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What king heavily taxed his subjects, threw lots of parties, and whose reign caused the civil war (his death ended it)
Charles I
Who was the Lord Protector after Charles I’s death?
Oliver Cromwell
What group hated theatre and fun and passed a law suspending performances for 5 years, then extended it for good?
The Puritans
What were drolls?
Short comedic versions of full-length plays performed illegally during the Commonwealth
Who was the playwright and godson of Shakespeare that held private theatrical events in his home during the Puritan regime and basically invented English operas?
Sir William Davenant
What was the first English-language opera? When was it produced?
The Siege of Rhodes. 1656.
What was the first English professional production with an actress? What was her name?
The Siege of Rhodes, Mrs. Coleman
What was the first public performance w/ a proscenium arch, changeable scenery, and incorporated wings and shutter system?
The Siege of Rhodes
Who was the “Merry Monarch” whose reign started the Restoration period? He loved women and partying.
Charles II
What was Thomas Killigrew known for (more than his plays)?
His wit
Which two playwrights were awarded a patent by King Charles II to produce theatre?
Thomas Killigrew and William Davenant
What were the two licensed theatre companies during King Charles II’s reign?
William Davenant’s The Duke’s Company and Thomas Killigrew’s The King’s Company/
Who managed the Duke’s company and the King’s company and what were the distinctions?
Duke: William Davenant, younger actors in training, he was a more hands-on manager.
King: Thomas Killigrew, had older, distinguished actors
In what year did Thomas Betterton merge the Duke’s Company and the King’s Company?
1682
What was the name of the merged Duke/King Company and who merged it?
The United Company, Thomas Betterton
What was Comedy of Intrigue/Situation
Focused on action, not characters, Unfolding action around a shared, ridiculous situation, emphasizes farcical humour, character development is not important
What are attributes of Comedy of Manners?
Poked fun at upper class and high society, stories of sex and scandal, reflection of French plays, was expensive so mainly the wealthy attended
What is Comedy of Manners synonymous with?
Restoration Comedy
What did the upper class want in their plays?
Elaborate sets, colourful costume, lavish hair and makeup, women on stage
What were Breeches roles?
Women dressed in men’s attire, showed ankles
Who was the Restoration’’s leading tragic actress? Comic actress?
Elizabeth Barry; Anne Bracegirdle.
Who was the Restoration’s leading tragic actress, played opposite Thomas Betterton, and bore two illegitimate children (one to Sir George Etherege)
Elizabeth Barry
Who was the Restoration’s leading comic actress, played clever urban women in comedies and sympathetic heroines in tragedies, was a “celebrated virgin,” was the lover of William Congreve, and taught Queen Mary English lessons (and was given her coronation robes for a play).
Anne Bracegirdle
Who was the tart with a heart who grew up in the slums, became a prolific comedic actor, was discovered by actor Charles Hart, known for her impropriety and wit, was popular in breeches roles and prologues/epilogues, and mistress of King Charles II
Nell Gwynn
What are attributes of Restoration Comedy?
Twists and trickery, stock characters, sex, scandal, and hypocrisy, witty and sophisticated language, sexual innuendos and double entendres, spectacle, masks, fans, handkerchiefs, and staffs as props, used stock settings of drawing rooms and parks, used asides, characters had names that were indicative of their character
What were the stock characters of Restoration Comedy?
The Fop, the Rake, the Dandy, the jealous husband, the adulterous wife, the cuckold, the boisterous soldier, the old person pretending to be young
What was a Fop? Give examples from pop culture and the play we read
A fool, outlandish style and larger than life personality, tries to fit in but doesn’t. Michael Scott from the Office.
What was a Rake? Give examples from pop culture and the play we read
Witty, charming, deceptive, often the central character and drove the action, an audience fav, very sexual and stole people’s wives. Tony Stark.
Compare/Contrast Renaissance Theatre and Restoration Theatre
See notes
Who was the leading writer of Restoration serious dramas? He was also known as “the father of English criticism”
John Dryden. First play was The Wild Gallant, became poet laureate after William Davenant, became historiographer royal
Was tragedy popular during the Restoration?
No. Very few serious plays from this era survive.
What was the Heroic tragedy?
