Lecture 2

The Renaissance and Restoration.

1.The Renaissance – the epoch of humanism.
2.Elizabethan poetry, drama and fiction.
3.XVIIth c – the English bourgeois revolution.
4.John Milton - a poet, prose polemicist and civil servant.
5.The Restoration literature /1660-1700/.

1. In the 15-16th centuries the European countries endured the transition from feudal Middle
Ages to the capitalism and this time get the name ‘The Renaissance.’ It was the epoch of
humanism when the moral dogmas of church were neglected and the human being
became interesting for writers, artists, scientists.
The mind of the human being becomes free, and he creates new concepts of the world and
society. But the knowledge is not enough and the real data interact with poetic fantasies. English
philosophy of that time is represented by Francis Bacon who was the founder of materialism and
experimenting science. The Renaissance came to England later than in Italy, France, Spain, i.e.
in the 16th century, but developed intensely. During the late 1400s, Middle English began to
develop into Modern English. By the late 1500s, the English were speaking and writing English
in a form much like that used today. From 1485 to 1603, the royal House of Tudor ruled
England. Queen Elizabeth I, the last Tudor monarch, reigned from 1558 to 1603. Her name is
usually applied to the period from the mid-1500s to the early 1600s. During this period, called
the Elizabethan Age, English writers produced some of the greatest poetry and drama in world
literature.
A number of developments contributed to the brilliant literary output of the Elizabethan Age.
One of the most important occurred in 1476, when William Caxton set up the first printing press
in England. Before that time books and all other literary works had to be slowly and laboriously
copied by hand. Printing made it possible to produce far more books and at a far lower cost. The
greater availability of books and their lower cost stimulated the desire among many people to
learn how to read.
As literacy increased, so did demand for books. During the 1500s, English scholars joined other
European scholars in rediscovering the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome, which they had
largely neglected for hundreds of years. Translations of Greek and particularly Roman literary
works strongly influenced Elizabethan writers. In addition, new literary forms were introduced
into English literature. For example, English authors adopted directly or modified such literary
forms as the essay from France and the sonnet from Italy.
In 1588, the English fleet defeated the mighty Spanish Armada. The great victory inspired a
burst of patriotism that was reflected in the poetry and especially the drama of the period. During
the Elizabethan Age, the England explored and colonized distant lands. Wealth from the colonies
poured into England. A newly rich merchant class made London a great commercial center.
They and the nobility wanted entertainment and fine art and were willing to pay for them.
Writers, painters and musicians flocked to London, making it European cultural center.

The representative of the early Renaissance was Sir Thomas More (1478-1535) also known as
Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, author and statesman. During his lifetime he earned
a reputation as a leading humanist scholar and occupied many public offices, including that of
Lord Chancellor. More coined the word ‘utopia’, a name he gave to an ideal, imaginary island
nation whose political system he described in a book published in 1516. He is chiefly
remembered for his principled refusal to accept King Henry VIII’s claim to be supreme head of
the Church of England, a decision, which ended his political career and let to his execution for
treason. In 1935, 400 years after his death, More was canonized in the Catholic Church.
His writing and scholarship earned him a considerable reputation as a Christian Renaissance
humanist in continental Europe, and his friend Erasmus of Rotterdam dedicated his masterpiece
‘In Praise of Folly’ to More.
In Utopia, private property does not exist and almost complete religious toleration is practiced.
The primary message of the book is the need for order and discipline, rather that liberty. The
original edition included details of a symmetrical alphabet of More’s own invention, called ‘the
Utopian alphabet.’ This alphabet was omitted from later editions, though it remains notable as an
early attempt at cryptography that may have influenced the development of shorthand.
Though this era in English cultural history is referred to as ‘the age of Shakespeare’ or ‘the
Elizabethan era’, taking the name of the English Renaissance’s most famous and most important
monarch, respectively; however, it is worth remembering that these names are rather misleading:
Shakespeare was not an especially famous writer in his own time, and the English Renaissance
covers a period both before and after Elizabethan’s reign. Poets such as Edmund Spenser and
John Milton produced works that demonstrated an increased interest in understanding English
Christian beliefs, such as the allegorical representation of the Tudor Dynasty in the ‘Fairie
Queen’ and the retelling of mankind’s fall from paradise in ‘Paradise Lost’; playwrights, such as
Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare, composed theatrical representations of the
England taken on life, death, and history. Nearing the end of the Tudor Dynasty, philosophers
like Sir Thomas More and Sir Francis Bacon published their own ideas about humanity and the
aspects of a perfect society, pushing the limits of metacognition of that time. As England
abolished its astrologers and alchemists, it came closer to reaching modern science with the
Baconian Method, a forerunner of the Scientific Method.

