This article begins with a discussion of the parliamentary-Puritan opposition to theatre during the Civil Wars and after the regicide. It then turns to the restoration of the monarchy in 1653, and the efforts of Richard Flecknoe and William Davenant initiate a theatrical revival. They petitioned the Council of State and offered arguments to counter entrenched anti-theatricality. For instance, in A Proposition for the Advancement of Morality by a New Way of Entertainment of the People, presented to the Council of State in 1653, Davenant argued for the moral and socially educative advantages...

This article begins with a discussion of the parliamentary-Puritan opposition to theatre during the Civil Wars and after the regicide. It then turns to the restoration of the monarchy in 1653, and the efforts of Richard Flecknoe and William Davenant initiate a theatrical revival. They petitioned the Council of State and offered arguments to counter entrenched anti-theatricality. For instance, in A Proposition for the Advancement of Morality by a New Way of Entertainment of the People, presented to the Council of State in 1653, Davenant argued for the moral and socially educative advantages for the lower classes of a reformed stage, charged with ‘instructive morality’.