“Extraordinary characters doing extraordinary deeds.” plot-focused, usually had a happy ending, character wasn’t important and hero doesn’t change, Primary themes were love and honour and the hero was often torn between the two, the dialogue was in heroic rhyming couplets
What were characteristics of Restoration Tragedy?
Adhered to the neoclassical rules, written in blank verse, often reworked Shakespeare’s tragedies, there were always happy endings.
What was the main theoretical treasise on theatre of the 17th c?
An Essay of Dramatic Poesy by John Dryden
Who wrote An Essay of Dramatic Poesy and what was it about?
John Dryden. I was written as a dialogue between 4 men who were debating theatre. It said people needed to write plays that reflected their time (ironic bc Dryden rewrote Shakespeare’s plays). It challenged the line between comedy and drama and the classical unity of time.
Who was Aphra Behn?
Playwright, novelist, feminist figure, Worked for King Charles II as a spy in the Netherlands, began writing to get out of debt
Who was the first woman in England to make a living writing?
Aphra Behn, A Forc’d Marriage
What kinds of plays was Aphra Behn known for?
Wrote both comedies and tragedies but was known for plays of intrigue. Included bawdy humour, female heroes, sometimes morality, fought for respect and fair standards.
What was Aphra Behn’s most famous play?
The Rover. Thomas Betterton performed in it. It later had a part 2.
Who were the Female Wits?
A group of 3 of London’s prominent female writers: Delarivier Manley, Catharine Trotter Cockburn, and Mary Pix
Where does the name The Female Wits come from?
From a play by the same title that may have been written by a rival of Mary Pix, George Powell, and mocks/attacked the female writers (esp Delarivier Manley)
Who was Delarivier Manley?
One of the female wits, wrote scandalous plays (she married her guardian, who then abandoned her), the first paid woman to write political pamphlets. Wrote The Lost Lover; Or, The Jealous Husband, and The Royal Mischief (written as a tragedy and the hero is a woman)
Who was Catharine Trotter Cockburn?
One of the female writs, first play produced at 17, interested in moral philosophy and theology, wrote A Defense of the Essay of Human Understanding about the thoughts of John Locke, took a twenty-year hiatus from theatre to be a wife/mother and returned to it after her children were gone
Who was the Restoration’s greatest actor?
Thomas Betterton
Who was Thomas Betterton?
Married to actress Mary Saunderson and they trained actors together, master of tragedy and comedy, more realistic acting based on studying real people, was the lead actor of Davenant’s The Duke’s Company, playwright, teacher, theatre manager, preferred a quiet audience, led an actor revolt against Christopher Rich
What were acting companies like in Restoration Theatre?
Larger (approx 35-40 ppl), included men, women, and apprentices, but rarely playwrights, no director, rehearsals were shorter than 2 weeks, contract system w/ opportunity for yearly benefits, playwrights made earnings on the 3rd night of performances (also if a play was published.
In what year did Thomas Betterton merge the Duke and King’s Companies to become the United Company?
1682
Who were the leaders of the United Company?
Managed by Thomas Betterton, leading actresses Elizabeth Barry and Anne Bracegirdle, Christopher was the entrepreneur of Drury Lane Theatre (where they were resident company)
What was an entrepreneur?
They ran and owned the theatre company, kinda like a producer
Why did Betterton, Barry, and Bracegirdle lead a revolt against Rich in 1695?
He was stingy with money
Who established a rival company to Rich’s United Company and why did it fail?
Thomas Betterton, took residency at the Lincoln’s Inn Fields, inaugural production was Congreve’s Love for Love, struggled and shut down in 1704 bc of its rivalry with the United Company
What happened in 1685 when Charles II died?
The throne went to his brother James II (Catholic) who had a son, Parliament felt threatened by this and asked James II’s daughter Mary and her husband Williams III to invade from the Netherlands, James II abdicated
When was the Glorious Revolution and what happened?
1688, no bloodshed, considered the end of the Restoration period (w/ exception of theatre), William and Marry co-reigned until their deaths, when Mary’s sister Anne ascended and her reign marks the end of the Restoration for theatre
What was A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage and what did it argue?
A pamphlet written by Clergyman Jeremy Collier. It called artists out for abandoning the neoclassical rules and said we need to reform theatre, this resulted in a moral crisis and theatre-goers had new expectations: less immorality, more virtue, virtue should be praised and immorality punished. Collier hated Shakespeare bc of murder, revenge, affairs, cross-dressing, inappropriate jokes
What is the Licensing Act of 1737?
