"public reputations, and personal relationships into the text. One such actor was Colley Cibber himself, who played the luxuriant fop Lord Foppington in both ""Love's Last Shift"" and ""The Relapse"". However, Vanbrugh's artistic plans were threatened by a cutthroat struggle between London's two theatre companies, each of which was ""seducing"" actors from the other. ""The Relapse"" came close to being not produced at all, but the successful performance that was eventually achieved in November 1696 vindicated Vanbrugh's intentions, and saved the company from bankruptcy as well. Unlike ""Love's Last Shift"", which never again performed after the 1690s, ""The Relapse"" has"
"(1676, published 1677), and Lord Foppington in ""The Relapse"" (1696) by John Vanbrugh. Vanbrugh planned ""The Relapse"" around particular actors at the Drury Lane Theatre, including Colley Cibber, who played Lord Foppington. A fop is also referred to as a ""beau"", as in the Restoration comedies ""The Beaux' Stratagem"" (1707) by George Farquhar, ""The Beau Defeated"" (1700) by Mary Pix, or the real-life Beau Nash, master of ceremonies at Bath, or Regency celebrity Beau Brummell. The sexual recklessness of ""beau"" may imply homosexuality. Shakespeare's ""King Lear"" contains the word, in the general sense of a fool, and before him Thomas"
"of ""The Relapse"" in saving it from collapse, are attested in a private letter from 19 November 1696: ""The other house [Drury Lane] has no company at all, and unless a new play comes out on Saturday revives their reputation, they must break."" The new play is assumed to have been ""The Relapse"", and it turned out the success Rich needed. ""This play"", notes Colley Cibber in his autobiography, ""from its new and easy turn of wit, had great success, and gave me, as a comedian, a second flight of reputation along with it."" Charles Gildon summarises: ""This play was"
"Restoration literature Restoration literature is the English literature written during the historical period commonly referred to as the English Restoration (1660–1689), which corresponds to the last years of the direct Stuart reign in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. In general, the term is used to denote roughly homogeneous styles of literature that center on a celebration of or reaction to the restored court of Charles II. It is a literature that includes extremes, for it encompasses both ""Paradise Lost"" and the Earl of Rochester's ""Sodom"", the high-spirited sexual comedy of ""The Country Wife"" and the moral wisdom of ""The Pilgrim's"
"that have best retained the interest of producers and audiences today are the comedies, such as William Wycherley's ""The Country Wife"" (1676), ""The Rover"" (1677) by the first professional woman playwright, Aphra Behn, and John Vanbrugh's ""The Relapse"" (1696). Restoration comedy is famous or notorious for its sexual explicitness, a quality encouraged by Charles II personally and by the rakish aristocratic ethos of his court. Although documented history of Irish theatre began at least as early as 1601, the earliest Irish dramatists of note were: William Congreve (1670–1729), author of ""The Way of the World"" (1700); late Restoration playwright, George"
"Thomas Otway's ""Venice Preserved"" (1682). The Restoration plays that have best retained the interest of producers and audiences today are the comedies, such as George Etherege's ""The Man of Mode"" (1676), William Wycherley's ""The Country Wife"" (1676), John Vanbrugh's ""The Relapse"" (1696), and William Congreve's ""The Way of the World"" (1700). This period saw the first professional woman playwright, Aphra Behn, author of many comedies including ""The Rover"" (1677). Restoration comedy is famous or notorious for its sexual explicitness, a quality encouraged by Charles II (1660–1685) personally and by the rakish aristocratic ethos of his court. In the 18th century,"
"written and performed in England during the Restoration period from 1660 to 1710. Comedy of manners is used as a synonym of Restoration comedy. After public theatre had been banned by the Puritan regime, the re-opening of the theatres in 1660 with the Restoration of Charles II signalled a renaissance of English drama. Restoration comedy is known for its sexual explicitness, urbane, cosmopolitan wit, up-to-the-minute topical writing, and crowded and bustling plots. Its dramatists stole freely from the contemporary French and Spanish stage, from English Jacobean and Caroline plays, and even from Greek and Roman classical comedies, combining the various"
"(see Hume). If Cibber indeed was deliberately attempting to appeal simultaneously to rakish and respectable Londoners, it worked: the play was a great box-office hit. Sequel: ""The Relapse"" Vanbrugh's witty sequel ""The Relapse, Or, Virtue in Danger"", offered to the United Company six weeks later, questions the justice of women's position in marriage at this time. He sends new sexual temptations in the way of not only the reformed husband but also the patient wife, and allows them to react in more credible and less predictable ways than in their original context, lending the flat characters from ""Love's Last Shift"""
