The Restoration Age / The Restoration phenomena ( Socio- historical context and literature of the time) and Restoration Tragedy/ Heroic Tragedy / Heroic plays
The Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 not only marked a political change from the Commonwealth era, but also signalled a new cultural matrix that transformed the regimented social energies and the curtailments of the Cromwellian administration ( influenced by its overtly puritanic undertones) and gave relaxation through certain socio- cultural transformations.
The Restoration phenomena
With the restoration of Charles II, there was the re- imposition of the old system of hierarchization that controlled the conditions of social relations in terms of authority and rank.
With the reestablishment of the monarchy, the decision making powers were reverted back to the court whose manners were determined by the pleasure- loving King and the matters were directed by the aristocrats in distributing offices and ranks based on privileges and favours granted, silencing the importance of merit. This, probably, had anticipated the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
Certain turmoils also affected the reign of Charles II, such as the Popish Plot, the revolt of Monmouth and the conflict between Whigs and Tories.
With the centralisation of power in the court, London became the focus of all political and cultural attention. The influence of court impacted the mindscape of the mass. Therefore, urban life and its sophisticated and refined mannerism was preferred over the provincial and rural backwardness.
The pomb and exhibitionism of refined manners was integrated with a certain moral laxity, influenced by a reaction against Puritan regimentation and a preference for rationalism. This social phenomena paved the way for the popular Restoration Comedy of Manners( sometimes synonymous with Artificial Comedy and Comedy of Intrigue) and Satirical poetic endeavors.
The Act of Uniformity in 1662 in its marginalization of the Puritans showed the attitude of the new regime quite evidently. The socio- political climate was of moderation and the need for organizing scientific discipline found its agency in the Royal Society. Rapid urban growth and colonial expansion overseas was adequately visible.
In literature and theatre, as in the words of Susan Owen, “ In the 1660s the king had promoted the royalist heroic play in rhyming couplets, a form characterized by baroque and bombast. However, in the late 1670s this gave way to political tragedy in blank verse.” Charles II granted monopoly to two theatre companies—-- the King’s Company, run by Thomas Killigrew and the Duke’s Company, run by William Davenant. The patronization of the Court and the obligation to serve to their tastes, somehow distanced the merchant class and common theatre goers from the stage. This scenario was different from the Elizabethan audience as a considerable segment of the Elizabethan audience was composed of these fellows.
The Restoration theatre was city based and sought to ridicule the wealthy citizens and country gentlemen.
Restoration theatre was marked by a superficial sophistication that replaced the theatrical extravaganza of the Elizabethan theatre to cater to the taste of the niche audiences who had a preference for libel, satire and slander.
Since Charles II brought with him a new admiration for French literature, therefore, many of the Restoration Comedies were a copious representation of manners and matters of the French dramatists, especially of Moliere. Despite that, Dryden and Pope ( though in the 18th century) still had their inclination to the Latin writers for guidance and inspiration. In the more formal tragedy the combined mode of French and Classical models produced a new genre of Heroic plays.
Most importantly, Restoration theatre saw the introduction of the women actors for the first time so far, to play the parts of the lady protagonists.
The Heroic Plays or, The Restoration Tragedy
The paramount influence of Charles II and his French association on the Royal Court was evident in the romances and dramas produced. The combined mode of French and Classical models produced a new genre of Heroic plays that creates an escape world for a degenerated aristocracy, where Love, beauty and valour prevailed. The heroes in these plays were wonderfully brave and heroines extremely virtuous and the subject matter, in a high rhetorical manner, dealt with the conflict between love and honour or love and duty. This genre of drama was considerably influenced by French classical drama, especially by the works of Corneille and Racine.
Salient features of the Restoration tragedies or heroic plays or heroic tragedies
The heroic tragedy followed the Epic tradition. Like the Epic it developed the actions of the hero by means of the principle of unity and the projection of magnificence.In these plays, as in an epic, the protagonist was a large-scale warrior whose actions involve the fate of an empire. A noble hero and an equally noble heroine were typically placed in a situation in which their passionate love was in conflict with the demands of honour and with the hero’s patriotic duty to his country. When the conflict ended in a disaster, the effect was a tragedy.
The dramatists of the heroic plays seek to advance the characters of virtue in the shape of valor and conjugal
love. "The business of the plays is to recommend virtue and discountenance vice." Virtue should be rewarded and in order to reward virtue, unhappy endings were avoided as far as possible as it was not considered appropriate because the heroic tragedy dealt only in 'admiration' and 'concernment'.
Everything in a heroic tragedy was governed by an air of exaggeration, as Dryden himself stated "Heroic play is indeed the representation of nature, but it is nature wrought up to a higher pitch.” Sensationalism, violence and bloodshed were important features of the heroic plays.
The heroic tragedy was written both in blank verse and heroic couplet.
