Restoration comedy and comedy of manners

The Restoration period came into being on Charles II's accession to the English throne
(c.1660). Ending solemn puritanical rule, he reopened all of the theatres. He was witty, bawdy
and highly sexual, so material of this nature was actively endorsed in the theatre. The
Restoration period is also known as the neo-classical or early modern period.

Another important hallmark of this period was that women were allowed to act on stage for
the first time. The first famous female playwright was Aphra Behn, whose plays were also
performed at this time.

Famous Restoration comedians

The name of the playwright’s most famous comedy follows in brackets.
Aphra Behn (The Rover)
William Congreve (The Way of The World)
John Dryden (All For Love)
George Etherege (The Man of Mode)
Thomas Otway (Venice Preserved)
John Vanbrugh (The Relapse)
William Wycherley (The Country Wife)

Qualities of Restoration comedy and comedies of manners

⇒ Age gaps and generation gaps
⇒ Hypocrisy
⇒ The foolishness of the aristocracy
⇒ Deliberately unnatural
⇒ Witty, blunt, sexual dialogue; innuendo; boudoir intrigue
⇒ Caricatures expressed in names (e.g. Backbite; Snake)
⇒ One-dimensional/superficial characters
⇒ Honour comes from reputation, not integrity
⇒ Virtue comes from catching a lover in the act - or cheating on your own without being
caught
⇒ “Make the artificial real and the real artificial”

The legacy of Restoration comedy and comedy of manners

The feminist impact created by this movement is (I hope!) obvious.
Restoration comedy also gave us the malapropism - perhaps one of the most powerful comic
wordplay devices.
Other playwrights have also owed much to the Restoration comedy and comedy of manners
tradition that came before them: Victorian and Jazz Age writers such as Richard Brinsley
Sheridan (The Rivals; School for Scandal), Oscar Wilde (The Importance of Being Earnest),
George Bernard Shaw (Pygmalion) and Noel Coward (Hay Fever; Private Lives; Present
Laughter; Blithe Spirit) characterised their plays with aspects of this genre and their plays and
ideas are still successful today. Oscar Wilde is one of the most quoted men in history and
George Bernard Shaw gave us the film and musical My Fair Lady (starring Audrey Hepburn
and Julie Andrews respectively). Shaw's play Pygmalion was also turned into 1999 teen
movie She's All That, starring Freddie Prinze Jr and Rachael Leigh Cook.
The Country Wife (Wycherley)
Mr. Pinchwife: Come begin — Sir —
[Dictates.]
Mrs. Pinchwife: Shan't I say, "Dear Sir"? You know one says always
something more than bare "Sir".
Mr. Pin.: Write as I bid you, or I will write "whore" with
this penknife in your face.
Mrs. Pin.: Nay good Bud — Sir —
[She writes.]
Mr. Pin.: Though I suffer'd last night your nauseous, loath'd
kisses and embraces — Write
Mrs. Pin.: Nay, why should I say so, you know I told you,
he had a sweet breath.
Mr. Pin.: Write.
Mrs. Pin.: Let me but put out, loath'd.
Mr. Pin.: Write I say.
Mrs. Pin.: Well then.
[Writes.]
Mr. Pin.: Let's see what have you writ?
Though I suffer'd last night your kisses and embraces —
[Takes the paper, and reads.]
Thou impudent creature, where is nauseous and loath'd?
Mrs. Pin.: I can't abide to write such filthy words.
Mr. Pin.: Once more write as I'd have you, and question it
not, or I will spoil thy writing with this, I will stab out those
eyes that cause my mischief.
[Holds up the penknife.]
Mrs. Pin.: O Lord, I will.

• IV.ii.92–114
The Relapse (John Vanbrugh)
Young Fashion: Why, is it possible you can value a woman that’s to be bought?
Poppington: Prithee, why not as well as a pad nag?1
Young Fashion: Because a woman has a heart to dispose of; a horse has none.
Poppington: Look you Tam, of all things that belong to a woman, I have an aversion to her
heart: for when once a woman has given you her heart, you can never get rid of the rest of her
body.
Young Fashion: This is strange doctrine. But pray, in your amours how is it in your own
heart?
Poppington: Why, my heart in my amours is like my heart out of my amours – à la glace. My
body, Tam, is a watch, and my heart is the pendulum to it; whilst the finger runs round to
every hour in that circle, that still beats the same time.
Young Fashion: Then you are seldom much in love?
Poppington: Never, stap my vitals.
Young Fashion: Why then did you make all this bustle about Amanda?
Poppington: Because she was a woman of an insolent virtue, and I thought myself piqued in
honour to debauch her.

⇒ III.i

1
Horse.