Robert Walpold read The Golden Rump in Parliament to prove how terrible theatre is (some think he wrote it), new act was established with two regulations: (1) prohibition of acting for “gain, hire, or reward” of plays not approved by the Lord Chamberlain, (2) restriction of the number of theatres authorized to operate in London
Who is considered the first Prime Minister of England?
Robert Walpold
What were the theatres that the Licensing Act of 1737 approved?
Drury Lane, Covent Garden, and Haymarket (accepted in 1766 and operated during the summer months)
How did theatre companies get around the Licensing Act of 1737?
A concert would happen, then a play would spring up, ppl would invite you to a chocolate market and ppl would start performing, presented concerts, auctions, food tastings, etc.
What are the neoclassical rules?
Decorum (characters need to follow their set behaviour), Verisimilitude (all drama should be true to life, no chorus, soliloquys, etc), the three unities, purity of dramatic types, and the purpose of drama
What are the three unities?
Time (no longer than 24 hours), place (restricted to one locale) and action (one central story, no subplots, few characters).
What is purity of dramatic types?
Tragedy deals w/ royalty, comedy w/ common ppl, comedy resolved calamitously, comedy happily, the two genres can never mix
What is the purpose of drama?
To teach and please, to teach a moral lesson. It’s a pleasure to learn that lesson
What was Sentimental Comedy?
Richard Steele set out to write plays with “a pleasure too exquisite for laughter,” it was a response to the immorality of the Restoration plays, aimed to evoke emotion and empower audiences to make better moral decisions and avoid corruption, popular only for a short time
What were characteristics of Sentimental Comedy plays
Characters were good/bad and never both, typically about the middle class, virtuous characters were rewarded and immoral characters punished
Who was a prominent writer of sentimental comedies?
Richard Steele
Who wrote An Essay on the Theatre and what did it say?
Oliver Goldsmith attacked sentimental comedy and called for laughter. This led to Laughing Comedy.
What are characteristics of Laughing Comedy?
Balance of sentimental and restoration comedy. Maintains middle-class morality with the good brought back after they sin and the wicked being punished, but reintroduces the lively spirit, witty dialogue, and laughter of Restoration comedy
Who were the great writers of 18th c laughing comedies and what were the plays they wrote?
Richard Brinsley Sheridan wrote The Rivals and The School for Scandal and Oliver Goldsmith wrote She Stoops to Conquer
Who was Richard Brinsley Sheridan?
Wrote plays that were a mix of Restoration comedies and sentimental comedies, his most popular plays were The Rivals and The School for Scandal, took over management of the Drury Lane Theatre after Garrick, bridged the gap to 19th c comedy of manners, turned to politics full time later in life.
Who created the word malapropism?
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, had a character named Mrs. Malaprop, who did malapropisms a lot
What was Commedia dell’arte?
Originated in Italy during the 1500s and was popular throughout Europe, dialogue often improved, revolved around loose scenarios. Known for stock characters and situations, improv, masks, slapstick and physical humour, crude jokes, buffoonery, lazzi
Who was Carlo Goldoni?
Initially wrote scenarios for commedia dell’arte but eventually reinvented Italian comedy, wanted scripted work (no improv), real characters (not stock), realistic performances (no masks), and expanded plots (no lazzi). Is considered the founder of Italian realistic comedy. His most popular plays are The Servant of Two Masters and The Mistress of the Inn. His rival was Carlo Gozzi, who believed commedia should be fantastical and wanted more improv and escapism
What were the 3 Parisian theatres subsidized by the government?
Opera, Commedie-Francaise, and Comedie-Italienne
What were boulevard theatres?
Illegal theatres that presented comic opera, pantomime, and melodrama to work around restirctions, put music in plays so they could keep operating, so popular the the government absorbed them into the Opera in 1784
What ended government regulation of theatres in France?
The French Revolution
What is Comedie Larmoyante?
Means “tearful comedy,” created by Pierre-Claude Nivelle de La Chaussee, was inspiration for England’s sentimental comedies, hero/heroine faces doom but triumphs by the end, challenges neoclassical rules by mixing tragedy and comedy, led to Denis Diderot’s “drama bourgeoise”
What was opera?
