Social Background

• The English Bourgeois Revolution and Restoration

• 1)      The weakening of the tie between monarchy and bourgeois:

• 2)      The Clashes between the King and Parliament:

• 3)      The outburst of the English Revolution:• 4)      The split within the revolutionary camp: • 5)      The bourgeois dictatorship and the

Restoration

Historical events• Reign of James I (1603 –

1625) – The Jacobean Age• Reign Of Charles I (1625 –

1649) The Coroline Age• Common Wealth (1649 –

1660) The Interim Period of Commonwealth

• Restoration of Charles II (1660 – 1685)

• Reign of James – II (1685 – 1688)

• The Glorious Revolution - 1688

• King james II flees – 1688• William III & Mary II –

1689• Mary II – dies, 1694• William III – Dies 1702

• The Theatres closed – 1642• Reopening of the theatre –

1660• The Great Fire of London -

1666

The English Revolution and Puritanism• The English revolution was carried out under a religious

cloak• English revolution also called the Puritan revolution• The Puritan Movement aimed to make man honest and to

make man free. • preached thrift, sobriety, hard work, but with very little

extravagant enjoyment of the fruits of labor• Worldly pleasures were condemned as harmful.• the triumph of Puritanism under Cromwell, severe laws were

passed• Until the end of the Commonwealth, there were two leaders

in England, Cromwell the man of action, and Milton the man of thought.

Literature of the Revolution PeriodGeneral characteristics 1) The Revolution Period was one of confusion in literature due to the breaking up of the old ideals. The Puritans believed in simplicity of life. They disapproved of the sonnets and the love poetry written in the previous period. Literature was as divide din spirit as were the struggling parties.

2) Literature in the Puritan Age expressed age and sadness. Even its brightest hours were followed by gloom and pessimism.

3) Romantic ardor can not be found in literature of the Puritan period.

4) John Milton, whose work would glorify any age and people, and in his work the indomitable revolutionary spirit found its noblest expression. For this reason, this period is also called Age of Milton

5) The main literary form of the period was poetry ． Besides Milton, there were two other groups of poets, the Metaphysical Poets and the Cavalier Poets

Metaphysical Poets• The Metaphysical Poets appeared at the beginning of

the 17th century• Sought to shatter myths and replace them with new

philosophies, new sciences, new world and new poetry

• Rebellious spirit, they favored in poetry a more colloquial language, a single-minded working of one theme

• Tended to logically reason the things, esp. emotions, psychologically analyze the emotions of love and religion, love the novelty and the shocking, use the metaphysical conceits, and ignore the conventional devices.

Metaphysical Poets

John Donne (1573-1631) is the founder of the Metaphysical School

masterpiece is Songs and Sonnets, The Sun Rising and The Flea

“were men of learning,& to

show their learning was their

whole Endeavour…. they

neither copied nature nor

life… thoughts are often new

but seldom natural;

John Donne (1573 – 1631) Abraham Cowley (1619 –

1667) Richard Crashaw (1613 –

1649) George Herbert (1593 –

1633) Henry Vaughan (1622 –

1695) Thomas Traherne (1634 –

1704)

Cavalier Poets

• Most of these poets were courtiers and soldiers

• They sided with the king to fight against the revolution

• supported King Charles I during the English Civil War

• King Charles was a connoisseur of the fine arts and therefore demanded their creation, i.e. masques, poetry, and drama

• Robert Herrick (1591 – 1674)

• Thomas Carew (1598 – 1639)

• Francis Quaries (1592 – 1644)

• Sir John Suckling (1600 – 1642)

• Richard Lovelace (1618 – 1658)

• Andrew Marvell (1621 – 1678)

John Milton’s Life

• Born: December 9, 1608, London

• Died: November 8, 1674, Chalfont St Giles

• Full name: John Milton

• Parents: John Milton

• Education: University of Cambridge, St Paul's School, London, Christ's College, Cambridge

• John Milton was an English poet

• Polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell

John Milton’s Life

• I Period – Closing with the end of his Cambridge Career – 1632

• His first work is an ode On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity

• Its far from perfect• Sadly Marred by

Conceits & inequalities of Style

• Remarkable Production for a poet of 21

• II Period – The Horton period – Closing with his departure for the continent - 1638

• 4 minor poems of such beauty & power

• L’Allegro (1633)• II Penseroso ( 1633)• Comus (1634)• Lycidas (1637)

John Milton’s Life

• Under the inspiration of the learning & art of the renaissance – Write

• Puritan element was at 1st quite subordinate gradually the dominant element inhis writing

• L’Allegro & II Penseroso• Charming contrasted

pictures of Man, Nature, & Art as seen through the medium of the mood, in the one case of gladness, and in the other meloncholy.

