Restoration

In 1660 the English Parliament that had ordered the execution of Charles I invited his son Charles II to return from exile and reclaim the throne. With the restoration of the monarchy, many old entertainments were restored. The theaters were reopened, public festivals were celebrated, and new fashions in clothes, food, and ideas flooded in from the European continent. Intellectual life began to flourish once more and set the stage for the burgeoning Enlightenment that took hold in England during the following century. Charles was a far cry from both his father and Oliver Cromwell. Known as the merry monarch, the good natured Charles enjoyed pleasures of all kinds, from courtly entertainments to his royal mistresses. Trying to break the cycle of retribution which had plagued England for so long, Charles forgave many of his father’s old enemies. His mercy did not extend, however, to most of the judges at his father’s trial and signers of the order of execution. Cromwell’s body, which had been buried in the Tower of London, was dug up, beheaded, and reburied in a common pit.

Public Pleasures

Charles II’s taste for pleasure was shared by many people, whose lives had been dreary under Puritan rule. Holidays such as Christmas were celebrated once more, horse races—and betting—started up again, and music and evening masquerade parties filled public pleasure gardens such as Vauxhall. Charles also reopened the theaters. Audiences had an insatiable appetite for comedies about the fashionable manners of the age. Bawdy, witty, and amoral, these Restoration dramas by such playwrights as William Congreve, William Wycherley, and George Farquhar reflect a cynical frivolity in matters of love and money. The plays seemed all the more scandalous because the new theaters allowed women to appear on the stage for the first time. One of the most popular playwrights of the day was Aphra Behn, the first woman in England to make her living as a professional writer. Behn was often accused of lewdness (bujaság), but there is no doubt that her vivacious comedies reflected the pleasure-loving attitude and carpe diem spirit of the Restoration.