A Companion to Restoration Drama

This Companion illustrates the vitality and diversity of dramatic work 1660 to 1710. Twenty-five essays by leading scholars in the field bring together the best recent insights into the full range of dramatic practice and innovation at the time.

• Introduces readers to the recent boom in scholarship that has revitalised Restoration drama
• Explores historical and cultural contexts, genres of Restoration drama, and key dramatists, among them Dryden and Behn

About the Contributors viii

Preface and Acknowledgements xii

PART I The Drama in Context 1

1 The Post-1660 Theatres as Performance Spaces 3
Edward A.. Langhans

2 Restoration Dramatic Theory and Criticism 19
Paul D. Cannan

3 Theatrical Regulation during the Restoration Period 36
Matthew J. Kinservik

4 Libertinism and Sexuality 53
Maximillian E. Novak

5 The Restoration Actress 69
Deborah Payne Fisk

6 Masculinity in Restoration Drama 92
Laura J. Rosenthal

7 Images of Monarchy on the Restoration Stage 109
Jessica Munns

8 Restoration Drama and Politics: An Overview 126
Susan J. Owen

9 Restoration Drama and Social Class 140
Aparna Dharwadker

10 Race, Performance and the Silenced Prince of Angola 161
Mita Choudhury

11 Restoration Drama after the Restoration: The Critics, the Repertory and the Canon 177
Brian Corman

PART II Kinds of Drama 193

12 Heroic Drama and Tragicomedy 195
Derek Hughes

13 Restoration Comedy 211
J. Douglas Canfield

14 Tragedy and Varieties of Serious Drama 228
Jean I. Marsden

15 London Theatre Music, 1660-1719 243
Todd S. Gilman

16 Shakespeare and Other Adaptations 274
Sandra Clark

17 Rakes, Wives and Merchants: Shifts from the Satirical to the Sentimental 291
Kirk Combe

PART III Dramatists 309

18 William Davenant and John Dryden 311
Richard Kroll

19 'Still on the Criminal's Side, against the Innocent': Etherege, Wycherley and the Ironies of Wit 326
Robert Markley

20 'Who Vices Dare Explode': Thomas Shadwell, Thomas Durfey and Didactic Drama of the Restoration 340
Christopher J. Wheatley

21 Otway, Lee and the Restoration History Play 355
Paulina Kewes

22 Elkanah Settle, John Crowne and Nahum Täte 378
Don-John Dugas

23 Two Female Playwrights of the Restoration: Aphra Behn and Susanna Centlivre 396
Cynthia Lowenthal

24 William Congreve and Thomas Southerne 412
Miriam Handley

25 Sir John Vanbrugh and George Farquhar in the Post-Restoration Age 429
John Bull

Index 446

"The book will serve its audience very well, and those needing further guidance will profit from the list of further reading at the end of each essay. Highly recommended for academic libraries, the volume will be especially helpful to upper-division undergraduate and graduate students."
Choice

"[...] the riches of Susan Owen's book are sufficient to ensure it a place on anyone's list of essential reading on Restoration Drama."
Notes and Queries

Susan J. Owen teaches in the Department of English Literature at the University of Sheffield. She is the author of Restoration Theatre and Crisis (1996) and Perspectives on Restoration Drama (forthcoming), as well as numerous articles and essays on Restoration drama, a piece on Andrew Marvell and a theoretical article, ‘Chaos Theory, Marxism and Literature; (new formations, 1996). She has also edited A Babel of Bottles: Drink, Drinkers and Drinking Places in Literature (2000). This Companion illustrates the vitality and diversity of dramatic work between 1660 and 1710. Twenty-five essays by leading scholars in the field bring together the best recent insights into the full range of dramatic practice and innovation at the time. Contributors examine well known genres such as Restoration sex comedy in a new light, and explore other genres such as heroic plays, satirical comedy, sentimental 'she-tragedy', tragi-comedy and political tragedy.

The three sections of the volume address the diverse aspects of Restoration Drama. The first situates the drama in its theatrical and social contexts and examines changing responses to Restoration drama from the eighteenth century to date, the second explores the wide range of dramatic genres, and the final section offers an introduction to the playwrights, including the first women dramatists. Coverage of the best known dramatists is balanced by attention to lesser known authors and plays.