The Commonwealth and Restoration 1649-1713 Setting the Scene The period between the execution and the

the Restoration is called the Commonwealth 1649- the execution of King Charles I Oliver Cromwell , leader of the Roundheads The Lord Protector /1649-1658/ Setting the Scene 1660-1688 - Charles II- restoration of the monarchy Parliament, two parties : the Whigs and the Tories, Prime Minister 1688 the Glorious or Bloodless Revolution - Queen Mary Setting the Scene The spirit of the Restoration was one of reason- to avoid another revolution The new middle class - stability Great commercial growth, scientific advances The Royal Society 1662-3 for the improving of Natural Knowledge The Bank of England - 1694 The main philosophical text Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes (1651) Allegory: The leviathan, a huge animal, is the commonwealth, and the individual man is totally controlled by the state. Self interest is what mainly drives human beings, so a strong state is necessary to keep the articles of peace and to control the people of the nation. p.347 Past into Present Poetry : Political poems Andrew Marvel (unofficial Poet Laureate ) An Horatian Ode upon Cromwells Return from Ireland 1650 - celebrates Cromwell as the nations hero P.79 Past into Present So restless Cromwell could not cease In the inglorious Arts of Peace.

But through adventurous war Urged his active star What field of all the Civil Wars Where his were not the deepest scars? The theme - strength, strong government Edmund Waller - the earliest heroic couplets Contrasts the personal and the public life (Richard Lovelace To Lucasta, Going to the Wars, 1649), the world of politics and city life and the quiet life in the country (Marvell) The English country and its flowers, love songs (Robert Herrick) JOHN MILTON (1608- 1674) Second after Shakespeare Born in London in a wealthy family, educated at Christs College, Cambridge (the Lady of Christs), studied at home, Horton 1632-1638 His works in three divisions: shorter poems at Horton, Prose (propaganda), last group with his three greatest poems 1. Early Period in Horton LAllegro (the happy man) and Il Penseroso (the thoughtful man) 1632 , Lycidas (1637) a sorrowful pastoral on the death by drowning of Edward King: prophecy and a warning-the Wolf of Catholicism is abroad, Comus (1634)- a masque The early works: the music of the language (the organ); references difficult to understand; Latin and Italian poetry influence 2. Prose - propaganda

 church affairs, divorce, freedom- violent pamphlets , A Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing - He who destroys a good book kills reason itself. A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit. 1652- lost his eyesight 3. Paradise Lost (1667) 12 books (1674), epic poem- the fall of the Satan and the consequent fall of the man, the story of Adam and Eve, and their failure to keep Gods commands Adam and Eve choose the path of human knowledge and leave the Garden of Eden, Paradise, at the end they follow the path towards the unknown future of all humanity. The scene the whole universe, including Heaven and Hell. They looking back, all th' Eastern side beheld Of Paradise, so late thir happie seat, Wav'd over by that flaming Brand, the Gate With dreadful Faces throng'd and fierie Armes: Som natural tears they drop'd, but wip'd them soon; The World was all before them, where to choose Thir place of rest, and Providence thir guide: They hand in hand with wandring steps and slow, Through Eden took thir solitarie way. Memorable descriptions (Hell) A dungeon horrible, on all sides round As one great furnace flamed yet from those flames No light but rather darkness visible Hundreds of remarkable thoughts put into musical verse. The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven Long is the way And hard, that out of hell leads up to light. So farewell hope, and with hope farewell fear. Blake: Milton was of the devils party without knowing it Satan does emerge as a real hero of Paradise Lost Milton unconsciously in the magnificent Satan features a fearless rebel thrown out of the well-ordered sunlit heaven, which is really the new England of Charles II.

