Restoration comedies were English plays written between 1660-1710 following a ban on theater during the Puritan rule. Known as "comedy of manners," these plays were notable for their risqué depictions of sex and affairs. Writers like William Wycherley, George Etherege, William Congreve, and Aphra Behn created works like The Country Wife, The Man of Mode, The Way of the World, and The Rover that featured the amorous adventures of characters in high society and mocked social conventions of the time.

1. Restoration Drama
 Restoration comedies are English plays
written and performed between 1660 and
1710, the "Restoration" period.
 Also known as "comedy of manners" plays,
these works are known for their risqué,
explicit depictions of sex and extramarital
affairs.
 Restoration followed a nearly two-decade
ban on stage performances by Puritans,
which may explain why the plays of the
period were so bawdy.

2. The Restoration gave rise to the first
female playwright of the English
stage, Aphra Behn. It also marked
the first instances of actresses
appearing on stage in female (and
sometimes male) roles.

3. William Wycherley, George Etherege,
William Congreve, George Farquhar,
and Aphra Behn created bawdy works
of Restoration comedy with The
Country Wife, The Man of Mode, The
Way of the World, and The Rover.

4. 1)The Country Wife
The Country Wife, by William Wycherley, was first
performed in 1675. It depicts Horner, a man pretending to
be impotent in order to have affairs with married women
unbeknownst to their husbands, and Margery Pinchwife,
a young, innocent "country wife" who is inexperienced in
the ways of London. The Country Wife is based on
several plays by the French playwright Moliere, but
Wycherly wrote in a contemporary prose style, whereas
Moliere's plays were written in verse. From 1753 and
1924, The Country Wife was considered too explicit for
stage performance but is now regarded as a classic work
of the stage.

5. 2)The Man of Mode
The Man of Mode, or Sir Fopling Flutter by
George Etherege, first appeared on the
stage in 1676. It tells the story of Dorimant, a
man about town who tries to woo Harriet, a
young heiress. The only catch: Dorimont is
already involved in separate affairs with Mrs.
Loveit, and her friend Bellinda. The Man of
Mode was Etherege's final play, and his most
popular, in part because audiences believed
the characters were based on real public
figures of the age.

6. 3)The Way of the World
The Way of the World, by William
Congreve, was one of the later
Restoration comedies, with its first
performance in 1700. It tells the
convoluted tale of Mirabell and
Millamant and their attempts to
secure Millamant's inheritance
from her mean aunt Lady Wishfort.
Their plans to deceive Lady
Wishfort with the help of some
friends and servants form the basis
of the plot.

7. 4)The Rover
The Rover or The Banish'd Cavaliers is
Aphra Behn's most famous play, written in
two parts. It's based on the 1664 play
Thomaso, or The Wanderer, written by
Thomas Killigrew. Its intricate plot centers on
a group of English attending Carnival in
Naples. The main character is the rake
Willmore, who falls in love with the convent-
bound Hellena. The prostitute Angellica
Bianca complicates things when she falls in
love with Willmore.