Game of love in restoration comedy = trò đùa tình ái trong hài kịch phục hưng

Chapter 3: The Theme Game of love in Restoration comedy “Game of love” in Restoration comedy ” in Restoration comedy ...233.1.. Game of love in The Country Wife by William Wycherley“Game

Vinh university Foreign language department

STUDENT: Trần Thị Đào

“Game of love” in Restoration comedy

(Trò đùa tình ái trong hài kịch phục hng)

GRADUATION THESIS SUBJECT: CULTURE

Vinh - 2007

Vinh university Foreign language department

“Game of love” in Restoration comedy

(trò đùa tình ái trong hài kịch phục hng)

GRADUATION THESIS SUBJECT: CULTURE

advice and detailed critical comments, without which the study would not have beencompleted.

I would also like to offer my indebtness to all my lecturers at the Department ofForegn Languages-Vinh university for their endless enthusiasm and undeniableuseful lectures

In addition, this study also owes its accomplishment to my friends myclassmates

My warmest thanks are due to my family, my relatives for all things they havedone for me

Finally, I am all to aware that despite all the advice and assistance, i feel that theproject is far from perfect; it is, my sole responsibility for any inadequacies andshortcomings and the thesis may be considered to have

Vinh, May, 2007 Tran Thi Dao

Abstract

English Restoration is a glorious period in the English history In this period, theworld had chance to enjoy its flourishing literature by English writers, The worldly life

of the king Charles II, his sexual appetite caused the development of literature,especially comedy Literature is the reflection of reality, so the main themes inRestoration comedy are love and marriage People consider love an interesting game andthey play with it By analyzing three typical comedies of the time including “TheCountry Wife” of William Wycherley; “The Rover” of Aphra Behn; “The Way of theWorld” of William Congreve, the author wants to create the interest in readers inRestoration comedy so that they are eager to study literature Background knowledgeabout Charles II, English literature under his reign, conceptions of love are mentioned inthe study The author also mentions the change in theme in comedy this period.

Three plot summaries of three comedies studied in this thesis will help readersunderstand more about what have been said

Table of contents

Acknowledgements

Abstract

Table of contents

Part A: Introduction 1

1 Rationales for choosing topic 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Methods of the study 3

4 Scope of the study 3

5 Design of the study 3

Part B: Development 5

Chapter 1: Theoretical background 5

1.1 Restoration period 5

1.1.1 Society 5

1.1.2 King Charles II 7

1.2 Literature development in Restoration time 9

1.2.1 Poetry and prose 9

1.2.1.1 Poetry 9

1.2.1.2 Prose 10

1.2.2 Drama 11

1.2.3 Comedy 12

1.3 Summary 14

Chapter 2: Love and transition in the themes in Restoration comedy 15

2.1 Concepts of love 15

2.1.1 Concept of love in the Renaissance time 15

2.1.2 Concept of love in the Restoration time 16

2.1.2.1 Love as a new fashion 16

2.1.2.2 Love as a game 17

2.2 Change in theme 19

2.3 Representation of marriage 20

2.4 Summary 22

Chapter 3: The Theme Game of love in Restoration comedy “Game of love” in Restoration comedy ” in Restoration comedy 23

3.1 Game of love in The Country Wife by William Wycherley“Game of love” in Restoration comedy ” in Restoration comedy “Game of love” in Restoration comedy ” in Restoration comedy 23

3.2 Game of love in The Rover by Aphra Behn“Game of love” in Restoration comedy ” in Restoration comedy “Game of love” in Restoration comedy ” in Restoration comedy 28

3.3 Game of love in The Way of the World“Game of love” in Restoration comedy ” in Restoration comedy “Game of love” in Restoration comedy ” in Restoration comedy 32

3.4 Summary 39

Part C: Conclusion 41

1 Recapitulation 41

2 Suggestions for further study 42

References

PART A INTRODUCTION

1 Rationales of the study

Within four thousand years, humankind has been proud of miraculousachievements on both material and spiritual life which leads to the formation of moderncivilization The past prepares for the future People reserve and feel moved with theirancestors’ spiritual life presented in literature of each nation Mankind struggles tocontrol nature, control society There still remains differences among people thought ofuniversal and human life because it is the nature if man and it helps them exist anddevelop Each has his own way However, people all over the world share theirprofound identity and progressive ideology on gladness, sadness, hope Theythemselves are aware of their duty for a brighter future People have found those basicvalues through literary works of each nation No matter how small a nation is, it has itsown literature value either in phonclo or in literary form Each country also has its owntraditional features among the common literary properties of human beings

