1. The Invention of Sentimental Comedy?
Colley Cibber, Love’s Last Shift
Sir John Vanbrugh, The Relapse

2. Definitions
Definition of sentimental comedy (Merriam Webster)
: comedy that addresses itself to the spectator’s love of goodness rather than to his sense of humor and emphasizes the moral aspects of its situations and the virtues of its characters
A new genre of ‘sentimental’ comedy ‘in which the excesses of the post-Restoration tradition were excised and a morally correct happy ending provided.’ (John Bull in A Companion to Restoration Drama)

3. Invention of Literary Criticism
John Dryden, An Essay of Dramatick Poesie (1668)
Buckingham, The Rehearsal (1672) – a critical essay in dramatic form.
Distinction between didactic and burlesque criticism:
didactic tells us how things should be;
burlesque criticises by means of ridiculing the details of the thing in question

4. Critics to know (in chronological order)
John Dryden
Thomas Rymer
John Dennis
Charles Gildon
Further reading: Paul D. Cannan, ‘Restoration Dramatic Theory and Criticism’ in Susan J. Owen, A Companion to Restoration Drama, (Blackwells, 2013):

5. The Glorious Revolution (1688)
Within 30 years of Charles II's restoration to the throne in 1660, England was once again on the verge of civil war. In 1688 the country was invaded by a foreign army and its King (James II) fled, as the Crown was offered by Parliament to his own nephew and son-in-law (the Dutch stadtholder William III, Prince of Orange).
Yet these events are usually called the Glorious Revolution. What is 'glorious' about them and why are they often considered a turning point in the development of parliamentary democracy and civil liberties? Follow the link above to find out why this is so important!

6. James II
Follow the link to read the sections in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography called ‘Oxford, the Seven Bishops and the birth of an heir’ and ‘Revolution’ in James’ biography.
For more detail see Mark Kishlansky, A Monarchy Transformed (Penguin, 1997),
Ch. 11: ‘A Protestant Succession, ’

7. William and Mary, from 1688 Pro-Whig mercantile class
series of proclamations against immorality
City seen as anti-aristocratic, therefore against the theatres
Nahum Tate’s Proposal for Regulating the Stage and Stage Players (1699/1700)
Early 1690s attacks on the theatre which demand adherence to censorship laws

8. Jeremy Collier ( )
A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage (1698)
Objects to:
Gratuitous obscenities
Abuse of the clergy
Immoral characterisation
Attacks the moral depravity of modern comedy and argues that the business of plays is to recommend virtue and discountenance vice.

9. Jeremy Collier ( )
A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage (1698)
Both different and effective because it used direct theatrical criticism rather than the out-dated religious polemic of earlier anti-theatrical criticism such as that of Philip Stubbes (1583) or William Prynne (1632/3).

10. Responses
Vanburgh, A Short Vindication of The Relapse and The Provoked Wife (1698) Congreve, Amendments to Mr Collier’s False and Imperfect Citations (1698) John Dennis, The Usefulness of the Stage (1698)

11. Recommended Reading
If you were unable to make the lecture for any reason, you should be able to catch up by reading the following texts.
John Bull, ‘Vanburgh and Farquhar in the post-Restoration Age’ in Susan J. Owen, A Companion to Restoration Drama, (Blackwells, 2013):
Paul D. Cannan, ‘Restoration Dramatic Theory and Criticism’ in Susan J. Owen, A Companion to Restoration Drama, (Blackwells, 2013):
Mark Kishlansky, A Monarchy Transformed (Penguin, 1997),
Ch. 11: ‘A Protestant Succession, ’
Sir John Vanburgh, A Short Vindication of The Relapse and The Provoked Wife (1698)