Heroic dramas were staged in an operatic fashion. The two early works of this genre, William Davenant’s The Spaniards in Peru(1658) and The Siege of Rhodes(1661), relied on the romance tradition. Although Davenant is credited with the introduction of this genre, it was actually in the hands of John Dryden that this genre was enriched with innovation.
i) John Dryden (1636-1700): Dryden analyzed the characteristic aspects of the genre of heroic plays in his essay entitled Of Heroic Plays, which was attached to his tragedy The Conquest of Granada, a two-part tragedy about the Spanish conquest of Granada and the fall of Muhammad XII of Granada, the last Nasrit ruler of the Emirate of Granada. In his essay Dryden commented upon the resources from the Elizabethan plays and the French theatrical practice of Corneille that this genre of playwriting was indebted to. The Conquest of Granada is remarkable for more than one reason such as —- determining the structure and theatrical features of heroic drama; moral preaching and great art of characterization of which the character of Almanzor is a noteworthy example.
The Conquest of Granada was satirized by other playwrights such as George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham in his The Rehearsal, and Henry Fielding’s Tragedy of Tragedies, or the Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great.
Dryden’s adaptation of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra was entitled All for Love or, The World We Lost, a blank verse tragedy that focused on the last hours of the lives of its hero and heroine.
The Indian Emperor, Tyrrannick Love, Aureng-zebe are his important heroic plays in heroic couplets.
The Indian Emperor was a sequel of his earlier play The Indian Queen, with Henry Howard. The Indian Emperor was subtitled as The Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards, being the Sequel of The Indian Queen. Two major sources of Dryden were Sir William Davenant's The Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru and the Spanish accounts of the conquest in Samuel Purchas’ Purchas his Pilgrimes.
Tyrrannick Love or The Royal Martyr, in rhymed couplets,is a retelling of the story of Saint Catherine of Alexandria and her martyrdom by the Roman Emperor Maximinus, the "tyrant" of the title, who is enraged at Catherine's refusal to submit to his violent sexual passion.
Aureng-zebe,his last heroic play, is often considered one of his best tragedies. The plot of the play is loosely based on a contemporary account of the struggle between the four sons of Shah Jahan, the fifth Mogul emperor, for the succession to the throne. The eponymous hero is projected as an exemplary figure of human rationality, virtue, and patience whose father pursues the same woman with whom he himself is in love. Dryden here depicted a chaotic awareness of the anarchy and the consequent impotence that seeks to threaten every aspect of human life, be it emotional, moral, or political.
The State of Innocence was an operatic adaptation of Milton’s Paradise Lost.
ii) William Davenant (1606-1668): Davenant’s career spanned both the Caroline and restoration eras and he was active both before and after the English Civil War. His famous tragedies are - Albovine, King Of The Lombard (1629), a revenge tragedy; The Cruel Brother (1630) and The Unfortunate Lovers (1643); and tragicomedies are The Colonel and Love and Honour. Davenant was appointed to the poet laureateship in 1638, after the death of Ben Jonson the previous year, and composed several court masques. In 1656 Davenant made the first attempt to revive English drama, which had been banned under Cromwell, with The first day’s Entertainment (produced 1656), a work disguised under the title Declamations and Musick. This work led to his creating the first public opera in England, The
Siege of Rhodes(produced 1656). In The Siege he introduced three innovations to the English public stage: an opera, painted stage sets, and a female actress-singer. His other play in this genre was The Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru (1658). In 1660, after the Restoration, he was granted one of two new royal patents to establish new acting companies and founded the new Duke of York’s Playhouse in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. As manager, director, and playwright, he continued to produce, write, and adapt plays. The charter was later transferred to Covent Garden. Together with John Dryden, he adapted Shakespeare’s The Tempest in 1667.
iii) Nathaniel Lee (1653- 1692): Lee was often considered as a belated Elizabethan to proclaim the spirit of heroic tragedy in his dramas. He usually wrote his plays in Blank verse and his plays were written in a wild, raving style with a poetic tranquility that showed his command of pathos. Lee, after the Restoration, conformed to the church of England and withdrew his approval for Charles I's execution. He made his reputation 1677 with a blank verse tragedy The Rival Queens or The Death of Alexander the Great, dealing with the jealousy of Alexander's first wife Roxana, for his second wife Statira. His other important works are- Tragedy of Nero, Emperor of Rome (1674); Sophonisba or Hannibal's
Overthrow (1675), based on the story of the Carthaginian noblewoman Sophonisba upon whom John Marston's The Wonder of Women (1606) and James Thomson's Sophonisba (1730) was modelled ; Mithridates, King Of Pontus (1677), John Dryden wrote the epilogue of this play; Theodosius, or the Force of Love (acted 1680) this play contextualize the reign of the Roman Emperor Theodosius II ; Caesar Borgia (acted 1680), an imitation of the worst blood and thunder Elizabethan tragedies; Lucius Junius Brutus (acted 1681) gave offence at court for some lines on Tarquin's character that were taken to be a reflection on King Charles II. He therefore collaborated with Dryden in The Duke of Guise (1683), a play which directly advocated the Tory point of view and contextualize the Monmouth rebellion.The other play in which he collaborated with Dryden was an adaptation of Oedipus (1679); Constantine The Great (1683), based on the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great ; The Massacre of Paris(1689), based on St. Bartholomew's Day massacre which led the killing of many Huguenots during the French Wars of Religion in 1572. This content echoes Christopher Marlowe's Elizabethan play The Massacre at Paris.; The Princess of Cleve (1681) is an adaptation of a French novel of the same name. His two tragedies Sophonisba and Gloriana, or the Court of Augustus Caesar were written in rhymed heroic couplets, in imitation of John Dryden.