Literary is the reflection of reality People learn about history and socialfeatures even they learn about each other through literary works Sometimes, writersuse the real symbol with their real story in the real life to form their works But someother times, their characters, and their plot story may be fictional Whatever ways theirworks are formed by, these literary works all reflect reality of each stage in humanbeings’ history We read Kieu story to learn that at Nguyen Du’s time, women weredespised while money had all powerful value We read “Mrs Dau” to learn thatsocialist feudalism of Vietnam at that time became depraved, and that how miserableVietnamese farmers were We read “Tam Quoc Dien Nghia” to know the China’shistory at that time Literature is a formality of cultural life- an important part inspiritual life of society Literary life is attached to other lives, especially political life.Changes in social life often affect profoundly writers and readers followed by changes

in mind of writers and readers This leads to the fact that each historical move ofsociety usually creates changes in literature development For example, the appearance

of romanticism in French literature in 19th century with famous writers such as

F.Satobrian , A.Lamactin, V.Huygo was the result of 1789 revolution, Also RussianOctober Revolution created critical realism in literature.

English literature is not an exception Restoration time is considered the greatesttime during British history Literature of England at that time developed remarkably,especially comedy of manner which shows main characters’ manner It reflected the factthat people did not live reliably Like their King Charles II, English people in commonregarded love as a game that they could play Therefore, the main theme of literature, incommon of comedy of manner in specific is “Game of love”

As a student of Foreign Language Department, the author has chances to studyEnglish literature including restoration comedy She finds that Restoration comedy orcomedy of manner has interesting theme –“game of love” In order to understand moreabout this theme, about the love of English people and their point of view about life inrestoration time, the author has chosen the topic “game of love” in restoration comedy tostudy She also wants to give clearer look to everyone so that literature, in common andEnglish literature, in specificity, can be an interesting source of humankind that everyonewants to exploit Another reason for the author to choose this topic is that when peoplelove literature , people can easily live together because at least they have a combinationline that is literature “Literature is the window of the soul”

So far, there has not got any study about this topic while it is very interesting topic

in the teaching and learning English The author thus, wants to exploit and point out theinterest of the theme for those who have chance to study English literature

All of them are combined together and encourage the author to choose the topic

“Game of love in restoration comedy” to study There are many other reasons but thoseabove are the main ones The most important is, perhaps, that the author loves literaturevery much She wants to exploit its spiritual and material values to prove the tightness ofthe sentence “literature is anthropology”

2 Aims of the study

For the reasons mentioned above, the study has been done in order to

- present some understandings about the theme "game of love" in Restorationcomedy

- answer for the question “what is the theme game of love?”

- Analyze how the theme is expressed in Restoration comedy

- See how King Charles II has influence on theme in literature at that time

- Help people understand more about British history as well as British literature

- Make clear the change in theme in Restoration comedy through the representation ofmarriage

3 Method of the study

The strategic methods of the study are:

- Using analysis method

- Loading documents from internet to study

- analyzing and describing plays in Restoration period

- studying documents dealing with the theme

- Consulting from my teachers and making use of my teacher’s and my friends’

ideas

4 The scope of the study

This thesis is about the theme "game of love" in Restoration comedy The authorchose only some works in which the theme is clearly presented

They are:

- “The Country wife” by William Wycherley

- “The Rover” by Aphra Behn

- “The Ways of the World” by William Congreve

5 Design of the study

The thesis consists of three main parts:

Part A is the introduction that provides the basic information such as background to

the study, the scope, the aims, methods and the design of the thesis

Part B is the Development consisting of three main chapters.

