The Restoration Period

 The restoration period marked the return of Charles II to the throne (restoring the English monarchy) following the period of Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth. During Cromwell's reign he banned fun basically. There was no Christmas, no celebrations and most importantly no theatre. He banned these activities as they were deemed related to the monarchy. 

So when he was overthrown and Charles II was brought back there was a huge wave of creativity leading to the fabrication of many plays such as comedies like William Wycherley's The Country Wife, Aphra Behn's The Rover and George Farquhar's The Recruiting Officer where they made fun of the upper class and used very sexual language as their main form of comedy. However it was not just comedies, there were also tragedies like Roger Boyle's The Black Prince  and Thomas Otway's Venice Preserv'd.