"Lord Foppington in ""The Relapse"", while Sir John Brute in ""The Provoked Wife"" became, after being an iconic role for Thomas Betterton, one of David Garrick's most famous roles. In the present day, ""The Relapse"", now again to be seen uncut, remains a favourite play. With the completion of Castle Howard, English baroque came into fashion overnight. It had brought together the isolated and varied instances of monumental design, by, among others, Inigo Jones and Christopher Wren. Vanbrugh thought of masses, volume and perspective in a way that his predecessors had not. He was adept at delivering buildings for his"
"A Trip to Scarborough A Trip to Scarborough is an 18th-century play by Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816), first performed on 24 February 1777. Sheridan based his work on John Vanbrugh's ""The Relapse"" (1696), removing much of the bawdy content. The play was reworked as one of three plot strands in a 1982 revival by Alan Ayckbourn, with the action taking place in the Royal Hotel, Scarborough. The first performance was on 8 December that year. It is a technically demanding piece as the actors are required to take on several roles, with quick changes between scenes as the play switches"
"by the taste of the 1690s, and compared to a play like the courtier William Wycherley's ""The Country Wife"" of 20 years earlier, with its celebration of predatory aristocratic masculinity, ""The Relapse"" contains quite a few moments of morality and uplift. In fact it has a kind of parallel structure to ""Love's Last Shift"": in the climactic scene of Cibber's play, Amanda's virtue reforms her husband, and in the corresponding scene of ""The Relapse"", it reforms her admirer Worthy. Such moments have not done the play any favours with modern critics. ""Love's Last Shift"" is the story of a last"
"Lust's Dominion Lust's Dominion, or The Lascivious Queen is an English Renaissance stage play, a tragedy written perhaps around 1600 and first published in 1657, probably written by Thomas Dekker in collaboration with others. The play has been categorized as a revenge tragedy, comparable to Kyd's ""The Spanish Tragedy"", Shakespeare's ""Titus Andronicus"" and ""Hamlet"", and to tragedies by Thomas Middleton (""The Revenger's Tragedy""), John Webster (""The White Devil"") and Cyril Tourneur (""The Atheist's Tragedy""). The first edition attributed the authorship of the play to Christopher Marlowe, though this attribution has been recognized as spurious by critics and scholars for nearly"
"of the World"" (1700), and John Vanbrugh's ""The Relapse"" (1696) and ""The Provoked Wife"" (1697) were ""softer"" and more middle class in ethos, very different from the aristocratic extravaganza twenty years earlier, and aimed at a wider audience. If ""Restoration literature"" is the literature that reflects and reflects upon the court of Charles II, Restoration drama arguably ends before Charles II's death, as the playhouse moved rapidly from the domain of courtiers to the domain of the city middle classes. On the other hand, Restoration drama shows altogether more fluidity and rapidity than other types of literature, and so, even"
"retained its audience appeal. In the 18th century, however, its tolerant attitude towards actual and attempted adultery gradually became unacceptable to public opinion, and the original play was for a century replaced on the stage by Sheridan's moralised version ""A Trip to Scarborough"" (1777). On the modern stage, ""The Relapse"" has been established as one of the most popular Restoration comedies, valued for Vanbrugh's light, throwaway wit and the consummate acting part of Lord Foppington, a burlesque character with a dark side. ""Love's Last Shift"" can be seen as an early sign of Cibber's sensitivity to shifts of public opinion,"
"was a great success with the première audience is the fop Sir Novelty Fashion, written by Cibber for himself to play. Sir Novelty flirts with all the women, but is more interested in his own exquisite appearance and witticisms, and, writes Cibber modestly in his autobiography 45 years later, ""was thought a good portrait of the foppery then in fashion"". The play was a great box office hit at the première run but has not stood the test of time. Theatre historians today remember it, if at all, because of John Vanbrugh's sequel ""The Relapse, or, Virtue in Danger"", still"
"of Buckingham's ""The Rehearsal"" and Henry Fielding's ""The Tragedy of Tragedies, or the Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great"" ""Those who associate 'heroic drama' primarily with the use of the 'heroic couplet' usually set as its extent the years from 1664 to 1678. This, certainly, is its period of fullest development and authority. Those who prefer to accentuate the elements suggested by the very term 'heroic' rather than the strict rhymed verse form are willing to admit wider limits."" Restoration plays by Sir William Davenant, Thomas Otway, Nathaniel Lee, John Crowne, Elkanah Settle, and John Banks, and later"