Chapter 1 provides the background knowledge about Restoration time, events that

affect literature development Some information about the King Charles II would behelpful for the study Literature development is also presented in this chapter Then allkinds of literature at that time are mentioned, especially Comedy

Chapter 2 presents the author's analysis about concepts of love in the Renaissance time

and in Restoration time This helps to see the difference between the concepts of love intwo periods Then, the author presents the change in theme from love as game to loveleading to marriage through the representation of marriage

Chapter 3 shows the analysis the theme “game of love” in three Restoration

comedies

Part C is the Conclusion The whole thesis is concluded

Part B: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1: Theoretical background

1.1 Restoration Period

1.1.1 Society

As mentioned in the "Rationales of the study", literature and society do intersectand often a literature works can be more appreciated when it is considered in itshistorical context The Restoration comedy in particular intersects with Restorationsociety at a number of vital points During the development of British history,Restoration Age was characterized by a sense of loss and cultural disillusion coupled

with efforts to restore social stability and cohesion "The English Restoration, or simply

Restoration, was an episode in the history of England beginning in 1660 when the England Monarchy and Irish monarchy was restored under the King Charles II after the English civil war The term Restoration may apply both to the actual events by which the monarchy was restored, and to the period immediately following the

It is considered the greatest time with glorious achievements both on materialand spiritual life The reason why it is called Restoration Age is that it restored whathad been lost in the previous time The first thing it restored was the monarch Underthe reign of Oliver Cromwell, monarch was abolished Great Britain was a unitedrepublic When Charles became the King, he controlled the country almost by himself.The monarch was restored

In the political life, after many years of difficult relation between the King andParliament, war between them called Civil War happened in the 1640s, Parliament andthe King were against each other In 1644, the Puritans defeated Charles' Cavaliers atMaston Moor In this battle, Oliver Cromwell, the Puritans' leader, won the name ofIronside The next year he gained a decisive victory at Naseby The victory of thePuritans led to the execution of the King Charles I in 1649 After this, Oliver Cromwellbecame the leader of the Commonwealth, the Lord Protector When he died in 1658, hisson was named Lord Protector, but he was less successful than his father Therefore, in

1660 Parliament invited Charles I's son to return from France He was made King asCharles II After becoming the ruler of the country, Charles II regained the political and

social stability by issuing very strict laws Of those ones, the Indemnity and OblivionAct was best known.

"Although Charles granted amnesty to Cromwell's supporters in the Act of Indemnity and Oblivion, however, this made provision for Parliament to exclude people from the Indemnity So, it was down to Parliament to exclude people from the Act( it is worth remembering that the first two Parliaments of Charles II were generally royalist) In the end only 13 people were executed: they were hanged, drawn and quartered; others were given life imprisonment or simply excluded from office for life The bodies of Oliver Cromwell, Henry Ireton and john Bradshaw wre subjected to the indignity of

Then, in the literary-social life, when the Puritans gain victory and OliverCromwell became the ruler, they issued some laws that protects the spiritual life fromdevelopment

The Puritans closed the theatres, suppressed horse racing, cockfighting andbearbaiting and made Sunday strictly a day of worship Cromwell's rule was moredespotic than the King's When the theatres were closed, playwrights would stop theirworks because if they continued their works would become redundant and guilty.Therefore, closing theatres led to postponement in literature Hoverer, after Charlesaccessed to the throne, he reopened the theatres Thanks to that move, all inspirationpaused before now had chance to pour out making Restoration an unusual historicalperiod as its literature is bounded by political, cultural, social events There were otherconsiderable moves in society such as England, under the reign of Charles II involved

in to the war with Netherlands (first in 1652-1654), new ideology from France wasbrought to England through integrating of Restoration French comedies

To sum up, Restoration was a time of both political and social uncertainty andtransformation Moreover, the rise of the middle class and its aspiration of socialmobility also threatened social hierarchy In society and literature of the period, therebegan appearing the bourgeois values of personal acquisitions, private judgment andsubjective self-assessment

“Individual self-expression became an increasingly popular value among educated men and women, and there was a growing awareness of the problems of arranged marriage The Restoration comedies of manner both dealt with many of these new

issues yet ‘the search for novelty the ready resort of the laughers, the conscious of reducing of the significance of traditional codes’ also helped the audience to evade them”(16)