Comparison of the English and Italian Renaissances.

The English Renaissance is considered distinct from the Italian Renaissance in several ways.
First, the dominant art form of the English Renaissance was literature, while the Italian
Renaissance was driven much more by the visual art, such as painting and sculpture. Second, the
English movement is separated from the Italian by time: many trace the Italian Renaissance to
Dante or Petrarch in the early 1300s, and certainly most of the famous Italian Renaissance
figures ceased their creative output by the 1520s. In contrast, the English Renaissance seems to
begin in the 1520s, reaching its apex around the year 1600, and not an allusion to the Italian
belief that they were merely rediscovering or reviving lost ancient knowledge and technique;
instead, the English were primarily influenced by the Italians themselves, and rediscovered the
classical authors through them. On the other hand, the Italian and English Renaissances were
similar in sharing a specific musical aesthetic. In the late 16 th century Italy was the musical
center of Europe and one of the principal forms in England which was almost unmatched in the
Renaissance in being an instantaneous adoption of an idea, from another country, adapted to
local aesthetics.

English poetry was exactly at the right stage of development for this translation to occur, since
forms such as the sonnet were uniquely adapted to setting as madrigals (songs for several
singers, without musical instruments). Composers such as Thomas Morley, the only
contemporary composer to set Shakespeare, and whose works survive, published collections of
their own, roughly in the Italian manner by yet with a unique Englishness; many of the
compositions of the English Madrigal School remain in the standard repertory in the 21st century.
Not all aspects of Italian music translated to English practice. The colossal polychoral
productions of the Venetian School aroused little interest there, although the Palestrina style
from the Roman School had already been absorbed prior to the publication of ‘Musical
transalpina’, in the music of masters such as William Byrd.

2. Three chief forms of poetry flourished during the Elizabethan Age. They were: the lyric,
the sonnet and narrative poetry. The lyric – is a short poem that expresses a poet’s
 personal emotions in a songlike style. Thomas Campion wrote many beautiful lyrics in
his ‘Books of Airs’ (1601-1617). The sonnet – is a 19-line poem with a certain pattern of
rhyme and rhythm. Elizabethan poets wrote two types of sonnets, the Italian sonnet and
the English sonnet. The two types differed in the arrangement of the rhymes. Sir Thomas
Wyatt introduced the sonnet from Italy into English literature in the early 1500s. /
‘Description of the Contrarious Passions in lover’; ‘Unstable Dream, according to the
Place.’/

The Earl of Surrey (Henry Howard) modified the form in the English sonnet. Their verses were
published in a collection commonly called ‘Tottel’s Miscellany’. The pattern of Petrarch’s sonnet
was ababcdcdcdecde, and Surrey made the following pattern:ababcdcdefefgg. This form was
taken by Shakespeare. One of the most significant writings is the elegy ‘Prisoned in
Windsor’/1546/. Surrey also introduced white verse into English poetry.
One of the masters of sonnet was Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586). He became one of the
Elizabethan Age’s most prominent figures. Famous in his day in England as a poet, courtier and
soldier, he remains known as the author of ‘Astrophil and Stella’; ‘The Defence of Poesy’; ‘The
Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia.’ ‘Astrophil and Stella’ is the first of the famous English sonnet
sequences. The sonnets were well-circulated in manuscript before the first edition was printed in
1591. The sequence was a watershed in English Renaissance poetry. In it, Sidney partially
nativized the key features of his Italian model, ‘Petrarch’: variation of emotion from poem to
poem, with the attendant sense of an ongoing, but partly obscure, narrative; the philosophical
trappings; the musings on the act of poetic creation itself. The narrative ‘The Countess of
Pembroke’s Arcadia’ follows the Greek model. Stories are nested within each other, and
different story-lines are intertwined. The work enjoyed great popularity for more than a century
after its publication. (W.Shakespeare borrowed from it for his ‘King Lear’) In his essay ‘The
Defence’ Sidney integrates a number of classical and Italian precepts on fiction. The essence of
his defense is that poetry, by combining the liveliness of history with the ethical focus of
philosophy, is more effective than either history or philosophy in rousing its reading to virtue.
The work also offers important comments on E.Spenser and the Elizabethan stage.

