Book description
After the restoration of King Charles II to the British throne in 1660,
dramatists experienced new freedom in an age that broke from the strict
morality of puritan rule and in which elegance and wit became the chief
virtues. Irreverent, licentious and cynical, the three plays collected
here hold up a mirror to this dazzling era and satirize the gulf between
appearances and reality. In Etherege's The Man of Mode (1676), the
womanizing Dorimant meets his match when he falls in love with the
unpretentious Harriet, while Wycherley's The Country Wife (c. 1675)
depicts the rakish Horner who fakes impotence to fool trusting husbands
into giving him easy access to their wives. And in Congreve's Love for
Love (1695), the extravagant Valentine can only win his beloved Angelica
if he loses his inheritance.
George Etherege (1636-1689) invented the comedy of intrigue, and led
the way for the masterpieces of Congreve and Sheridan.
William Wycherley (1640?-1716) is famous for his brilliant wit and
savagely clever satire which give him a prominent place in the history
of English Restoration drama.
William Congreve (1670-1729) was apprenticed under the tutelage of
John Dryden. Congreve's wit and his characters' sexual freedom and
experimentation were at odds with the thinking of certain moralists of
the day. However, he has since been considered one of the most
intellectually accomplished of English playwrights.
Gamini Salgado was born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and came to
England in 1947 to attend the University of Nottingham. He became an
expert on Elizabethan and Jacobean literature, and was appointed to
the Chair of English at Exeter University in 1977. He died in 1985.
