There was a demand for tragedies of the French school--with rhyming lines and artificial sentiment--for comedies of intrigue and equivoque, after a foreign pattern, in lieu of our old English plays of wit, humour, and character.

Plagiarism, translation, and adaptation took up a secure position on the stage.

The leading playwrights of the Restoration--Dryden, Shadwell, Durfey, Wycherley--all borrowed freely from the French.

Dryden frankly apologised--he was required to produce so many plays all could not be of his own inventing.

The King encouraged appropriation of foreign works.