restoration & 18 th century 1660-1785 based on norton anthology of english lit 8 th edition
TRANSCRIPT
Religion and Politics
Return of Charles II (Stuart) after “Interregnum” of Cromwell family, during which country run by puritans or “dissenters”
Anglican bishops were not tolerant of dissent
Test ACT required all who attend university, and all holders of civil and military office, to take sacrament and deny belief in transubstantiation
Widespread anti-catholic sentiment; blamed for fire of London and fictional “popish plot”
Ousting of Stuarts
James II, a Catholic, did not hide his sympathies like his father had. Ousted
Dutchman William of Orange and his wife, James’ protestant daughter Mary, come to London and James flees to France: “Bloodless Revolution”
His supporters, called Jacobites, persisted, especially in Scotland, until final unsuccessful uprising of Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1745
Succession settled on German Sophia, Electress of Hanover and her descendents (granddaughter of James I
England’s New Wealth
War of Spanish Succession in 1702 weakened England’s commercial rivals; England gained new colonies and contracts to supply slaves to Spain.
New wealth created tensions between old and new money
Whigs and Tories
These aristocratic parties fight for ascendancy throughout period.
Whigs, like “Petroleum conservatives,” tolerated dissenters; supported new moneyed interests (bankers, etc.); centralized government
Tories, like “Bible belt conservatives,” supported monarchy, established church, affirmed land ownership as proper basis of wealth, suspicious of centralized government that rewarded followers with wealth
Emergency of Empire
First prime ministers (Walpole and Pitt) expand British power and commerce overseas
Britain becomes colonial power, ruling Canada and India, though they lose American colonies.
Slave trade enriches nation; opposition to slavery widespread by both Anglicans and Methodists
Discontent: The rich get richer
Great wealth does not spread to poor; women remain disenfranchised
1780 London riots turn the poor (Catholic and Protestant) against each other
Popular king George has 60-year rule, but inherited madness increasingly mars rule
Fear of radicals who call for new democracy contributes to British reaction against French revolution
Context of Ideas: Contrast & Compromise
Holdovers of revolution: Pilgrim’s Progress and Paradise Lost express the conscience of “dissenters”
Contrast with court, in which Charles II and his followers “aggressively celebrated pleasure” and considered London’s “wives and daughters fair game”
Compromise brewing among intellectuals; suspicions of all excess
Suspicion of Dogmatism & “Enthusiasm”
All anxious to avoid strife of 1640-60 All dogma unpopular: puritan enthusiasm,
papal infallibility, divine right of kings, modern Cartesian philosophy
Pursuit of absolute certainty is “vain, mad, and socially calamitous.”
For religious people and cynics, faith can take up where reason and sensory evidence fails
Distrust of received knowledge
New theories: Hobbes supports absolute government because of scientific theory of matter in motion: human desire for power leads to “state of war”
Atomic theory Advancement of empirical study by careful,
systematic observation is the great contribution of 18th c. England to the world
Science—still a lay activity
Natural history (collection & description of natural facts) & Natural philosophy (study of those facts)
Microscope and telescope expand complexity of universe
Aphra Behn translates Fontenelle’s “Conversation on the Plurality of Worlds” suggestng alternate universes
Exploration and colonization increase apetite for “wondrous facts” about new flora and fawna
Science, cont’d
Discovery of electricity led to fashionable experiments with electrocution
Matthew Boulton creates first factories powered by steam engines
Chemistry allowed new market by Wedgewood in domestic porcelain
Deism or “Natural Religion”
Newton’s discoveries suggest “universal order in creation” created by God like watchmaker and watch
Encounter with other non-Christian peoples led to “universal” religious tenets that could be embraced by rational beings
Deism: Reason recognizes goodness and wisdom of God and natural law; no need for mystery or bible
Deism’s God winds world like a watch and then withdraws. American Founders like Ben Franklin embraced Deism, which seemed like a better foundation for new nation than religious division
Empiricism:
Berkeley: we know the world only through our senses; we cannot prove that material things exist; reliance on faith
Hume: causes and effects are discernable by experience, not reason
Locke examines “limits of human understanding” to help us avoid “meddling” in things that exceed our comprehension
Swift & Pope warn against metaphysics, abstract logic, theoretical science. Pope: “Presume not God to scan.”
