Thomas D'urfey's adaptations of Renaissance plays

Thomas D'Urfey was the most productive and one of the most popular of all Restoration dramatists. Examining his six adaptations of Renaissance plays is a good way to illuminate his characteristics as a writer, and such a study can also sharpen our perception of the fundamental differences between English Renaissance and Restoration drama.

A careful analysis of the alterations which D'Urfey effected in his source plays when he wrote Madam Fickle, Trick for Trick, The Injured Princess, A Commonwealth of Women, A Fool's Preferment, and Bussy D'Ambois leads to the conclusion that he was concerned with linguistic plainness and clarity, though in some cases he elevated the language of his characters in order to make them appear either absurd or pathetic. Intrigue, farce, songs, discordant conclusions, and inconsistencies are among the other features that are important in D'Urfey's adaptations. These works also reveal that he had a high regard for women, that he disliked Whigs and religious devotees, and that he wrestled with doubts about marriage, providential guidance, and the permanence of felicity. Finally, his adaptations demonstrate that he did pioneering work with affective and moral forms of drama.

Many of the changes which D'Urfey made point to characteristics that are more commonly found in Restoration than in Renaissance plays. Numerous Restoration dramatists appear, for example, to have shared his commitment to lucidity, particularly in language, though they continued the Renaissance practice of grappling with significant issues, such as the nature of marriage. Perhaps related to the concern with perspicuity are broadly drawn characters and farcical action, features that are more prominent in the comedies written after 1660 than in those of the earlier period. The serious plays of the Restoration, on the other hand, display a greater degree of emotionalism than that found in Renaissance dramas of a similar type.

D'Urfey's adaptations, then, tell us much about his era, and they show him to be an important part of that era--an occasional pioneer who is capable of effective dramatic writing in a variety of modes.