Shadwell, Thomas (
c.1642–92), Restoration dramatist, whose first play
The Sullen Lovers; or, The Impertinents (1668) was based on
Molière's Les Fâcheux (1661). The comedies which followed it seem, however, more indebted to
Jonson, whom Shadwell much admired. The best known of them is
Epsom Wells (1672). Shadwell has been much criticized for his adaptation of
The Tempest as an opera,
The Enchanted Island (1674), in which, following the examples of
Davenant and
Dryden, everything was subordinated to the stage machinery and scenery. He then returned to comedy with
The Libertine (1675) and
The Virtuoso (1676) before rewriting
Timon of Athens as
The Man-Hater (1678), and in his last years produced two of his best comedies,
The Squire of Alsatia (1688) and
Bury Fair (1689), which give interesting though somewhat scurrilous pictures of contemporary manners. His last play,
The Volunteers; or, The Stock Jobbers, was produced posthumously. It was ironic that Shadwell, who was mercilessly satirized by Dryden in
MacFlecknoe; or, A Satire upon the True-Blue Protestant Poet T. S. (1682), should have succeeded him on political grounds as Poet Laureate in 1688.
