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18 th Century Drama . Rehab Alshomar Salwa AlDharrab Shaden AlKhalaf. Eighteenth Century Drama. Most of the dramatists follow the neoclassical rules early in the 18 th century. Restoration comedy lost favor. Sentimental comedy and domestic tragedy became popular.
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18th Century Drama Rehab Alshomar SalwaAlDharrab ShadenAlKhalaf
Eighteenth Century Drama • Most of the dramatists follow the neoclassical rules early in the 18th century. • Restoration comedy lost favor. • Sentimental comedy and domestic tragedy became popular. • Also, people were interested in Italian opera. • Fair-booth burlesque* and musical entertainment grew. • Eighteenth Century dramatic forms departed from traditional tragedy and comedy. *Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the of serious works
Dramatic Forms of the 18th Century • Sentimental Comedy: appeared as an ethical middle class reaction against the immoral and profane of the Restoration comedy (Comedy of Manner). • It relates feeling such as pity or love for things in the past. • It achieved popularity among the middleclass audience. • It is represented by characters that aren’t wit and satirical, and they and usually helpless. E.g. Helpless widow with many children. • Jeremy Collierwrote A short view of the immorality and profaneness of the English stage explaining Sentimental Drama.
Dramatic Forms of the 18th Century • Anti- sentimental drama: After a while people got sick of sentimental drama, so comedy of manners was revived through the second half of the 18th century. • Goldsmith (1728-74) and Sheridan (1751 -1816) were supporters of this kind. • Goldsmith wrote Comparison between Sentimental and Laughing Comedy in which he compared the sentimental comedy with the laughing comedy.
Dramatic Forms of the 18th Century • Domestic Tragedy:is a tragedy in which the tragic protagonists are ordinary middle-class or lower-class individuals. • It contrasts with the classical and the neo-classical tragedy. • It disappeared during the Restoration drama and restored by George Lillo in the 18th century. • A famous example is A Woman Killed with Kindnessby Thomas Heywood.
Famous Playwrights • George Lillo: His Dramatic work consist of tragedies of domestic life, composed of verse and prose. One of his famous works was The Fatal Curiosity. • Joseph Addison: Published Account of the Greatest English Poets. The dramatic essay sums up the rationalistic tendency of the criticism in the early 18th century. • Sir John Vanbrugh: His famous works are The Relapse, The Provoked Wife and The Provoked Husband (finished by: Colley Cibber)
