Unit Three
“Rakes and Poets”
Lesson Four: Masters of Comedy
Classical Drama

Basically religious

The choric yearnings of a people to
find meaning.
English Drama


ca. 1100 is also religious
not in touch with classical sources.
Quen Queritas

Latin for ”who are you looking for?”

Performed on Easter morning, the three
women looking for Jesus in the tomb.

There were also a number of traditional
Bible stories (Noah and Abraham
especially interested them) to help the
illiterate people learn the Bible.
Everyman



Written 1450
tradition culminates with this play
An allegory.
Classical Drama Translated


In the late 1400s Greek and Roman
plays finally translated to English
This is infused to the natural English
dramatic tradition
Seneca’s Influence in the Renaissance

classical writer wrote tragedies almost
always about revenge.

-blood

-daggers

-poison

-ghosts

-moral
Flourishing Theater

In the 1600s the English theater is
flourishing
Shakespeare
 Jonson
 Beaumont & Fletcher
 Webster
 Marlowe

Comedy of Humours


In the early 17th century, comedies based on
characters who had an overflow of one of the
“humours” or bodily fluids.
 Jonson is very famous for this type of play
For good disposition, all of the humours
should be balanced in the body.
Blood/Sanguine

The traits are
 kindly
 joyful
 amorous
Phlegm/Phlegmatic

The traits are
 cowardly
 unresponsive
 lacking intellectual vitality
Yellow Bile/Choleric

The traits are
 obstinate
 vengeful
 impatient
 easily aroused to anger
Black Bile/Melancholic

The traits are
 excessively contemplative
 brooding
 affected
 gluttonous
 satiric
Then Theaters Closed


By 1642, it’s over. The theaters are closed
for the Civil War and interregnum.
In 1660, the theaters reopen and many
plays are resurrected from the 1630s,
especially Shakespeare, Jonson,
Beaumont and Fletcher and Ford are
favorites.
Drama Was Wide Open



The old crop of plays was mainly
concerned with asking big questions.
The new drama tends to be amoral and
focus on manners.
Perhaps it was the harshness of the wars
and the interregnum or living under strict
Puritan rules and always thinking. No one
really wanted to do that anymore.
The London Stage.

Emmett L. Avery and Arthur H. Scouton

One of the best sources of information on
the theater of this period is

Five parts made up of eleven volumes
covering almost daily the stage of this
period.

Covers financing, the theater company, what
the theaters were like, how characters were
developed.
Introductions to the London Stage

The introductions of the work are available
separately and give an excellent overview
of the Restoration theater.

Vol 1, 1660-1700

Vol 2, 1700-1729

Vol 3, 1729-1757

Vol 4, 1747-1776

Vol 5, 1776-1800
Seminal Work


Another volume to learn about the period
is Robert D. Hume’s The Development of
English Drama in the Late Seventeenth
Century.
If you’re at all interested in this material,
Hume’s work is a must-read.
Dens of Vice


Often the “sparks” would fight and yell in
the pit.
Lots of prostitutes and “orange women,”
who did sell oranges to quench the thirst,
but also sold themselves sometimes.

Lots of dark corners in which to hide.

Noisy and crowded places.
Women and the Theater

Women on the stage for the first time.


Opens up the sexual issues in the plays
Breeches roles are popular, and we see
them in Fidelia and Margery Pinchwife

Could show off a pretty leg!
Third Nights/Publication



Playwrights made their money on the third
night a play was presented. They earned
that night’s box office.
Also earned the sixth, ninth, twelfth night
and so on. Rare to go beyond a sixth night.
Also made some money on the play’s
publication if it was popular

sometimes as much as £50--more than a
teacher made in a year
Role of Drama



During this period subject to large
debate.
Is it exemplary or is it entertainment?
Almost all sided with exemplary, but
the playwrights pushed the envelope
Sex Comedies



