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Ⅳ The Literature in the Restoration
1. The Restoration Drama
From1642 onward for eighteen
years, the theaters of England remained nominally closed. There was of
course evasion of the law; but whatever performances were offered had to be
given in secrecy, before small companies in private houses, or in taverns
located three or four miles out of town. No actor or spectator was safe,
especially during the early days of the Puritan rule. Least of all was there
any inspiration for dramatists. In 1660 the Stuart dynasty was restored to
the throne of England. Charles II, the king, had been in France during the
greater part of the Protectorate, together with many of the royalist party,
all of whom were familiar with Paris and its fashions. Thus it was natural,
upon the return of the court, that French influence should be felt,
particularly in the theater. In August, 1660, Charles issued patents for two
companies of players, and performances immediately began. Certain writers,
in the field before the civil war, survived the period of theatrical
eclipse, and now had their chance. Among these were Thomas Killigrew and
William Davenant, who were quickly provided with fine playhouses.
It will be remembered that great indignation was
aroused among the English by the appearance of French actresses in 1629.
London must have learned to accept this innovation, however, for in one of
the semi-private entertainments given during the Protectorate at Rutland
House, the actress Mrs. Coleman took the principal part. The Siege of
Rhodes, a huge spectacle designed by Davenant in 1656 (arranged in part
with a view of evading the restrictions against theatrical plays) is
generally noted as marking the entrance of women upon the English stage. It
is also remembered for its use of movable machinery, which was something of
an innovation. The panorama of The Siege offered five changes of
scene, presenting "the fleet of Solyman the Magnificent, his army, the
Island of Rhodes, and the varieties attending the siege of the city."
By the time the theaters were reopened in England,
Corneille
and
Racine in France had established the neo-classic standard for tragedy,
and
Molière was in the full tide of his success. These playwrights, with
Quinault and others, for a time supplied the English with plots. The first
French opera, Cadmus and Hermione, by Lully and Quinault, performed
in Paris in 1673, crossed the channel almost immediately, influencing Dryden
in his attempts at opera. The romantic, semi-historical romances of Madame
Scudéry and the Countess de la Fayette afforded a second supply of story
material, while Spanish plays and tales opened up still another. Sometimes
the plots of
Calderón or Lope de Vega came to the English at second-hand
through French versions. Whatever the case, it was now evident that the
national type of play had ceased to be written. From this time on every
European nation was influence by, and exerted an influence upon, the drama
of every other nation. Characters, situations, plots, themes--these things
traveled from country to country, always modifying and sometimes supplanting
the home product.
With this influx of foreign drama, there was still a steady
production of the masterpieces of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. The
diarist Samuel Pepys, an ardent lover of the theater, relates that during
the first three years after the opening of the playhouses he saw Othello,
Henry IV, A Midsummer Night's Dream, two plays by Ben Jonson, and others
by Beaumont, Fletcher, Middleton,
Shirley, and
Massinger. It must have been
about this time that the practice of "improving" Shakespeare was begun, and
his plays were often altered so as to be almost beyond recognition. From the
time of the Restoration actors and managers, also dramatists, were good
royalists; and new pieces, or refurbished old ones, were likely to acquire a
political slant. The Puritans were satirized, the monarch and his wishes
were flattered, and the royal order thoroughly supported by the people of
the stage.
Richard Boyle, Earl of Orrery (1621-1679), seems to
have the doubtful glory of re-introducing the use of rhymed verse. Boyle was
a statesman, as well as a soldier and a dramatist. During the ten years or
so following the Restoration, he wrote at least four tragedies on historical
or legendary subjects, using the ten-syllabled rhymed couplet which (at the
moment) he borrowed from France. It runs like this:
"Reason's a staff for age, when nature's gone;
But youth is strong enough to walk alone."
No more stilted sort of verse could well be contrived
for dialogue. Monotonous as well as prosy, it was well suited to Orrery's
plots. He took a semi-historical story, filled it with bombastic sentiments
and strutting figures, producing what was known as "heroic drama." Dryden,
who identified himself with this type of play, described it as concerned not
with probabilities but with love and valor. A good heroic play is exciting,
with perpetual bustle and commotion. The characters are extricated out of
their amazing situations only by violence. Deaths are numerous. The more
remote and unfamiliar the setting the better; and the speech should be
suited to the action: hence the "heroic couplet." Pepys saw Guzman,
by Orrery, and with his engaging frankness said it was as mean a thing as
had been seen on the stage for a great while.
Other writers, Davenant, Etherege, and Sir Robert Howard, had
also produced specimens of heroic plays, and by the time The Conquest of
Granada reached the stage these clever gentlemen had grown tired of the
species. Compared to Dryden they were nobodies in the literary world; but
among them they contrived a hilarious burlesque called The Rehearsal,
in which these showy but shallow productions were smartly ridiculed. Dryden
is represented as Bayes (in reference to his position as poet laureate), and
his peculiarities of speech and plot are amusingly derided. Though The
Rehearsal was condemned as "scurrilous and ill-bred," yet it served a
useful turn in puncturing an empty and overblown style.
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