Rover Through the prism of Restoration Period.
If drama is an imaginative interchange between its participants on stage and off, a true extension of homo ludens, then the Restoration offers an example of one of the most rare games in the theatrical history. Played first in a theatre that was little more than a salon, and reflecting the behaviour of an unusually homogeneous audience whose preconceptions the audience shared, Restoration comedy rapidly developed an intimate style of speech and behaviour whose private signals were to be understood only in playing them. - J L Styan.
The countless stories of seduction and cuckoldry, the stereotypes of fop and rake, wit and coquette, country wife and country cousin all provide us convenient pegs to hang the true elements of restoration comedy (styan 2). The Restoration period in itself is dominated by the idea of exploration and celebration. Bonamy Dobree uses the term exploration of curiosity to highlight the scientific as well as sexual exploration of the period while the atmosphere of celebration and merriment licensed such explorations. In 1823, Charles Lamb published his famous essay On the Artificial Comedy of the last century wherein he brings in the then radical idea that these plays embody a world of Utopia of Gallantry to which the moral ideas of the general audience ought not to apply. The frankness of sexual morality of the restoration comedy no longer shocks the readers anymore because they are now aware that promiscuity and licentiousness was in the fabric of restoration period. This is proved by the fact that King Charles II himself had a number of mistresses. Moreover Nell Gwen who was the favourite mistress of Charles II was an actress (S A Narayan). Hence to sum it up, in less than a generation, the monarchy had been dissolved; a king beheaded; a new government conceived, implemented and failed; and the monarchy re-established.
