Write a
short essay on Restoration Drama.
In 1642 the theatres were closed by the authority of the parliament
which was dominated by Puritans and so no good plays were written from 1642
till the Restoration (coming back of monarchy in England with
the accession of Charles II to the throne) in 1660 when the theatres
were re-opened. The drama in England after 1660, called the
Restoration drama, showed entirely new trends on account of the long
break with the past. Moreover, it was greatly affected by the spirit of
the new age which was deficient in poetic feeling, imagination and emotional
approach to life, but laid emphasis on prose as the medium of expression, and
intellectual, realistic and critical approach to life and its problems. As the
common people still under the influence of Puritanism had no love for the
theatres, the dramatists had to cater to the taste of the aristocratic class
which was highly fashionable, frivolous, cynical and sophisticated. The result
was that unlike the Elizabethan drama which had a mass appeal, had its roots in
the life of the common people and could be legitimately called the national
drama, the Restoration drama had none of these characteristics. Its appeal was
confined to the upper strata of society whose taste was aristocratic, and among
which the prevailing fashions and etiquettes were foreign and extravagant.
As imagination and poetic feelings were regarded as ‘vulgar enthusiasm’
by the dictators of the social life. But as ‘actual life’ meant the life of the
aristocratic class only, the plays of this period do not give us a picture of
the whole nation. The most popular form of drama was the Comedy of Manners
which portrayed the sophisticated life of the dominant class of society—its
gaiety, foppery, insolence and intrigue. Thus the basis of the Restoration
drama was very narrow. The general tone of this drama was most aptly described
by Shelley:
