Restoration Drama — Comedy of Manners & Wit
In Restoration comedy, the cleverest person in the room wins — and the fools are merely there to be exposed. This theatre of wit, sophistication, and sexual frankness emerged after eighteen years of Puritan rule during which theatres were closed. When Charles II returned to the throne in 1660, the stage exploded with energy, and a dramatic shift in moral and aesthetic values transformed English drama. The Restoration period (1660–1710) produced some of the most brilliant comedies in the language — plays that remain fresh, funny, and startlingly modern in their cynicism and psychological insight.
Historical Context
The Puritan Interregnum (1642–1660) had banned all theatrical performances. Parliament regarded the theatre as a source of immorality and political subversion. Playhouses were demolished, actors were punished as vagrants, and an entire generation grew up without access to professional theatre. When Charles II returned from exile in France, he brought French theatrical tastes with him — and he immediately reopened the theatres, licensing two companies: the King’s Company, led by Thomas Killigrew, and the Duke’s Company, led by William Davenant. Both companies built new theatres designed on the continental model, with proscenium arches, movable scenery, and enhanced lighting.
Crucially, Charles II also allowed women to perform on stage for the first time, ending the Elizabethan tradition of boys playing female roles. The arrival of actresses transformed English theatre. Playwrights could now write complex female characters and explore sexual dynamics with a new directness. The first professional actresses — Nell Gwyn, Elizabeth Barry, Anne Bracegirdle — became celebrities and cultural icons. Gwyn’s rise from orange seller to royal mistress is itself a Restoration comedy plot. The audience was largely aristocratic, urban, and educated. Restoration plays reflected their world: fashionable London, the marriage market, sexual intrigue, and the endless competition for social status. The theatre was a social event as much as an artistic one — audiences talked, ate, drank, and socialized throughout performances. The pit (the area in front of the stage) was filled with young men of fashion who came to see and be seen as much as to watch the play.
Key Playwrights
William Wycherley (1641–1716) wrote The Country Wife (1675), one of the most audacious comedies in English. Its hero, Horner, spreads a false rumor that he is a eunuch to gain access to married women without arousing their husbands’ suspicion. The play is a savage satire of marital hypocrisy and masculine vanity — and it remains explosively funny. The “china scene,” in which Horner’s sexual conquests are discussed in coded terms, is one of the most brilliant comic scenes in the language. Wycherley’s other major play, The Plain Dealer (1676), is a darker, more cynical work that some critics consider even more sophisticated.
William Congreve (1670–1729) brought new levels of verbal sophistication to Restoration comedy. The Way of the World (1700) features Millamant, perhaps the most brilliant comic heroine in English drama. Her negotiation of marriage terms with Mirabell — the famous “proviso scene” — is a masterpiece of wit, emotional intelligence, and proto-feminist assertion. Millamant demands that her husband respect her independence: “I’ll be solicited to the very last, nay, and afterwards.” The play is the culmination of the Restoration comic tradition. Congreve’s Love for Love (1695) is more accessible and equally brilliant.
George Etherege (c. 1636–1692) established the comedy of manners form with The Man of Mode (1676), a portrait of the fashionable libertine Dorimant. Etherege’s plays celebrate the social graces — conversation, dress, manners — while exposing their emptiness. Aphra Behn (1640–1689) was the first professional female playwright in English. Her plays — including The Rover (1677) — are sexually frank, politically aware, and commercially successful. Behn wrote from a distinctly female perspective, creating heroines who are active agents of their own desire rather than passive objects of male pursuit. John Dryden (1631–1700) wrote both comedies and heroic tragedies, including the brilliant Marriage à la Mode (1672).
Major Restoration Comedies
Beyond the works of the major playwrights, several individual Restoration comedies deserve attention for their enduring quality and influence. The Rover (1677) by Aphra Behn is set in Naples during carnival and follows a group of English Cavaliers and Spanish women through a series of romantic and sexual adventures. The play is notable for its female characters, who are active agents of their own desire rather than passive objects. Hellena, the heroine, pursues the rover Willmore with a determination that was unprecedented on the English stage. Behn’s play also offers a sharp critique of the marriage market and the limited options available to women.
