Love and Marriage in Three Restoration Comedies

Note: same link for each

Social and Historical Context
The Rakish Hero
Changing Ideals of the Feminine
Representations of Marriage

Restoration Comedy

Restoration comedy refers to English comedies written and performed in the Restoration period from 1660 to 1710. Appealing to a fairly narrow audience of aristocrats in the recently reopened theatres, Restoration comedy relied upon sophisticated repartee,  sexual explicitness, bustling plots, topical writing, and comic physicality (lots of entrances and exits). The plots were largely being based on the complex intrigues of the marriage‐market. Playgoers were attracted to the comedies for the above reasons as well as the introduction of the first professional actresses, and the rise of the first celebrity actors. The plays expressed the sense of libertinism, secularism, cynicism and freedom of the time period.

Simon Callow on Acting in Restoration Comedy

William Wycherly's The Country Wife excerpt

from from BBC 1977 Play of the Month

Or, Glossary

Alphabetical, page number on which it appears in ()

Mostly taken from OED, hence the British spelling

Aristos (17)

An aristocrat.

Lizzie Barry (36)

A great English actress of the Restoration. She had a bad start in the theater, was then coached by the Earl of Rochester, who had made a bet that he could turn her into a great actress. She worked with the Duke’s company from 1675 – 1682.

Bear garden (31)

A place originally set apart for the baiting of bears, and used for the exhibition of other rough sports, fig. a scene of strife and tumult.

Bedlam (51)

1. The Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem, used as an asylum for the reception and treatment of the mentally ill; originally situated in Bishopsgate, in 1676 rebuilt near London Wall. In extended use: an asylum for the mentally ill; a madhouse, ‘lunatic asylum’.

2. A scene of mad confusion or uproar.

Breeches part (17)

A part in which men's clothes are worn by an actress.

Clapped by a Holborn drab (36)

Getting the clap (most likely gonorrhea) from a prostitute in Holborn, a seedy neighborhood in London.

Johnny Downes (35)

Prompter at the Duke’s Company for most of the Restoration period. His "historical review of the stage", Roscius Anglicanus (1708), is an invaluable source for historians both of Restoration and Stuart theater.

Florimel (16)

The spirited and witty heroine in Dryden’s Secret Love, or The Maiden Queen. Nell played this breeches part, in male clothing, to much acclaim.

Gordian Knot (48)

An intricate knot tied by Gordius, king of Gordium in Phrygia. The oracle declared that whoever should loosen it should rule Asia. Alexander the Great cut through the knot with his sword.

fig. or allusively:  (a) A matter of extreme difficulty. to cut a Gordian knot: to get rid of a difficulty by force or by evading the supposed conditions of solution.  (b) An indissoluble bond.

Resembling the Gordian knot; consisting of twisted convolutions, intricate, involved.

Guttersnipe (17)

1. The common snipe, gutter bird.

2. A child brought up ‘in the gutter’; one of the lowest class; an urchin.

Hemmed (2)

Furnished with a hem or border; sewed with a hem; hemmed in: shut in, confined, imprisoned.

Lee (9)

1. Protection, shelter, rarely pl. Also in phrases in, under (the) lee (of) both in material and immaterial senses. †Also, a resting-place.

2. A sheltered position or condition; hence, calmness, peace, tranquility.

Luminescence (7)

The quality of emitting light, or having the property of emitting light, otherwise than as a result of incandescence.

Mumchance (22)

Silence. To play mumchance: to keep a dogged silence. 

Odd’s fish (10)

Od’ is a euphemistic substitute for God. Ex od’s will, od’s bones, od’s blood and od’s flesh, of which Odd’s Fish is an alteration. Such compounds were very common in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Pinardic Ode (13)

Pinardic ode, ceremonious poem by or in the manner of Pindar, a Greek professional lyrist of the 5th century BC. A poem intended to be sung or one written in a form originally used for sung performance lyric poem, typically one in the form of an address to a particular subject, written in varied or irregular metre.

Poxy (57)

1. Infected with Pox (any of several diseases characterized by a rash of pustules, incl. small pox, chicken pox, also Syphilis), spotty

2. Of poor quality, useless, worthless (freq. as a general term of abuse)

Prosaic (4)

1. Dull or commonplace matters, considerations, observations,

2. Of or relating to prose; consisting of or written in prose (opposed to poetic).

Rake (5)

1. A fashionable or stylish man of dissolute or promiscuous habits.

2. A woman of similar character.

Compounds: rake-ruined adj. poet. Obs. debased or degraded by dissolute and self-indulgent behaviour.

Roundhead (13)

A member or adherent of the Parliamentary party in the Civil War of the 17th century, so called from their custom of wearing the hair close cut.

