BBL 3102 THE NEOCLASSIC PERIOD (THE RESTORATION, AUGUSTAN AND AGE OF SENSIBILITY)

WEEK 7

1660-1700: The Restoration 1700-1745: The Augustan Age (or Age of Pope) 1745-1785: The Age of Sensibility (or Age of Johnson)

Restoration Period After his father's death, Charles was proclaimed king of England by the Scots and by supporters in parts of Ireland and England, and he traveled to Scotland to raise an army. In 1651, Charles invaded England but was defeated by Cromwell at the Battle of Worcester. Charles escaped to France and later lived in exile in Germany and then in the Spanish Netherlands. After Cromwell's death in 1658, the English republican experiment faltered. Cromwell's son Richard proved an ineffectual leader, and the public resented the strict Puritanism of England's military rulers.

In 1660, in what is known as the English Restoration, General George Monck met with Charles and arranged to restore him in exchange for a promise of amnesty and religious toleration for his former enemies. On May 25, 1660, Charles landed at Dover and four days later entered London in triumph. It was his 30th birthday, and London rejoiced at his arrival. In the first year of the Restoration, Oliver Cromwell was posthumously convicted of treason and his body disinterred from its tomb in Westminster Abbey and hanged from the gallows at Tyburn.

Characteristics 1 Rise of Neo-classicism The Restoration marks a complete break with the past. The people believed in the present, the real and the material. Men had learned to fear individual enthusiasm, and therefore they tried to discourage it by setting up ideals of conduct in accordance with reason and common sense, to which all men should adapt themselves. All these tendencies were reflected in the literature of this period. The writers, both in prose and poetry, tacitly agreed upon the rules and principles in accordance with which they should write. Rules and literary conventions became more important than the depth and seriousness of the subject matter to the writers of this period. They express superficial manners and customs of the aristocratic and urban society and did not pry into the mysteries of human mind and heart.

2 Imitation of the Ancient Masters The authors of the period were not endowed with exceptional literary talents. So they turned to the ancient writers, in particular, to the Latin writers, for guidance and inspiration. Thus grew the neo-classical school of poetry. The neo-classicists or pseudo-classicists could not soar to great imaginative heights or could not penetrate deeply into human emotions. They directed their attention to the slavish imitation of rules and ignored the importance of the subject matter. This habit was noticeable in the age of Dryden. It strengthened in the succeeding age of Pope.

3.. Realism and formalism Restoration literature is realistic. It was very much concerned with life in London, and with details of dress, fashions and manners, it sought to paint realistic pictures of corrupt court and society, and emphasized vices rather than virtues and gave us coarse, low plays without interest or moral significance. Like Hobbes, they saw only the externals of man, his body and appetites, not his soul and his ideals. The Restoration writers eschewed all extravagances of thought and language and aimed at achieving directness and simplicity of expression. Dryden accepted the excellent rule for his prose, and adopted the heroic couplet, as the next best thing for the greater part of this poetry. It is largely due to Dryden that ―writers developed formalism of style, that precise, almost mathematical elegance, which ruled the English literature for the next century.

POETRY OF RESTORATION AGE John Dryden (1631-1700). Dryden was the first of the new, as Milton was the last of the former school of poetry. He was a versatile poet. Absalom and Achitophel is a fine, finished satire on contemporary political situation. Medal is an attack on Shaftesbury

Mac Flecknoe is a biting attack on a former friend, Thomas Shadwell Mac Flecknoe is a biting attack on a former friend, Thomas Shadwell. Religio Laici and The Hind and the Panther are two doctrinal poems. Dryden appears as a great story teller in verse in The Fables. As a lyric poet his fame rests on song for St. Cecilia’s Day and On Alexander’s Feast. Dryden is the representative poet of his age. He began the neo-classical age in literature. It was his influence and example which lifted the classic couplet for many years as the accepted measure of serious English poetry.

RESTORATION DRAMA The Restoration comedy is also known as Comedy of Manners. These comedies expressed a reaction against Puritanism and the sexual repression it had attempted to enforce. Fashionable intrigues, sex, marriage and adultery were treated with cynicism, with worldly wit and a sense of the comedy of life. The characters in the plays no doubt owed much to the courtiers, the wits, and the men about town as well as to ladies of fashion, citizens, wives and country girls.

THE AUGUSTAN AGE

LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE 1 Age of Prose and Reason: It is an age of prose, reason, good sense and not of poetry. A large number of practical interests arising from the new social and political conditions demanded expression not simply in looks, but in pamphlets, magazines and newspapers. Poetry was inadequate for such a task. Hence prose developed rapidly and excellently. Indeed, poetry itself became prosaic, as it was not used for creative works of imagination, but for essays, satires and criticism. The poetry of the first half of the eighteenth century as represented by the works of Pope and Dr. Johnson is polished and witty but lacks fire, fine feeling, enthusiasm and imaginative appeal. In short, it interests us as a study of life but fails to delight or inspire us.

2 Age of Satire: The predominance of satire is an important literary characteristic of the age. Nearly every writer of the first half of the eighteenth century was used and rewarded by Whigs or Tories for satirising their enemies and for advancing their special political interests. Pope was an exception but he too was a satirist par excellence.

Follow Nature: Another important characteristic of the age was the belief that literature must follow nature. By ―nature the Augustans meant to copy man and manners of society. Pope said, ―The proper study of mankind is man.

Town and City Life as a Theme of Literature: Another feature of the literature of the age is that it has a limited theme. It is a literature of the town and the fashionable upper circles of the city of London. Pope, Johnson, Addison, Steele etc., though urban in outlook and temperament, show remarkable interest in the middle classes and, thus, broaden the scope of literature. The theme of literature before them was strictly confined to fashionable and aristocratic circles. In the works of middle class writers classicism shows itself slightly coloured by a moralising and secretly sentimental intension.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744) Pope is the representative poet of the Augustan Age. His famous works include Pastorals, An Essay in Criticism, Windsor Forest, The Rape of the Lock, translations of lliad and Odyssey, Elegy to the memory of an Unfortunate Lady and An Essay on Man. He was a great poet of his age. His influence dominated the poetry of his age. Many foreign writers and the majority of English poets looked to him as their model. Pope‘s poetry is the real picture of the spirit of the age.

NOVEL DURING AUGUSTAN The development of English prose contributed to the rise of novel during the eighteenth century. Daniel Defoe‘s Robinson Crusoe, Captain Singleton, Moll Flanders, A Journal of the Plague Year and Roxana are the forerunners of novel. Jonathan Swift's Gulliver’s Travels, which satirises the manners and politics of contemporary England and Europe, is written in powerful and convincing prose.

The Four Wheels of the Novel- Richardson, Fielding, Smollett and Sterne are known as the ―four wheels of the novel. They brought this new genre to such maturity that it became the glory of England.

Samuel Richardson Richardson‘s first novel Pamela tells the story of the trials, tribulations, and the final happy marriage of the heroine. It is written in the forms of letters. It is also known as an epistolary novel because the novel is developed with the exchange of letters between the characters. It was instantly successful. In it the moral and social purposes are successfully blended. Pamela‘s character is well drawn. The plot, though simple, is well developed. It is considered as the first novel in the modern sense. His Clarissa or The History of A Lady in eight volumes is a sentimental novel. It gave Richardson European reputation and ―it is still regarded as one of the greatest of the eighteenth century novels.