Worldview Critical Edition of William Congreve’s The Way of the World
Although the ascendancy of Charles II on the English throne in 1660 was a restoration of Stuart hegemony, thereby giving the latter half of the seventeenth century its name, in reality the age heralded a new mode of living quite different from the one that existed in the pre-Civil War era. The culture and social mores that Charles II had imbibed during his exile at France were incorporated into English lifestyle with his coronation. The sudden release from Puritan stringency that had characterised life under Cromwell resulted in a general relaxation of morality that affected the dynamics of love, marriage, and human conduct.