Zusammenfassung der Ressource
The Restoration (1660-1702)
and the XVIII Century
(1702-1798)
- The Restoration
- History
- Charles II (1660-1685)
- 1665: Plague in London
- 1666: Great Fire in London
- Sameul Pepys' chronicles
- Disregard for Parliament,
religious persecution
against Protestants, political instability
- James II (1685-1688)
- Catholic king, claimed divine right
to rule, avoid consulting with the
Parliament, more persecutions
- 1687: Act of Indulgence: relieving
Catholic and Dissenters
- His daughter, Mary, was Protestant.
When a male hire was born, many
decided that they didn't want
another Catholic king
- 1688: Bloodless Revolution_William of Orange
arrived in England with a great popularity and a
small force. James II had to flee
- William III of Orange (1688-1702)
and Queen Mary (James II's
daughter)
- The Parliament was divided in two parties: Whigs
(mercantile middle class) ad Tories (old aristocracy)
- Very Important People
- Isaac Newton (1642-1727
- Henry Purcell (1658-1695), opera
- Literature
- New Science and Philosophy influenced a new style, simple
and concise. this was due also to the Puritan great influence.
The new cultural movement was typified in the foundation of
the Royal Society (1667). It was to dictate the tastes for the
new prose: primitive purity and shortness
- Moral works, Puritan Literature
- John Bunyan (1628-1688): "The
pilgrim's Process" (1678)
- Diaries, biographies and letters
- Samuel Pepys (1633-1703)
- Pepy's "Diary" (1660-1690): Protestant upper-middle class
life; new style: telegraphic; he often give thanks to God
for the good conditions his family has acquired
- John Evelyn (1620-1706)
- Biographical works:
Margaret Lucas Cavendish;
Lucy Hutchinson ('40s-60s)
- Letters: Dorothy Osborne (1627-1695)
- her style is a predecessor of J.
Austen's
- Restoration Poetry
- Classical ideal, philosophy from Horace's
"Carpe Diem"; generally aristocratic poets;
some satire in heroic couplets
- Aristocrats: Earl of Rochester;
John Sedley ('40s-'90s)
- John Dryden (1631-1700)
- He is the first modern critic (Shakespeare's works) and poet;
Born in a Puritan family, became a monarchist when Charles
II became king; he learnt to write poetry from the
Metaphisical tradition and for some time he also devoted
himself to theatre (Heroic plays); he turned Catholic after
James' II accession to the throne
- Style: in the plays the characters have little
psychological insight; taste for elegance in
words and images; visual quality of his
poetry; many subjects are allegories or satires
- Early poetry: "Heroic Stanzas",
"Astrea Redux", "Annus
Mirabilis" ('60s)
- Critic: "An Essay on Dramatic Poesie",
about Shakespeare and others
- Restoration Drama
- Indoor, private theatres; influence of Ben
Jonson, Italian's Commedia dell'Arte,
Calderòn; themes: sensual attraction, vanity,
social reputation as the main passions;
- Heroic Plays: love, decoration,
perfect and stereotyped heroism
(Dryden)
- Tragedies: they shold rise
admiration among the
spectators; noble manners, blank
verse (Thomas Otway)
- Comedies: allied with satire, but the
humor hides a total lack of ideals,
showing the dissoluteness of the
higher classes; prose
- William Congreve (1670-1729) -
educated in Ireland, "The old Bachelo"
attracted Dryden's attention,
influenced by Jonson, typical
Restoration comedy characters,
comic, realistic and sentimental
elements
- The XVIII Century
- Literature
- Great Augustans
- Alexandre Pope (1688-1744)
- Born Catholic, suffered discrimination and poor health
- "Nature Methodized"; Horace's "Carpe Diem";
against wit and empiricism
- Early poetry: "The Pastorals"
- "An Essay on Criticism" (1711):
summed up all the critical
ideals of the moment; direct
references to Horatians taste
- "The Rape of the Lock" (1712):
mock-heroic poem - trivial subject
with epic diction; frivolity of the
English aristocracy
- "An Essay on Man" (1733-34):
philosophical, heroic couplets,
about human nature, society,
God and universe
- Their aim was to build a great rational system to include all aspects of society; rules were laid down in heroic couplets
- Rationalism, didacticism, Nature, Classics, Aristocratic idea of society
- Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
- He was born in Ireland, from English parents; always
parted between Irish and English identity; fought for
the Irish cause, though. Died after the loss of mental power
- Satirical pamphlet (polemical genius)
- "The Battle of Books" (1697):
prose satire; comparison
between ancient and modern
learning - victory to Classics
- "A Modest Proposal fro Preventing the Children of Poor
People from Being a Burden to Their Parents" (1729):
satirical proposal to kill the 80% of one-year-old babies
and use them as food to solve the problem of famine in
Ireland
- Fiction: first person narration
- "Gulliver's Travel" (1726): novel in 4 books,
first published in Dublin; Travel story,
satire, philosophical tale, realism; it is
similanr to diaries and autobiographies
(the narrator is authorative)
- Samuel Jonson (1709-1784)
- Began his carrear in harsh economical
conditions; success came in 1755, fame sanction
in the creation of a circle (Literary Club); then he
was the arbiter of literary taste in late Augustan
England
- Referred to as "Dr Jonson", successor to Pope,
still rooted in classical and Reinassance
traditions; his favourite theme is how life
always deludes expectations
- Critic: "Preface to Shakespeare" (1765) -
first modern critic, he questions even
most accepted ideas of literary criticism
(fe doctrine of dramatic unities); always
bases his criticism upon texts
- 1746-1755: years in which Jonson works upon the
"Dictionary if the English Language", where a standard
language is established; dictionary historically-based
(great writers and their language are the authorities)
- History
- Queen Anne
(1702-1714)
- 1707: Act of Union
(English and Scottish
Parliament
- Protestant daughter of James II;
she is the last of the Stuarts
- George I (1714-1727)
- He wasn't a Stuart, but the
nearest non-Catholic relative of
Anne
- The Hanoverians dynasty begins
(from Germany)
- Since he wasn't really practical of English Politics, he
had to rely in the Parliament, allied in particular
with the Whigs (leader: Sir Robert Walpole); period
of oligarchy ("Whigs' dictatorship)
- George II (1727-1760)
- Son of George I
- Renewed conflicts against France
- 1740-48: war for the succession
of the Austrian Throne_UK and
the party of Maria Antonietta
against France, Prussia, Spain
- Period of loss in economics
and politics for England
- 1756-63: Seven Years' War
_Prussia, England against the
rest of Europe and Russia
- Radical change of policy,
rebirth of the nation
thanks to the new Prime
Minister William Pitt the
Elder
- George III (1760-1820)
- First native Enlish speaking Hanoverian
king, this meant a period of almost
internal peace
- 1765-1783: American's Indipendence War
- 1765: "No Taxation Without Representation"
- 1773: Boston Tea Party
- 1775: the 13 American colonies met
in Philadelphia and put up an
army; military command to George
Washington
- 4 July 1776: Declaration of Indipendence
- 1783: after a long war (Britain against
USA, France and Spain) the Treaty of
Versailles ratified USA's indipendence
- James Cook discovers Oceania
- Emerging problems: Irish Catholicism, electoral reform
- 1793-1815: wars against France and Napoleon
- End of the century: Industrial Revolution begins (steam engine, iron
industry, textile industry); cultural reaction: Methodism, which helped to
create many humanitarian movements, concerned with social problems