• The poet dwqells frankly upon the pleasures of romance & rustic sports – The Greek Drama & The beauty of Church Architecture & music

• Comus• The specific quality of his

moral teaching• a masque in honour of

chastity

Comus Two brothers and their

sister, simply called "Lady“

Lost in a journey through the woods.

Lady becomes fatigued, and the brothers wander off in search of sustenance

Lured away by Comus & his band revelers & rescued by her brother

Rescued with help of An Attendant spirit & The river Nymph

Patent allegory of virtue attacked by sensuality & conquering by divine aid

Lycidas Lycidas first appeared in a 1638 collection of

elegies entitled Justa Edouardo King Naufrago. the death of Edward King, a collegemate of

Milton's at Cambridge Monody. A lyrical lament for one voice. begins with an invocation, then explores the conventions of the pastoral ends with a conclusion to Milton's "emotional

problem"

Milton’s life

III Period – Prose writing from 1640 – 1660

20 years continued active as a writer of prose

Dozen sonnets Style is heavy &

Cumbrous “His left hand didn’t

possess the cunning of his right”

Modern English prose had not yet come into existence

Areopagitica – Essentially a plea for freedom of thought & Speech

Read by every lover of Lit. & intellectual liberty

IV Period of Milton The last Poetic period or

period of his great achievement

Stupendous masterpiece of intellectual energy & creative power

Paradise Lost – English Heroic verse without rime

Paradise Regained Samson Agonistes "to justify the ways of God

to man“ – Theme Also about the fall of Men:

man’s disobedience and the loss of Paradise

Satan is the real hero of the poem

Adam --The first human, the father of our race

Eve --The first woman and the mother of mankind.

God the Father - creates the world by means of God the Son, creating Adam and Eve last

God the Son - Jesus Christ, offers himself as a sacrifice to pay for the sins of mankind

Paradise Regained explores the theme of

temptation and fall and shows how humankind, in the person of Christ, withstands the tempter and is established once more in the divine favor

Samson Agonistes a poetical drama modeled

on the Greek tragedy the Old Testament Samson was an athlete of

the Israelites stood as their champion,

fighting for the freedom of his country

betrayed by his wife and blinded by his enemies the Philistines

One day he was summoned to provide amusement for his enemies by feats of strength in a temple

wreaked his vengeance upon his enemies by pulling down the temple upon them and upon himself in a common ruin

Samson signify Milton

Features of Milton's Poetry Great revolutionary poet of the 17th century. He is also an

outstanding political pamphleteer of the Revolution period. He made a strong influence on the later progressive English poets.

Great stylist. His poetry has a grand style. That is because he made a life-long study of classical and Biblical literature.

Great master of blank verse. He is the glorious pioneer to introduce blank verse into non-dramatic poetry. He has used it as the main tool in his masterpiece Paradise Lost. His blank verse is rich in every poetic quality and never monotonous.

Wrote the greatest epic in English literature. He made a strong influence o later English poetry.

His poetry is noted for sublimity of thought and majesty of expression.

Milton's Shorter Poems - Renascence Editions

A Paraphrase on Psalm CXIV Psalm CXXXVI The Fifth Ode of Horace. Lib.

I At a Vacation Exercise On the Death of a Fair Infant

Dying of Cough Song: on May Morning On the Morning of Christ's

Nativity The Passion

On Shakespeare

On the University Carrier Another on the Same An Epitaph on the

Marchioness of Winchester L'Allegro Il Penseroso On Time Upon the Circumcision At a Solemn Music Lycidas PSALMS I-VIII, LXXX-

LXXXVIII

Sonnet O Nightingale! How soon hath time, the

subtle thief of youth When the Assault was

Intended to the City To A Virtuous Young Lady To the Lady Margaret Ley On the Detraction Which

Followed Upon My Writing Certain Treatises

On the Same To My Friend, Mr.Henry

Lawes on his Airs On the Religious Memory of

Mrs. Catherine Thomson

On The Lord General Fairfax, at the Siege of Colchester

To the Lord General Cromwell, May 1652

To Sir Henry Vane the Younger

On the Late Massacre in Piemont

When I Consider How my Light is Spent

Lawrence of Virtuous Father Cyriack, Whose Grandsire To Mr. Cyriack Skinner

Upon His Blindness Methought I Saw my late

Espousèd Saint

Prose In Quintum Novembris (1626) - Dana F. Sutton Excerpt from Christian Doctrine The Reason of Church Government Background for Tenure of Kings and Magistrates - Michael

Bryson Tenure of Kings and Magistrates A Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes

Of Reformation. 1641Of Education. 1644

The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce The Judgement of Martin Bucer Concerning Divorce Colasterion Tetrachordon