1.1.2 King Charles II

Charles II (May 29th 1630-February 6th, 1685) was the king of England, king

of Scots, and king of Ireland from January 1649 (de jure) or 29 May 1660( de facto)until his death The exact date at which Charles became king is vague due to theuncertain political situation of the time It was said that it was in 1660 that Charlescame to the throne At that time the sense of novelty in all form of literature wastempered by a sense of suddenly participating in European literature in a way thatEngland had not before The first thing he did when he became king was to reopen thetheatres and to establish letters patent and mandated for the theatres owners andmanagers This move encouraged literature to develop The fact is that when theatreswere reopened, they needed plays to show on the stage so that they could have income.Therefore, playwrights had to meet the requirement by writing more and more playsincluding tragedies and comedies

Firstly, Charles was influenced by France’s king and its lifestyle

When Charles I was sentenced to be beheaded, Charles II was exiled to Francewhere his mother was already living in exile

" At that time, France was under the reign of the king Louis XIV who was known as ‘

the sun king’ or as ‘Louis the great’ Of France's greatest kings, Louis XIV worked successfully to create an absolutist and centralized state Louis XIV became the

Charles II lived there and he was greatly affected by Louis' lifestyle andideology He enjoyed plays of various cultural figures such as Moliere, Racine, Boileau,

La fontaine, Lully, Rigaud This contributed to encourage him to reopen the theatre

He established close relationship with Louis XIV King Louis XIV of France wasCharles II's first cousin During Charles reign, Louis was a big supporter about militaryand treasury for Charles with the treaty of Dover, Louis XIV paid Charles 2 thousandpounds each year Learning Louis success, Charles also wanted to be as successful asLouis Therefore, his ways of ruling country was little or much affected by Louis's It is

said that Charles was especially influenced by the French court of Louis XIV andwanted his own court to imitate its elegance and sophistication; thus, the emphasis was

on fashion, art, wit and love

Then in turn, his lifestyle affected English people, themes in Restorationliterature and comedy, in specific

Charles II was well-known as a philanderer He prided himself on his witnessand his worldliness Consequently highly witty, playful and sexual wise poetry hadcourt sanction Charles II himself was considered a rake, a successful and skilledpersuader of women, and he boasted a string of beautiful mistresses throughout hisreign

Charles left no legitimate child He did, however, have a several children by anumber of mistresses (many of whom were wives of nobleman) He publiclyacknowledged fourteen children by seven mistresses

Thus, the King and his mistresses helped to create the style for the time TheKing’s mistresses set the tones in women’s dress which tended to emphasize sexualsuggestiveness and sexuality and the King was symbol of promiscuity and the King wassymbol of promiscuity and his followers emulated him with enthusiasm Moreover, ofthe five great comedy writers Etherege, Wycherley Congreve, Vanbugh and Farquhar,four were distinguished men of fashion and two were knights They had a close relationwith the King and his court As a result, their writing styles were strongly affected bythe King and his court Or at least, the King was the person who paid them (of course,not directly) so they had to flatter the King The king became a model for theircharacter in their plays It was sorry that the King was not intelligent enough torealize that he himself was being mocked He was satisfied with witty, funny, sexualdetails without paying attention to plot overview Therefore, Restoration comedieswaved twice Series of Restoration comedies were written and played on the stage oftheatre

It was in the theatre that the talents of the Restoration comedies wits found theirmost prolific output and became the center of fashionable life, ladies and noblemen,noble class, king and his courtiers or London in common came to the theatre to showtheir richness, their fashion and to meet their debauched, luxurious life style It is clearthat the relationship between the Restoration court and the theatres was an intimate one

Not only were character portrayals and dramatic plotting influenced by theplaywrights’ close relation with the court, but it was, to a larger exten,t the society ofthe court for which the plays were written King Charles II was an enthusiastic patron

of the theatres He saw over four hundred professional performances during his reign.The theater now became a form to pursue sexual intrigue Therefore, restorationaudiences were declined, smaller and more homogenous, mainly the upper class ofLondon And thus, audience composition might also provide an insightful look intosome of the current themes of Restoration comedies: Pursuit of love and pleasure,cynical manipulation of others and condemnation of marriage As said above, theplaywrights just wanted to please their audiences, King and his court

In summary, King Charles II and his court had created a very bigencouragement for Restoration playwrights to build their character portrayals.Especially, rakish heroes image is based on the typical model- King Charles II It isundeniable that the king had contributed a not small part in Restoration literaturedevelopment, Restoration comedies in specific

