" His most valuable contribution to history is found in his
_Letters Written by Eminent Persons in the 17th and 18th Centuries, with
Lives of Eminent Men_. The searcher for authentic material must carefully
scrutinize Aubrey's _facts_; but, with much that is doubtful, valuable
information may be obtained from his pages.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE DRAMA OF THE RESTORATION.
The License of the Age. Dryden. Wycherley. Congreve. Vanbrugh.
Farquhar. Etherege. Tragedy. Otway. Rowe. Lee. Southern.
THE LICENSE OF THE AGE.
There is no portion of the literature of this period which so fully
represents and explains the social history of the age as the drama. With
the restoration of Charles it returned to England, after a time in which
the chief faults had been too great rigor in morals. The theatres had been
closed, all amusements checked, and even poetry and the fine arts placed
under a ban. In the reign of Charles I., Prynne had written his _Histrio
Mastix_, or Scourge of the Stage, in which he not only denounced all stage
plays, but music and dancing; and also declaimed against hunting, festival
days, the celebration of Christmas, and Maypoles.
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