Restoration Poetry

Restoration and the 18th century in England laid the foundation for England's present social system

saw the rise of experimental science and many new literary forms, including journalism and the novel

After the Restoration, Charles II took steps to re-establish Anglicanism in England

1664, he declared illegal any religious meetings that did not follow Anglican forms of worship

1673, the Test Act required all holders of civil and military offices to practice Anglican Christianity

religious climate would affect such literary figures as

John Dryden, John Bunyan, and Alexander Pope

denied employment in public life

Excluded from other forms of public life

these men expressed themselves through literature

Two important events occurred soon after Charles' restoration

Plague of 1665

Great Fire of London in 1666

Plague of 1665 was the last great outbreak of the disease in England

fire destroyed most of Elizabethan London

A new city had to be built, literally, on its ashes

seeds of what would become the great political parties of the 19th century were planted

conservative country people and minor gentry formed...

the Tory party
stood for tradition

Commercial interests were represented by the greater nobility and city merchants of...

the Whig party

James II, heir and brother of Charles II, was a Roman Catholic

claimed the right to set aside laws and overrule Parliament

When he began to replace members of the civil service with Catholics and then produced an heir

Parliament invited William of Orange and James' Protestant daughter Mary to the throne

known as the Glorious Revolution of 1688 because James fled to the continent without putting up any serious resistance

heirs and supporters (the Jacobites) remained a threat to the monarchy for another century

After the reign of William and Mary

Queen Anne (James II's younger daughter) died without an heir

Sophia, Electress of Hanover and the last of James I's grandchildren succeeded Anne

her son George became George I of England in 1714

Since the first two Georges were essentially German princes

literature in English was not their concern, and they gave it little support

Authors began to turn to publishers to get financial returns from their writing

For most of the 18th and 19th century, Britain was involved in consolidating its empire (though they lost its American colonies)

Britain's main rival during this period was France

Also, political thought was turning from traditional forms of monarchy and working toward ideas that valued...

liberty, the rule of reason, and human rights in government

The Satirists

premier literary genre (type) of the Restoration and 18th century was...

satire

Way of the World is an example of this literary type, as are a number of the poems

John Dryden and Alexander Pope, along with almost all the poems of Jonathan Swift

Satire

type of literature that is supposed to make fun of social abuses
goal of getting people to correct their faults in order to escape public ridicule

poets of this period took two Roman authors for their models:

Horace and Juvenal

Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus),
a 1st-century-B.C. Roman poet, claimed that his satires were designed to educate people in virtue

Horatian satire aims at gentle ridicule with an eye toward having the target correct the fault

Juvenal (Decimus Iunius Juvenalis) lived during the 1st and early 2nd centuries C.E. His poetic style was rough

Rather than aim at correcting faults, he mercilessly ridiculed his targets

Juvenalian satire aims at injury

English poets of this period imitated specific satiric poems as well as the style of these authors

Both Dryden and Pope

aspired to write more than satire

Dryden was most famous as a public poet

He was Poet Laureate of England until 1688, when he converted to Roman Catholicism

In the wake of the Glorious Revolution, he was stripped of his laureateship

-forced to make his living translating Roman poetry
-writing plays and literary criticism

Upcoming

• Read Before Class: Alexander Pope: "Rape of the Lock" and "Essay on Man"
• complete coordinating CPA