1.2 Literature development in Restoration Age

1.2.1 Poetry and Prose

1.2.1.1 Poetry

The restoration was an age of poetry Not only was poetry the most popular form

of literature but it was also the most significant form of literature, since poems wereaffected by political events and immediately reflected the times As mentioned abovethe poet literature was recreated, complicated with the payment by a brandy andrequirement for birthday odes

There appeared many great poets John Milton William D’Anenaunt, Dryden,Roschester, Robert Gold They were famous for heroic couplet, mode couplet And alsolyric poetry aired verse and odes were all introduced in public Additionally the agealso developed the mock-heroic couplet

The largest and most important form of incunabular of the area, however, wassatire In general publication of satire was done anonymously There were great dangers

in being associated with a satire On the hand; deformation law was a wide net It wasunavoidable for a satirist prosecution if he was proven to have written a piece that

touched up on any noble On the other hands, wealthy individuals would respond tosatire not by having the suspected poet physically attacked by ruffians Due to itsanonymity most of satires were unknown collected and unpublished as well However,they were very important part of the vigorous restoration scene It made restoration anage of energetic vigorous satire.

1 2.1.2 Prose

After the Civil War, there were two main appositive religions: Catholic andChristianity When Charles became the ruler, those who followed Catholic wereconsidered treason Prose in the period was, thus, dominated by Christian religiouswriting often strayed in to political and economic writing; just as political andeconomic writing implied or directly addressed religion

Charles was not only a patron of the art but also of science Therefore a largenumber of philosophical works were published In addition, the court’s acceptance toNeo-classicism and empirical science led to receptiveness toward significantphilosophical works Philosophers used science to explain their ideas For them, sciencewas protestant: its reason and explanation had to be comprehensible to all There would

be no priest on science and anyone could reproduce the experiments and hear theirlessons of these great philosophers: Thomas Sprat, William Temple, Jond Lockle Eachhas one’s own way to explore his or her topic But all share scientific knowledge,explanations for natural phenomenon, and historical changes Besides, Restorationmoderated most of strident sectarian writing, but radicalism persited After Restoration,Puritan authors were forced to retire from public life or adapt Those authors who hadpreached against Monarchy and who had participated directly in the regicide of Charles

I was partially suppressed During the Restoration period, the most common manner ofgetting news would have been a broadsheet publication A single, large sheet of papersmight have a written, usually partisan, account of uneven However, the period saw thebeginning of the first professional and periodical journalism in England

At that time, long fiction and fictional biography began to appear even though itwas not sure of the exact date One of the most significant figures in the rises of thenovels in the Restoration period was Aphra Behn Her first novel was an epistolary onedominating the amour of a scandalous noble man who was unfaithful to his wife with

her sister The novels were highly romantic, sexually explicit and political They sharedthe same theme of the time “Game of love” It was possible to say that whatever literaryworks was at that time, it was surely related to sex and wit.

Another kind of prose which also began developing at the period was explicitlypolitical writing and hack writing

In short, the restoration had witnessed the appearance and flourishing of manykinds of prose Apart from those writings that related to sciences and facts, all otherwritings were influenced by the common tendency of the time: praised wit, sex andlove

1 2 2 Drama

Drama was public and a matter of royal concern After the return of Charles IIand his sanction to two theatres, the drama recreated itself quickly and abundantly.With the influence of social and political factors, theatre company competition and playhouse's economy, as well as the significance of the appearance of the first professionalactresses, restoration plays had actually changed Especially in the 1660s and 1670s, theLondon scene was vitalized by the competition between the two patent companies Therequirements to raise the challenges of taste and theoretical fashions fluctuated almostweeks by weeks After the other houses made playwrights and managers extremelyresponsive to public, the wave of comedy at the middle of the 1670s reached to the top.From 1682, the productions of new plays dropped sharply, affected both by a mergerbetween the two companies and by the political turmoil of the polished plot and theexclusion crisis If “Restoration literature”, is the one that reflects and refects upon thecourt of Charles II, Restoration drama arguably ends before the Charles' death asplayhouses moved rapidly from the domain of the King and courtiers to that one of thecity middle class Restoration drama shows altogether more fluidity and rapidly thanother types of the literature, its movement should never be viewed as absolute Therewere two main types in Restoration drama: tragedy and comedy

