ENGL 340, Restoration Drama, Spring 2015

Abstract

This course explores English literature after the restoration of Charles II to the throne in 1660. Topics include: the reopening of the theaters; the introduction of the actress to the stage in lieu of the boy actors who had played women’s roles in the Renaissance; the flourishing of drama after the interregnum; the shift from satiric or libertine comedy to sentimental comedy. Our focus will be on plays by influential and popular dramatists, including Etherege, Dryden, Otway, Shadwell, Cibber, Vanbrugh, Congreve, and Farquhar and on the unique conditions of the theater they wrote for between 1675 and 1707. We will examine royal sponsorship of the theater of this period and the dissolute atmosphere of Charles II’s court, as depicted in verse satires by the king’s godson, the Earl of Rochester.