Other Poets & Prose Writers Robert Herrick – (1591 –

1674) Secular & religious Noble Numbers (1648) Haperides His power - Miscellaneous

in character Compromising addresses to

friends Fairy poems All subject Love poems Exquisite fancy &Lyrical

charm & grace

Thomas carew (1598 – 1639)

Poems “He that loves a rosy

cheek” Sir john Suckling (1609 –

42) Ballad upon a wedding Why so pale and wan, fond

lover? Richard Lovelace (1618 –

58) To Althia from prison Lucasta To lucasta going to the wars

Andrew Marvell (1621 – 78)

To His coy mistress The rehearsal transprosed Ode upon Cromwell’s

return from Ireland New Letters (a prose work) Earlier he has written

characteristics of the cavalier School

After Restoration- changed – Fierce satire in rugged style on King & Supporters

George Herbert (1593 – 1633)

The temple Affliction Easter wings The collar Man Collections of Lyrical

entitled poetry Richard Crashaw (1613 –

1649) Carmen Deo Nostro The Infant Mortyrs Steps to the temple

Henry Vaughan (1622-95)

Poems Regeneration The retreat Olor Iscanus Thalia Reudivia Silex scintillans

Francis quarles (1592-1644)

The religious Emblems

Metaphysical poets

Abraham Cowley(1618-67)

Pyramus & Thisbe

The Mistress

The Davideis

Pindarique Odes

Constantia and Philetus

Discourse by way of vision

Concerning the Government

of Cromwell (a Prose work)

John Donne (1573 -1631)

Songs & Sonnets Aire and angel A Nocturnall upon Lucies

Day A Valediction: Forbidding

Mourning The Extasie Devotions (Sermons in Prose) Ignatius His Enclave (A

Prose work) Of the Progress of the soul Death’s Duell

Thomas Traherne (1634 – 1704)

Poems (1903) Centuries of Meditations

(1908) (A Prose work)

One of the greatest religious

& Metaphysical poets as well

as prose of 17th century

Beauty & Eloquence as well

as profundity of thought &

spiritual feeling

John Bunyan (1628-1688) The Pilgrim’s Progress religious allegory Concepts - sin, despair, and

faith are represented as people or as aspects of the natural world

1st appeals to the poets, 2nd to the scholars 3rd to the common religious

people of every age and condition

religious man’s search for salvation, and gives a truthful picture of English society

traveler's name is Christian book falls into two parts. 1 tells of the religious

conversion of Christian and his religious life in this world.

2 describes the subsequent conversion of his wife and their children

Bunyan’s prose is noted for his simple, biblical style.

uses idiomatic expressions naturally.

biblical language enables him to narrate stories and reveal ideas in a direct way.

Restoration literature is deeply influenced by French classical taste.

It is a period of French influence.

General characteristics The tendency to vulgar

realism in the drama. Restoration writers sought to paint realistic pictures of a corrupt society.

A general formalism. They produced coarse, low plays without interest or moral significance.

The development of a simpler and more direct prose style.

The prevalence of the heroic couplet (2 iambic pentameter lines which rime together) in poetry.

Grace Abounding The Life & Death of Mr.

Badman The Holy war The world’s literature has

three great allegories: Spenser’s - The Faerie

Queene, Dante’s - Divine Comedy Bunyan’s - Pilgrim’s

Progress

John Dryden (1631-1700) Aldwinkle All Saints,

Northamptonshire Educated – Westminister &

Trinity college, Cambridge Settled in London – 1657 wrote 27plays most of them are affected by

the immorality of the stage All for Love, a tragedy dealing

with the same story as Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra

a poet of intellect, not of emotion

controversial and satirical

Absalom and Achitophel - powerful political satire - to ridicule and attack the whigs, and to revenge himself upon his enemies

prose writer - marked influence on English literature in shortening his sentence and especially in writing naturally

cared little for style - tried to state his critical ability - foremost critic of his age

famous prose composition is An Essay of Dramatic Poesy

Influence on English literature

Established the heroic couplet as the fashion for satiric, didactic, and descriptive poetry

Developed a direct and concise prose style

Developed the art of literary criticism in his essays and in the numerous prefaces to his poems

The forerunner of the English classical school of literature

1st poem – The heroic stanzas on the death of Oliver Cromwell (1659)

Astraea Redux (1663) - the happy restoration of Charles– II

Poet Laureate – 1670 Absalom & Achitophel(1681)

– Political satires. To defend the King’s policy

against the Earl of Shaftesbury & Specially famous for its powerful character-studies

Shaftesbury as Achitophel The duke of Buckingham as

Zimiri The Medal – Invective against

shaftesbury MacFlecknoe – scathing

personal attack his friend Thomas Shadwell

2 Theological Poems Religio Laici (1682) – A

defence of the Church of England

The Hind & The Panther (1687) – favour of Roman Catholicism

It exhibits Dryden’s mastery Not strict religious sense The revolution of 1688 came

upon him as a heavy blow He lost his poet Laureate As a poet – Ripened slowly 1st poem – The death of

