1. The Seventeenth Century
Shakespeare, Milton, Metaphysical Poetry, and the Restoration Comedy

2. William Shakespeare “for all time” (1564-1616)
An actor, a poet, and a playwright.
Just a few biographical details but a huge corpus of works.
From “the Lord Chamberlain's Men” to “the King’s Men”.
A most successful collection of Sonnets and at least 37 plays.
comedies, Histories, and Tragedies.
The influence of mystery and morality plays.
A special concern for the human condition.
The staging of inner struggles inside his characters.
Plays both for the educated elite and for ordinary people.

3. “Metaphysical Poetry”
The “conceit” at the heart of this new poetry.
The ‘concors discordia’ and the intervention of destalibilizing metaphors and images.
The stress on wit and far-fetched images.
The presence of wild comparisons and audacious puns.
The rise of the baroque.
Profusion and extravagance.
John Donne ( ).

4. John Milton (1608-1674) His early ambition to write a great epic poem.
His involvement in the affairs of church and state.
Far for a poem for the glory of the nation, an epic with a deeply religious background.
Paradise Lost (1667).
“the Divine Comedy of Puritanism”, according to Max Weber.

5. The Restoration and its comedies
Two civil wars and the beheading of King Charles I.
The end of monarchy and the establishment of a republic.
Oliver Cromwell ( ).
All theatres closed between 1642 to 1660.
The restoration of monarchy ant he reopening of theatres.
A profusion of comedies openly attacking the follies and hypocrisies of society. The comedy of manners.
The example of William Congreve ( ), The Way of the World.
The political therapy of laughter.