Derek Hughes
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198119746
- eISBN:
- 9780191671203
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198119746.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Drama, 17th-century and Restoration Literature
Until the mid-1670s, tragedy was the more radical genre than comedy. If comic dramatists in the years immediately following 1668 were slow to imitate George Etherege and John Dryden, they were not ...
More
Until the mid-1670s, tragedy was the more radical genre than comedy. If comic dramatists in the years immediately following 1668 were slow to imitate George Etherege and John Dryden, they were not content simply to adore the ancient glories of the gentry. What is most noticeable in the years from 1668 to 1672 is a sustained attempt at both theatres to absorb and Anglicize Molière. The series of close Molière adaptations is suddenly suspended in late 1672, when the movement towards a sex comedy of contemporary English life received new impetus from two Duke's Company plays: Henry Neville Payne's The Morning Ramble; or, The Town-Humours and Thomas Shadwell's Epsom-Wells, the first clearly indebted to The Comical Revenge and the second to She Would If She Could.Less
Until the mid-1670s, tragedy was the more radical genre than comedy. If comic dramatists in the years immediately following 1668 were slow to imitate George Etherege and John Dryden, they were not content simply to adore the ancient glories of the gentry. What is most noticeable in the years from 1668 to 1672 is a sustained attempt at both theatres to absorb and Anglicize Molière. The series of close Molière adaptations is suddenly suspended in late 1672, when the movement towards a sex comedy of contemporary English life received new impetus from two Duke's Company plays: Henry Neville Payne's The Morning Ramble; or, The Town-Humours and Thomas Shadwell's Epsom-Wells, the first clearly indebted to The Comical Revenge and the second to She Would If She Could.
Derek Hughes
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198119746
- eISBN:
- 9780191671203
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198119746.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Drama, 17th-century and Restoration Literature
By late 1676, the predominant character of comedy was clearly darkening, as dramatists reacted with various kinds of moral earnestness to George Etherege's morally dispassionate portrayal of ...
More
By late 1676, the predominant character of comedy was clearly darkening, as dramatists reacted with various kinds of moral earnestness to George Etherege's morally dispassionate portrayal of Dorimant's sexual Machiavellism. Sex comedy became largely critical of the faithless male, and often very pessimistic in its portrayal of human sexuality. The transformation of drama was soon accentuated by the grave political crisis that began in September 1678, with Titus Oates's first allegations of a popish conspiracy to murder the King and initiate a general rebellion. The crisis produced a drama that was often heavily politicized, though not always in predictable ways, since several leading dramatists changed tack according to the fluctuating fortunes of the Exclusionist cause. The genre chiefly affected was tragedy, but in some of the comic work of Thomas Otway, Aphra Behn, and John Dryden growing concern with painful and unresolvable sexual dilemmas became a means for glancing at more comprehensive dilemmas of order.Less
By late 1676, the predominant character of comedy was clearly darkening, as dramatists reacted with various kinds of moral earnestness to George Etherege's morally dispassionate portrayal of Dorimant's sexual Machiavellism. Sex comedy became largely critical of the faithless male, and often very pessimistic in its portrayal of human sexuality. The transformation of drama was soon accentuated by the grave political crisis that began in September 1678, with Titus Oates's first allegations of a popish conspiracy to murder the King and initiate a general rebellion. The crisis produced a drama that was often heavily politicized, though not always in predictable ways, since several leading dramatists changed tack according to the fluctuating fortunes of the Exclusionist cause. The genre chiefly affected was tragedy, but in some of the comic work of Thomas Otway, Aphra Behn, and John Dryden growing concern with painful and unresolvable sexual dilemmas became a means for glancing at more comprehensive dilemmas of order.
Margaret J. M. Ezell
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198183112
- eISBN:
- 9780191847158
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198183112.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, 17th-century and Restoration Literature
Within three months of Charles II’s return, the London theatres were reopened, with two companies granted royal patents. Thomas Killigrew formed the King’s Company, and William Davenant the Duke’s ...
More
Within three months of Charles II’s return, the London theatres were reopened, with two companies granted royal patents. Thomas Killigrew formed the King’s Company, and William Davenant the Duke’s Company. Initially the repertoire consisted of pre-war plays, with those of Shakespeare, Beaumont, and Fletcher popular. Regular theatre-goer Samuel Pepys recorded his approval of the new actors such as Thomas Betterton, Edward Kynaston, and Charles Hart, and actresses including Nell Gwyn and Elizabeth Barry. The companies invested in new theatres incorporating continental designs for proscenium arches, scenery, and effects at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, and Dorset Garden. Dramatists providing new plays included John Dryden, Thomas Shadwell, Aphra Behn, William Wycherley, and George Etherege.Less
Within three months of Charles II’s return, the London theatres were reopened, with two companies granted royal patents. Thomas Killigrew formed the King’s Company, and William Davenant the Duke’s Company. Initially the repertoire consisted of pre-war plays, with those of Shakespeare, Beaumont, and Fletcher popular. Regular theatre-goer Samuel Pepys recorded his approval of the new actors such as Thomas Betterton, Edward Kynaston, and Charles Hart, and actresses including Nell Gwyn and Elizabeth Barry. The companies invested in new theatres incorporating continental designs for proscenium arches, scenery, and effects at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, and Dorset Garden. Dramatists providing new plays included John Dryden, Thomas Shadwell, Aphra Behn, William Wycherley, and George Etherege.