The Relapse (1696) by John Vanbrugh is a rollicking comedy that combines multiple plotlines — a virtuous wife tempted by a rake, a foolish husband tricked into cuckoldry, and a fop whose pretensions are mercilessly exposed. Vanbrugh’s play is more farcical than Congreve’s elegant comedies, but it has a vitality that keeps it in the repertoire. The Provoked Wife (1697) by Vanbrugh explores the question of whether a woman is justified in leaving an abusive husband — a surprisingly serious theme for a comedy.
Love for Love (1695) by William Congreve is perhaps his most accessible masterpiece. Valentine, the hero, is financially ruined but intellectually brilliant. His scheme to regain his inheritance by pretending to be mad gives Congreve opportunities for some of his most dazzling verbal displays. The play also features one of Congreve’s greatest characters: Sir Sampson Legend, the blustering father who is both ridiculous and dangerous.
Theatrical Innovations
The Restoration period also brought significant innovations in theatre architecture and production. The new theatres built after 1660 featured the proscenium arch, which framed the stage like a picture and allowed for movable scenery. This was a major departure from the thrust stage of the Elizabethan theatre. Scene changes could now occur in full view of the audience, and elaborate painted backdrops could create the illusion of different locations. Theatres were also lit by candles, creating a warm, intimate glow that suited the sophisticated atmosphere of Restoration comedy.
Acting styles changed as well. The arrival of actresses brought new dimensions to performance. Actresses like Nell Gwyn, Elizabeth Barry, and Anne Bracegirdle became famous for their wit, beauty, and talent. Barry was particularly renowned for her ability to move audiences to tears in tragic roles. The star system began to emerge, with actors and actresses developing devoted followings. The Restoration theatre was also the first to use “actresses” as a commercial draw — audiences came to see particular performers as much as particular plays.
The period also saw the development of the “sentimental comedy” in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, a reaction against the moral ambiguity of Restoration comedy. Playwrights like Richard Steele and Colley Cibber wrote comedies that rewarded virtue and punished vice, appealing to a changing audience that included more middle-class spectators. The shift from Restoration comedy to sentimental comedy reflects broader changes in English society — the growing power of the middle class, the increasing influence of religious morality, and a changing sense of what theatre was for.
Characteristics of Restoration Comedy
Wit as weapon. Characters compete through verbal cleverness. Repartee is a form of social combat, and the quick-witted character always triumphs over the dull. Sexual intrigue. Plots revolve around adultery, seduction, and the marriage market. The plays are remarkably frank about sex — a deliberate reaction against Puritan repression. Urban setting. Almost all Restoration comedies are set in London, depicted as a space of freedom and opportunity. The country is represented as dull and provincial. Stock characters. The rake (witty, promiscuous hero), the fop (obsessed with fashion), the country wife (naive but cunning), the jealous husband, the clever maid. Marriage as negotiation. Marriage is treated as a social and economic arrangement rather than a romantic union.
The Decline and Legacy
Restoration comedy fell out of favor in the Victorian era, when its sexual frankness was considered immoral. The Country Wife was not professionally produced between 1753 and 1924. But twentieth-century critics recognized its sophistication. The comedy of manners tradition continues in the work of Oscar Wilde, Noël Coward, and contemporary playwrights. The Restoration also left a lasting legacy in the first professional actresses, the development of the scenic stage, and the establishment of a commercially viable theatre industry.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is it called Restoration drama? The name refers to the Restoration of King Charles II to the English throne in 1660, which ended the Puritan Commonwealth and reopened the theatres.
Were Restoration comedies considered immoral at the time? Some critics objected. Clergyman Jeremy Collier attacked the immorality of the stage in his 1698 pamphlet A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage. But audiences loved them.
Did women really perform on Restoration stages? Yes — for the first time in English theatre history. The first actresses appeared in 1660, and soon became stars.
What is a “comedy of manners”? A comedy that satirizes the manners, conventions, and affectations of a particular social class — typically the urban upper class. Plot is less important than wit and social observation.
Why did Restoration comedy decline? Changing tastes, the rise of sentimental comedy, and Victorian morality all contributed. The plays were considered too sexually explicit and morally ambiguous for nineteenth-century audiences.
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