RESTORATION LITERATURE

English literature written after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 following the period of the Commonwealth. Some literary historians speak of the period as bounded by the reign of Charles II (166085), while others prefer to include within its scope the writings produced during the reign of James II (168588). The period led into England's classical Augustan Age under Queen Anne (170214). Many typical literary forms of the modern worldincluding the novel, biography, history, travel writing, and journalismgained confidence during the Restoration period, when new scientific discoveries and philosophical concepts as well as new social and economic conditions came into play. There was a great outpouring of pamphlet literature, too, much of it politico-religious, while John Bunyan's great allegory, Pilgrim's Progress, also belongs to this period. Much of the best poetry, notably that of John Dryden (the great literary figure of his time, in both poetry and prose), the earl of Rochester, Samuel Butler, and John Oldham, was satirical and led directly to the later achievements of Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, and John Gay in the Augustan Age. The Restoration period was, above all, a great age of drama. Heroic plays, influenced by principles of French Neoclassicism, enjoyed a vogue, but the age is chiefly remembered for its glittering, critical comedies of manners by such playwrights as George Etherege, William Wycherley, Sir John Vanbrugh, and William Congreve.