4185910
| Question | Answer |
| restoration comedy: stage inovations | Lifting of Puritan stage ban Stage machinery (moveable scenery, illusionistic painting, expensive costumes, special effects..) Women actresses Indoor amusement Theatre as place of ill repute |
| Points of criticism: the stage | Undermines public morality Teaches immoral conduct Rewards the wicked and debauched Is blasphemous and profane (verbatim quotes from plays) Indecent |
| pamphlet war: | John Vanbrugh, A Short Vindication of The Relapse and The Provok'd Wife From Immorality and Prophaneness (1698); William Congreve, Amendments of Mr. Collier's False and Imperfect Citations (1698) |
| restoration characteristics of comedy 1 | Victory of younger generation (‚Spring‘) over older generation (‚Winter‘) (cf. Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism 1957) Love triangles dissolved into love couples Intrigues to overcome obstackes, blocking characters Teleology is towards marriage and social cohesion |
| restoration characteristics of comedy 2 | Suggests a future beyond the play in renewed social bonds Tendency to dialogue Female characters prominent and active Puns tend towards fecundity and sexual innuendo (cf. Northrop Frye) Choices are maintained, events don‘t appear to be predestined (vs. tragic inevitability) |
| restoration comedy: plot features | young lovers vs. old blocking characters amor vincit omnia! (cf. Northrop Frye) Illicit (extra-marital) love no poetic justice Immoral protagonist succeeds |
| restoration comedy: social background | few positive model characters amoral genre; ‚social Darwinism‘ goals: sex, power, money, marriage required skill: wit |
| Restoration Comedy: Socio-Political Impetus | After Puritan middle-class rule: reassertion of aristocratic dominance Class-struggle played out in sexual terms Schematic character arsenal used to transport tendentious ideological message |
| Restoration Comedy: Plays based on aristocratic norms | Mostly set in public sphere Attractive aristocratic characters (cynical hedonists, stylish libertines) Idealising aristocratic conduct & lifestyle No moral, only aesthetic restrictions |
| Restoration Comedy Stock Characters | wit = rake witwould = fop cuckold country bumpkin cit witty couple romantic couple scheming servants |
| wit | Linguistic, rhetorical skill Natural ability, cannot be imitated by the witless Manipulative: controlling others, controlling one’s own passion Aesthetic: polished, elegant surface, hiding true feelings Quick repartee Striking similes, metaphors Way of life Unsentimental, rational view of human motives Aristocratic wit vs. bourgeois morality means to maintain aristocratic dominance WIT vs. MORALITY as central rivalling norms in RC (and late C17/early C18 society) |
| wit: Linguistic, rhetorical skill | Natural ability, cannot be imitated by the witless Manipulative: controlling others, controlling one’s own passion Aesthetic: polished, elegant surface, hiding true feelings Quick repartee Striking similes, metaphors |
| wit: Way of life | Unsentimental, rational view of human motives Aristocratic wit vs. bourgeois morality means to maintain aristocratic dominance |
| WIT vs. MORALITY | as central rivalling norms in RC (and late C17/early C18 society) |
| The Country Wife (1675) Comic Elements | Comedy of Manners Excluding laughter Themes: Money & Marriage (vs. burgeois celebration of m. as sacred institution); Correct/Incorrect Manners; Hypocrisy & Affectation vs. True Wit; Women, Men & Power Comic language: wit (Horner, Harcourt, Alithea); false wit (Sparkish); absence of wit (Margery) Comic characters: fop (Sparkish), cuckolds (Pinchwife, Fidget); cit (Fidget); the ‚virtuous gang‘ (Lady Fidget, Lady Squeamish, Mrs. Dainty Fidget), the country booby (Margery) Comic situations: intrigues, double-entendre, disguise, discrepant awareness (the china scene !! [IV.iii], the letter-writing scene [IV.ii], the love-making scenes H & A [II.i; III.ii]; the drinking scene [V.iv]; the near-discovery scene [V.iv] …) |
| the country wife: themes | Money & Marriage (vs. burgeois celebration of m. as sacred institution); Correct/Incorrect Manners; Hypocrisy & Affectation vs. True Wit; Women, Men & Power |
| the country wife: comic language | wit (Horner, Harcourt, Alithea); false wit (Sparkish); absence of wit (Margery) |
| the country wife: comic characters | fop (Sparkish), cuckolds (Pinchwife, Fidget); cit (Fidget); the ‚virtuous gang‘ (Lady Fidget, Lady Squeamish, Mrs. Dainty Fidget), the country booby (Margery) |
| the country wife: comic situations | intrigues, double-entendre, disguise, discrepant awareness (the china scene !! [IV.iii], the letter-writing scene [IV.ii], the love-making scenes H & A [II.i; III.ii]; the drinking scene [V.iv]; the near-discovery scene [V.iv] …) |
| Restoration Comedy Women | aristocratic women: more freedom (?) honour/virtue & the double standard the marriage market types: the female rake, the ‚fallen‘ woman, the courtesan, the lecherous dowager, the female wit … RC: class struggle and gender struggle |
| Sentimental Comedy | reduction of laughter emotional involvement Sensibility didacticism |
| sentimental comedy: reduction of laughter | No sexual or aggressive humour Humour reduced in intensity (smiles instead of belly laughs) Benevolent, welcoming laughter (insteead of excluding laughter) |
| sentimental comedy: emotional invlvement | "a Joy too exquisite for Laughter" (“Preface”) through sentimentalisation of relationships internalisation of conflicts pathos |
| sentimental comedy: didacticism | „To Chasten Wit, and Moralize the Stage“ („Prologue“) through virtuous behaviour of model characters through explicit didacticism |
| Third Earl of Shaftesbury: Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times (1711) Sensibility (Empfindsamkeit) | ‚susceptibility to tender feelings‘ (ie. to respond to/empathize with sorrows and joys in our fellow beings & to respond to the beautiful) innate ‚moral sense‘ as gift from benevolent nature Independent of reason allows us to sense intuitively the Beautiful, the Good, the True Theory became part of social ethics and public morality Open display of feelings read as sign of a good heart Gradually declined into histrionic self-indulgence and sentimentalism (cf. Jane Austen‘s criticism in Sense and Sensibility) |
| Involving the Audience Emotionally | Lack of humour compensated for by offering deep emotional involvement (laughter produces distance) Emotional audience involvement through sentimentalised relationships Internalising conflicts and showing suffering characters |
| Emotional audience involvement through sentimentalised relationships | Hierarchical relations now endowed with tender feelings (master-servant; patriarch-children) |
| Internalising conflicts and showing suffering characters | Intense emotional bonds preclude conflicts from being acted out (Jack does not actively oppose his father!) Inner struggle between conflicting values (duel: aristocratic code of honour vs. sentimental & Enlightenment values) |
| Sentimental Comedy Didacticism: Contents | Providential optimism: virtue rewarded Strict sexual morals Celebration of family and friendship Attack on duelling Praise of merchants SC celebrates middle class norms, rejects aristocratic value system |
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