Table Of Contentdorothea flothow
‘Those Gay Days
of Wickedness
and Wit’
The Restoration Period
in Popular Historiographies
flothow
‘Those Gay Days of Wickedness and Wit’ flothow (18th–21st Centuries)
he popular re-imaginings of past historical periods –
in particular of ‘successful’ periods like the Victo-
rian or the Tudor Ages – in modern media are currently
o‘T
a flourishing field of study. By comparison, the Restora- f h
tion period (1660–1688/9) is under-researched in stud- Wo
s
i
ies of popular historiography. This era has a dubious ce
k
reputation characterized by uninhibited libertines, the eG
da
twin catastrophes fire and plague, and a growing abso- ny
lutism overcome in the ‘Glorious Revolution’. Yet in the e D
s
last three centuries, the Restoration period has featured sa
y
in numerous historical novels, historical romances, in as
n
history plays and historical comedies. The present study d
examines changing images of this period in popular W
historiographical genres since the early eighteenth cen- i
t
’
tury and analyses them in the context of the political,
cultural, and historiographical discourses of their time.
Additionally, it traces the historiographical changes in
these genres, offering insights into their developments
and functions in the field of historiography.
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dorothea flothow
‘T hose Gay Days
of Wickedness
and Wit’
The Restoration Period
in Popular Historiographies
(18th–21st Centuries)
Universitätsverlag
winter
Heidelberg
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der Stiftungs- und Förderungsgesellschaft der Paris-Lodron-Universität, Salzburg
und des Magistrats der Stadt Salzburg.
umschlagbild
John Leech, Illustration von Gilbert Abbott À Beckett. [1893].
The Comic History of England (London: Routledge), p. 538.
titel
“Those Gay Days of Wickedness and Wit” – Zeile aus dem “Prologue”
zu Richard Brinsley Sheridan. (1781). The Critic; or, A Tragedy Rehearsed.
A Dramatic Piece of Three Acts as It Is Performed at the Theatre-Royal,
in Drury-Lane (Dublin: Printed for Messrs. Sheppard et al.).
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Table of Contents
Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1
1 Popular Historiography .................................................................................... 31
1.1 Popular History – Defining the Field ............................................................ 31
1.2 Popular Historiography and History after the Linguistic Turn ..................... 38
1.3 Academic Historiography as 'Privileged Insight into the Past' ..................... 45
1.4 Popular Historiographies and Memory Studies ............................................ 54
1.5 Résumé .......................................................................................................... 58
2 Popular Genres and the Presentation of the Past .............................................. 59
2.1 Genres as 'Ways of History-Making' ............................................................ 60
2.2 Defining Historical Drama ............................................................................ 63
2.2.1 Previous Attempts at Defining Historical Drama ...................................... 64
2.2.2 Historical Drama as Popular Historiography ............................................. 73
2.3 The Historical Novel ..................................................................................... 84
2.3.1 Definitions of the Historical Novel – Trends and Issues ........................... 85
2.3.2 Writing History in the Novel ...................................................................... 90
2.4 Historical Crime Fiction and the Historical Romance ................................ 100
2.4.1 Historical Crime Fiction ........................................................................... 102
2.4.2 The Historical Romance ........................................................................... 109
2.5 Résumé ........................................................................................................ 117
3 Writing the Restoration Period – The 17th and 18th Centuries ..................... 119
3.1 Writing the Restoration Period – Preliminary Remarks ............................. 121
3.2 The Political Agenda of Post-Restoration Writers ...................................... 129
3.3 Secret Histories and the Restoration ........................................................... 133
3.4 Of Whores, Highwaymen and Courtiers ..................................................... 140
3.5 Résumé ........................................................................................................ 157
4 The Restoration Period in Nineteenth-Century Re-Writings ......................... 159
4.1 The Restoration Period and the Nineteenth Century .................................. 160
4.2 The Restoration World on the Nineteenth-Century Stage .......................... 166
vi 'THOSE GAY DAYS OF WICKEDNESS AND WIT'
4.2.1 The Theatrical Context of the Nineteenth Century .................................. 166
4.2.2 The Restoration Period in 'Serious' Dramatic Forms ............................... 176
4.2.3 The Restoration Period in 'Comic Forms' ................................................ 185
4.2.4 Résumé – The Restoration on the Nineteenth-Century Stage ................. 198
4.3 The Restoration Period in Narrative Fiction ............................................... 199
4.3.1 The Historical Novel and the Writing of History .................................... 199
4.3.2 The Restoration in Nineteenth-Century Historical Fiction ...................... 205
4.3.3 Assessing the Period: Moral Indignation and Secret Longing ................. 210
4.3.4 In Good King Charles's Golden Days – Assessing Restoration Figures . 220
4.3.5 Restoration Politics and Religious Controversies .................................... 232
4.3.6 The Restoration and the Historical Romance .......................................... 237
4.3.7 Résumé – Historical Fiction and the Restoration Past ............................. 242
4.4 Summary – The Restoration in the Nineteenth Century ............................. 242
