Diary Writers

John Evelyn [1620-1706]

• English country gentleman, author of some 30 books on the fine arts,
forestry, and religious topics. His Diary, kept all his life, is considered an
invaluable source of information on the social, cultural, religious, and
political life of 17th-century England.
• About 1670 Evelyn formed a paternal affection for Margaret Blagge, a
maid of honour at court, who later secretly married Godolphin, future
lord high treasurer. She died in 1678; Evelyn’s Life of Mrs. Godolphin
(1847), is one of the most moving of 17th-century biographies.
• His Diary, begun when he was 11 years old and first published in 1818
bears witness to more than 50 years of English life.
Samuel Pepys [1633-1703]
• English diarist and naval administrator, celebrated for his Diary (first
published 1825), which gives a fascinating picture of the upper-class life
of Restoration London from Jan. 1, 1660, to May 31, 1669.
• It provides a combination of personal revelation and eyewitness
accounts of great events, such as the Great Plague of London,
the Second Dutch War, and the Great Fire of London.
The Essayists
Sir William Temple[1628-1699]
• English statesman and diplomat whose thought and prose style had a
great influence on 18th-century writers, particularly on Jonathan Swift.
• Temple’s Observations upon the United Provinces (1673) has been
hailed as a pioneer work in the sympathetic interpretation of the people
of one country to those of another. The majority of his essays, however,
were written after his retirement and collected for publication by
Jonathan Swift, who was his secretary for most of the period from 1689
to 1699. Temple’s graceful, conversational style provided a model for
Swift’s own writing, and Swift’s celebrated “Battle of the Books” is a
reply to critics of Temple’s essay “Upon Ancient and Modern Learning.”
George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax[1633-1695]
• English statesman and political writer known as “The Trimmer”
because of his moderating position in the party struggles of his day.
• The Character of a Trimmer, a statement of his political creed, was
published in 1688. In it he discusses the political problems of the time
and their solution on broad principles.
• The Character of King Charles II is perhaps from the literary point of
view the most admirable of his writings. More in the nature of an essay
than any of his other productions, was his A Lady’s Gift, or Advice to a
Daughter printed in 1688 which shows much knowledge of the human,
especially of the feminine, heart.
Edward Hyde, 1st earl of Clarendon[1609-1674]
• English statesman and historian, minister to Charles I and Charles II and
author of the History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England.
• Essays, Moral and Entertaining is a collection which is written in style
of Bacon and contains essays on topics like Of Contempt of Death, Of
Friendship and Of Repentance.
 The Restoration Drama
The theatres were officially closed by Commonwealth ordinance in 1642;
theoretically there was no further acting in England until the restoration of
Charles II. Although declared rogues by a later act and threatened with the
whipping-post for pursuing their calling, the actors did not at once obey
these stringent laws.
During the commonwealth, occasional performances were presented at,
sometimes in noblemen’s houses; at others, in seasons of festivals such as
Christmas or Bartholomew fair, even at the old playhouses, among them the
Red Bull.
• Various devices were employed to evade the letter of the law. Interesting
among these were the “drolls” or “droll-humours,”—farces or humorous
scenes adapted from current plays and staged at taverns and fairs, and
sometimes, even, at regular theatres.
• Among “drolls” derived from well known plays may be named The Grave
Diggers’ Colloquy from Hamlet; Falstaff, The Bouncing Knight from
Henry IV; and The Buckbasket Mishap from The Merry Wives.
• Of these ‘drolls’ two collections are extant, one entitled The Wits,
published in 1662, and the other The Stroler's Pacquet Open'd, in 1742.
• Towards the close of Cromwell’s rule, the laws against dramatic
entertainments were somewhat relaxed, and Sir William D’Avenant, who
had held a patent, dated 1639, empowering him to erect a new
playhouse, was the man first to provide for a returning interest in plays.
• Upon his restoration, king Charles issued a patent to Thomas
Killigrew and Sir William D’Avenant. Their troupes soon became
known, Killigrew’s as the king’s, and D’Avenant’s as the duke of
York’s, company of players. In 1682 both were amalgamated into one,
and remained so until the year 1695 saw &e secession of a number of
the best actors.