William Shakespeare and Edmund Spenser wrote sonnet sequences. Edmund Spenser (1552-
1599) was an English poet and Poet Laureate. He is a controversial figure due to zeal for the
destruction of Irish culture and colonization of Ireland, yet he is one of the premier craftsmen of
ME verse in its infancy. Spenser is best known for ‘The Faerie Queene’, an epic celebrating,
through fantastical allegory, the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I.
In the early 1590s Spenser wrote a prose pamphlet titled ‘A View of the Present State of Ireland.’
The pamphlet argued that Ireland would never be totally ‘pacified’ by the English until its
indigenous language and customs had been destroyed, if necessary by violence. Although it has
been highly regarded as a polemical piece of prose and valued as a historical source on 16 th
century Ireland, the ‘View’ is seen today as genocidal in intent. Spenser’s ‘Epithalamoin’ is the
most admired of its type in the English language. It was written for his wedding to his young
bride, Elizabeth Boyle.
A sonnet sequence is a group of sonnets based on a simple theme or about one person. Notable
sequences include Shakespeare’s sonnets to an unknown ‘dark lady’ and Spenser’s love sonnets
titled ‘Amoretti’.

Narrative poetry. A narrative poem tells a story. In addition to sonnets, Shakespeare and Spenser
wrote narrative poems. Shakespeare based his ‘Venus and Adonis’ on a Roman myth. Spenser
borrowed heavily from medieval romances in his unfinished masterpiece ‘The Faerie Queene’.

The 16th century in England was the time of flourishing playwrighting. In 1575 James Burbage
built England’s first playhouse, called ‘The Theatre’, in a suburb of London. Until this time,
drama had been performed in the streets, in homes and palaces and at English Universities. After
Burbage built the theatre, other playhouses were constructed, which rapidly increased the
popularity of drama.
Elizabethan drama was noted for its passion and vitality. Thomas Kyd’s play ‘The Spanish
Tragedy’/1580/ was one of the earliest Elizabethan dramas. It is filled with scenes of violence
and madness and set a pattern for themes of murder and revenge in later plays.
A group of leading Elizabethan playwrights were known as the ‘University Wits’ because they
had attended the famous English Universities at Oxford and Cambridge. These playwrights
included Christopher Marlowe, George Peele and Robert Greene, Thomas Nashe.

Christopher Marlowe was one of the playwrights with the University education. He refused to be
a priest and became a playwright. He has always been considered Shakespeare’s rival. His
tragedy ‘Tamburlaine the Great’ consists of two parts depicting the life of Timur. The spirit of
the Renaissance is evidently presented in the play. The author wanted to show a very strong and
free character, i.e. the Renaissance character. Marlowe’s another great tragedy ‘The Tragicall
History of Dr. Faustus’ was written on the basis of a book about Faustus. This tragedy has some
traits of medieval allegories, i.e. there are such characters as Pride, Envy, Fury. Here again
Marlowe depicts an individual complicated character, an inner struggle in the soul of the
scientist.