5 The Restoration Period – The Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries .......... 245
5.1 Popular History, the Historical Profession and the Restoration Past .......... 248
5.2 Historical Drama and the Restoration Period ............................................. 255
5.2.1 Developments in Historical Drama .......................................................... 255
5.2.2 Romantic Comedies and the Restoration ................................................. 261
5.2.3 Late-Twentieth-Century Reactions – Exploring Restoration Politics ..... 272
5.2.4 Exploring Restoration Libertinism and Twentieth-Century Morality ..... 274
5.2.5 The Restoration Theatre and the Actress – Exploring Gender ................ 279
5.2.6 Staging Charles II and Nell Gwynne – Recent Trends ............................ 286
5.2.7 Résumé – The Restoration Period in History Plays ................................. 293
5.3 The Restoration Period and Historical Fiction, 1900 to Today .................. 293
5.3.1 Twentieth-Century Historical Fiction and the Writing of the Past .......... 294
5.3.2 Romance Fiction in the Early Twentieth Century ................................... 299
5.3.3 A Women's Period – The Restoration in Women's Fiction ..................... 306
5.3.4 The King and the Actress – Changing Images of Nell and Charles ........ 317
5.3.5 Restoring the Restoration – The 'Literary' Historical Novel .................... 325
5.3.6 Crime Fiction and the Restoration Period ................................................ 331
5.3.7 Résumé – Fiction and the Restoration (1900 to Today) .......................... 339
5.4 Popular History and the Restoration (1900 to Today) ................................ 339
TABLE OF CONTENTS vii
6 C onclusion – The Restoration Period in Popular Historiography ................. 341
7 Bibliography ................................................................................................... 351
7.1 Primary Literature Featuring the Restoration ............................................. 351
7.1.1 Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century Texts ............................................. 351
7.1.2 Nineteenth-Century Plays ........................................................................ 353
7.1.3 Nineteenth-Century Novels ...................................................................... 355
7.1.4 Twentieth and Twenty-First-Century Plays ............................................. 358
7.1.5 Twentieth and Twenty-First-Century Novels .......................................... 359
7.1.6 Popular Histories, Films and Biographies on the Restoration ................. 361
7.2 Further Primary Works Cited ...................................................................... 363
7.3 Secondary Literature ................................................................................... 365
7.4 Collections and Databases Used ................................................................. 423
Introduction
In her popular television programme Harlots, Housewives and Heroines: A
Seventeenth-Century History for Girls (BBC 4, 2012), Lucy Worsley, Chief
Curator at Historic Royal Palaces, presents the Restoration period, i.e. the reigns
of Charles II (1660-1685) and James II & VII (1685-1688/9),1 as the time that saw
the beginning of modernity. In this period, Worsley argues, women could for the
first time rise in society through their own merits, as writers, mistresses, actresses,
or spies. These new opportunities were partly due to the enlightened attitudes of
Charles II, who "deserves some feminist credit", for he "loved women" and "also
respected them." Thus, "[f]or the first time, we find his female favourites becom-
ing companions and advisors as well as playmates." (Worsley 2012: n.pag.) To
inform her audience about this exciting historical period, to entertain them, and to
bring the past closer, Worsley uses techniques similar to those she had already
employed in other documentaries (and that have become her trademark)2: she
dresses up as a sexy royal concubine and as a devout, modest Puritan; she poses
on a seventeenth-century stage and dresses in servants' clothes, doing the house-
work in an old manor house.
Harlots, Housewives and Heroines represents two different trends that have
emerged in the last decades: firstly, it is one of several examples of a popular
rendering of a mostly marginalised period, i.e. the Restoration. This era is cur-
rently being rewritten once more, primarily in popular formats, as a curiously
modern period that through its interest in sex, self-assertive women, fluent gender
roles and self-discovery foreshadows our present age.3 Similarly, the exhibition
The Wild, the Beautiful and the Damned (2012, Hampton Court) explored "the
meaning of beauty, and the stories of love, lust, and power that engulfed the late
Stuart court". The late seventeenth century is advertised as attempting "to rewrite
the moral code of social behaviour".4 These images of the Restoration period have
also been at the forefront of the costume film Restoration (1995), which follows
a young medical student's career and his fall to temptations at the Stuart court,5 or
the BBC mini-series Charles II: The Power and the Passion (2003), which mixes
1 The term 'Restoration' refers to the re-establishment of the monarchy in 1660 after the
'Interregnum' (1649-1660) in which England (like Scotland and Ireland) was a republic.
Politically, the Restoration period ended with the 'Glorious Revolution' in 1688/9, which
led to the rule of William of Orange (as William III), with his wife Mary II. For more details
on the period and alternative periodisation see ch 3.1.
2 See a review of Worsley's programme by Zoe Williams (2012).
3 Lucy Worsley, similarly, draws a parallel especially between the 1960s and the 1660s. As
Marshall (2011) points out, this is a common comparison today.
4 See their webpage: <http://www.hrp.org.uk/TheWildBeautifulandtheDamned/visitingthe
wildbeautifulandthedamned>(12/11/13).
5 The film itself is an adaptation of Rose Tremain's award-winning novel Restoration (1989).
See ch 5.3.5 for a detailed analysis.
