EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY :

The literature of the century may be classified under three categories: the trend of classicism, the revival of romantic poetry, and the beginning of the "modern novel". Modern newspapers like "Chronicle", "Post", and "Times" and the literary magazines like "Tatler" and "Spectator" had greatly influenced the development of the prose style. 

Alexander Pope (1688-1774), a unique figure during the period, was, for a generation, "the poet" of a great nation. Pope's "Pastorals", "Windsor", "Forest Messiah", "Essays on Criticism", "Tamburlaine", "Eloise to Abelard", "the Rape of the Lock", "Dunciad", "Moral Epistles" are well known. 

Besides, Jonathan Swift's (1667-1745) famous work "Bickerstaff Almanac" containing "Predictions for the year 1708, as Determined by the Unerring Stars", , his two great satires are "Tale of a Tub", and "Gulliver's Travels". 

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) seized upon the new social life and made it the subject of many of his essays based upon types of men and manners. The most interesting work of Addison's early life is his "Account of the Greatest English Poets". His "Cato" is one of his popular poems. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) is remembered chiefly for his "Dictionary", an English lexicon, the "Lives of the Poets", and "Rasselas", "Prince of Abyssinia". Edmund Burke (1729-1797) is best known for essays, like "Reflections of the French Revolution", "A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful". Edward Gibbon's (1737-1794) "Memoirs" and "The Decline and Fall of Roman Empire" are two remarkable works. Thomas Gray's (1716-1771) "The Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" is the most perfect poem of the age, although his "Letters" and the "Journal" are also noteworthy. 

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774) is famous for his "The Deserted Village" (poem), although he was also noted essayist, dramatist and novelist. His "The Vicar of Wakefield", "The Citizen of The World", "The Good-Natured Man" and "She Stoops to Conquer" brought him more fame. William Cowper (1731-1800) wrote his largest poem, "The Task". Robert Burns (1759-1796) is better known as a great song-writer. William Blake (1759-1796) is perhaps the most original romantic poet of the age. His last huge prophetic works, prophetic works; "Jerusalem" and "Milton", the "Poetical Sketches", "Songs of Experience" reflect different views of human soul. His other famous works are "Urizen", "Gates of Paradise", "Marri age of Heaven and Hell", "The French Revolution", "The Vision of the Daughters of Albion". 

James Thomson's (1700-1748) poems, like "Rule Britannia" (one of the national songs of Britain), "The Castle of Indolence", "The Seasons"; William Collins' (1721-1759) "Oriental Eclogems", George Crabbe's (1721-1759) poetical works, like "The Village", "The Parish Register", "The Borough", "Tales in Verse", "Tales of the Hall" ; James Macpherson's (1736-1796) "Fragments of Ancient Poetry Collected in the Highlands", "Fingal", "Temora" are wonderful works of the age.

Other prominent writers of the age were Thomas Chatterton, Thomas Percy, the author of "Reliques of Ancient English Poetry", "Northern Antiquities", Daniel Defoe, famous for his "Robinson Crusoe", "Journal of the Plague Year", "Memoirs of a Cavalier", "Captain Singleton", "Colonel Jack", "Moll Flanders", "Roxana" etc.; Samuel Richardson, a noted writer of "Family Letters", "Pamela", "Clarissa", "Sir Charles Grandison" etc.; Henry Fielding, the author of "Joseph Andrews", "Jonathan Wilde", "The History of Tom Tones", "A Foundling", "Amelia" etc.; Tobias Smollett, The author of "Roderick Random", "Peregrine Pickle", "Humphrey Clinker" etc.; Lawrence Sterne, the author of "Tristram Shandy", "A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy".

PURITAN AGE :

The Puritan Age

The period between 1625 and 1675 is known as the "Puritan Age (or John Milton's Age)", because during the period, Puritan standards prevailed in England, and also because the greatest literary figure John Milton (1608-1674) was a Puritan. The Puritans struggled for righteousness and liberty. 

Puritanism became a great national movement which included English Churchman as well as extreme Separatists. While the Catholic Church had always held true to the ideal of the united church, the possibility of the ideal of a purely national Protestantism grew. 

The political upheaval of the period is summed up in the struggle between the King and the Parliament, the blasphemy of a man's divine right to rule his fellowmen was ended. Thus the age marked the beginning of the reformation. 

