of Science. 22. What did invade the the field of literature during the Restoration period? The scientific spirit. 23. What became the centre of social and political activity during the Restoration period? The Royal Court. 24. Why did the parliament become the seat of authority during the Restoration period? The King was too lazy and too fond of pleasure to take an active interest in government of the country. 25. What influenced the morals, manners and tastes of the Restoration Period? Aristocracy. 26. What did the aristocrats of the 18th century cultivate? Like Charles II, they too cultivated a taste for all things French; French manners, theatre and literature. 27. Who was the versatile genius of the Restoration literature? John Dryden. 28. Who was John Dryden? He was a dramatist, critic and translator. 29. Who is considered as the father of modern English prose? John Dryden. 30. Mention the two satires of Dryden. Asalom and Achitophel ; The Medal 31. What was the main genre of Restoration literature? Satire. 32. Whom did Dryden sympathise? Tories. 33. Where did Dryden’s perfect mastery lay? In the use of Heroic Couplet. 34. What did the party spirit replace during the Restoration period? Religious zeel. 35. Name the three poets who developed new literature from the old during the Restoration period. Waller, Sir John Denham and Andrew Marvell. 36. Who exposed the hypocrisies of Puritanism? Samuel Butler. 37. Mention the mock-heroic poem of Samuel Butler. Hudibras. 38. What does Hudibras deal with? It dealt with the pretentions and hypocrisies of the Presbyterians, independents and the rest of the ‘Caterwauling brethren’. 3 39. What was the intention of the ‘Caterwauling Brethern? Styling themselves as saints, they helped to overthrow the monarchy and hoped to Establish a sectarian tyranny of which they should be the leaders. 40. What is significant about ‘Hudibras’? It strikes one as a unique poem, racily English and acutely critical, not only of its age, but of hypocrisy of all ages. 41. When did modern English drama begin? It began with the Restoration of 1660. 42. What did the ordinance of 2September 1642 decree? “ Publike stage-players shall cease, and bee forborne”. 43. What did the ordinance of 2 September mark? It marked the end of the great dramatic era which had risen to full height in Shakespeare. 44. What did lead to the establishment of two ‘ Patent theatre’? The letter patent issued by Charles II on 21 August 1660. 45. What distinguished the Restoration theatre from Elizabethan theatre in stage Presentation? It adapted movable scenery and introduced women as actors. 46. Mention any two differences between Elizabethan and Restoration drama. Elizabethan drama Restoration drama 1.Spontaneous and original 1. Artificial and imitative 2. Creative 2. Imitative 3. Interprets character 3. Reproduces characteristics 4. Adapted material from various sources 4. Borrowed manner as well as matter from Continental manners. 5. National 5. Local. 47. What did the Comedy in Dryden’s age represent? The life of the court. 48. Mention any two salient features of Restoration Drama. 1. Restoration drama lacks breath and scope. 2. It lacks depth of feeling and height of poetic imagination. 3. Comedy abandons poetry for prose. 4. Romantic comedy yields to the comedy of manners. 5. Common sense replaces poetic sensibility. 6. Wit is more common than humour. 7. The intellectual faculties are exalted above the emotional. 49. Name the philosophers of the 18th century. Hobbes and Locke 50. Who was the leading scientist of the 18th century. Newton. 51. What was symbolized by Heroic tragedy. It symbolized the longing of the age for an idealism. 52. What is Comedy of Manners? 4 1.Comedy of Manners is cynical, elegant and witty, almost as if it were the amoral realism of courtly life. 2 It is a rude play that shows a fairly narrow range of society with its citizens, aldermen, soldiers, clergymen and the occasional doctor. 53. Who was the earliest writer of Comedy of Manners? Sir George Etherege. 54. Mention any two comedies of George Etherege. ‘The Comical Revenge’,’ She Would if She Could’. ‘The Man of Mode’. 55. Who wrote ‘Love in a Wood’ and ‘The Country Wife’? William Wycherley. 56. Who was the last and the greatest Restoration writer of comedy? William Congreve. 57. Mention any two plays of William Congreve. ‘The Old Bachelor’, ‘The Double Dealer’, ‘Love for Love’, ‘The Mourning Bride’, The Way of the World’. 58. Who was the great apologist of Restoration drama? Charles Lamb. 59. How does Charles Lamb defend Restoration Drama? He says that it is artificial and fanciful , therefore harmless. 60. What did lead to the pamphlet warfare? Jeremy Collier’s attack on Comedy of Manners in 1698 through his ’Short view of the Profaneness and immorality of the English stage’. 61. Who was Sir John Vanbrugh? He was an architect and a dramatist. 62. Who wrote ‘The Provoked Wife’? Sir John Vanbrugh. 63. Congreve is known for…………………. His wit. 64. Who wrote Tragic-Comedies? Beaumont and Fletcher. 65. Which work introduced a taste for musical entertainment at the end of the 18th Century? Davenant’s ‘Siege of Rhodes’. 66. What was introduced at the end of the 18th century? The Italian Operas of the regular type. 67. What was the most distinctive type of the play developed during the Restoration Period? The Heroic Tragedy. 68. How did Dryden look at Heroic –Tragedy? For him Heroic play is a tragedy which must have a noble theme, and noble expression, by which he means the heroic couplet. 69. What according to Dryden should be the motives of action in a Heroic play? He states that love and valour and honour must be the motives of the action. 70. Dryden was influenced by………………………… 5 The French prose romances. 71.Mention Roger Boyle’s heroic tragedies. Henry V, The Black Prince. 72. Who composed ‘Aureng-Zebe’ ? John Dryden. 73. Who wrote rhymed tragedies? Thomas Otway. 74. Name the woman playwright of the 18th century. Mrs. AphraBehn. 75. Who wrote ‘The Essay of Dramatic Poesy’? John Dryden. 76. What did the scientists of the 18th century encourage? Simplicity in prose. 77. Mention one of the greatest work of John Locke. “ An Essay Concerning Human Understanding”. 78. What distinguishes Hobbe’s prose from Locke’s? Hobbes has a strange acrid beauty in his prose, but Locke has lucidity without Charm. 79. Who was the most famous prose writer of the late 17TH century? Samuel Pepys. 80. What did Pepys reveal in his diary? He revealed the other Pepys, privately for his own eye and without shame, his Pleasures and vanities, his philanderings, and the details of each passing day. 81. Who wrote the “ History of the Rebellion”? Edward Hyde. 82. Name the novelist who contributed to establish English journalism? Daniel Defoe. 83. Who were the two great essayists of the 18th century? Richard Steele and Joseph Addison. 84. What did Classicism in art aim at? Classicism in art sought to invest the universal with beauty. 85. What were the essential elements of Classicism? Restraint, simplicity, serenity and repose. 86. Classicism is……………………….. Objective. 87. Mention any two outstanding qualities of the neo-classical literary mind. Restraint, propriety, an absence of emphasis on intellectual matters, a consideration for others in conduct a willingness to subordinate what is merely personal or a matter of self-impression, a sense of proportion, the Avoidance of mere display, the conscious imitation of the best models.