"in Renaissance England rather than Prince Hal's time. The 1929 Malone Society editor states that most scholars place its composition between 1591 and 1595. Ule and Baker date it more precisely to about 1582; they believe it was written by Christopher Marlowe while he was at Cambridge, shortly after he had completed other plays they attribute to him such as ""Timon"", and ""The Famous Victories of Henry V"". Corbin and Sedge, while cautioning that ""[d]ating by suppositions of literary or theatrical influence is ... a hazardous business,"" nonetheless state that ""in so far as literary influence may help dating, it"
"and thus Tom gains his desired end – a bride, a fortune, and the utter discomfiture of his brother. A Trip to Scarborough A Trip to Scarborough is an 18th-century play by Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816), first performed on 24 February 1777. Sheridan based his work on John Vanbrugh's ""The Relapse"" (1696), removing much of the bawdy content. The play was reworked as one of three plot strands in a 1982 revival by Alan Ayckbourn, with the action taking place in the Royal Hotel, Scarborough. The first performance was on 8 December that year. It is a technically demanding piece"
"give-and-take set pieces of couples testing their attraction for one another have mutated into witty prenuptial debates on the eve of marriage, as in the latter's famous ""Proviso"" scene. Vanbrugh's ""The Provoked Wife"" (1697) has a light touch and more humanly recognisable characters, while ""The Relapse"" (1696) has been admired for its throwaway wit and the characterisation of Lord Foppington, an extravagant and affected burlesque fop with a dark side. The tolerance for Restoration comedy even in its modified form was running out by the end of the 17th century, as public opinion turned to respectability and seriousness even faster"
"in September 1696, Verbruggen was discharged from acting, but ordered by the Lord Chamberlain to stay with the Drury Lane company until 1 January 1697, to give Rich time to find a replacement. This order made possible the endangered November première of John Vanbrugh's ""The Relapse"", where Verbruggen played the part of Loveless. Moving to Betterton's company in January 1697, Verbruggen began to receive some critical comment, chiefly positive. He was considered a natural actor, with ""a negligent agreeable Wildness in his Action and his Mein, which became him well"". He chiefly played ""fine gentlemen"", wits, and rakes, and was"
"and Doreen DelVecchio and Antony Hammond (""Cambridge"")). Harold Bloom said that the play works well on the stage despite its problems, and even wrote, ""Perhaps because he declined to compose the first two acts, Shakespeare compensated by making the remaining three acts into his most radical theatrical experiment since the mature ""Hamlet"" of 1600–1601."" The Venetian ambassador to England, Zorzi Giustinian, saw a play titled ""Pericles"" during his time in London, which ran from 5 January 1606 to 23 November 1608. As far as is known, there was no other play with the same title that was acted in this"
"Edward Howard (playwright) Edward Howard (baptised 1624 – 1712) was an English dramatist and author of the Restoration era. He was the fifth son of Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Berkshire, and one of four playwriting brothers: Sir Robert Howard, Colonel Henry Howard, and James Howard were the others. The brothers were sometimes confused in their own era, and Edward was sometimes given credit for his brother Henry's play ""The United Kingdoms"". Edward Howard was christened on 2 November 1624, at St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Howard had a reputation as an exacting and difficult author. In their famous satire ""The Rehearsal"", the"
"the Restoration, developed into a major art form. Daniel Defoe turned from journalism and writing criminal lives for the press to writing fictional criminal lives with """" and ""Moll Flanders."" The English novel has generally been seen as beginning with Daniel Defoe's ""Robinson Crusoe"" (1719) and ""Moll Flanders"" (1722), though John Bunyan's ""The Pilgrim's Progress"" (1678) and Aphra Behn's, ""Oroonoko"" (1688) are also contenders. Other major 18th-century British novelists are Samuel Richardson (1689–1761), author of the epistolary novels ""Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded"" (1740) and ""Clarissa"" (1747–48); Henry Fielding (1707–54), who wrote ""Joseph Andrews"" (1742) and ""The History of Tom Jones,"
"co-wrote were tragedies. When the United Company broke in two in 1694, with the walking out of the senior actors including Thomas Betterton, Elizabeth Barry, and Anne Bracegirdle, it is unlikely that Powell was invited to join them. While he was skilled and experienced, he was also notorious for his bad temper and alcoholism, and the rebel actors probably left him behind with some relief (Milhous). He demonstrated his drinking problem at the première of Vanbrugh's ""Relapse"" in November 1696, being according to Vanbrugh so drunk as the seducer Worthy that he molested Amanda, the object of his attentions, in"
"politics and religion (including blasphemy). It was certainly exercised by Edmund Tylney, who was Master from 1579 to 1610. Tylney and his successor, George Buck, also exercised the power to censor plays for publication. The Master of the Revels, who normally reported to the Lord Chamberlain, continued to perform the function until, with the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642, stage plays were prohibited. Stage plays did not return to England until the Restoration in 1660. During the creation of the Licensing of 1737, Robert Walpole was the standing Master of the Revels Laws regulating theatre in the"