The greatest Elizabethan playwright was William Shakespeare. (1564-1616) No other English
author has equaled his brilliant verse and characterizations. He is often called England’s national
poet and the ‘Bard of Avon’. His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long
narrative poems, and several other poems. He produced most of his known work between 1590
and 1613.
His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of
sophistication and artistry by the end of the 16 th century. Next he wrote mainly tragedies until
1608, producing plays, such as ‘Hamlet’, ‘King Lear’ and ‘Macbeth’, considered some of the
finest in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies and collaborated with
other playwrights.
All Shakespeare’s writing is divided into three periods: 1) poems ‘Venus and Adonis’;
‘Lucrece’; sonnets, almost all historical chronicles except Henry VIII; tragedies ‘Titus
Adronicks’, ‘Romeo and Juliet’; ‘Julius Caesar’; comedies ‘The Taming of the Shrew’;
‘Midsummer Night’s Dream; ‘Much Ado about Nothing’; ‘As You Like It’; ‘The Twelfth
Night’; ‘The Merchant of Venice’; ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor.’2) tragedies ‘Hamlet’;
‘Othello’; ‘King Lear’; ‘Macbeth’. 3) ‘The Winter’s Tale’; ‘The Tempest’.
Scholars have often noted four periods in Shakespeare’s writing career: 1) until the -1590s, he
wrote mainly comedies influenced by Roman and Italian models and history plays in the popular
chronicle tradition; 2) his second period began in about 1595 with the tragedy ‘Romeo and
Juliet’ and ended with the tragedy of ‘Julius Caesar’ in 1599. During this time, he wrote what are
considered his greatest comedies and histories.3) from 1600 to 1608, his ‘tragic period’,
Shakespeare wrote mostly tragedies; 4) from about 1608 to 1613 – mainly tragicomedies, also
called romances.
The first recorded works of Shakespeare are ‘Richard III’ and three parts of ‘Henry VI’. His
early classical and Italian comedies (‘The Taming of the Shrew’ and ‘Two Gentlemen of
Verona’), containing tight double plots and precise comic sequences, give way in the mid -1590s
to the romantic atmosphere of his greatest comedies.
Shakespeare’s so-called ‘tragic period’ includes ‘problem plays’ – ‘Measure for Measure’ and
‘All’s Well That Ends Well’.
Many critics believe that Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies represent the peak of his art. The plots
of his tragedies often hinge on such fatal errors or flaws, which overturn order and destroy the
hero and those he loves.
In his final period, Shakespeare turned to romance and completed three major plays:
‘Cymbeline’, ‘The Winter’s Tale’ and ‘The Tempest’. These plays end with reconciliation and the
forgiveness of potentially tragic errors.
Shakespeare seems to have planned two contrasting series in his sonnets: one about
uncontrollable lust for a married woman of dark complexion – the ‘dark lady’ and one about
pure love for a fair young man – the ‘fair youth’. Critics praise the ‘Sonnets’ as a profound
meditation on the nature of love, sexual passion, procreation, death, and time.
Shakespeare’s first plays were written in the conventional style of the day. The poetry depends
on extended, sometimes elaborate metaphors and conceits, and the language is often rhetorical –
written for actors to declaim rather than speak. Soon, however, he began to adapt the traditional
styles to his own purposes. His standard poetic form was blank verse, composed in iambic
pentameter. In practice, this meant that his verse was usually unrhymed and consisted of 10
syllables to a line, spoken with a stress on every second syllable. The blank verse of his early
plays is quite different from that of his later ones. It is often beautiful, but its sentences tend to
start, pause, and finish at the end of lines, with the risk of monotony.
In the last phase of his career, Shakespeare adopted many techniques to achieve the effects of
the style as ‘more concentrated, rapid, varied, and in construction, less regular, not seldom
twisted or elliptical’. /critic A.C.Bradley/
Shakespeare’s poetic genius was allied with a practical sense of the theater. Like all playwrights
of the time, he dramatized stories from sources such as Petrarch and Holinshed. He reshaped
each part to create several centers of interest and show as many sides of a narrative to the
audience as possible. This strength of design ensures that a Shakespeare play can survive
translation, cutting and wide interpretation without loss to its core drama.

The creator of comedy of manners was Benjamin Johnson. His creative activity was the result of
the English Renaissance playwright. He was a very educated man and it influenced his plays and
activity. He participated in the literary struggle called ‘the war of theatres’. Johnson is
considered to be the creator of comedy of manners, which is characterized by the satire of daily
life. The characters are static and only one feature is pointed out. Everyone has his own character
and humour. His famous comedies are ‘Every Man in His Humour’ /1598/ and ‘Every Man out
of His Humour’ /1599/

The Elizabethan Age produced most of the earliest works of prose fiction in English literature.
Readers especially liked fanciful, elaborately told stories of love and adventure. John Lyly
popularized a highly artificial and elegant style in ‘The Anatomy of Wit’; Sir Philip Sidney wrote
in Lyly’s style in ‘Arcadia’. Both works are pastorals. /stories about the romantic adventures of
shepherds/

