The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century: 1660-1800

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The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century
1660-1800

• (HOLT Lit Book pg. 559)

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• England in 1660
• Exhausted by 20 years of civil war, the Black
  Plague, and the Great Fire of London, which left
  2/3 of citizens homeless.
• Other labels of this time period include
• Age of Reason
• Age of Enlightenment
• Augustan Age
• Neoclassical Period

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Age of Reason and Enlightenment vs Renaissance

• In the Renaissance

• During the Enlightenment

• People had superstitious beliefs about unnatural
  events believed nature gave warnings about
  social disaster.
• People looked for supernatural intervention in
  trying to explain WHY certain events transpired.

• The focus shifted from WHY did this happen? to
  HOW did this happen?
• It became acceptable and popular to question old
  explanations scientific observation.

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Why is this period also know as the Neoclassical
and Augustan Period? Both the ruler of Rome
(Octavian/Augustus) and the ruler of England
(Charles II, Stuart King) restored peace and
order after a leaders death and civil war. The
people of both Rome and England were war weary,
suspicious of radicals and revolutionaries,
wanted peace/order to work and enjoy life. To
warn future revolutionaries, the people of
England dug up Oliver Cromwell (who led during
the civil wars) and cut off his corpses head to
strike fear in any dissenters. (Cromwell had
become a military dictator with Puritanical
values.) Writers during this time modeled their
works after Latin works, classics of Rome
(probably Greek works, too) because they were
deemed to have permanence and represented
universal values in human experience.
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Restoration/18th Century Monarchs
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Restoration/18th Century Monarchs
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• Changes in Religion
• Deism Religious belief based upon reason and
  observation of nature watchmaker analogy says
  God built complex universe, then let it run by
  itself.
• Christianity (in its various forms) still held
  power over almost all Europeans during this time
  period.
• Religion and Politics
• Charles II reinstituted the Anglican Church as
  official church of England.
• He attempted to outlaw Puritan and independent
  sects. This resulted in the popularity of British
  colonies in America. Also, it made the public
  scared to voice opposing views on any subject.
• The Bloodless Revolution
• When Charles II died he had no legal (legitimate)
  heir. The problem? His brother James II was a
  Roman Catholic.
• Unpopular James II eventually fled to France in
  1688 his Protestant daughter Mary took over.
• Since then, all English monarchs have been
  Anglicans (at least in name).

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• The Birth of Modern English Prose
• Members of the Royal Society of London call for
  more precise, plain and exact writing (such as
  shortening long sentences). There was a new form
  of English prose popularity of journals,
  pamphlets, and travel writing.
• John Dryden - founder and first true master of
  modern English prose. In poetry, he popularized
  regularized meter, made diction precise.

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• Addicted to Theater
• When Charles II came to power, one of his first
  acts was to reopen the theaters Cromwell had
  closed.
• Charles and brother James supported play
  companies financially this era saw the first
  real female actresses!
• Plays were produced during this time period
  Witty comedies, included emphasis on sexual
  relationships these plays were another outlet
  for satire of the age.

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• The Age of Satire
• The most accomplished writers of the eighteenth
  century were Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift.
• Criticized contemporary society
• Believed in order and discipline
• Appalled by the squalor and shoddiness (in art,
  manners, morals) that underlay the polished
  surfaces of Augustan lifeits violent and filthy
  underside.
• Deplored corrupt politics, materialism, and
  commercialism
• Pope attacked immorality and bad taste, usually
  of the upper class.

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I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often
wonder to see them not ashamed.Jonathan Swift
For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
Alexander Pope
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• Journalism
• Daniel Defoe stood for middle class values
  thrift, prudence, industry, respectability
• Journalists of the eighteenth century were
  reporters and reformers of public manners and
  morals
• Public Poetry
• Poets of this time had no desire to write about
  the soul/feelings believed poetry was a public
  function
• An Augustan poet would craft a poem by deciding
  in advance the kind of poem they wanted, with its
  exact meter and rhyme
• Augustan elegy celebrated the dead by recalling
  the best about a person, even if it was not true
• Poetic satire says the worst thing about someone
  or something to expose them/it to ridicule
• Ode Expression of public emotion, often
  celebratory
• Poetry of this time period was highly crafted
  according to proper format

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• The First English Novels
• Early novels were long, fictional, broad stories
  often comical
• Novels had a lasting importance
• Fiction is a reflection of the time in which it
  was written.
• They help us understand humor and human insights
  of human experiences.
• They helped expand literacy and had a wider
  public audience (written in a simpler, more
  common form of English to be read and
  understood).
• The Commanding Figure of Johnson
• Samuel Johnson criticized optimism, the idea of
  progress (that human society was always improving
  for the better) and the idea that humans are
  fundamentally moral (if we reformed society,
  everyone would just do the right thing).
• Searching for a Simpler Life
• By the end of the eighteenth century, the world
  was changing Industrial Revolution changed
  manufacturing, cities were booming, pollution,
  the French (and American) Revolutions.
• New writers disgusted by pollution and mass
  expansion. They turned to writing about nature
  and the effects of mass industrialization on the
  soul.