Restoration drama has a reputation for
being sexy and frank, even to the point of
being crude
The 1670s were the worst.
There was a definite run of what are now
known as the “sex comedies” with
playwrights pushing further and further the
limits of what they could show on stage.
Comedy of Manners

“A comedy concerned with the intrigues,
usually amorous, of witty, sophisticated
members of an aristocratic society. The
actions of those who oppose or ineptly
imitate the manners of that society are the
subjects of much raillery and laughter.”
(Beckson and Ganz)
Two Waves


Popular in two waves during the
Restoration, from 1668-1676
 Etherege and Wycherely are the
masters, and when they stopped writing
the form died out
Then again in 1691 through about 1700
 most famous example The Way of the
World
“The Gay Couple”


the witty lovers who are never seen acting
much like lovers.
To us they seem rather brittle and artificial.
The Rake




A male character who loves wine, women
and song.
You can’t trust them around your wives
and daughters
In most comedies, they are “reformed”
through the love of a good woman.
You can’t help but like them as they
usually aren’t bad. Just Cavalier.
The Fop


The fool who apes society and men of wit,
but who is rather stupid and in love with
himself.
There are a variety of Fops, but for today
we saw Etherege’s Fopling and
Wycherley’s Sir Foppish.
Names Give Clues


Pay attention to the names in a
Restoration play.
They often give us a clue to the
personality of the character.



Horner makes “horns” (the sign of a cuckold)
Fidelia is faithful
Mr. Sparkish is spark-ish, but not a true spark
(the opposite of fop)
Debate about the Plays



As time goes on, more recent critics have
been arguing that Restoration drama has
deep philosophical questions at its heart,
or perhaps deep social introspection.
Hume argues against this, and I do as well.
Wit was the important thing for the Court
writers we are looking at.

People like Etherege and Wycherley were
displaying their own brilliance for the most part.
Some Biography

Born around 1635

Became ward of grandfather when father
died in exile in France during the
Protectorate.

Apprenticed to a lawyer and admitted to
the Inns of Court 1659

By 1663 had left law, become friends with
Charles Sackville
Restoration Ideal

After his first play 1663/64 season
admitted to the “Merry Gang”

Not a professional writer. Mostly a
diplomat

Several mission for Charles II

Spent most of James II’s reign as
Resident to the Diet of the Holy Roman
Empire in Ratisbon, Germany.
Final Days

Went into exile to France after Revolution
of ’88

He died in relative obscurity in Paris
sometime around 1691.
Plays



The Comical Revenge (1664)
She Would if she Could (1668)
The Man of Mode (1676)
First Performance

First performance Dorset Garden theater
on 11 March 1676, with King Charles II in
the audience

Betterton acted Dorimant and Mrs.
Betterton, Bellinda;

William Smith, acted Sir Fopling Flutter.

Elizabeth Barry is listed as having played
Loveit;
Rocherter-Dorimant?

Casting may have been to encourage the
audience to identify Dorimant with the earl
of Rochester.

Barry was then Rochester's mistress;

Rochester was as fond of quoting Edmund
Waller as is Dorimant;

Betterton "dressed himself to resemble
Rochester."
Extremely Influential


Dorimant became almost the prototypical
courtier-rake
Sir Fopling Flutter is surpassed by only
one of the fops who followed, Vanbrugh’s
Lord Foppington from The Relapse (1696).
Questions to Ask


What kind of play is it?
It’s a comedy of manners, yes, but is
it satire?

Is it meant to instruct, or be used as
an exemplum?