Drama. The ‘Globe Theatre’ – the first playhouse built by actors for actors, on the south bank of
the Thames at Southwark, was opened in autumn 1599, with ‘Julius Caesar’ one of the first
plays staged. Most of Shakespeare’s greatest post -1599 plays were written for the Globe,
including ‘Hamlet’, ‘Othello’, and ‘King Lear’. The indoor settings, combined with the Jacobean
fashion for lavishly staged masques, allowed Shakespeare to introduce more elaborate stage
devices. The actors in Shakespeare’s company included the famous Richard Burbage, William
Kempe, Henry Condell and John Heminges. Burbage played the leading role in the first
performances of many of Shakespeare’s plays including ‘Richard III', 'Hamlet', 'Othello, 'King
Lear'. The popular comic actor Will Kempe played the servant Peter in ‘Romeo and Juliet.’ On
June 29, however, a cannon set fire to the thatch of the Globe and burned the theatre to the
ground, an event which pinpoints the date of Shakespeare with rare precision.
 3. The XVIIth century was the time of contradictions between classes leading to the
bourgeois Revolution and the founding of the Bourgeois Republic. Elizabeth I died in
1603 leaving no heir. Her cousin James VI of Scotland became King James I of England.
He was a member of the House of Stuart. After he died in 1625, his son Charles I
ascended to the throne. Conflicts between the monarchy and Parliament worsened. Civil
War broke out in 1642 between the King’s followers, who were called Cavaliers and
Parliament’s chief supporters, a religious and political group called the Puritans.
Metaphysical and Cavalier poets were two major groups of poets during the Stuart period. The
metaphysical poets shared an interest in metaphysical concerns and a common way of
investigating them. The label ‘metaphysical’ was given much later by Samuel Johnson in his
‘Life of Cowley’.
Metaphysical poets included John Donne, their leader; Abraham Cowley, George Herbert,
Andrew Marvell. These poets themselves did not form a school or start a movement, most of
them did not even know or read each other. Their rigorous verse appeals to the reader’s intellect
rather than emotions. Their style was characterized by wit, subtle argumentations, ‘metaphysical
conceits’, and/or an unusual simile or metaphor such as in A.Marvell’s comparison of the soul
with a drop of dew. Several metaphysical poets, especially John Donne, were influenced by neo-
Platonism. One of the primary Platonic concepts found in metaphysical poetry is the idea that the
perfection of beauty in the beloved acted as a remembrance of perfect beauty in the eternal
realm.
The Cavalier poets who were associated with the court of Charles I, included Thomas Carew,
Robert Herrick, Richard Lovelace, and Sir John Suckling. In contrast to the serious metaphysical
poets, the Cavalier poets wrote dashing love poetry.

Jacobean drama – is the name given to the plays written during the reign of James I; Jacobean
tragedies reflected Elizabethan drama, especially in such characteristics as violent action, and the
revenge theme. John Webster’s drama ‘The Duchess of Malfi’/1613/ is a masterpiece of revenge
tragedy.
Satiric comedies which poked fun at various subjects were also popular. After James I died, the
quality of English drama rapidly declined. In 1642 the Puritans ordered the closing of theatres,
claiming that plays were wicked. The order remained in effect for 18 years.

4. John Milton (1608-1674) was an English poet, prose polemicist and civil servant for the
English Commonwealth. Most famed for his epic poem ‘Paradise Lost’, Milton is
celebrated as well for his eloquent treatise condemning censorship, ‘Aeropagitica.’ In
1659 he published ‘A Treatise of Civil Power’ attacking the concept of a state church. As
the Republic disintegrated Milton wrote several proposals to retain parliamentary
supremacy over the army. Upon the Restoration, in May 1660, Milton went into hiding
for his life as a warrant was issued for his arrest and his writings burnt.
Milton’s blank verse epic poem ‘Paradise Lost’ was composed by the blind Milton from 1658 to
1664. It reflects his personal despair at the failure of the Revolution yet affirms an ultimate
optimism in human potential. Milton followed up ‘Paradise Lost’ with its sequel, ‘Paradise
Regained’, published alongside the tragedy ‘Samson Agonistes’ in 1671. Both these works also
resonate with Milton’s post-Restoration political situation.
During the Restoration Milton also published several minor prose works, such as a grammar
textbook, his ‘Art of Logic’ and his ‘History of Britain’. His only explicitly political tracts were
the 1672 ‘Of True of a Religion’, arguing for toleration /except for Catholics/, and a translation
of Polish tract advocating an elective monarchy. Both these works participated in the Exclusion
debate that would preoccupy politics in the 1670s and 80s precipitate the formation of the ‘Whig
party’ and the ‘Glorious Revolution’.
Milton was writing at a time of religious and political flux in England. His poetry and prose
reflect deep religious convictions, often reacting to contemporary circumstances, but it is not
always easy to locate the writer in any obvious religious category. His views may be described as
broadly Protestant. Milton embraced many theological views that put him outside of
contemporary Christianity. Another controversial view Milton subscribed to, illustrated by
Paradise Lost, is mortalism, the belief that the soul dies with the body.
Milton’s literary career cast a formidable shadow over English poetry in the 18 th and 19th
centuries; he was often judged equal or superior to all other English poets, including
Shakespeare. The influence of Milton’s poetry and personality on the literature of the Romantic
era was profound: William Wordsworth began his sonnet ‘London, 1802’ with ‘Milton! thou
should’st be living at this hour.’

