It is literary commonplace that the drama grew as the romance of chivalry declined, and the novel grew as the drama declined.

People in every age have craved for entertainment, and in the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods this entertainment was provided by the drama. By the time of the Restoration, English drama had grown unnatural artificial and immoral. It had lost its appeal by the 18th century, and some other form of entertainment was needed to its place. “It was the decline of the drama during the earlier part of the 18th century that make way for the novel” (Raleigh).