The Comedy of Manners is a peculiar product of the Restoration era, and it reflects the very spirit of the age. It depicts faithfully the life and manners of the “genteel” society of the day.
It depicts a small world which has a distinct territory of its own-the fashionable parks and coffee houses of the London of Charles all’s time. Its setting is always provided by the public parks, like Hued Park, St.James Park, Mulberry Garden, and fashionable clubs and taverns, and the houses and drawing rooms of the aristocratic and leisured classes of the time. Its dramatic personages seldom move out of this charming world unless it he in search of some sex intrigues with the wife of a citizen or a common merchant or trader.