The Comedy of Manners is a theatrical genre that was uber-popular during the Restoration period. These comedies were bawdy and dirty, with lots of hilarious (and scandalous) dialogue focusing on se...

The Restoration writers couldn't get enough satire. What's the deal with satire? Satire is when we joke or exaggerate in order to point up someone else's flaws. Think John Oliver's Last Week Tonigh...

A heroic couplet is two lines of verse (in ten syllables each), which rhyme. It does not, however, contrary to popular belief, rescue puppies from burning buildings, help old ladies across streets,...

The Restoration writers weren't interested in silly things like nature (ew, dirt), or grand philosophical questions (ugh, boring). They were interested in all the drama that went on in the society...

The "Restoration" in Restoration literature comes from a political event (the restoration of monarchy in Britain in 1660) so it's no huge surprise that politics, and political themes, are kind of a...

The Restoration period has given us some of the most important religious literature in the English language. John Milton's Paradise Lost—which tells the epic tale of the banishment of man from th...

Once upon a time there was a king called Charles I. He was king of England. Then this guy called Oliver Cromwell came along and, along with his buddies, beheaded the king, and established the "Comm...

When the Republicans, under Oliver Cromwell, held sway in England, Puritanism ruled the land. White collars and black clothes for everyone! Cromwell himself was a Puritan. Puritans, we might rememb...

The Puritans (like Oliver Cromwell) who fought to abolish monarchy in England didn't like the theaters. They saw them as cesspits that bred all kinds of immoral behavior. Like popcorn, maybe? So th...

Charles II spent many years in exile in France before he was restored to the English throne. During this period came under the influence of French culture. He not only dressed and styled himself ac...