In tragedy, the leading style in the early restoration period was the male–dominated heroic drama which celebrated powerful, aggressively masculine heroes andtheir pursuit of glory both as rulers and conquerors and as lovers This kind of tragedywas called “heroic drama” which centered on the main actions of men of decisive

natures The most typical model was the king Charles and his courtier However, suchthe dashing heroes were also seen by the audiences as occasionally standing in fornobles' rebels who would redress injustice with the sword The tendency then moved tothe concern of love that changed the shift from heroic tragedy to pathetic one Theexclusion crisis brought with it a number of tragic implications in real politics.Playwrights just wanted to please the King which in fact flattered him so they wroteplays praising the King for any action.

a society as cultivated as that in the imaginary courts of Fletchers”

Restoration comedy bounded in the Charles II’s Reign and waved twice: one inthe 1960s and the other in the 1690s It was when the comedies became monopolized

on the stage Parallel with these two sub-periods, Restoration comedy was named asunsentimental or hard comedies and softer comedies for former and later, respectively.Restoration comedy is famous for notorious for its sexual explications, a qualityencouraged by Charles II’s personality and by the rakish aristocratic ethos of his court

" Built around a center group of young men and women, ‘its essential ingredients are wit, or urbanity and sophistication The scene was almost exclusively love, sexual intrigue and cuckoldry’ (Morrah, 109) Also preferred to as the comedy of manner because the chief characters are usually members of high society , the Restoration comedy tends to feature recruiting types” the graceful young makes the faithless wife,

the deceived husband and perhaps, a charming young hero who is to be bestowed in the end on the rake” (Krutch 2) Finally, great emphasizes is placed on witty dialogue and repartee for its own sakes Morrah remarks ‘it was in this emphasis on wit, the instance on elegance in writing, on tidiness of mind, that the ages differed from its predecessor’ Witty repartee is often operative in these plays, used as a device to ridicule and reveal the flaws of others as well as an aid in attaining one’s own goal As Krutch remarks ‘the technique of wit can become that of rationalizing debauchery in

to a philosophical system and producing a great corpus of mock casuistry whose fine points are expounded with a zeal worthy of a theologian’ Wit is also a comic and clever way to woo a member the opposite sex ” (16)

When the King was greatly affected by Moliere‘s comedy, playwrights wereunavoidably influenced It was a way to gain success in writing or at least it was anenjoyment of the King

The best-known playwrights and their works at that time were WilliamWycherly’s "The Country Wife"; Etherage’s "Man of Mode"; Congreve’s "The Way ofthe World"; Aphra Behn’s "The Rover" The 1680s were especially lean years forcomedy, the only excretion being the remarkable career of Aphra Behn, whoseachievement as the first professional British woman dramatist which has been thesubject of much recent study There was a swing away from comedy to serious politicaldrama, reflecting preoccupation and division following on the political crisis It isalways true that literature is the mirror of the reality

Restoration comedy, as its duty, reflected the atmosphere at court, celebrated anaristocratic macho lifestyle of unremitting sexual intrigue and conquest The maintheme of Restoration comedy at the first wave was absolutely “Game of love” Peopleconsidered love as game and played with it

" During the second wave of the Restoration comedy in the 1690s, the softer comedy of William Congreve and John Vanbrugh reflected changing cultural perceptions and great social changes The playwrights of the 1690s set out to appeal to more socially mixed audiences with a strong middle class element , and to female spectator: and at that time as it was called ‘softer comedies’ the main theme moved from game of love to love and marriage The focus in comedy was less on young lovers

out-witting the older generation, more on material relations after the wedding hells "

Chapter 2: love and transition in themes in

restoration comedy

2.1 Concepts of love

2.1.1 Concept of love in the previous time-The Renaissance

Love is the permanent topic for humankind; people talk about love all the timewithout feeling bored The more people talk about it, the more interesting they find.

