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The Restoration - Coggle Diagram
The Restoration
Charles II
exile in France, acquired French tastes (gossip, drama, music, pleasure, fashion)
more interest in earthly life, coexistence of dignity and excess, simplicity and ornamentation
came back, Parliament excluded puritans from public offices
1665: bubonic plague, 1666: Great Fire of London
reconstruction by architect Christopher Wren (ex. St Paul's Cathedral)
narrated by diarists Pepys and Evelyn
Parliament didn't want a Catholic transformation:
Test Act
(Catholics couldn't hold public offices)
2 fractions of Parliament: Tories (gentry, church) vs Whig (nobles, merchants) who wanted religious toleration and didn't want absolute monarchy
Culture
mix of reason/science and religion (unique case in Europe): to better understand a God-created universe. scientists were men of faith and science. experimental method, belief in progress, no more fear and superstition
heliocentric universe, mechanical and matter-based
1662: Charles II founds the Royal Society ("nullius in verba"). Some members were: Boyle, Evelyn, Pepys, Wren. It encouraged birth of an "Empire of learning" and shared knowledge, reavaluation of English (rather than Latin) for experiments records
Literature
Poetry
Neo-classicism: classical simplicity and restraint, new idea of wit (use of reason), objective description of the real world, satire (<Horace, Juvenal, Martial)
Court Wits (<Cavalier poets): young and superficial aristocrats, urbanity, elegance
Prose
rational philosophy of Hobbes and Locke, scientific treatises of Newton
Essay concerning human understanding
by Locke: tabula rasa, knowledge from experience
Leviathan
by Hobbes: individual is selfish and has to be controlled
Drama
reaction against puritan morals reopened theatres in 1660
theatres: roofed and lit with candles, with drop curtain and painted scenery, actresses, actors and actresses became professionals, only noble audience (Elizabethan one was mixed)
Comedy of manners: making fun of manners and absurdities of elegant society
witty, cynical, satyrical, specific characters (love couple, mistress, cuckolded citizen, "fop" - cyinical and elegant male character opposed to the lover, naturalistic acting style, familiar world, prose (no verse), more realism, sex and money
< Ben Jonson's Comedy of Humours: morality and imagery, attack on marriage, battle of sexes, < Moliére' witty comedies, < Calderòn's plays, < Italian Commedia dell'arte
William Congreve
Dubliner and fellow student of Swift at Trinity College, moved to England
The way of the world
: Mirabell loves Millamant but her aunt Lady Wishfort doesn't approve a marriage, Mirabell saves her from blackmail by Fainall and obtains approval, but the two lover are against arranged mariages and make a marriage bargain
witty dialogues, plot is impossible to follow, main theme is the reality vs appearance of marriage, inheritance of money, legal and marital issues, passion vs social conventions
realistic, unconventional and independent characters, wit= ability to understand themselves and others
language suitable to character, dramatic and witty + descriptive surnames for characters
James II
supported by the tories but then opposed as he placed Catholics into positions of authority
Parliament wanted Anglicans as kings and feared alliance with Louis XIV, so secretly negotiated with William of Orange and his wife Mary (James II's daughter)
Bloodless/Glorious Revolution: not by divine right but by Parliament
Bill of Rights: Parliament could raise taxes, pass laws and control army
Act of Settlement (1701): Parliament decided on the succession
Queen Anne (James's protestant daughter and Mary's sister) was to follow and James's son not
War of Spanish Succession: Charles II of SPain dies and leaves the throne to Philip (Louis XIV's nephew), to avoid too much power for France, England and other states go to war. Peace of Utrecht: England gets French Canada and monopoly of the slave trade with Spanish America
Act of Union (1707): Scotland united with England