English Literature / Unit 10 ENL 0910 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Restoration Comedy of Manners
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The idea
The comedy of manners uses wit and clever dialogue to satirize the social codes of a fashionable society. Restoration comedy built it on stock types, the rake and the fop, and on actresses. In sixteen ninety-eight Jeremy Collier attacked it as immoral and profane.
In practice
Wit, the rake, the fop, the drawing room.
Where people slip
Manners here means social codes, not politeness.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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