Rover (9)

1. One who roves or wanders, esp. to a great distance; a roving person or animal.

2. An inconstant lover; a male flirt

3. A marauder, robber.

Sappho (10)

The ancient Greek poetess of Lesbos (ca. 600 BC).

Scatterwit (36)

One who is incapable of serious connected thought; a thoughtless, giddy person.

Thomas Shadwell (36)

A prolific Restoration playwright and rival to Dryden.

Slattern (40)

A woman or girl untidy and slovenly in person, habits, or surroundings; a slut.

Sod that (52)

Damn that, slang.

Soft touch (36)

a person easily manipulated; spec. one easily induced to part with money; also, a task or opponent easily handled.

Sotted (36)

Rendered foolish, sottish or stupid; besotted, intoxicated.

Stratagem (2)

1. An operation or act of generalship; usually, an artifice or trick designed to outwit or surprise the enemy.

2. Any artifice or trick; a device or scheme for obtaining an advantage. In generalized sense: Skill in devising expedients; artifice, cunning.

Surinam (8)

A country in South America, formerly Dutch Guiana, before that it was a British colony.

Terschelling, The Great Bonfire (54)

August 1666 Rear Admiral Robert Holmes leads a raid on the Dutch island of Terschelling, destroying 150 merchant ships, and pillaging the town of West-Terschelling, an act later known as "Holmes's Bonfire". The town was burned to the ground. 

Third-day profits (12)

The income from the third day of the performance was paid to the playwright. This was the way the writer was paid. Some productions never made it to the third day.

Toute suite (3)

Right away; promptly quickly. (Pronounced "toot sweet." From French toute de suite.)

The Tower (39)

The Tower of London, a prison where important political prisoners were taken and potentially tortured and executed. 

Wastrel (58)

1. A good-for-nothing, idle, worthless, disreputable person.

2. Running to waste, spendthrift.

Wilding   (2)

1. Of a plant, growing wild

2. Developed without culture or training, like a wild plant; natural, native.

Wits (36)

A person of lively fancy, who has the faculty of saying smart or brilliant things, now always so as to amuse; a witty person.

Fops, Wits, Poets, and Actresses of Aphra's cohort

Avid Theater-goer and Diarist Samuel Pepys

Thomas Shadwell, Poet

Thomas Killigrew, wit and dramatist; friend of Aphra;
Court Jester; and the manager of King's Company

James II, Duke of York; Charles II Brother

Elizabeth Barry, Actress;
Mistress to Wilmot

William Wycherly, Dramatist

John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, rake, wit

"Moll" Davis, actress; Mistress to Charles II

William Scot - a very brief biography

We don't know much about William, the son of Thomas Scot.

William was probably born in 1627, he married a Joanna and had one child Elizhia. He may have met Aphra Behn, while in Surinam in 1663. After the restoration, he fled to Holland, where he became a spy for the Dutch. He is referred to in intelligence papers as Celadon. He returned to England in 1667.

Thomas Scot was a supporter of the Commonwealth, member of Parliament and signed Charles I death warrant. After Charles II returned to power, Scot was hanged, drawn and quartered at Charring Cross on 17 October 1660. He died unrepentant "in a cause not to be repented of." 

London - Hogarth's engravings

William Hogarth (10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects". His engravings provide some of the best images of society life in London of the early 18th century.

A Rake's Progress is a series of eight paintings by 18th century English artist William Hogarth. The canvases were produced in 1732–33 then engraved and published in print form in 1735. The series shows the decline and fall of Tom Rakewell, the spendthrift son and heir of a rich merchant, who comes to London, wastes all his money on luxurious living, prostitution and gambling, and as a consequence is imprisoned in the Fleet Prison and ultimately Bedlam (from Wikipedia).

Plate 1 — The Young Heir Takes Possession Of The Miser's Effects

Plate 2 — Surrounded By Artists And Professors

Plate 3 — The Tavern Scene

Plate 4 — Arrested for Debt

Plate 5 — Marriage to an Old Maid

Plate 6 — Gaming House Scene

Plate 7 — The Prison Scene

Plate 8 — The Madhouse

In 1743–1745 Hogarth painted the six pictures of Marriage à-la-mode (National Gallery, London), a pointed skewering of upper class 18th century society. This moralistic warning shows the tragedy of an ill-considered marriage for money.

London Life

A Laughing Audience, Hogarth

Restoration of Charles II

Hogarth's The Distressed Poet ca. 1736

Movies set in Restoration England

Please Note: These movies are not necessarily historically accurate, or particularly good films; however, they provide a good glimpse into the visual world of the period.