• The revived theatre has degenerated completely into a thing of the
Court; the middle classes for the most part keep away. The typical
audience was composed of the courtiers, their ladies, the gallants, and
the 'wits’ with a sprinkling of the riff-raff of the town.
• The plays written for that playhouse were distinctly made to appeal to
a courtly and Cavalier audience. It is this that explains both the rise of
the heroic tragedy and the elaboration of the comedy of manners.
• In two particular ways the Restoration theatre differed from the
Elizabethan. The new theatres were roofed in, and consequently lit by
artificial light. The second is the introduction of actresses; a woman
first appeared on the English stage to speak the prologue to Othello
and play the part of Desdemona.
• A distinctive feature of the earlier drama of the restoration is its
reflection of the current political reaction and the puritan became fair
game for the satire of his foes.
• John Tatham [1632-64], a Cavalier, with a hatred of the Puritans
and of the Scots – he went so far as to invent a dialect that he claimed
was the Scots vernacular. In the years 1657–64, Tatham produced
eight pageants for the annual London Lord Mayor's Show, seven of
which were entitled London's Triumph
• The period of the Restoration is remarkable for the development of
several distinct species of drama which become the typical forms of
theatrical activity. These types of drama, of which the heroic tragedy,
the comedy of manners, the opera, and the farce are the chief, all
display a union of diverse forces.
• Roger Boyle, Earl of Orrery, was the first to attempt the introduction
of the heroic style into England, with the employment of rime in
place of blank verse in the heroic plays due to the influence of France.
• The heroic drama, with its grandiloquent sentiments and air of
exaggeration, is to be regarded as the representative in the theatre of
the mood and atmosphere of the heroic poem, a form of literature
which, popularized by men such as D'Avenant, had come from France
in the middle of the century.
• The first two decades of Charles' reign are characterized by the cult
of the heroic play, sometimes carried to a 'tragic' conclusion,
sometimes given a reasonably happy ending. Among the authors, John
Dryden is the greatest, and perhaps the first. If he did not invent the
heroic play, at least he was responsible for giving it impetus.
• In his thirtieth year, on the very morrow of the restoration, Dryden
made his earliest known attempt as a playwright. Dryden's earliest
play, written in prose, except for the prologue, and the epilogue is a
comedy, The Wild Gallant [1663].
• It was a failure, but in January 1664 he had some share in the success
of The Indian Queen, a heroic tragedy in rhymed couplets in which
he had collaborated with Sir Robert Howard, his brother-in-law.
• The plot is set at the courts of Peru and Mexico right before the
Spanish invasion. Ykx4
• The Indian Emperour: Having successfully collaborated with Howard
Dryden by himself wrote a sequel, The Indian Emperour, or the Conquest
of Mexico by the Spaniards, being the Sequel of The Indian Queen. The
play has been considered a defining work in the subgenre of heroic drama,
in which "rhymed heroic tragedy comes into full being.
• Dryden presents the type of conflict between love and honour that is
typical of his serious drama. Montezuma refuses a chance to save his
kingdom from conquest, for personal reasons. Cortez takes the opposite
course, turning his back on his love for Cydaria to obey the orders of his
king. Montezuma gets the worst of their conflict; tortured by the
Spaniards, he ends the play with his suicide.
• Secret Love, or The Maiden Queen is a 1667 tragicomedy. The
part of Florimel, a witty maid of honour, was played to perfection by
the king’s latest mistress, Nell Gwynn. Dryden composed his play in a
mixture of rhymed verse, blank verse, and prose.
• The Tempest, or The Enchanted Island is a comedy adapted by Dryden
and William D'Avenant from Shakespeare's comedy The Tempest. The
added elements include new characters – Hippolito, a man who has never
seen a woman, and Dorinda, a second daughter of Prospero. Hippolito and
Dorinda, predictably, fall in love; their love parallels that between Miranda,
Shakespeare's maiden who has never seen a man, and Ferdinand, son to the
Duke of Mantua. Ariel was given an ethereal girlfriend in Milcha and
Caliban got a sister.
• Sir Martin Mar-all, or The Feign'd Innocence [1667], a
comedy, was based on a translation of L'Étourdi by Molière.
• An Evening's Love, or The Mock Astrologer a comedy in prose [1668].