Mary Shelley’s novel ‘Frankenstein’ draws heavily on Paradise Lost. The novel begins with a
quotation from Paradise Lost, and the relationship between the Creature and Frankenstein is
often seen as a metaphor for the relationship between God and Adam in Paradise Lost.
The Victorian Age witnessed a contribution of Milton’s influence, George Eliot and Thomas
Hardy being particularly inspired by Milton’s poetry and biography.
Aside from his importance to literary history, Milton’s career has influenced the modern world
in other ways. Milton coined many words that are now familiar – neologisms like dreary;
acclaim; rebuff; self-esteem; impassive; jubilant; enslaved.
In the political area, Milton’s Areopagitica and republican writings were consulted during the
drafting of the Constitution of the USA. Also, the quotation from Areopagitica – ‘A good book
is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life
beyond life’ – is seen in many public libraries, including the New York Public Library.
The John Milton Society for the Blind was founded in 1928.

5. The Puritan rule ended in 1660, when Parliament restored the monarchy under Charles II.
Charles resigned until his death in 1685. However, the entire period from 1660 to 1700 is
known as the Restoration. The Puritans had attempted to enforce a strict moral code
during their years in power. The Restoration brought a strong reaction against this code.
The nobility and upper class in particular became known for carefree and often morally
loose living.
Restoration writers, especially comic playwrights, reflected this relaxed morality in their works.
John Dryden became the outstanding literary figure of the Restoration after Milton’s death in
1674. He wrote poetry, popular dramas, and literary criticism. Dryden shifted his support from
the Puritans to the restored monarchy. Late in life, he was converted from the Anglican faith to
Roman Catholicism. Many of Dryden’s poems reflect these political and religious shifts. For
example, his political satire ‘Absalom and Achitophel’/1681/ attacks the enemies of the future
James II. In ‘The Hind and the Panther’, Dryden justified his conversion to Catholicism.
Dryden’s best plays include ‘Marriage a la Mode’ /1672/, a comedy; and ‘All for Love’/1677/, a
tragedy. In addition, Dryden wrote some of the finest literary criticism in English literature. One
example is ‘An Essay of Dromiatic Poesy’, which contains a brilliant analysis of Shakespeare’s
work.

After Charles II became king in 1660, the theatres were reopened and an important period in
English drama began. Two types of plays rapidly dominated Restoration stages: the comedy of
manners and the heroic tragedy.
The comedy of manners was witty, sometimes, cynical, and occasionally indecent. It treated love
and romantic intrigue in a light, often broadly humorous way. The best comedies of manners
included ‘The Country Wife’/1675/ by William Wycherley and ‘The Way of the World’/17--/ by
William Congreve /the earliest Irish dramatist of note/. Restoration comedy is famous for its
sexual explicitness, a quality encouraged by Charles II personally and by the rakish aristocratic
ethos of his court.
The socially diverse audiences included both aristocrats, their servants and hangers-on, and a
substantial middle-class segment. These playgoers were attracted to the comedies by up-to-the-
minute topical writing, by crowded and bustling plots, by the introduction of the first
professional actresses, and by the rise of the first celebrity actors. This period saw the first
professional playwright, Aphra Behn.
The heroic tragedy had a complicated plot that dealt with the conflict between love and honour.
Most of these plays were set in faraway lands. Little action took place on the stage, and the
characters spoke in elegant, noble-sounding heroic couplets. A heroic couplet – is a verse form
consisting of two rhymed lines of 10 syllables each. Dryden wrote several heroic tragedies, such
as ‘The Conquest of Granada’. During the Restoration, prose became less elaborate than had
been fashionable earlier in the 1600s. Writers tried to express themselves clearly, simply and
directly.
John Bunyan used especially simple, vivid language in ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’, a popular
Christian allegory.
The diaries of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn are also, view of English life during the late
1600s.