iv) Thomas Otway (1652- 1685): Started his dramatic career with his heroic tragedy Alcibiades(1675),
Otway attained his success with his second play Don Carlos, Prince of Spain (1676) where the humanized aspects of “heroic” characters add feathers to the art of characterization. His two short plays include Titus and Berenice, adapted from Racine's Berenice and The Cheats of Scapin, adapted from Moliere's Scapin the Schemer. The History and Fall of Caius Marius(1679) and is an adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet , and the story of Marius as related in Plutarch's Lives. His two masterpieces are The Orphan, or The Unhappy Marriage(1980), and Venice Preserv'd, or A Plot Discover'd(1682).The Orphan, or The Unhappy Marriage, a domestic tragedy that ends with continuous suicide. Written in blank verse, this play was modeled upon Shakespeare and its success was due to Otway's excellent projection of tragic pathos found in the characters of Castalio and Monimia. This play shows a skillful handling of the characters, especially of Jaffier and Pierre. Venice Preserv'd, or A Plot Discover'd, often considered his best play that presents an individual quest for happiness and the restrictions imposed by the society. The play contains a fair number of political parallels, especially the Exclusion Crisis as Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel. The character of Senator Antonio is a reference to the Earl of Shaftesbury, and the plot resembles the context of the Gunpowder Plot. It also hints at the "Spanish Conspiracy" against Venice in 1618. The oceanic city of Venice is a symbolic projection of London. His other tragedies include Loyal Brother(1682), Fatal Marriage (1694), and Oroonoko(1695), a dramatic adaptation of Aphra Behn’s novel of the same name.
v) John Crowne (1641- 1712): His major works of tragedy are Thyestes (1681), written in blank verse; Darius, king of Persia (1688). Crowne's plays offer a glimpse into the political vogue of the Restoration period. His comedies, particularly Sir Courtly Nice (1685), were often superlatively praised by contemporaries for their pleasing and skillful structure, and his 1675 masque Calisto was a courtly
event of enormous grandeur. Crowne's works also present some incisive satirical portraits of the major political figures of the English Restoration. He is best known for his heroic tragedy Caligula(1698).
vi) Nicholas Rowe (1674 - 1718): He was appointed the Poet Laureate in 1715.He was also considered the first editor of the works of William Shakespeare. His best known plays are Tamerlane(1702), representing William III as the conqueror Timur and Louis XIV is denounced as Bajazet. ; The Fair Penitent(1703), Nicholas Rowe's stage adaptation of the tragedy The Fatal Dowry, by Philip Massinger and Nathan Field. Samuel Johnson praised this playof Rowe as so interesting by the fable and so delightful in the language; and The Tragedy of Jane Shore1714). Jane Shore is an imitation of Shakespeare's style. It
consists mainly of dramatic scenes and private distresses. The wife is forgiven because she repents and the husband is honoured because he forgives. His The Tragedy of Lady Jane Grey was not much successful and was his last foray into this venture.
vii) Roger Boyle, Earl of Orrey(1621-1679): In Boyle’s tragedies Henry V(1664) and The Black Prince, the English content combined with the French theatrical praxis. The play The Black Prince(1667) deals with Edward's( the eponymous black prince)defeat and capture of the French King John II at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356. The diarist Samuel Pepys considered the play to have a weak plot but remarkable stage setting. His oriental tragedy Mustapha(1665), subtitled as The Son Of Solyman The Magnificent was based on the life of Prince Mustafa, son of Suleiman the Magnificent who had executed his son. His other notable tragedy includes Tryphon(1668), which was originally staged by the Duke's Company.
viii) Elkanah Settle( 1648-1724): Elkanah Settle’s notable tragedy The Empress of Morocco(1673)engaged
with his rivalry with John Dryden in a scheme of intrigue that was applauded by the contemporary London audience. His Ibrahim The Illustrious Bassa (1676),based on a French novel, The Female Prelate, subtitled as Being The History Of The Life And Death Of Pope Joan is a 1680, based on the legendary Pope Joan at the pretext of Popish Plot to exclude the Catholic heir James, Duke of York from the throne. This play was written from an anti-Catholic view point. Another play written in the same anti-Catholic vein was Fatal Love; Or, The Forc'd Inconstancy (1680). His other tragedies include Love And Revenge (1674), Distress'd Innocence; Or, The Princess Of Persia(1690), The Ambitious Slave; Or, A Generous Revenge(1694).
References:
Albert, Edward, History of English Literature, Oxford University Press,1979, pp 155-165
Choudhury, Bibhash, English Social and Cultural History, PHI Learning pvt.ltd, 2019, pp 136-139
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/295943967_Heroic_Tragedy
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