The action of the play takes place in Madrid on the last night before Lent,
1665, and involves two young English gentlemen, Wildblood and Bellamy,
and their comic servant Maskall, who fall in love with two beautiful young
Spanish ladies, Donna Theodosia and Donna Jacinta, and their clever
servant Beatrix.
• Tyrannick Love, or The Royal Martyr [1669], a tragedy in rhymed
couplets which a retelling of the story of Saint Catherine of Alexandria
and her martyrdom by the Roman Emperor Maximinus who is enraged at
Catherine's refusal to submit to his violent sexual passion.
• The Conquest of Granada a two-part tragedy first acted in 1670
and 1671 and published in 1672.
• Dryden wrote the play in closed couplets of iambic pentameter. He
proposed, in the Preface, a new type of drama that celebrated heroic
figures and actions in a metre and rhyme that emphasised the dignity of
the action.
• The play concerns the Battle of Granada, fought between the Moors
and the Spanish. The hero is Almanzor, who fights for the Moors. He
falls in love with Almahide, who is engaged to Boabdelin, king of the
Moors. She loves him, too, but she will not betray her vows to
Boabdelin, and Boabdelin is torn between his jealousy and need for
Almanzor. At the conclusion, Boabdelin being killed, there is no
longer any obstacle to the union of Almanzor and Almahide.
• The fame of the play and especially the bombast of the speeches
Almanzor makes, invited satire of The Conquest of Granada by other
playwrights. One example is The Rehearsal, written by George Villiers,
2nd Duke of Buckingham.
• The Assignation, or Love in a Nunnery [1672] is a comedy,
written mainly in prose with some blank verse
• Marriage à la Mode[1673] a Restoration comedy, first performed by
the King's Company written in a combination of prose, blank verse and
heroic couplets.
• The play has two unrelated plots. One, written in heroic couplets,
concerns the princess Palmyra of Sicily, whose usurper father has never
seen her, and her childhood sweetheart Leonidas, the rightful heir to the
throne.
• The young pair were raised together in the countryside and have fallen
in love; their marriage will right the wrong of Palmyra’s father.
• The other plot is comic. After two years of marriage Rodophil and
Doralice have lost interest in each other. Rodophil is attracted to
Melanthe, whose affectations annoy her fiancé, Palamede. Palamede is
attracted to Doralice. Both couples keep accidentally choosing the same
locations for their secret trysts, until they decide that they are better off
staying with their rightful mates.
• The play contains two songs, "Why Should a Foolish Marriage Vow" by
Robert Smith and "Whilst Alexis Lay Pressed" by Nicholas Staggins,
both set to Dryden's lyrics and printed in the 1673 book Choice Songs
and Ayres for One Voyce to Sing to the Theorbo-Lute or Bass-Viol
• Amboyna, or the Cruelties of the Dutch to the English
Merchants[1673] a tragedy about the Amboyna massacre and the
death of Gabriel Towerson that took place on Ambon Island in 1623.
Towerson's wife in the play, Ysabinda, is based on his real life wife,
Mariam Khan, daughter of an influential merchant at the courts of the
Mughul Emperors Akbar and Jahangir.
• Aureng-zebe[1675] Aurengzebe; or, The Great Mogul was Dryden's
last rhymed play and it is frequently considered his best. The scene is in
Agra in 1660. The Emperor desires his son Aurengzebe to resign to him
Indamora, the captive queen with whom both are in love. Aurengzebe
refuses, and the Emperor thereupon connives with his other son Murad,
and Aurengzebe is put in confinement. Nourmahal, the Empress, loves
him, but he rejects her advances, and she attempts to poison him.
• Aurengzebe defeats the forces of his brother, who dies of his wounds.
His wife, Melesinda, commits suicide; Nourmahal poisons herself and
dies mad; and Aurengzebe and Indamora are made happy.
• All for Love; or, the World Well Lost [1677] a tragedy in blank
verse and is an attempt on Dryden's part to reinvigorate serious drama.
It is an acknowledged imitation of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra,
and focuses on the last hours of the lives of its hero and heroine.
• All For Love begins with Dryden’s dedication to an aristocratic patron,
Thomas Osborne. He praises Osborne for his loyalty to the crown
during the English Civil War. Dryden considers the English
constitutional monarchy, which he calls the best form of government.
Dryden thinks that all attempts at “reform” are dangerous, since any
rebellion strikes at “the root of power, which is obedience.”
