English 3203: Restoration and 18thc Drama Dr. Miriam Jones Fall 2010 Image:

Introduction to course ❖ Overview of course: syllabus; schedule; course requirements ❖ Introduction to the period and its theatre ❖ Videos: The Restoration Theatre: from tennis court to playhouse; ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore: the first women on the London stage

Overview of course ❖ Course blog: Tramping the boardsTramping the boards

Introduction to the Restoration period and its theatre: ❖ 1625 Charles I (House of Stuart) ascends to throne; conflicts with Parliament ❖ 1642 Civil Wars begin; Ordinance to close the playhouses ❖ 1649 Charles I beheaded; An Act for abolishing the kingly office in England; Commonwealth proclaimed

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❖ Interregnum ❖ 1653 Protectorate established; Oliver Cromwell named Lord Protector of England ❖ 1658 Death of Cromwell; collapse of Protectorate the following year

❖ 1660 Restoration of the Monarchy: Charles II, son of Charles I, offered crown by Parliament Image:

❖ 1660 Charles I offers warrants to Thomas Killigrew and William Davenant; first appearance of women on the stage as professional actors ❖ Monopoly on theatres in effect

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❖ 1661 Duke’s company opens Lincoln’s Inn Fields playhouse, London: the first characteristic Restoration theatre ❖ 1665 Great Plague ❖ 1666 Great Fire of London

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❖ 1671 Duke’s company opens Dorset Garden playhouse, London ❖ 1674 King’s company opens Drury Lane playhouse, London

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❖ 1675 Première of William Wycherley’s The Country Wife at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane ❖ 1677 Première of Aphra Behn’s The Rover ❖ 1681 Uniting of the Duke’s Company and the King’s Company ❖ 1685 James II, brother of Charles II, crowned ❖ 1688 Expulsion of James II. “Glorious Revolution” of William III and Mary II ❖ 1692 Foundation of the Society for the Reformation of Manners ❖ 1695 Première of Thomas Southerne’s Oroonoko

❖ 1698 Jeremy Collier publishes A Short View of the Immorality and the Profaneness of the English Stage together with the Sense of Antiquity upon this Argument Image:

Theatrical spaces Image:

❖ [Following:] Two shots of the the Georgian Theatre Royal (1788; restored 2003), one from the back of the house and one from the stage. ❖ Three photos of the Theatre Royal, Bury St. Edmunds (1819), the only extant Regency theatre in the UK, one of the ceiling, one of the stage, and one of the exterior

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