In literature also, the age created a sort of confusion due to breaking up of old ideas. Some of the literary men had the tendencies to look backward for the old golden age, and some wanted to look forward for a better world with the throbs of hope and fresh vitality and youth. And in John Milton, the indomitable Puritan spirit finds its noblest expression. There was Samuel Daniel, John Donne, George Herbert, Thomas Carew, Robert Herick, Sir John Suckling, Sir Richard Lovelace, John Bunyan, Robert Burton, Sir Thomas Browne, Thomas Fuller, Jeremy Taylor, Richard Baxter, Izaak Walton among other important writers of the age. 

Milton's "Paradise Lost" and "Paradise Regained" , his sonnets and other works; Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress", and "Faerie Queene", Burton's "Anatomy of Melancholy", Browne's "Religio Medici", Taylor's "Holy Living and Dying", and Walton's "Complete Angler" are known as remarkable works of the age.

The Puritan AgeBack

The Restoration Period

During 1660-1700, there were tremendous social reactions from the restraint of parliament. A wild delight in the pleasures and varieties of the world like performances of dramas and theaters, the revival of bull and bear baiting, sports, music, dancing etc. replaced the absorption in other "other-worldliness",. The writers turned from Italian influence of imagination to French objective repression of emotions. 

The greatest literary figure of the Restoration period is John Dryden (1631-1700) whose book provides an excellent reflection of both good and evil tendencies of age. He is best known for his narrative poem "Annus Mirabilis", "All for love", "Religio Laici", "A'eneid", "Fables" etc. 

Samuel Butler, Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke were among others prominent writers of the age. Butler's "Hudibras", Hobbe's "Leviathan", Locke's "Essay Concerning Human Understanding" etc. add glory to the literature of the age.

AGE OF ELIZABETH

The Age Of Elizabeth

The period between the later part of the sixteenth and the earlier part of seventeenth centuries is called the "Age of Elizabeth" which produced many excellent prose works, although it is essentially an age of poetry.

During this age, the emergence of the first national poet (since Chaucer's death in 1400) of Edmund Spenser, along with Christopher Marlow, Philip Sydney, William Shakespeare, Ben Johnson, and Francis Bacon is noticed. Spencer produced "Shepherd's Calendar", "The Faerie Queen"; Marlowe's poem "Hero and Leander", and his translation of Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey" are remarkable. And besides his poems, Philip Sydney wrote his romance prose "Arcadia", and The Defense of Poisie, a critical essay.

William Shakespeare's appearance as a great force in the literary arena of English Literature secured him the foremost place in the world's literature, he is over the ages a universal poet and dramatist. His famous works are "Henry VI", "Richard III", "The Comedy of Errors", "Titus Andronicus", "The Taming of the Shrew", "Love's Labour's Lost", "Romeo and Juliet", "A Midsummer Night's Dream", "The Two Gentlemen of Verona", "King John", "Richard II", "The Merchant of Venice", "Henry IV", "Henry IV (Part Two)", "Much Ado about Nothing", "Henry V", "Julius Caesar", "The Merry Wives of Windsor", "As You Like It", "Hamlet", "Twelfth Night", "Trollus and Cressida', "All's Well that Ends Well", "Measure for Measure", "Othello", "Macbeth", "King Lear", "Antony and Cleopatra", "Timon of Athens", "Pericles", "Cymbeline", "The Winter's Tale", "The Tempest", and "Henry VIII".

Ben Johnson's powerful dramas, like "Every Man in His Humor", "Cyntia's Revels", "The Poetster", "The Alchemist", "The Volpone", "The Silent Woman" etc. and Bacon's "The Advancement of Learning", "Novum Organum", "The Instauratio" and his famous "Essays" accelerated immensely the steps of growth of the English literature of the age.

AGE OF CHAUCER

The Age Of Chaucer

The fourteenth century produced only a few eminent writers, of whom, Geoffrey Chaucer is greatest of all. Chaucer's best poetical works are "The Canterbury Tales", "The Romance of the Rose (translation)", "Troilus and Cressida", and "The Legend of Good Woman". Chaucer's works and Wyclif's translation of the Bible developed the Midland into the national standard of prose in England. 

The two other contemporaries of Chaucer were William Langland and John Mandeville. Langland is known for his great poem "Piers Plowman". About the year 1356, Mandeville's work "Voyage and Travail of Sir John Mandeville" was written in the midland dialect giving an outline of his wide travels.

Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe :

Doctor Faustus, a talented German scholar at Wittenburg, rails against the limits of human knowledge. He has learned everything he can learn, or so he thinks, from the conventional academic disciplines. All of these things have left him unsatisfied, so now he turns to magic. A Good Angle and an Evil Angel arrive, representing Faustus' choice between Christian conscience and the path to damnation. The former advises him to leave off this pursuit of magic, and the latter tempts him. From two fellow scholars, Valdes andCornelius, Faustus learns the fundamentals of the black arts. He thrills at the power he will have, and the great feats he'll perform. He summons the devil Mephostophilis. They flesh out the terms of their agreement, with Mephostophilis representing Lucifer. Faustus will sell his soul, in exchange for twenty-four years of power, with Mephostophilis as servant to his every whim.

In a comic relief scene, we learn that Faustus' servant Wagner has gleaned some magic learning. He uses it to convince Robin the Clown to be his servant.

Before the time comes to sign the contract, Faustus has misgivings, but he puts them aside. Mephostophilis returns, and Faustus signs away his soul, writing with his own blood. The words "Homo fuge" ("Fly, man) appear on his arm, and Faustus is seized by fear. Mephostophilis distracts him with a dance of devils. Faustus requests a wife, a demand Mephostophilis denies, but he does give Faustus books full of knowledge.

Some time has passed. Faustus curses Mephostophilis for depriving him of heaven, although he has seen many wonders. He manages to torment Mephostophilis, hecan't stomach mention of God, and the devil flees. The Good Angel and Evil Angel arrive again. The Good Angel tells him to repent, and the Evil Angel tells him to stick to his wicked ways. Lucifer, Belzebub, and Mephostophilis return, to intimidate Faustus. He is cowed by them, and agrees to speak and think no more of God. They delight him with a pageant of the Seven Deadly Sins, and then Lucifer promises to show Faustus hell. Meanwhile, Robin the Clown has gotten one of Faustus' magic books.

Faustus has explored the heavens and the earth from a chariot drawn by dragons, and is now flying to Rome, where the feast honoring St. Peter is about to be celebrated. Mephostophilis and Faustus wait for the Pope, depicted as an arrogant, decidedly unholy man. They play a series of tricks, by using magic to disguise themselves and make themselves invisible, before leaving.

The Chorus returns to tell us that Faustus returns home, where his vast knowledge of astronomy and his abilities earn him wide renown. Meanwhile, Robin the Clown has also learned magic, and uses it to impress his friend Rafe and summon Mephostophilis, who doesn't seem too happy to be called.

At the court of Charles V, Faustus performs illusions that delight the Emperor. He also humiliates a knight named Benvolio. When Benvolio and his friends try to avenge the humiliation, Faustus has his devils hurt them and cruelly transform them, so that horns grow on their heads.

Faustus swindles a Horse-courser, and when the Horse-courser returns, Faustus plays a frightening trick on him. Faustus then goes off to serve the Duke of Vanholt. Robin the Clown, his friend Dick, the Horse-courser, and a Carter all meet. They all have been swindled or hurt by Faustus' magic. They go off to the court of the Duke to settle scores with Faustus.

Faustus entertains the Duke and Duchess with petty illusions, before Robin the Clown and his band of ruffians arrives. Faustus toys with them, besting them with magic, to the delight of the Duke and Duchess.

Faustus' twenty-four years are running out. Wagner tells the audience that he thinks Faustus prepares for death. He has made his will, leaving all to Wagner. But even as death approaches, Faustus spends his days feasting and drinking with the other students. For the delight of his fellow scholars, Faustus summons a spirit to take the shape of Helen of Troy. Later, an Old Man enters, warning Faustus to repent. Faustus opts for pleasure instead, and asks Mephostophilis to bring Helen of Troy to him, to be his love and comfort during these last days. Mephostophilis readily agrees.

Later, Faustus tells his scholar friends that he is damned, and that his power came at the price of his soul. Concerned, the Scholars exit, leaving Faustus to meet his fate.

As the hour approaches, Mephostophilis taunts Faustus. Faustus blames Mephostophilis for his damnation, and the devil proudly takes credit for it. The Good and Evil Angel arrive, and the Good Angel abandons Faustus. The gates of Hellopen. The Evil Angel taunts Faustus, naming the horrible tortures seen there.

The Clock strikes eleven. Faustus gives a final, frenzied monologue, regretting his choices. At midnight the devils enter. As Faustus begs God and the devil for mercy, the devils drag him away. Later, the Scholar friends find Faustus' body, torn to pieces.

Epilogue. The Chorus emphasizes that Faustus is gone, his once-great potential wasted. The Chorus warns the audience to remember his fall, and the lessons it offers.