"Love's Last Shift Love's Last Shift, or The Fool in Fashion is an English Restoration comedy by Colley Cibber from 1696. The play is regarded as an early herald of a shift in audience tastes away from the intellectualism and sexual frankness of Restoration comedy and towards the conservative certainties and gender role backlash of sentimental comedy. It is often described as ""opportunistic"" (Hume), containing as it does something for everybody: daring Restoration comedy sex scenes, sentimental reconciliations, and broad farce. MEN WOMEN. Colley Cibber played Sir Novelty Fashion in the original 1688 production. ""Love's Last Shift"" is the story"
"his eyes. Congreve suffered a carriage accident in late September 1728, from which he never recovered (having probably received an internal injury); he died in London in January 1729, and was buried in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. Two of Congreve's phrases from ""The Mourning Bride"" (1697) have become famous, although sometimes misquoted or misattributed to William Shakespeare. Congreve coined another famous phrase in ""Love for Love"" (1695): William Congreve William Congreve (24 January 1670 – 19 January 1729) was an English playwright and poet of the Restoration period. He is known for his clever, satirical dialogue and influence on"
"plays of William Congreve, John Vanbrugh, John Dryden, and Thomas D'Urfey. At the start of the English Civil War (1642) theatres were closed and in 1647 a law was passed to punish anyone who participated in or viewed drama. After the war, and during the English Interregnum, the Puritans, under Oliver Cromwell, had control of most of the English government. They placed heavy restrictions on entertainment and entertainment venues that were perceived as being pagan or immoral. In the English Restoration (1660), playwrights reacted against the Puritanical restrictions with much more decadent plays. The plays produced in the Restoration drew"
"Company, that he was always allowed to return. In 1693 he set himself up as fortune teller. He wrote several plays, none of which had notable artistic or commercial success, and gave several of his best interpretations (according to Anthony Aston) in the 1690s, including Serringe the doctor in John Vanbrugh's The Relapse (1696) and the original Tom Errand in George Farquhar's immensely popular ""The Constant Couple"" (1699). He died at his London lodgings in 1701 after a short illness. Joseph Haines Joseph Haines (died 4 April 1701), also known as Jo Haines, was a 17th-century actor, singer, dancer, guitar"
"grimaces, that has more a design on her purse than her heart"". Cibber was on the stage in every year but two (1727 and 1731) between his debut in 1690 and his retirement in 1732, playing more than 100 parts in all in nearly 3,000 documented performances. After he had sold his interest in Drury Lane in 1733 and was a wealthy man in his sixties, he returned to the stage occasionally to play the classic fop parts of Restoration comedy for which audiences appreciated him. His Lord Foppington in Vanbrugh's ""The Relapse"", Sir Courtly Nice in John Crowne's ""Sir"
"Shipwreck"" (1784) and ""Force of Fashion"" (1789). John Logan's tragedy, ""Runnamede"", was acted in the Edinburgh Theatre in 1783. It reflected contemporary politics in its emphasis on the liberties of the subject, drawing parallels between King John and George III, and for that reason the censorship of the Lord Chamberlain had prevented its production on the London stage. Among the most prolific of Scottish playwrights was Archibald Maclaren (1755–1826) whose ""The Conjurer; or, the Scotsman in London"" (1781) inverted the stereotype of the gullible Scot common in London plays. He went on to produce over a hundred plays. The work"
"Barry and comedian Anne Bracegirdle, leaving the United Company – henceforth known as the ""Patent Company"" – in ""a very despicable condition,"" according to an anonymous contemporary pamphlet: A private letter from 19 November 1696 reported that Drury Lane ""has no company at all, and unless a new play comes out on Saturday revives their reputation, they must break."" The new play is assumed to have been John Vanbrugh's ""The Relapse"", and it turned out the success the company needed. Christopher Rich continued as its head until 1709, when the patent in question was actually revoked amid a complex tangle"
"a stage favourite, where the husband returns to polygamy. Love's Last Shift Love's Last Shift, or The Fool in Fashion is an English Restoration comedy by Colley Cibber from 1696. The play is regarded as an early herald of a shift in audience tastes away from the intellectualism and sexual frankness of Restoration comedy and towards the conservative certainties and gender role backlash of sentimental comedy. It is often described as ""opportunistic"" (Hume), containing as it does something for everybody: daring Restoration comedy sex scenes, sentimental reconciliations, and broad farce. MEN WOMEN. Colley Cibber played Sir Novelty Fashion in the"