 http://www.paradiselost.org/5-sum-short.html PARADISE LOST ~ A BRIEF SUMMARY Paradise Regained (1671) more severe less splendid Jesus Christ an example how to live by resisting temptation a kind of hero for the Restoration age, almost a return to the kind of ideal figure of medieval religious texts. Samson Agonistes (1671) a tragedy on the Greek Model, the last days of Samson an Israelite leader famous for his strength ( in his hair) ; betrayed by Delilah, captured and blinded by Philistines; with his hair grown again his strength returned and he pulled down the pillars of a house, destroying himself and the Philistines personal feelings laments his fall and his blindness, blames the first wife for all the misfortunes New in the poetic style New kind of blank verse unrhymed iambic pentameter Highly artificial; a word away from everyday speech Latin- vocabulary, syntax (long sentences) inversion of word order Very individual artificial style Musical the sound of the organ Religious writing JOHN BUNYAN The Pilgrims Progress 1678 an allegory, also a dream- version, like many medieval texts Values of the society- Christianity, faith and stability P.353-356 Past into Present Pilgrims Progress A simple enough story, very traditional in its use of allegory and personification a story of Christian traveling to the Eternal City, having been warned that the town in which he and his family live the City of Destruction- is to be destroyed by fire. He travels through the valley of Humiliation, the Valley of the Shadow and Death, and so on. His story takes the first part; 2d part- the journey of Christiana his wife and their children to the same destination Critical works

DRYDEN

Essay on Dramatic Poesie (1668)- the way to clear, reasonable and balanced way of writing in English, English French drama, the use of rhyme in drama, praise of Shakespeare, limitations of the unities of time and place. Works of philosophy John Locke Essay on the Human Understanding (1690) Diaries - Samuel Pepys (secret signs), events of 1660-69 p. 86-87, 91 Past into Present AUGUSTANS and SATIRES Took their name from the classical Latin age of Augustus, who died in AD 14.- the high point of Roman culture. Reason and the very rational basis of thought : emotion takes second place to clear thought and reason. satire Johnson Dictionary : satire where weakness or folly is censured Dryden claimed that the true end of satire was the amendment of vices Defor : it was reformation Pope (Epilogue to the Satires): O sacred Weapon! Left for Truths defence ROCHESTER (John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester) Poetry- witty and rude, celebrating the pleasures of life and satirizing all of society, from King Charles II to mankind itself. Id be a god, a monkey or a bear, Or anything but that vain animal Who is so proud of being rational. SAMUEL BUTLER 1663-1678 Hudibras mock romance aimed at every religious, academic and political subject of the agereal people and situations to make its humorous point JOHN DRYDEN (Poet Laureate)

 Master of satire in poetry 1680s- Absalom and Achitophel (1681) Plots, true or false, are necessary things To raise up commonwealths and reign kings The Medal (1682) people and situations, MacFlecknoe (1682) literary rivalry H/W : analysis p.92 Past into Present 20 plays, comedy- tragedy, new genre- tragicomedy Marriage a- la Mode (1672, tragedyAll for Love (1678) The Secular Masque (1700) Thy wars brought nothing about Thy lovers were all untrue Tis well an old age is out And time to begin a new. Drama 2 public licensed theatres (the Theatre Royal (Drury Lane) and The Lincolns Inn Fields Theatre ( Covent Garden), audience- first upper class or upper-middle class The comedies of manners p.116 COMEDY Manners and morals of the men and women who had returned from France. COMEDY OF MANNERS - love and new concerns GEORGE ETHEREGE The Comical Revenge (1664), The Man of Mode (1676) WILLIAM WYCHERLEY The Country Wife (1675) accused of immorality WILLIAM CONGREVE The Way of the World (1700) TRAGEDY AND SERIOUS DRAMA DRYDEN - The Tempest, Trolius and Cressida; rewrote tragedies to have happy ends Thomas Otway Venice Preservd (1682) stability of society; hero is sacrificed to save the world Many theories about realism on stage. Growing pressure : danger to public morals and controversial politically

 Jeremy Collier 1698 A Short View of the Profaneness and Immorality of the English Stage