Neo classical literature history
Paper-2. Neo-classical Literature
Assignment
Name- Gohil Dipti Ajaybhai
Department of English
Maharaja KrishnaKumarsihji Bhavnagar University
SEM – 1
Roll no -6
Enrollment no – 206910820190018
Topic – Development of Drama in the Neo-classical Age
Introduction :
In this term the word neoclassical means neo means New and classical mean in the day of Roman and Greek classical. Middle 17th to early 18th centuries called Neo-classical age.
This was a time of comfortableness in England. People would meet at coffee house to chat about politics. At that time starting drinking tea. It is period of englightment literature of the age is concerned with human nature, supremacy of reason. Most writers follow unity in his works.
The Neo-classical dramatists were theoretically committed to the classical rules but they also gave respect of Shakespeare’s plays. They like the Elizabethan variety of ancient and character but Elizabethan age in most of mixing of tragedy and comedy. Thus, between the classical rules on one hand and the native traditional and taste on the other.
Neo-classical period divine in two parts:
- Restoration age
- Augustan age
1)Restoration age in development of drama:
The period from 1660 to 1700 is known as the Restoration age and it is also called the age of Dryden because monarchy was restored in England. The return of the stage-struck Charles -2 to power in 1660 was a major event in English theatre history. As soon as the previous puritan regime's ban on public stage representations was lifted, the drama recreated itself quickly and abundantly. Two theatre companies, the Duke's Company in London , with two luxurious playhouse built to designs by Christopher Wren and fitted with moveable scenery and thunder and lightning machine. The influence of theatre company competition and playhouse economic is also acknowledged, as is the significance of the appearances of the first professional actresses. In 1660s and 1670s, the London scene was vitalised by the competition between the two companies. The need to rise to the challenges of other house made playwrights and managers extremely responsive to public taste, and theatrical fashions fluctuated almost week by week.
Dryden representative writer of this period. The Restoration of king Charles 2 in 1660 marks the beginning of new era, Charles second and his followers who had enjoyed a gay life in France during their exile and they demanded that English poetry and Drama. They should follow the style of French writer. The theatres reopen during Restoration. From 1682 the production of new plays dropped sharply, affected both by merger between the two companies and by the political turmoil of popish plot in 1678 and Exclusion crisis in 1682. In the 1680 years especially were rich for comedy. The only exception being the remarkable career of Aphra Behn , whose achievement as the first professional British woman dramatist has been the subject of much recent study. At that time there was swing away from comedy to serious political drama, reflecting preoccupation and divisions following on the political crisis. The few comedies produced also tended to be political in focus. The Whig dramatist Thomas Shadwell sparring with the tories John Dryden and Aphra Behn. On the other hand Restoration drama shows altogether more rapidity and fluidity than other type of literature, and so even more than in other types of literature.
Two main types of DRAMA in Restoration period :
- Comedy :- It focused on the lower levels of society. The Restoration comedy is also known as comedy of manners. Fashionable intrigues , sex , marriage and adultery were treated with cynicism , wordly wit and a sence of the comedy of life.
William Congreve is the best and finest writer of the comedy of manners. His famous comedies were THE DOUBLE DEALER, LOVE FOR LOVE and other famous writers at that time George Etheredge, George Farquhar, William Wycherley and Vanbrugh were the comedy writers at that age. The focus in comedy is less on young lover outwitting the older generation, more no marital relations after the wedding bells.
- Tragedy :- It portrayed the complex and fateful lives of the upper classes and royals. Consequently, the plays written for the play houses were distinctly calculated by the authors to appeal to a courtly and cavalier audience. The restoration tragedy is also known as the heroic tragedy. Authors labelled their works according to the old tags, “comedy” and “drama” and especially, “history”, but these plays defied the old categories. In the 1670 and 1680 a gradual shift occurred from heroic to pathetic tragedy, it is the facial was on love and domestic concerns, even though the main characters might often be public figures.
