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History of English Literature

Notes seventeenth-century French comedies and to the “humours” comedy of Ben Johnson; indeed,
certain characteristics can be found as far back in time as ancient Greek plays.
Critics agree that the masters of the comedy of manners were George Etherege (1635-1692), William
Wycherley (1640-1716), John Vanbrugh (1664-1726), William Congreve (1670-1729), and George
Farquhar (1678-1707). Etherege’s The Comical Revenge; or, Love in a Tub (1664) and She Would If
She Could (1668) are often seen as inaugurating the genre of the comedy of manners, and his
characters, including Sir Frederick Frollick and Sir Fopling Flutter, were favorites with audiences
and became standard character types.
Wycherley’s comedies are pointed and relatively harsh. The Country Wife (1674) deals with the
jealousy experienced by an old man, Bud Pinchwife, married to a young woman, Margery.
Margery’s affair with another man, and her concealment of it, is accepted as proper and
understandable in light of Bud’s abusiveness. (He threatens repeatedly to stab his wife.)

Did you know Wycherley’s masterpiece, The Plain Dealer (1676), is based on Moliere’s Le
Misanthrope and follows the relationship problems of a sea-captain, Manly.
Congreve is considered by many critics to have been the greatest wit of the dramatists writing in
this vein; William Hazlitt declared Congreve’s dialogue brilliant and his style perfect. The Old
Bachelour (1693) was a great popular success, as was Love for Love (1695). His last comedy, The
Way of the World (1700), is now considered his masterpiece but was not successful upon its
premier. Although marriage is at its center, the preoccupation is with contracts and negotiation of
terms, not passionate love.
Vanbrugh’s The Relapse: Or Virtue in Danger (1696) has two plots, only slightly connected, and
includes seduction, infidelity, impersonation, and the attempt to gain another’s fortune. Vanbrugh’s
masterwork, The Provoked Wife (1697), became notorious because it was given special attention
by critic Jeremy Collier in his case against the immorality of the stage. In keeping with the plays
of the time, the names of the characters often reflect their type: Heartfree, Sir John Brute, Constant,
Lady Fanciful, and Colonel Bully.
Farquhar’s comedies were written at the end of the period and serve as a transition to later
comedies, noticeable in their greater sensitivity to characters as individuals rather than types. The
Recruiting Officer (1706) makes fun of some of the foibles of military heroes, while The Beaux’
Stratagem (1707) includes a remarkably modern-style divorce, due to the couple failing to make
each other happy.
While they wrote in the latter portion of the eighteenth century, after the Restoration period, and
after sentimental comedy had become the dominant comedic form, Richard Brinsley Sheridan and
Oliver Goldsmith composed plays that revived and renewed the comedy of manners genre.
Sheridan’s The School for Scandal (1777) and Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer (1773), in particular,
received popular and critical acclaim when first produced, and have been continuously staged to
the present day.
Because the comedy of manners so readily presents a view into the attitudes of society of the past,
scholars find its study rewarding. Newell W. Sawyer has traced the development of the genre and
relates it to the changes occurring in society at large. John Palmer has focused on the changes in
comedy wrought by Collier, whose criticism of what he deemed moral lapses in certain plays
affected what playwrights produced thereafter. Attitudes toward youth and old age have been
examined by Elisabeth Mignon, who noted the comedy of manners’ reflection of society’s
preoccupation with aging. Margaret Lamb McDonald and Pat Gill have analyzed the comedy of
manners for what it reveals about attitudes toward women, particularly in regards to their
intelligence, independence, and sexuality. Not all critics have devoted their time solely to its
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