Professional Dramatists — Shadwell and Crowne

Abstract

Shadwell was McFlecknoe in more ways than one. The heir, in Dryden’s poem, to ‘all the realms of Nonsense’¹ succeeded Richard Flecknoe not only as the protégé of William Cavendish Duke of Newcastle, but also, more relevantly perhaps to Dryden’s scorn, as the second professional writer to work regularly for the Restoration stage. The distinction between professional and amateur is important to the four writers whose work I discuss in the next three chapters. Flecknoe, the author of Love’s Kingdom (1664) and Demoiselles à la Mode (1668) — the first play, incidentally, to use the ‘à la mode’ tag in its title — is every bit as undistinguished as Dryden claims, and his short career seems of little interest. Shadwell, Behn, Crowne and Otway on the other hand, provide an impressive roster of still underrated plays. More complex and ragged than the products of the Wits, their occasionally botched or compromised form is compensated for by an energy and ferocity all their own. A Restoration revival on the contemporary stage could well start here.