• Dryden then writes a preface about the play itself. The story has been
“oft told,” most famously by Shakespeare, but Dryden has made some
changes. He has invented new characters and scripted a fictional
meeting between Cleopatra and Octavia, Antony’s Roman wife.
• Two priests of the Temple of Isis, Serapion and Myris, observe that
there have been several frightening omens in Egypt recently. For
instance, the water of the Nile overflowed and left behind monstrous sea
creatures. They express their fears for the future of their kingdom, since
Antony and Cleopatra have recently lost the Battle to Octavius.
• Antony has now locked himself away, hoping to cure himself of his love for
Cleopatra. His old general Ventidius tells him that he has an army that is
loyal to Antony’s cause. However, the army do not want to fight for Cleopatra
in Egypt. In order to claim the army, then, Antony will have to leave her.
• Cleopatra, in despair, sends her eunuch, Alexas, who gives Antony a ruby
bracelet in the shape of bleeding hearts, requests Antony to go see
Cleopatra one last time. When Cleopatra sees Antony, she swoons and
protests pathetically that she only wants to die. Antony proclaims that
he will never abandon her, even if it costs him his life.
• Several other visitors come to the Egyptian court: Antony’s old friend
Dollabella, who is in love with Cleopatra, and Antony’s wife Octavia.
Octavia has also brought their two daughters, Agrippina and Antonia.
Octavia tells Antony that she is still loyal to him as a wife despite his
abandonment of her. Ventidius and Dollabella urge Antony to abandon
Cleopatra and take back Octavia. Octavia tells her daughters to go to
their father. At their embrace, Antony is so moved that he tells Octavia
he will leave Cleopatra.
• Cleopatra encounters Octavia and the two exchange insults: Cleopatra
says that she has suffered more because Octavia has the name of wife,
whereas Cleopatra has lost her crown and reputation for Antony.
Meanwhile, Antony asks Dollabella to break the news of his departure
to Cleopatra. Alexas urges Cleopatra to use Dollabella’s feelings for her
to make Antony jealous. Cleopatra is unable to go through with it and
confesses that she loves Antony. Ventidius and Octavia observe
Dollabella kissing Cleopatra’s hand and plan to tell Antony.
• This backfires, since Antony becomes frantic with rage and distress.
Octavia leaves the palace and returns to Octavius’s camp. Meanwhile,
Antony banishes Dollabella and Cleopatra from Egypt. She begs his
forgiveness and leaves proclaiming that she still loves him. Antony weeps
as they part but orders that they never see each other again.
• As Antony watches from the palace, the Egyptian navy surrenders without
a fight and joins the Roman forces. Antony becomes convinced that
Cleopatra has betrayed him to Octavius. Alexas comes up with another
plot, recommending Cleopatra hide in her monument. Alexas tells Antony
that Cleopatra killed herself. At this news, Antony explains that all he wants
now is to die, since Cleopatra was the “jewel” that made his life worth
living. All his conquests, glory, and honors were merely the ransom he used
to buy her love.
• Ventidius accepts Antony’s desire to die and expresses his wish to go with
him. Antony asks Ventidius to kill him first, but Ventidius stabs himself
instead. Antony then falls on his sword but misses his heart and begins
bleeding profusely. Meanwhile, discovering Alexas’s deception, Cleopatra
rushes into the room and finds him on the ground. As Antony dies in her
arms, he makes her promise to join him soon in the afterlife.
• Cleopatra dresses herself in her royal robes and sits herself on the throne
beside Antony. Her maids, Iras and Charmian, bring her a poisoned asp that
fatally stings her. Cleopatra proclaims that she will die with Antony as his
wife, in a bond that no “Roman laws” will be able to break. As she dies, she
challenges Octavius to ever separate them now. Iras and Charmian follow
her example and also commit suicide. Serapion bursts into the throne room,
leading Alexas in chains. When he sees the bodies, he remarks on how noble
Antony and Cleopatra look, and expresses the hope that they will live a
happier and freer life in heaven than they found on earth.
• Mr. Limberham; or, the Kind Keeper [1677] closed after only three
performances and has been described as 'his most abject failure.’
• After the close of king James II’s reign,, two plays were produced by
Dryden, Don Sebastian [1690] and Cleomenes, 72 the Spartan Hero
(1692).