In the Renaissance, love was also beautiful “To beauty, love as soon as it was

born, drew the mind and led the mind formerly un-beautiful to the same mind made beautiful And sop we may say that the nature of love is this, that it attracts to beauty and links the un-beautiful with the beautiful” (10)

When people are in love, they see every thing through pink eyes They can

change themselves to be loved by their partner “Through love, man achieves

goodness” When we say love, we mean by that term the desire for beauty, for this is

the definition of love among philosophers

Ficino carefully distinguishes between grossly physical love and purely spiritualone:

“If love in relation to man desire human beauty, and the beauty of the human body consists in a certain harmony, if that harmony is a kind of temperance, it follows that love seeks only what is temperate moderate, and decorous Pleasure and sensations which are so impetuous and irrational that they move the mind from its stability and unbalance a man, love does not only desire but hates and shuns, because these sensations, being so intemperate are the opposite of beauty Ugliness and beauty are the opposites It follows that love and desire for physical union are not only not

With natural love, man may be driven to the beauty and the goodness which iscalled the paradise In the Renaissance, playwrights and poets were affected byideology from Medieval Age and Courtly life at the time The ideal of courtly love

belonged to the way of living among the court nobility “Courtly love is about the deep

and emotional love of a gentleman towards a lady This lady is of such a beauty and pureness of heart and mind that she becomes an image of love itself” (11)

William Shakespear’s “Romeo and Juliet” is an evidence for this definition.Romeo and Juliet are two future generations of two chief families in Verona- theCapulets and the Mongtagues These two families are such enemy of each other thateven their followers and servants could not meet without fierce words which sometimescause blood to run However, love between Romeo and Juliet is so great that it clear outthe entire rancor They love each other such a true love that when they can not come to

each other they die together They praise and enjoy spiritual beauty of each other as theway they consider a true love should be.

Love is depicted in Phaedrus as a divine madness in the Symposium as aprocess of ascent from sensual cognition of earthly beauty to the apprehension of theimmoral idea of beauty itself

Love is desire to enjoy beauty, and nourished by the spiritual senses of sightand hearing alone It is temperate, ostensive morally beneficent Love is in all thingsand towards creator of all, and master of all

Ficino’s threefold classifications of love were widely repeated:

(1) Divine love, the expression of a contemplative life, whose goal is divine knowledge

(2) Human love and the active life, which delight in seeing and conversing with the loved person

(3) Bestial love and the voluptuous life which deserts the spiritual senses for the

“concupiscence of touch” (12)

2.1.2 Concept of love in Restoration Time

2.1.2.1 Love as a new fashion

As the beginning of the period, Restoration people considered love as a jokethat created fun when they made couples like:

Young lady was matched with old man This is expressed in “The Country Wife” by

William Wycherley Mr.Pinchwife is an old man who married a very young countrygirl with the hope that she is not capable of cuckolding him But the fact is contrary tohis expectation

Old lady looked for young man Mrs.Woodvile, an old lady in “Man of Mode” of

Etherege, has made arrangement for her to marry Young Bellair, a young gentleman

Servant was coupled with master In “The Way of the World”, Lady Wishfort is trapped

into marriage with a servant of Mirabell-Waitwel

It is their opposite in age, social position that makes their love a joke and cause laughs

2.1.2.2 Love as a game

The lifestyle of the King, his worldly life and his sexual desire affected Englishpeople in Restoration time They did not see love as a celestial emotion that must berespected They considered love a game and they could play with it They could stopwhenever they felt bored.

Firstly, it affected ideology of playwrights of the time such as William Congreve,William Wycherley, Aphra Behn, Richard Brinsley Sheridian , then influenced theirways of writing, their ways of building characters, and finally, it was showed inlanguages of their character’s conversations We can see this idea in the followingsayings

Love is the answer, but while you‘re waiting for the answer sex raise some pretty good

questions

Tình yêu là sự đáp ứng, nhng trong khi bạn đang chờ điều đó, tình dục gợi lên không ít vấn đề (2)

Love ceases to be a pleasure, when it ceases to be secret.

Tình yêu không còn la lạc thú khi nó không còn là bí mật nữa (2)

A mistress should be like a little country retreat near the town: not to dwell in constantly but for a night and a way.