The question is: Is Dorimant meant to
be admired?
Richard Steele on the Play



acknowledged in Spectator no. 65 (1711) that the
play is widely considered the pattern of genteel
comedy
cited selection of incidents and speeches to argue
Dorimant considerably less than "a fine Gentleman
... honest in his Actions, and refined in his
Language."
Rather, he is "a direct Knave in his Designs, and a
Clown in his Language" and "this whole celebrated
Piece is a perfect Contradiction to good Manners,
good Sense, and common Honesty; ... there is
nothing in it but what is built upon the Ruin of Virtue
and Innocence.... I allow it to be Nature, but it is
Nature in its utmost Corruption and Degeneracy."
John Dennis on the Play



Replied that corrupt and degenerate nature were
proper subjects of ridicule and ridicule the proper
subject of comedy.
Comedy does not exhibit moral patterns; it invites
laughter.
Dorimant pleases because he is true to life; "a young
Courtier, haughty, vain, and prone to Anger, amorous,
false, and inconstant. He debauches Loveit, and
betrays her; loves Belinda, and as soon as he enjoys
her is false to her." The play gives "a true
Resemblance of the Persons both in Court and Town,
who liv'd at the Time when that Comedy was writ," as
is proved by everyone then having remarked that
Dorimant was a true picture of the earl of Rochester.
Fundamental Similarities

Steele and Dennis, fairly typical
representatives of the two sides, agree
on several fundamental points.:

Dorimant is an accurate representation
of a court wit of the period--the play
"mirrors" its age.

Dorimant morally reprehensible.

plays can and do seriously influence the
behavior of audiences and readers.
Where they Disagree

They disagree primarily about whether
comedy should be exemplary or satiric,
about whether it presents patterns for
emulation or characters which provoke
corrective laughter.
Four Centers of Interest:

Fopling, who’s not necessarily connected
to the rest of the play; And what do we
make of him? Is he a figure of satire or
just of comedy?

Dorimant’s affairs with Loveit and Bellinda;

Courtship of Dorimant and Harriet;

The marriage of Young Bellair and Emilia
What do we do with Dorimant?

He seems to have fallen for Harriet, the
“good woman,” but at the same time he’s
promising to go to the country to court her,
he’s trying to make another assignation
with Bellinda and telling Loveit that he’s
only interested in Harriet for her money.
(See also II, 263) But he is also
undeniably glamorous.
Loveit and Bellinda



But we also have to look at Mrs. Loveit and
Bellinda with the gaze of contemporary readers.
Loveit is far too unreasonable in her passion.
Many times Bellinda and Dorimant point this out
to her. This is a terrible lack of self-control.
Bellinda knew what Dorimant was like--she even
says “Had you seen him use Mrs Loveit as I
have done, you wou’d never endure him more”
(2:226), so her fall in inexcusable. Why should
we pity her when she walked into trouble
deliberately. She should have had more control.
Control is a very important quality during this
period.
Harriet





Very self-controlled.
She might love Dorimant, “but he shall never
know it” (2: 235)
Montague Summers, a rather eccentric
Edwardian critic called her “a perfectly callous
little baggage with a vile tongue.”
She’s certainly able to manipulate her mother
and she’s an expert at social games (see her
interaction with Young Bellair 3:1)
she’s quite nasty to Loveit at the end of the play.
William Wycherley

“problematic because the history of Wycherley
studies hinges upon a bitter paradox. In his own
day Wycherley was considered to be a moral
satirist of the seriousness and stature of
Juvenal; yet from the nineteenth century to the
present he has been thought successively to be:
a monster of moral depravity; a writer of artificial
comedies of manners that are "holidays from the
sublime ... and the real"; a closet Savaranola,
who restrained his neurotic rage while he was
writing his first three plays only to have it burst
forth in his "truly disturbing" last play; and, most
recently, a writer of sex farces.” (Dictionary of
Literary Biography)
Early Function of Drama

change in the understanding of how a drama
functions in relation to its audience. In the
Restoration and very early eighteenth century a
satiric play was thought to operate by displaying
vice and folly and exposing them to make them
ridiculous in the sight of the audience. The play,
it was thought, holds up images of vice, and the
spectator, recognizing them, laughs them to
scorn and contempt. The underlying assumption
in this kind of moralistic writing was, as Pope put
it, that "Vice is a monster of so fearful mien/ As,
to be hated, needs but to be seen."
Drama in the Age of Sensibility

