Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by George Etherege (English Dramatist)

Sir George Etherege (c.1635–91) was an English diplomat and creator of the Restoration-era comedy genre of manners. His She Would if She Could (1668,) considered the first pure comedy of manners in English, was produced at Lincoln’s Inn Fields in London.

Born probably in Maidenhead, Berkshire, Etherege was secretary to the ambassador at Turkey 1668–71. He married a prosperous widow, Mary Arnold, and in 1685 was sent to be resident at the Imperial German Court at Ratisbon, where he drank, coquetted with actresses, and engaged in correspondence with Thomas Middleton, John Dryden, and Thomas Betterton.

In English literature, Etherege is the founder of the comedy of manners (also termed the comedy of intrigue,) a witty, cerebral form of dramatic comedy that satirizes contemporary society’s ways and affectations. Etherege sought his inspiration in Moliere, and out of Etherege grew the legitimate comedy of manners and the work of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, William Congreve, and Oliver Goldsmith.

Etherege’s three plays, The Comical Revenge or Love in a Tub (1664,) She Would If She Could (1668,) and The Man of Mode or Sir Fopling Flutter (1676,) were all highly popular in their day.

Yale’s Dale Underwood wrote Etherege and the Seventeenth-Century Comedy of Manners (1957.)

More: Wikipedia READ: Works by George Etherege

I must confess I am a fop in my heart; ill customs influence my very senses, and I have been so used to affectation that without the help of the air of the court what is natural cannot touch me.
George Etherege
Topics: Affectation

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