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Restoration comedy is English comedy written and performed in the Restoration period of 1660–1710. Comedy of manners is used as a synonym for this. [ 1 ] After public stage performances were banned for 18 years by the Puritan regime, reopening of the theatres in 1660 marked a renaissance of English drama . [ 2 ]
In English literature, the term comedy of manners (also anti-sentimental comedy) describes a genre of realistic, satirical comedy of the Restoration period (1660–1710) that questions and comments upon the manners and social conventions of a greatly sophisticated, artificial society. [1]
The Restoration is an unusual historical period, as its literature is bounded by a specific political event: the restoration of the Stuart monarchy. It is unusual in another way, as well, for it is a time when the influence of that king's presence and personality permeated literary society to such an extent that, almost uniquely, literature ...
The Restoration rake was a carefree, witty, sexually irresistible aristocrat whose heyday was during the English Restoration period (1660–1688) at the court of King Charles II. They were typified by the " Merry Gang " of courtiers, who included as prominent members John Wilmot , George Villiers , and Charles Sackville , who combined riotous ...
William Congreve (24 January 1670 – 19 January 1729) was an English playwright, poet and Whig politician. His works, which form an important component of Restoration literature, were known for their use of satire and the comedy of manners genre.
Restoration comedy is notorious both for its innuendo and for its sexual explicitness, a quality encouraged by Charles II (1660–1685) personally and by the rakish aristocratic ethos of his court. In the Victorian era, Burlesque theatre combined sexuality and humour in its acts.
Sentimental comedy is an 18th-century dramatic genre which sprang up as a reaction to the immoral tone of English Restoration plays. In sentimental comedies, middle-class protagonists triumphantly overcome a series of moral trials.
The satiric purpose of the comedy of humours and its realistic method led to more serious character studies with Jonson’s 1610 play The Alchemist. The name derives from the then-prevalent concept of bodily humours that controlled emotional disposition, but were also associated with psychological characteristics; [ 2 ] the result was a system ...