Restoration and the Eighteenth Century

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Restoration and the Eighteenth Century (1660-1800)
Southwark Fair by William Hogarth
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The Renaissance began to decline after Queen
Elizabeths death. Although James I sponsored a
new translation of the Bible, patronized
Shakespeare, and was a benevolent and peaceful
ruler, he was also a spendthrift and a foreigner,
and his relationship with his subjects went from
bad to worse.
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• Charles I
• James son Charles I was remote, autocratic and
  self-destructive. He was beheaded in 1649 by the
  English people.
• Oliver Cromwell
• For the next eleven years, England was led by
  Parliament and the Puritan dictator Oliver
  Cromwell.

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• King Charles II
• by Nicholas Dixon Vellum

• Tired of war and revolutionaries, after the death
  of Cromwell, the English people brought back the
  son of Charles I from exile in France and crowned
  him king.
• They then dug up the corpse of Oliver Cromwell
  who ruled England between Charles I and Charles
  II and cut off his head.

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• 1660-1670 saw England exhausted by civil war,
  fire and disease.
• Similarities between England and Rome-Octavian
  restoring peace and order -Stuart monarchs
  restored peace and order after civil wars and
  execution of King Charles I in 1649.

Chairing the Member William Hogarth
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Westminster Abbey

• Charles II reestablished Anglican church as
  official church.
• He outlawed all Puritan and Independent sects.
• This persecution lasted through the 18th century.

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• In 1642 plays were banned and closed for 29 years
  by Puritans.
• Charles II loved plays and reopened them in
  London.
• Female actors were allowed along with males.
• New plays showed relationships in unsentimental,
  unromantic ways life of rich and leisured
  class.

The First Opera House in the Haymarket
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Royal Society of London for the Promotion of
Natural Knowledge

• King Charles II also organized a new group of
  philosophers and writers.
• Writing became precise, exact, and not decorated
  with elaborate metaphors or odd allusions.

• John Dryden

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• This new science influenced religion.
• This movement was called Deism which viewed the
  universe as a perfect mechanism which God had
  built and left to run on its own.

Interior of Henry VII's Chapel Westminster Abbey
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Age of Reason and Enlightenment

• This renewed prosperity, brought about by the
  restoration of King Charles II, caused a new age
  to begin.
• Scientists began asking How instead of Why.

Sir Isaac Newton
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Age of Reason and Enlightenment

• Also, disasters were no longer considered
  punishment or warnings from God. Known as Age of
  Reason because people used reason, not faith, to
  make sense of the world.
• Sir Isaac Newton led the tone by his formulated
  laws of gravity and motion. His scientific method
  consists of analyzing facts, developing a
  hypothesis and testing that with experimentation.

Newton's Reflecting Telescope
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New Philosophies- If nature operated by simple,
orderly laws that are worked out by logic then
human nature can also

• John Locke use intelligence to rid themselves
  of unjust authorities. Rejecting the divine
  right of kings, Locke provided a logical
  justification for the Glorious Revolution by
  asserting the rights of citizens to revolt
  against an unfair government.
• Also a time of haves and have nots.

• Improvements in living conditions came through
  items such as inoculation
• Writers, artists, politicians and other members
  of society met in Londons coffeehouses to
  exchange ideas, conduct business, and gossip.
• Women held salons to participate in intellectual
  life.

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• English writers
• modeled works on
• old Latin classics,
• which they had
• studied in school
• and university.
• These writings that
• imitate Latin works
• were called
• Neoclassical
• new classical.

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Journalism A New Profession

• Didnt just report current events moralized,
  mocked, gossiped, opinions on social manners to
  international politics.
• Satisfies middle class for instruction and
  amusement.
• Joseph Addison and Richard Steele The Tatler
  The Spectator

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The First English Novels

• People began writing long fictional narratives
  which came to be known as novels or something
  new.
• They became popular because of a growing middle
  class.
• They were often broad and comical adventure
  stories.
• Henry Fielding
• Tom Jones
• Daniel Defoe Robinson Crusoe (considered first
  novel)

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Life among the "Haves and the "Have-Nots"

• According to the law, all men were equal.
  However, some were more equal than others. The
  Restoration is marked by excess of the wealthy.
• The poor during the Restoration lived in extreme
  poverty.
• The separation of classes led to the satirical
  writing style of Jonathan Swift and Alexander
  Pope.

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Satirical Voices Neoclassicists used ridicule to
point out aspects of society that they felt
needed to be changed.

• Followed the Roman model Horace and Juvenal
• Horatian satire gentle
• Playful and sympathetic approach
• Juvenalian dark, biting style

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• Satirical writing emerged with Alexander Pope and
  Jonathan Swift.
• Pope addressed the leisured and rich for
  immorality and bad taste.
• Swift exposed mean and sordid human behavior.
• Both writers hated corrupt politics and
  materialism.

• Night by William Hogarth

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2nd half of 18th century sometimes known as Age
of Johnson
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• His essays are classic examples of the formal
  18th-century prose in which Johnson was a master.
• Literary dictator of London due to biographies of
  poets, critiques of poems and other literary
  works.

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Rise of Women Writers

• Mary Wollstonecraft
• A Vindication of the rights of Women- challenges
  status quo. Her views were radical at a time when
  most women accepted inferior status.

• Unable to participate in public intellectual
  life, women formed salons
• Intellectuals known as bluestockings due to the
  casually dressed everyday blue worsted stockings
  (similar to our jeans)
• Began Publishing works

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Fanny Burney

• Her diary gives modern readers a look at upper
  class in Age of Johnson
• Novels sentimental and moralistic
• Womens concerns and portrayal of polite society
  won her a wide audience

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Public Poetry Conceived in Wit
Laughing Audience Wm. Hogarth

• Artificial and crafted for public
• Author knows purpose and kind
• Careful meter and rhyme
• Elegies celebrates best in people
• Satire portrays the worst in people
• Ode ambitious, pompous expressing a public
  emotion

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Types of Writing

• Informal Essay-short work of nonfiction that
  offered an opinion on a subject
• Letters and diaries were popular
• Biographies
• Autobiographies and Memoirs

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• By 1784 there was now a search for a simpler
  life.
• The Industrial Revolution changed cities into
  filthy slums.
• This age of elegance, taste, philosophy, and
  reason was over.
• As industry grew, writers returned to nature and
  folk themes for inspiration.

Joseph Wright