Restoration (1995)

Restoration (1995): A young doctor played by Robert Downey Junior comes to be in the service of Charles II.

The Last King: The Power and Passion
of Charles II (2004)

The Last King: The Power and the Passion of Charles II (2004): A TV mini-series about the reign of Charles II, his exile and return.

STAGE BEAUTY (2004)

Stage Beauty (2004): Based in 1660's of London's theatres, this film is about the transition from men playing the female roles to women playing the female roles in Restoration theater production. Both Charles II and Nell Gwynn feature prominently in the film.

The Libertine (2006): The story of the John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, a 17th century poet who famous rake who drank excessively and was known for his debauchery and promiscuity.  Wilmot was a friend of Aphra Behn's.

Eleanor (Nell) Gwyn: A Brief Chronology

1650 February – Eleanor Gwyn is born to Welsh parents Helena Smith and Captain Thomas Gwyn

Early 1650s – Nell’s father dies, leaving her mother to raise support young daughters, Nell and her sister Rose. A life of prostitution followed, and  before long MRs. Gwyn was running her own bawdy house.

1660 Charles II returns to London in the restoration of the monarchy

1660 August – Charles granted permission to the playwrights Sir William Davenant and Sir Thomas Killigrew to establish two separate companies Duke's and King's Companies, respectively.

1663 – A new theater built by Killigrew, between Bridges Street and Drury Lane, opens

1663 – Nell and her sister Rose obtain jobs as orange girls, from a friend of their mother, “Orange Moll” who was granted the license to sell fruit at the King’s Company theater. The job required the ability to banter with the audience as well as perform as a go-between between the gallants and masked ladies in the audience or actresses backstage. Nell excelled at this and created a name for herself.

1664 – Killligrew takes an interest in Nell and introduces her to two of his best actors John Lacy and Charles Hart. They took her under their wings and helped to train her for the stage.

1664 – Nell begins an affair with Charles Hart, her Charles I

1665 March – First recorded stage appearance as Montezuma’s daughter, Cydaria in Dryden’s Indian Emperor, a serious part, which she did not play very well.

1666 September – Great Fire of London burns down 80% of the city.

1666 November – Theatres reopen after the fire. Nell plays Lady Wealthy in James Howard's comedy The English Monsieur. Over the next four months, Nell plays 7-10 roles.

1667 – Nell plays Florimel in Dryden's Secret Love, or the Maiden Queen,  Pepy’s is so smitten with her performance that he writes: "so great a performance of a comical part was never, I believe, in the world before.....so done by Nell her merry part as cannot be better done in nature"

1667 – Begins a friendship with Aphra Behn that will last until her death.

1667 April–August – Nell has an affair with Charles, Lord Buckhurst (second Charles), who was one of the original court wits, a true gallant. He takes her away to the fashionable spa town of Epsom for the summer. A typical rake, he tires of her after a few months.

1667 – Nell plays Flora in Flora’s Vagaries.

1668 – Nell plays a prank on Moll Davis, a fellow actress and rival for the King’s affections. Knowing Moll will be dining with Charles that night, Nell feeds her some sweetmeats laced with a laxative.

1668 April – Nell goes to a play with a Mr. Villiers in the King’s box. Charles flirts with her all night and the three go out to dinner. Several accounts note that when it came time to pay, Charles had no money on him. In one story, Nell is said to have paid the bill herself, teasing the King, and using his favorite expletive in the process “Od’s fish! But this is the poorest company I ever was in!” She became his mistress soon after.

1668 Nell’s busiest year in the theater, as more playwrights wanted to write for her. She played Donna Jacinta in An Evening’s Love, Dol Troop in The Old Troop, Lysette in Damoiselles a la Mode, and as an amazon in Caitline’s Conspiracy.

1669 – Nell’s stage career is winding down

1670 – First son by Charles II, Charles Beauclerk born
1670 – Charles begins an affair with Louise de Keroualle, who Nell nicknames 'Squintabella' 
1670 December – Return to the stage as Almahide, queen of the Moors, in Dryden's The Conquest of Granada.

1671 – Second son by Charles, James Beauclerk, born.
1672 – King's theater burns down, reopens in a new building designed by Christopher Wren in 1674

1677 – Nell performs as Angelica Bianca in Behn’s Rover.

1679 – Aphra Behn dedicates her The Feign'd Courtesans to Nell noting "so well you bear the honours you were born for, with a greatness so unaffected, and affability so easy, an humour so soft, so far from pride or vanity..."
1679 – Mrs. Gwynn falls into a pond, presumably drunk, and drowns.
1680 - Eight year old James dies of "a sore leg".

1685 – Charles dies.

1687 – Nell dies at 37 from the pox.