This document provides an overview of a university lecture on Elizabethan and Restoration drama. It introduces the time period that will be covered, including the Elizabethan era from 1558-1603 and the Restoration period from 1660-1688/1714 after the monarchy was restored. It distinguishes different genres of drama like comedy, tragedy, and melodrama. The lecture outlines three plays that will be analyzed in depth: Ben Jonson's Volpone, John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, and William Congreve's The Way of the World. Students are expected to closely study these plays due to their difficulty, and attendance is strongly encouraged.

1. ELIZABETHAN &
RESTORATION DRAMA
ENG 401
LECTURE BY FAISAL AHMED
SENIOR LECTURER, DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, WORLD UNIVERSITY OF
BANGLADESH

2. WEEK - 1
LECTURE- 1
In the very beginning (week- 1), we will discuss the following in the online
classroom of the e-learning platform of WUB:
Introduction to Elizabethan & Restoration Period Familiarization of the dramatists.
Understanding of the socio-political issues of Elizabethan & Restoration Era.
Distinguish drama from other literary genres.

3. DRAMA
DRAMA IS A MODE OF FICTIONAL REPRESENTATION THROUGH DIALOGUE AND PERFORMANCE. IT IS ONE OF THE
LITERARY GENRES, WHICH IS AN IMITATION OF SOME ACTION. DRAMA IS ALSO A TYPE OF A PLAY WRITTEN FOR
THEATER.
Let us consider a few popular types of drama:
• Comedy – Comedies are lighter in tone than ordinary works, and provide a happy conclusion. The
intention of dramatists in comedies is to make their audience laugh. Hence, they use quaint
circumstances, unusual characters, and witty remarks.
• Tragedy – Tragic dramas use darker themes, such as disaster, pain, and death. Protagonists often
have a tragic flaw — a characteristic that leads them to their downfall.
• Farce – Generally, a farce is a nonsensical genre of drama, which often overacts or engages slapstick
humor.
• Melodrama – Melodrama is an exaggerated drama, which is sensational and appeals directly to the
senses of the audience. Just like the farce, the characters are of a single dimension and simple, or
may be stereotyped.
• Musical Drama – In musical dramas, dramatists not only tell their stories through acting and dialogue,
but through dance as well as music. Often the story may be comedic, though it may also involve
serious subjects.
• evision, radio, and film.

4. INTRODUCTION
• The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England
during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the
golden age in English history. ... It was also the end of the period when England
was a separate realm before its royal union with Scotland.
• Elizabethan: 1558–1603
• Jacobean: 1603–1625
• The English Commonwealth period: 1649–1660
• The Puritan Age: 1625 - 1660
• Stuart: 1603–1714 (The Restoration: 1660–1688/1714)
• Tudor: 1485–1603

5. THE RESTORATION (1660 – 1688 / 1714)
• The Restoration of the Stuart monarchy in the kingdoms of England, Scotland
and Ireland took place in 1660 when King Charles II returned from exile in
Europe. The preceding period of the Protectorate and the civil wars, came to be
known as the Interregnum.

6. ELIZABETHAN & RESTORATION DRAMA
COURSE OUTLINE
• This course aims to introduce students to one of the most spectacular ages of English theatre. In
the previous semester you studied Elizabethan Drama written by Shakespeare, Marlowe, Kyd and
plays from the Jacobean period (under King James at the start of the seventeenth century). This
semester you are going to study its next sequence, the plays written by Webster, Jonson and
Congrev in the Restoration Period (after the re-opening of the theatres in 1660) will be
studied. Due to their intriguing plots and masterful use of the English language, many of these
plays are still produced today.

7. STUDENT REQUIREMENT
• The plays that will be studied during this course were written between 350 and 400 years ago. During this time, the
English language has developed both lexically and grammatically. Consequently, even for native speakers of English,
most of the plays are extremely difficult to understand. Therefore, during online learning session, a number of plays
will be discussed in forum discussion and analysed with the instructor through different online resources in order to
facilitate maximum student understanding. This may take a long time, but a complete understanding of a small
number of plays is far more preferable to a limited knowledge of a large number of works. Consequently, we will be
focussing on three plays during the semester. These are:
• Ben Jonson’s Volpone
• John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi
• William Congreve’s The Way of the World
• These plays, as mentioned earlier, are extremely difficult to understand and therefore, student attendance is
strongly encouraged.

8. RESTORATION
1660 – 1688 (1714) KING CHARLES II
Preceded by Interregnum (see next
slide)
Followed by Georgian era
Monarch(s) •Charles II
•James II
•William III
•Mary II
•Anne
Leader(s) Sir Thomas Parker

9. INTERREGNUM
• a period when normal government is suspended, especially between
successive reigns or regimes.
• the period in English history from the execution of Charles I in 1649 to
the Restoration of Charles II in 1660.

10. RESTORATION
POLITICAL BACKGROUND
• The term Restoration is also used to describe the period of several years after, in
which a new political settlement was established. It is very often used to cover the
whole reign of Charles II (1660–1685) and often the brief reign of his younger
brother James II (1685–1688). In certain contexts it may be used to cover the
whole period of the later Stuart monarchs as far as the death of Queen Anne and
the accession of the Hanoverian George I in 1714. For example, Restoration
comedy typically encompasses works written as late as 1710.

11. RESTORATION
CULTURE
• Historian Roger Baker argues that the Restoration and Charles' coronation mark
a reversal of the stringent Puritan morality, "as though the pendulum [of England's
morality] swung from repression to licence more or less overnight". Theatres
reopened after having been closed during the protectorship, Puritanism lost its
momentum, and bawdy comedy became a recognisable genre. In addition,
women were allowed to perform on the commercial stage as professional
actresses for the first time. In Scotland, the bishops returned as
the Episcopacy was reinstated.

12. RESTORATION
LITERATURE
• Restoration literature includes the roughly homogenous styles of literature that
center on a celebration of or reaction to the restored court of King 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 Progress. It saw Locke's Treatises of
Government, the founding of the Royal Society, the experiments and holy
meditations of Robert Boyle, the hysterical attacks on theaters from Jeremy
Collier, and the pioneering of literary criticism from John Dryden and John Dennis.
The period witnessed news become a commodity, the essay develop into a
periodical art form, and the beginnings of textual criticism.[

13. RESTORATION
COMEDY
• Comedy flourished. A favourite setting was the bawsy bed-chamber. Bawdy was preferred. Indeed sexually explicit
language was encouraged by the king personally and by the rakish style of his court.
• Historian George Norman Clark argues: The best-known fact about the Restoration drama is that it is immoral. The
dramatists did not criticize the accepted morality about gambling, drink, love, and pleasure generally, or try, like the
dramatists of our own time, to work out their own view of character and conduct. What they did was, according to
their respective inclinations, to mock at all restraints. Some were gross, others delicately improper....The dramatists
did not merely say anything they liked: they also intended to glory in it and to shock those who did not like it.
• 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 female playwright, Aphra Behn.
• For extensive reading and more information of Restoration, go to the following link :
https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Restoration

14. GLOSSARY
• Restoration: (literal meaning) the action of returning something to a former
owner, place, or condition.
• Restoration: (contextual meaning) the action of returning English Monarchy
through King Charles’ II ascending the English throne.
• King Charles II (1630 -1685): king of England, Scotland and Ireland from the
1660 Restoration of the monarchy until his death in 1685.

15. WEEK - 1
The end of the lesson