Feminism
Mary Astell argued for women’s educational institutions and decried marital tyranny; mocks Locke’s insistence on political rights for men only.
Richard Steele and others advocates improvement in women’s education and “sociability.”
New Religion
Methodism—evangelical sect promoted by John Wesley et al, preached salvation through faith, not works (unlike Anglicans)
New emphasis on individual and personal God: diary keeping, letter writing, and novel “all testify to importance of private, individual life”
Conditions of Literary Production
Government licensing relaxed and replaced by laws against sedition, libel, obscenity, and treason
Stage licensing remained; all but two royal theatres closed down
Copyright vested with publishers and authors begin to profit by subscription; Pope earns 5000 pounds for Iliad translation
Stamp acts allowed taxation of newspapers; put some out of business but others thrived
New professional writing class
Grub St in where poorer writers lived Market also appealed to literary elite; few
now wrote except for pay Subscription allowed new wealth but also
helped women’s writing, which otherwise had trouble finding publishers
Mostly wealthy or middle class, but some poor authors made it into print, e.g. Mary Collier’s “The Woman’s Labor”
Education of Women
Increase in literacy (male literacy as much as 75% by end of period, perhaps 25% for women; literacy mostly urban and surrounded the bible)
Women were barred from universities; all were self-educated
Aristocratic women published widely, especially poems
Some “scandalous” writers of popular stories of sex, satire, seduction were denounced by men as immoral Pope’s Dunciad depicts pissing contest of “scurrilous male booksellers” won by Eliza Haywood
Bluestockings: intellectual women who favored moral literature, esp novels about young women approaching marriage
Cost of reading
Books were still too expensive for laborers, as were lending libraries
Poor sometimes taught to read as a religious activity by aristocratic masters
Patrons interested in letters, travel literature, and novels
Change of printing: capitalization reserved for proper names instead of nouns; fewer italics for emphasis suggests more sophisticated reading public
Literary Principles: New emphasis on Clarity
Elegant simplicity and restraint; rejection of Donne’s metaphysics and Milton’s large themes
“Neoclassical” or “Augustan” period involved classical revival with English themes
Dryden’s interest in literature for moral instruction
“Nature”
New interest in “nature”—external nature of landscapes; human nature’s “enduring, universal truths”
Study of the ancients seemed synonymous with study of nature: combine method with with, and judgment with fancy
Restraint: “The winged courser, like a generous horse, Shows most true mettle when you check his course.”
Mannered language; readable verse
Style dominated by personification, periphrasis, latinate words, and words forced into Latin syntax
Heroic Couplet (rhymed iambic pentameter AA BB) inherited from Ben Jonson; elaborately stylized, but short sentences. For witty, moralizing verse
Blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter) favored for meditative poems
Restoration Literature 1660-1700 Dryden dominated; lit combined latest
European trends with English topics; made Ovid and Virgil accessible through translation
Royal society asked for prose to be “plain and utilitarian”; contrast with elaborate style of Milton’s pamphlets and Donne’s sermons
Aristocratic, heroic subjects Restoration drama favored comedies of
manners featuring pleasure-seeking males who prey on beautiful, witty, emancipated women
18th Century lit 1700-1745
Great age of satire: wit turned against “fanaticism and innovation;” mock epics by Pope, Swift, Gay.
New prose genres: allegories, biographies of notorious criminals, travelogues, gossip, romance—often fictonalized, Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Behn’s Oronooko
Sentimental drama rejected immoral comedies; featured characters choosing between love and honor
Poems about sublime beauties of nature and “low subjects” prefigure romantic age
New Modes 1740-1845
Prose modes: novels more popular than poems for first time. Essays, literary criticism, biography, philosphy, politics, history, aesthetics, economics (Adam Smith)
Memoirs of women created celebrities who let readers into private lives
Epistolary novels and satires; gothic novels; experimental fiction influenced by Cervantes in Spain; Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy
First dictionaries Poems were melancholy and lamented loss of
poetic age; “primitives” like Ossian were popular