Young Lord hastings – in 18 – Crude & Bombastic

He mostly influenced by Cowley – “ The darling of my Youth”

Annu Mirabilis (1667) 2 great events of the

wonderful year – The War with Holland: The Fire of London

The Fables – written amid the anxieties of his last years

Fine tales Rank among our best story –

tellers in verse The palamon & Arcite based

on The Knightes Tale

Little imaginative power, depth of feeling, spiritual glow or fervour

2 remarkable Odes - To The Memory of Mrs. Anne Killigrew

Alexander’s Feast Splendid intellectuality &

manly vigour of style Many passage of wonderful

strength & eloquence 1st great modern prose writer &

Modern critic His work is thus of capital

importance as a commentary upon the tastes & ideals of the rising Classical School of Lit.

The Essay of Dramatic Poesy – considers the respective principles & merits of 3 Chief types of Drama

The Classical Drama of Greece & Romans

The Neo-Classical drama of the French

The Romantic drama of the English

And Justify the rime in place of Blank Verse

His criticism – historically importance

Prose style – Clearness, Vigour, wonderful felicity of Phrase & Colloquial

Other Works Preface to his plays An essay of Dramatic Poesy Dryden’s plays Tyrannic Love Conquest of Granada All for Love The rival ladies The Indian Emperor Aureng – Zeb Don Sebastian Cleomenes Love Triumphant

Samuel Butler (1612 – 1680) 3 parts of Hudibras – 1663,

1664, 1678 – Published Satire on Puritans Stimulate – Saints & Their

Cause Wonderful Burlesque

romance The misadventures of a

knight & his squire: I’ll fortunes in love

2 central figure – the Presbyterian Sir Hudibras (Military enthusiast – Hypocrite) : Attendant Ralpo (vulgar canting imposter)

The story begins with these 2

1st part - Tremendous conflict with the rabble (Mob) & leads to their being set by the heels in the parish stocks

2nd part – incidents follow which keep up the interest till

The rest – composed of Odds & ends of epistles, digressions, satire tirades

Some of its best passages suffer from prolixity

The local & temporary nature of its subject –

matter is also a serious disadvantage

Its full of wit & vivacity

Doggerel metres & astonishing double rimes

“intention to kill Puritanism by ridicule & delight

the court, favourite reading of Charles II

Other writers Sir William Temple(1628

– 99) Best know to his relations

with Swift Letters & Essays in a plain

but Polished style John Tillotson (1630 – 94) Introduced a similar style

into religious oratory- importance in the establishment of the new prose

John Locke (1632 – 1704) Prose in Philosophic

exposition & discussion was distinctly shown

Essay on the human Understanding

Treatise on Government Thought on Education Minor prose writers- John

Evelyn(1620 – 1706); Samuel Pepys (1633 – 1703)

Evelyn’s Diary – record of contemporary events – the point of view of a loyal, thoughtful, & high-minded royalist.

Grave, simple style Pepy’s Diary – entertaining

of books

It covers 10 years nearly from 1st January, 1660 to 31st may 1669

Noteworthy – the restoration, the Great Plague, The great Fire

Vivid descriptions which it gives of the men & Manners of the day

the habits, fashions & Scandals of the town

The gossip of the streets, the coffee-houses & the play houses & personal life & doings

The domestic troubles, the jealousies, Philandering, Success & Disappointment

Renaissance the ‘rebirth’ of literature, art & learning that progressively

transformed European culture from the mid-14th century in Italy

to the mid-17th century in England, strongly influenced by the

rediscovery of classical Greek and Latin literature, & accelerated

by the development of printing. The Renaissance is commonly

held to mark the close of the middle Ages and the beginning of

the modern Western world. In literary terms, it is marked by a

new self-confidence in vernacular literatures, a flourishing of

lyric poetry, and a revival of such classical forms as epic and

pastoral literature.

Soliloquy

A dramatic convention by means of which a

character, alone on stage, utters his or her

thoughts aloud. Playwrights use soliloquies as

a convenient way to inform the audience about

a character’s motivations and state of mind.

Ballads

The narrative folk song that tells a story, which originates and is

communicated orally mainly among illiterates, usually in 4-line

stanzas, with the second and fourth lines rhymed

Epistolary Novel

A type of novel in which the narrative is carried on by means of

series of letters. Samuel Richardson’s Pamela (1740) and

Clarissa Harlowe (1748) are among the best known epistolary

novels. It can be classified into two kinds: the monologue

epistolary novel and the dialogue epistolary novel

Thank u

By

Cholan.Jr

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