The rise of the heroic tragedy, which dealt with themes of epic magnitude and the development of comedy of manners, which portrayed the sophisticated life of the dominant class of society it’s gaiety, foppery, insolence and intrigue. At that time famous tragic drama writer Thomas Otway's work The Orphan which focused on the sufferings of an innocent and virtuous woman, became the dominant form of pathetic tragedy. John Banks's Virtue Betrayed or, Anna Bullen, Thomas Southerne's The Fatal Marriage and Nicholas Rowe's The Fair Penitent and Lady Jane Grey. These are all tragedies is more comfortably tragic and these are shown woman who suffered for no fault of their own and featured tragic flaws.
From 1700 a change began to be discernible in stage production. It was felt that appeal of the restoration comedy of manners was restricted only to the aristocratic and also heard. It was felt that a more human note was needed with the rise of the middle class the moral standards changed. Moreover the periodical essay and newspapers which expressed the moral code of the rising middle class emerged as powerful rivals of drama. From 1682 the production of new plays dropped sharply, affected both by a merger between the two companies and by the political turmoil of the popish plot in 1678 and the Exclusion Crisis in 1682.
2)Augustan Age development of drama:
A theatrical riot at Covent Garden's Royal theatre in 1762 over a rumored increase in tickets prices. Even drama declined in the Augustan age. It was still popular entertainment.
As a consequence of the advent of coffee from the colonies, clubs and coffee houses flourished in towns. This age during the drama of ancient Rome the reign of Caesar Augustan literature. King George -1 referred to himself as Augusts. In the 18th century was an age of satire and public verse, and in prose , it was age of the more developing drama and novel. In drama adding other contract, it was an age in transition between the highly witty and sexually playful restoration comedy the pathetic tragedy of the turn of the 18th century and any later plots of middle-class anxiety. The Augustan stage retreated from the restoration's focus on cuckoldry, marriage for fortune, and a life of leisure. Instead the Augustan drama reflected questions the mercantile class had about itself and what it meant to be gentry it meant to be good merchant, how to achieve wealth with morality, and the proper role of those who serve.
They intellectual and social centres for debates. It was infertile period for drama. The first half of the eighteenth century was almost blank in dramatic literature. The days of manners were sentimental comedy that achieved some popularity with respectable middle class audiences in the 18th century. In contrast with the aristocratic cynicism of English restoration comedy, it showed virtue rewarded by domestic bliss ,its plots usually involving unbelievably good middle class couples, so at that growing drama two manners are like Sentimental tragedy or comedy and Anti-Sentimental comedy.
Sentimental comedy is against heroic that stresses aristocratic and Masculine values. It is like celebrated powerful, aggressive masculine heros and their pursuit of glory. Sentimental drama is the result of the growing political disillusionment of the middle classes with the old aristocratic ideology and its traditional masculine ideals. It shows the morality of it’s situations and the virtues of character. In sentimental comedy tears took the place of laughter, melodramatic and distressing situation that of intrigue, pathetic heroines. Its themes that love, domestic, concerns.
Anti-Sentimental comedy – The term “Anti-sentimental comedy” refers to plays of Goldsmith and Sheridan. They reacted against the excesses of sentimental comedy. In other words, Anti-Sentimental comedy deals with theme like gender clashes, family, marriage etc. Anti-Sentimental comedy employ neither licentious plots based on sexual intrigues and dialogues loaded with innuendos nor more tearful plots with idealization of characters and dialogues.
For example Oliver Goldsmith's play “ She stoops to conquer”. As the author himself suggested “it was meant to provide entertainment, to cheer heart and give muscles motion”, to act “ as a kind of magic charm”. The play was a farcical comedy of incidents with a plot taken from Farquhar , and it tried to make fun among other things of the of the humourless comedies larmoyante of the times. From this time on audience could once more expect laughter in the theatre provoked by what happened on the stage.
Conclusion:
As type development of drama in Neoclassical age. This period is most regarded for reopening theatre and some changes in drama theme and structure. Changes in the Intellectual tendencies of the period were perhaps responsible for the introduction of a supernatural elements into various plays.
References -
Total Word - 1564
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