Tình nhân giống một quốc gia nhỏ bé ẩn sát thành phố, không c trú vĩnh viễn chỉ một

đêm rồi đi mất (2)

This saying may explain why the king Charles II had a number of mistresses

In “The Rover”, Aphra Behn used not only the male characters but also femalecharacters to reveal the tendency of the time Helene and Angelica both considered love

as a game They played with their virgin They did not hesitate to agree the sleep withthose rovers

In comparison with love in Renaissance, love in Restoration is underestimated.While love in Renaissance is attached to beauty, goodness, intelligence, in Restorationtime love must be combined with sex

Not only had the man used trick to conquer but the women did also They knewthe sexual desire in men was too great They used beauty trap to attract men.Nevertheless, the reason for attracting men was not for any thing else but for sex What is more, marriage is not based on love It is more an economic, politicalcontract In “The Rover” by Aphra Behn, Florinda is destined to marry two men whomshe does not love: one by her father for his political purpose, the other by her brother

for his unknown purpose In “The Country wife” by William Wycherley, Pinchwifemarries an ignorant country girl not by love but in the hope that she would not know tocuckold him

It is very sorry to say that love is distorted in the Restoration time In familylife, people seem not to believe in their spouse They are afraid of being cheated andthey try to cheat their partner before they are cheated Consider a short conservation in

“The Way of the World” to have a clearer look about this problem

Mr.Fain said to Mrs Marwood about his wife:

“Nay, this is extravagance, come, I ask your pardon No tears I was to blame, I could not love you and be easy in my doubts pray forbear- I believe you; I’m convinced I've done you wrong; and anyway, everyway will make amends; I will hate my wife yet more, damn her, I will part with her, rob her of all her worth, and we will retire somewhere, anywhere, to another world I will marry thee- be pacified…” Scene iii Act II;

Meanwhile in scene iv of the same Act, we hear Mrs Fainall talked about herhusband with Mirabell

"

Mrs.Fain: While I only hated my husband, I could bear to see him; but since I have

despised him, he’s too offensive

Mira: Oh, you should hate with Prudence

Mrs.Fain: Yes, for I have loved with indiscretion.

Mira: You should have just so much disgust for your husband as may be

sufficient to make you relish your lover.… ”.

“….

Mrs Fain: Well I have an option of your success, for I believe my lady will do

anything to get a husband; and when she has this which you have provided for her, I suppose she will submit to anything to get rid of him”

Mira: Yes, I think the good lady would marry anything that resembled a man,

though’ there no more than that abutter could pinch out of napkin

Mrs Fain: Female frailty! We must all come to it, it we live to be old, and feel the

craving of false appetite when the true is decayed…” (13)

We can see here that while the husband tries to speak ill of his wife to hismistress, the wife find the way to revenge her husband

In short, love as a game is love which is not taken seriously, and which does notlead to marriage but which severs for other purposes such as sexual desire, political andeconomical purposes and cuckoldry It is this concept of love that leads to the maintheme in Restoration comedy in the first wave: Game of love

2.2 Change in themes

After the first wave, Restoration comedy is more sentimental The focus oncomedy is less on young lovers outwitting the older generation, more on maritalrelation after the wedding bell

The representation of marriage in these three plays expresses the change intheme of Restoration Comedy The theme moves from completely “game of love” tomarriage As mentioned above, “The Country Wife” is the most typical works for thefirst peak of Restoration comedy in which the main theme is “game of love” The playwas performed firstly on stage in 1675 And the focus of the play is more on rakishheroes rather than on marriage In the play, Horner uses love to satisfy his sexual desirebut he does not intend to marry any women in his game Then in 1677, “The Rover” byAphra Behn appeared This play also concentrated on game of love However, thetheme “game of love” is shown both on rakish heroes, heroines and marriages.However, in marriage, the considerations are more about economics, politics and otherspurposes rather than about love Although Hellena and Willmore are sex-maniac andthey regard marriage as a means to conquer each other, at least they have organized amarriage by the end In 1700, performance of “The Way of the World” appeared on thestage In the play, the focus changed into contractual marriage but it was less by

marital agreements “In Congreve’s plays, the give-and-take set pieces of couples still

testing their attraction for each other have mutated into witty prenuptial debates on the eve of marriage, as in famous ‘Proviso’ scene in ‘The Way of the World’ ” (16) No

matter what purpose on their marriage they want, we see that all rakish heroes and