Restoration literature

Prose, poetry, and drama written in English in Britain during the Restoration (the period when the monarchy, in the person of Charles II, was re-established after the English Civil War and the fall of the Protectorate in 1660). See also English literature.

The restoration of Charles II to the throne liberated creative writing from the restrictions of the Protectorate. The best known genre of the period was the bawdy and lively Restoration comedy, the work of English dramatists such as William Wycherley who wrote The Country Wife (1675). However, there was a sharply contrasting religious output from writers such as the English poet John Milton (‘Paradise Lost’, 1667, ‘Paradise Regained’, 1671, ‘Sampson Agonistes’, 1671) and the imprisoned English writer of religious allegory and spiritual autobiography, John Bunyan (Pilgrim's Progress, 1678–1684). There is some debate as to how far this period overlaps with the Augustan. Here, the watershed is taken as the accession of William III in 1689 after the revolution of the previous year.

Prose As well as religious prose, secular prose was a popular genre of the period. Izaac Walton had written The Compleat Angler in 1653, but its popularity (and his biographies of English poets John Donne and George Herbert) belong to this period. Samuel Pepys, famous for his achievements in ‘verisimilitude’ (a realistic literary portrayal of life), provides a chronicle of daily life in his Diary (1660–9).

Poetry Milton is arguably the most successful poet of the period, whose output was largely religious. In secular poetry, English poet and dramatist John Dryden (Poet Laureate from 1668) made extensive use of satire, as in ‘Absalom and Achitophel’ (1681), as did English poet Samuel Butler (‘Hudibras’, 1663–78).

Drama In addition to the popular Restoration Comedies, tragic English dramatists include Thomas Otway (Venice Preserv'd, 1682) and the far more extravagant Nathaniel Lee.