Originated in Italy around 1597 with Jacopo Peri, the two main types of singing were recicative (narrative talk-singing) and aria (lyrical, melodic, accompanied)
What were the two main styles of opera?
Opera Series (serious with emphasis on aria, not plot, often about gods and goddesses), and Opera Buffa (about real people in real situations, often comical)
What two new forms of opera appeared during the 18th century?
Ballad Opera (England) and Opera Comique (France)
Who wrote the first English-language opera during theatre prohibition?
William Davenant
Who introduced English-language opera to Britain?
Matthew Locke and John Blow
Who primarily wrote semi-operas and really got English-language opera going?
Henry Purcell
What are semi-operas?
Had speaking as well as singing, proceeded musicals
What was ballad opera?
Created in England, defied typical forms of opera by not including recitative song & actors speaking between short songs, incorporated popular folk music and people would often sing along, typically about middle and lower class, were social and political satires, poked fun at contemporary social and global issues, was an ancestor of modern-day musical theatre
What was the first ballad opera? Who wrote it?
The Beggar’s Opera, John Gay
What was The Beggar’s Opera?
An anti-opera, a parody of Italian opera, premiered Jan 29th, 1728 at the Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre, entrepreneur was John Rich, ran for 62 consecutive performances, wrote new lyrics to popular folk songs and dialogue was spoken, adapted by Bertolt Brecht into The Threepenny Opera
What was Burletta?
Created to circumvent England’s Licensing Act of 1737, short and comedic with three acts and at least 5 songs in each act, performed during “auctions” or “food tasting events”
Who brought French-language opera to France?
Jean-Baptiste Lully who paired with librettist Phillippe Quinault, they created the first proper French Opera (Cadmus et Hermione) in 1673 and developed a national form of opera: tragedie lyrique
Who was Jean-Phillipe Rameau?
A popular 18th c opera composer, restructured arias and recitatives, experimented with harmonies, unified music and dance, wrote two books on music theory, was highly influential, incorporated dance
What was Opera Comique?
Created in France, derived from comedies de vaudeville and pantomime, initially farcical and drew from commedia dell’arte’s stock characters, not always comedic (like Carmen by Georges Bizet), was spoken dialogue mixed with musical numbers, audiences would sing along
What happened to Opera Comique as legal restrictions changed?
It became more similar to England’s ballad opera, but less satirical and comic and more sentimental, light-hearted and romantic, and ordinary characters began to replace stock characters
Who was Figaro?
Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais created him in his trilogy (The Barber of Seville, The Marriage of Figaro, and The Guilty Mother), was a very popular servant character
What operas were Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais’s plays changed into?
Paisiello and Rossini, Mozart and Da Ponte, Milhaud and Milhaud
Who was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Austrian composer, child prodigy, performing for royalty by age 10, wrote symphonies, operas, concertos, wrote his first operas at 12 (Bastien und Bastienne, and La Finta Semplice)
Who was Oliver Goldsmith?
Born in Ireland and spent second half of his life in London, two of his works changed the face of 18th c theatre: Essay on the Theatre; or a Comparison Between Laughing and Sentimental Comedy and She Stoops to Conquer, which almost singlehandedly restored theatre in England
What genre is She Stoops to Conquer?
Laughing Comedy but takes from Restoration Comedy
What does She Stoops to Conquer take from Restoration Comedy?
It has country/town talk, it has misunderstandings (men get told the house is an inn), deception and disguise (Kate disguises herself as a barmaid, mother thinks she’s being brought somewhere but they’re going around in circles), uses stock characters, lots of entrances and exits (like farce).
What are the differences between She Stoops to Conquer and Restoration Comedy?
The whole drama doesn’t revolve around sex, has on the nose character names (Hardcastle, Lumpkin, Hastings, Constance) but they’re not as obvious, makes a comment on society (how Marlowe is treating the innkeeper), also makes a comment on how working women were treated (how quickly Marlowe changes his actions between Kate and the barmaid
What is Comedie Larmoyante?
Means “tearful comedy”, mixes tragedy and comedy, it was the inspiration for England’s sentimental comedy, the hero/heroine faces doom but triumphs in the end, challenges the neoclassical rules by mixing tragedy and drama, led to Denis Diderot’s “drama bourgeois” or “bourgeois tragedy”
Who created Comedie Larmoyante?
Pierre-Claude Nivelle de La Chaussee
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