The English Restoration had a significant impact on the work of artists of the period. As England moved from a monarchy under Charles I to a Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell, and then back to a monarchy with Charles II on the throne, artists, and especially playwrights, had plenty of material to explore in their respective fields. fields. The struggle between Catholicism and Protestantism, the identification of a clear successor, and the discussion of royalist loyalties were among the themes that often made their way into the literary work of this period. John Dryden, one of the most prolific and best-known playwrights of the Restoration, addresses questions of royalist loyalty, moral righteousness and unclear succession. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Tragicomedy was the form taken by most of these Restoration dramas, from 1660 until the 18th century. The form was heavily influenced by the French. Nancy Klein Maguire writes: “Continental influence, particularly that of the French, stimulated interest in tragicomedy. Charles I's wife, Henrietta Maria, was a French princess with strong dramatic interests. Many Restoration playwrights had been with Charles II during his exile and spent many years in France. They acquired French tastes, and among these tastes was a taste for tragic-comedy” (88). The tragicomic form allowed the playwright to bring together two divergent genres – tragedy and comedy – often by employing two parallel plots. In the case of Dryden's The Fashionable Marriage, the "tragic" plot primarily involves Polydamas and Leonidas and the struggle to find a legitimate heir to the throne. This theme would have been familiar to Dryden's audience since the marriage between Charles II and Catherine of Braganza produced no children, just as "this old king, everyone believed him childless" (ll. 278-9). The "comic" plot, centering on the couples Rhodophil and Doralice, and Palamedes and Melantha, takes as its themes questions of royalist loyalty and tentative morality as both couples attempt, while remaining true to their vows and status social, to associate in unresolved relationships. -traditional ways. But the influence of the French is not only evident in the structure of Marriage à la Mode. Such pervasive Francophilia is understandable given the Stuarts' rather long exile there as well as the Third Dutch War (1672–1674). Led “in alliance with France, there was a widespread feeling that in joining forces with an absolutist Catholic regime against a Protestant country, Britain had chosen the wrong ally and the wrong enemy” (Hughes 133). In the play, Dryden makes Melantha a symbol of all things French. His speech, his manners and his ideals are all typically Francophile. From her daily vocabulary lessons to her courtly mannerisms, virtually every aspect of Melantha's character is in one way or another colored by the French. Nevertheless, “his charm, his love of the court and his idiosyncratic vocabulary are affectations which, however ridiculous they may be, never detract from his visible, exuberant and triumphant vitality” (Martin 752). Melantha's importance in the play requires some judgment on the part of the audience. If her easy language and her often childish gestures can lead to a less than complimentary assessment of her character and consequently of the influence of the French under the Restoration, she possesses a very real joie de vivre, which succeeded in attracting Rhodophil and, :, 2000.