JOHN MILTON ( ) It would be reasonable to divide Milton’s literary activity into three groups: 1)The first short poems written at Horton (After leaving the University Milton settled in Horton, Buckinghamshire, ); 2)Prose: “History of Britain” (1646); 3)The greatest epic poems: “Paradise Lost” (1667), “Paradise Regained” (1671). John Milton was a great Puritan poet and pamphleteer. His life was closely connected with the Bourgeois Revolution, the short-lived Commonwealth and the restoration of English Monarchy. The idea of a good marriage proved his high respect for women as an intellectual companion and comrade, rather then as merely a housekeeper and child bearer. These ideas were expressed in his work “The Doctrine And Discipline Of Divorce”.

Since 1646 he had been working on his “History of Britain” Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector Milton considered his dictatorship a progressive one. Milton raised his voice boldly against the restoration of Monarchy. He spoke out in a published letter to general Monk. Then he wrote an open letter to a new Parliament. A politician and literary man, Andrew Marvell ( ), played a great role in Milton’s life. His influence in Parliament protected Milton. When Charles 2 became King the change in English literature was almost as great as the change in government : theatres opened again new dramatist appeared The plays were written in heroic couplets the men were brave and the women were beautiful The public consisted mainly of the court and the wealthy the actors themselves were fashionably dressed women were allowed to play in the performances; they appeared on the stage in their modern clothes The stage itself changed the shape: a ”picture-frame” The plots of the plays centred around love and money

Milton wrote of life because he loved it enough to fight for it; he fought for freedom. In 1660’s the biographies and diaries became a form of literature. Some of them were written as a record of the main events of the day: The Great Plague (1665) killed more than of total population of London; The Great Fire(1666) destroyed houses.

 WILLIAM CONGREVE – the Master of the “Comedy of Manners” in which he described the manners of the age: “”Love for Love” and “The Way of the World”  SAMUEL PEPYS - diarist