Neo-classicism, reasons of rise

 The excess of metaphysicals –followers of Donne-led to

a revolt in favor of order, balance and sanity in literature.
Their extravagant hyperboles, farfetched and violent
similes and metaphors and conceits elaborated to a fantastic
extent prepared the ground for Neo-classicism with its
emphasis on correctness and decorum.
 The French influence: Charles II and his courtiers’ return
from France, French respect for rules, French theory and
practice of literature.
 The rise of the scientific spirit and the new philosophy
with their emphasis on rationalism, reason, clarity, and
simplicity in thought and expression, and the avoidance of
all that was extravagant favored the rise of Neo-classicism.
Chief features
 1. Follow nature:
 Realism, verisimilitude
 Human nature, universal not individual
 The power that governs the world literature should have
order, regularity, harmony like nature
 Rules of ancient masters as they were based upon
nature. Respect for rules emerges as one of the cardinal
features of Neo-classicism.
Chief features cont’d
 2. Emphasis on correctness( rules), reason(check
inspiration) and good sense( common sense)
 3 Emphasis on formal perfection rather than on content.
Follow nature:
 Realism, verisimilitude
Chief features cont’d
 4. function of poetry: to instruct and to delight
 5. Style and diction of poetry: elevated
 Virgil was held out as ideal
 Personification and circumlocution often used
 Common words avoided
 Deities of classical mythology used
 Frequent use of compound words and epithets( artificial
poetic diction)
 Clarity preferred, so obsolete and archaic words avoided
Chief features cont’d
 6. decorum emphasized
Alexander Pope(1688-1744)
 Chief critical guides: Aristotle, Horace, Quintilian and
Longinus . Homer, his literary model.
 His important critical precept is “ follow nature” ; follow
the classical rules
 For Pope, literary beauty is possible even without the
close following of the precepts, hence the assertion of
native independence of the English temperament.
Pope cont’d
 Pope shows a better understanding of the poets nearer to
his own age than to those belonging to the past.
John Dryden(1631-1700), Essay
on Heroic Tragedy
 Heroic play: an imitation of a heroic poem, Love and
valor proper themes, its function to arouse admiration,
not Aristotelian pity and fear
Drama: the lively ( more heightened and beautiful
reproduction, imaginative creation, no servile imitation),
and just image of human nature representing its passions
and humors and the changes of fortune to which it is
subject, for the delight and instruction of mankind, more
emphasis on liveliness
Essay on Dramatic Poesy
 The superiority of the modern dramatists over the
ancient ones, and the superiority of the contemporary
(restoration)English dramatists over the Elizabethans,
 The superiority of rhymed verse over blank verse for
dramatic purposes
 Tragi-comedy justified for Dryden in that both good and
evil/ joy and sorrow mingle in countless modes in
nature.