Saturday 24 November 2012

RESTORATION ENGLAND



By the term restoration England, we mean England of the period between 1660 and 1688. All the institution and practices which were suppressed during the puritan regime were restored after Charles 2 was brought back to England as its king. Political monarchy, parliament and law were all brought back to their former status. In religion episcopacy or rule of the bishops, and prayer book were reinstated. As far as social life was concerned the nobles and the gentry once again became the acknowledged leaders of provincial and national life.
              During the restoration period Anglicanism became the acknowledged religion of upper class people. In general the parish church was patronized by the local squire. Of course there were cases of cold war between the parson and the squire. Addison, in one of his spectator essays “sir roger at church”, refers to this, “the parson and the squire live in a perpetual state of war. The parson is always preaching at the squire and the squire to be revenged on the parson, the Quakers suffered religious persecution under the “Clarendon code”. The Roman Catholics were shut out from all participation in local and national government.
              An event of great political magnitude that took place during the restoration period was the formation of political parties. The upper class was divided politically into Whigs and Tories. The Tories like the cavaliers before them were the section of society that formed rural England. They were always supporters of the king. The Whigs like their roundhead fathers were the landowning class in close association with commercial interests. They always stood for the rights of the parliament.
              Experimental science was spreading fast in England. For the first time in the history of mankind it was discovered that science could be used for the development of agriculture, industry, navigation, medicine and engineering. The royal society of science was founded in 1662 under the patronage of king Charles and of his cousin prince Rupert, himself a scientist. It was not yet time for conflict between science and religion. The great scientists of the time, Robert Boyle the chemist, the Isaac Newton the physicist, were religious men who repudiated the skeptical doctrines of the time. The importance of science was so much acknowledged that the first history of the royal society was written by no less a person than Rev. Sprat, who afterwards became bishop of Rochester. With the spread of scientific inquiry most of the superstitions lost grip on the people. They began to realize that plagues and fires and floods were not necessarily the divine punishment for sin. Belief in witches and witchcraft became less widespread even through it continued to have some hold on the rustics. However, it has to be admitted that the new scientific spirit to some extent at least undermined the character of religious faith.
              The theatres which remained closed during the puritan regime once again started functioning; but of course with certain changes. The whole playhouse was roofed in and the stage was artificially lighted with candles. There were drop curtains and painted scenery. More than that the women’s parts were no longer taken by well - trained boys . Instead women’s parts were acted by women actresses as much as the play. Not all actresses were talented enough. Nell Gwynne’s personal vigor and charm counted more perhaps than her professional skill. The drama was localized in London, and even there it appealed not to the ordinary citizens but to the court and fashionable people of the town. Unfortunately enough it was for their vulgarity tastes and interests that the drama of the early restoration period catered. The restoration plays noted for their vulgarity created a hostile attitude to the drama in the minds of decent people, with the result that till the late nineteenth century well-brought-up young people were not allowed to visit the theatre. One of the most popular dramas of the early restoration period was Wycherley’s country wife, one of the most Vulgur plays ever produced in English. However, things changed for the better in the next few years.
                 In the restoration period censorship was rigid and yet the total output of literature was considerable. The first licensing act was passed in 1663 by the cavalier parliament, chiefly with the aim of preventing the publication of seditious and puritan writings. Otherwise permission was given easily enough for publishing the great epics, paradise lost and paradise regained. In spite of the rigid censorship, private libraries were becoming more and more common, of course, varying in size and quality. Private libraries of renowned persons like Samuel Pepys contained many valuable volumes. Similarly the library owned by the cotton family had many remarkable books. In many of the yeomen families there was at least a bookshelf consisting of modest collection. In 1684, for the first time, a public library was established in London by tension, the benevolent clergymen who later became the archbishop of Canterbury. This exemplary man of god also built a large building on the courtyard of    St. Martin’s church and used the upper part for a library and the ground floor for a workroom for the poor. However, in 1696, eight years after the glorious revolution, to the relief of all freedom- loving Englishmen, the licensing act ceased to operate.
                 With the restoration of the monarchy the fortunes of the cavalier families with landed property changed for the better. Nevertheless, to the small  squire  who  lived  on  the  proceeds  becoming  unfavorable . The two largest sections of the society were those who cultivated their small bits of land and the wage-earners. The agricultural as well as industrial workers did not have any means of subsistence except their wages. In general the wages were regulated by the justices of the peace. On the whole, both in trade and industry trade unions were not common.
                It should be said to the credit of the English that they have always maintained a high standard of living. It has become one of their national characteristics. The people of the restoration period were no exception. The staple diet of the time was bread, beer and meat. Vegetables and fruit formed a small and meat a large part in English meal of that period. Almost half the population ate meat daily; the other half had to be satisfied with eating meat twice a week.
                Sports and pastimes had become rare during the puritan rule. They were even prohibited especially on Sundays, fearing that sports and games would spoil the solemnity of the Sabbath. However, they were revived during the restoration period. Shooting partridges was almost the privilege of the squires alone. The netting of birds on the ground was a fashionable sport of the time. Fox hunting was becoming more and more popular. More exiting and popular than the hunting of deer or fox was the pursuit of the hare with a pack of hounds, the gentlemen on horseback and the common folk running, headed by the huntsman with his pole. Other popular sports were wrestling, boxing and sword fighting, or bull and bear baiting, and various rough kinds of football. But cockfighting was the most popular of all pastimes, watched by huge excited crowds. Horse-racing was become more prominent owing to the royal patronage.
                The wealth of the country was not at all evenly distributed. Certain parts of the country were very rich. In general the central countries were richer than the rest of the country. Of the various countries, the richest was Middlesex. The seven countries of the north were poor and the poorest was Cumberland. The poverty of the northern countries was strange because they had the biggest coal mines and textile mills.
               Two great national calamities of the restoration period were the plague and the great fire. The plague of 1665 carried away nearly one-fifth of the London population. The great fire of 1666 raged for five long days, destroying all the churches and other buildings of the city. The great fire was in a sense a blessing in disguise because the reconstruction of the city on modern lines was possible after this calamity. The reconstruction of London was accomplished in a comparatively short period of four or five years.          
                            

                                                                          
               
   

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