“18th c progressed, theories of associationism
that had been formulated by John Locke and
popularized by Joseph Addison led playwrights
and critics to hold an entirely different view of
how drama operates upon the minds and
sensibility of an audience. From the eighteenth
century, we have thought that audiences imitate
in their own behavior what they see on a stage.
Therefore, if we see on stage attractive
characters who behave immorally, we are drawn
to emulate their behavior with the consequence
that we become immoral. We commonly hold
this view still, for we think that watching violence
in a film makes us violent,” (DLB)
“Manley” Wycherley


Famous for his “plain dealing”.
Supposedly a very warm and kind person.
Life and Religion






Born in 1641
Father, stewart for a marchioness who was
imprisoned during the Commonweatlth.
William sent to France for education during the
Commonwealth
While there converted to Roman Catholicism.
Converted back to the Anglican faith while he
was at Oxford,
Roman Catholic again under James
Member of “Merry Gang”

Gained entrance after his first play.

Also gained him an affair with the beautiful
and powerful Barbara Villiers, Countess of
Cleveland, who was also
mistress of the King.
By Sir Peter Lely
Sad End

Fell ill in 1677 never truly recovered

Made a ruinous marriage to Lady LaetitiaIsabella, countess of Drogheda in 1679

Arrested for debt in 1683. He was in prison for
four years

Finally saved by the king and given an annuity,
which he lost in ’88.

Muddled by financially the rest of his life and he
died in 1715.
Richard Steele

Wrote in The Tatler no. 3 that the "Moral"
of The Country Wife was that "there is no
Defence against Vice, but Contempt of it,"
and he called the play a "very pleasant
and instructive satire."

But what has happened over the past few
hundred years of criticism?
Critical History

“According to John Palmer, it is ‘the
most perfect farce in English dramatic
literature -- a whirlwind of inspired
buffoonery…. All questions of motive
and moral value disappear.’ At another
extreme Bonamy Dobrée speaks of
Wycherley’s ‘deep pessimism…the
saeva indignatio of Swift’, his ‘strange
revulsions against the society in which
he now lived’, evidenced in ‘a savage
snarl.’ (con’t)
More History

For Dobrée, Horner is a ‘grim, nightmare figure’,
and the play as a whole shows Wycherely facing
down the utter vileness of his world with bitter
laughter. For Virginia Ogden Birdsall, the play is
a kind of manifesto on the virtues of sexual
liberation, and Horner, as representative of the
‘elán vital’ and the ‘life force triumphant’ she
sees as ‘a wholly positive and creative comic
hero…squarely on the side of health, of
freedom, and …of honesty’” (Hume,
Development)
Left with Questions

“Faced with such chaos, one has to return to
the basic questions. Is there an indentifable
topic or subject in this play, and if so, what is
it?”

“Like Etherege, Wycherley is capable of
casting a very cold analytical eye on London
society, but neither writer seems seriously to
envision any alternative. This should make
us chary of easy assumptions about the
‘satiric’ nature of their comedies.”
What’s Being Attacked?

Honor (the ladies pretend to it)

Jealous (Pinchwife is the big one here, but
also how he is a foil to Sparkish)

Modishness (Sparkish)
Alithea and Pinchwife




brother and sister
Also foils.
She has true wit and honor, in fact, she’s
incredibly honest and does what’s right,
even if it’s against her inclinations.
What do we make of her as a character
Parallel Structure

Foolish men delivering their wives to
another man:

Sir Jasper-Horner

Pinchwife-Horner

Sparkish-Harcourt
The Plain Dealer

Very popular with James II


saw himself as Manley
So much so that he rescued
Wycherley from prison and pensioned
him off.
Reactions


Dryden called it “one of the most bold,
most general, and most useful satires
which has ever been presented on the
English theater”.
Voltaire said: "I know of no comedy,
ancient or modern, that has so much
spirit."