Word: vanbrugh
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...THINGS left to us from the generally stagnant era of English history called the Restoration is Restoration comedy. Playwrights such as Congreve, Vanbrugh and William Wyncherly fashioned a brand of theatrical social satire using the raw materials afforded by courtly foppery and greed and the devil-take-all decadence of the urban upper classes. Relying heavily on wit, bawdry, and ludicrously fashioned images, these plays were often quite vicious in their criticism of London society despite the fact that many of the playwrights were a part of the madhouse themselves...
Curiously, though, the five foremost practitioners of the genre were far from prolific. Etherege wrote only three plays; Wycherley, four; Vanbrugh (also renowned as an architect), three and a half; Congreve (the most accomplished of the group), five; and Farquhar, seven and a half. This corpus laid the foundation and set the standard for the two supreme masterpeices of the genre: Sheridan's The School for Scandal, a century later; and Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, two centuries later...