LITERATURE OF THEEIGHTEENTH CENTURY

The Augustan Age or the Age of Pope

It was poet Oliver Goldsmith who first designatedthe early 18th century, as the Augustan Age. The agehas also been called the Age of Pope. The Augustanage includes the age of Dryden and Pope. The restora-tion of Stuart monarchy in 1660 marked the beginningof the Augustan age.

Eighteenth century in England was an age equalto the age of Augustus Caesar, when the Roman soci-ety had reached the peak of its glory. The name Au-gustan Age was chosen by writers who saw in Pope,Addison, Swift, Johnson and Burke the modern paral-lels to Horace, Virgil and Cicero, and all that brilliantcompany who made Roman literature famous in the dayof Augustus. Past ages of England were looked uponas barbarous, and the classics of Greece and Rome wereregarded as models which men of taste were to follow.

Characteristics of the Augustan Age

The Classical AgeThis period, in the first place, is called the classical

age, because reason dominated emotion; social con-ventions became more important than individual con-victions ; form became more important than content.The term "classic" is applied to designate writing of thefinest quality. According to Goethe, "Everything thatis good in literature is classical." Every national litera-ture has at least one period in which an unusual num-ber of exceptional writers produce books of outstand-ing quality, and this is called the classical period of anation's literature. The age of Queen Anne is often calledthe classical age of England. Addison, Swift, Richard-son, Fielding, Goldsmith, Dr Johnson, Burke, Gibbonand Pope are the great luminaries of the age.

Rule of rulesThe writers of this age were governed by set rules

and principles. And, in this crazy adherence to rulesthe writers were deeply influenced by Boileau and Rap-in, who insisted on precise methods of writing poetryand who professed to have discovered their rules inthe works of Aristotle and Horace.

Age of good sense and reasonThe period is also called the age of reason and

good sense, because it was based on the good - senseideal of the French critic Boileau. It was an age of en-lightenment when a literature which had become pellu-cid and clear began to diffuse knowledge among a grow-ing public. The supremacy of reason was scarcely chal-lenged. There reigned a common belief in the advance-ment of human mind.

Religious and philosophic thoughtThe Augustans believed in respectability and de-

signed conformity. They had no regard for boundlessimagination and overflowing enthusiasm of the Eliza-bethan age. Their outlook was rational. The poets ofthis age strove to repress all emotion and enthusiasm.Good sense became the ideal of the time, and goodsense meant a love of the reasonable and the hatred ofthe extravagant and mystical. Wit took precedence ofimagination ; inspiration was lost in technical skill. Thewhole literature of the age was marked by coldness andwant of feeling.

The French influenceThe 18th century literature was indebted to the

growing influence of French literature. One notable fea-ture of French influence may be seen in the tragedies inrhyme that were for a time in vogue, of which plots wereborrowed from French romances. Boileau held supremesway over the minds of the literary artists. He was al-most a literary dictator.

Nature followedAn important characteristic of the age was the belief

that literature must follow nature. Pope exhorted hiscontemporaries to follow nature. However, the natureof the Augustan period was not the nature of Word-sworth. The Augustans were drawn towards humannature rather than the nature we have in forests. Theirsole aim was to copy man and manners of society. Alex-ander Pope said : "The proper study of mankind is man".

Reflection of the contemporary societyThe literature of the age was concerned with the

follies and foibles of the times. Literature became aninterpretation of life, the kind of life that was led in thesocial and political circles of the times. Poetry becamethe poetry of the town, the coffee - house and artificial

r The Stuart monarchy in England was restored in

- 1660

r Who said, "the proper study of mankind is man"?

- Alexander Pope

r –––– is the literary art of diminishing or derogatinga subject by making it ridiculous and evokingtowards it attitudes of amusement, scorn, orindignation

- Satire

Alexander Pope (1688-1744)Alexander Pope was the predominant figure in the

poetry of the 18th century. He was the representativepoet of his century. He was the only poet who present-ed in his works almost all the essential qualities of theclassical school of poetry. He was the high priest of arationalistic and fashionable age.

The evolution of Pope's poetic career is generallyclassified into four periods. In the first period he wrotehis Pastorals, Essay on Criticism, and The Rape of theLock. The translation of Homer was carried out in thesecond period. The third period, which is the best peri-od of Pope's life and which has been called the "Twick-enham" or "Horatian" period, witnessed the composi-tion of the Dunciad and the Epistles. The poet gave usin his fourth period his philosophical Essay on Manand Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot.

The first work of Pope which caught the eye of thepublic was The Pastorals. The Pastorals was writtenwhen Pope was only sixteen. It was published in 1709.The Pastorals was written in the style of Virgil, but onefinds very little imitation of Virgil in it. The real merit ofThe Pastorals lay in its versification.

Following the tradition of Boileau, Pope publishedhis Essay on Criticism in 1711. The Thoughts of Essayon Criticism are not original. They have all been bor-rowed from the ancients and the French. He presentedskilfully the ideas borrowed from others in wonderfullyterse, epigrammatic and quotable verse. Some of theobservations in the Essay on Criticism have passedinto language, such as, "A little, learning is a danger-ous thing" ; "To err is human, to forgive divine"; Foolsrush where angels fear to bread etc."

The Rape of the Lock was brought out in 1712.

society ; Pope's The Rape of the Lock is a classic exam-ple. The literature of the age lost all touch with the coun-try life and became the literature of the town.

SatireSatire is the literary art of diminishing or derogat-

ing a subject by making it ridiculous and evoking to-wards it attitudes of amusement, scorn, or indignation.Satire is usually justified by those who practice it as acorrective of human vice and folly.

Satire became the prominent form of literature dur-ing the Augustan age. The satires of Dryden are wellknown to us. In the age of Pope the love for satire cameto the upper surface and the coldworldliness of Au-gustan life found its expression in polished wit and sat-ire.

Poetic dictionThe language of poetry became gaudy and inane

and the ordinary language was kept out from poeticliterature. The result was that the literature of the agebecame artificial, stilted, rational and intellectual, losingall inspiration, enthusiasm and romantic fervour whichwere the hall-marks of the literature of the Elizabethanage. The Augustans were superior in other ways, nota-ble in satire and journalism, in the technical language ofphilosophy and science and in the great branch of mod-ern literature, the novel, of which they were among theEnglish pioneers.

The heroic coupletIn heroic couplet lines of iambic pentameter rhyme

in pairs : aa, bb, cc and so on. The adjective "heroic" isapplied because of the frequent use of such couplets inheroic poems (epic) and plays. This verse form wasintroduced into English poetry by Geoffrey Chaucer.

During the Augustan age the heroic couplet wasrecognised as the only medium of poetic expression. Itwas no longer possible to write one's thoughts as thepen could move. The fastidiousness of the public eardid not appreciate "the mob of gentlemen who wrotewith ease." In the heroic couplet the poets put all theirskill and wrote with an unimaginable correctness andprecision.

r The 18th century was first designated as theAugustan age by

- Oliver Goldsmith

The poem is so grateful, delicate, cynical and witty. It isa poem ridiculing the fashionable world of Pope's day,its immediate aim being to laugh at two families of hisacquaintance into making up a quarrel over a trivial in-cident. The quarrel is presented in terms of great epicconventions and the impact of the poem, which for bril-liance of conception and consistency of execution, isunsurpassed in literature. The poem is a masterpiece ofits kind in mock - heroic style.

Pope took many years to completetranslating Homer's Illiad and Odyssey.Bentley, the classical scholar, sarcasticallyremarked, "It is a pretty poem, Mr. Pope,but you must not call it Homer." For makingthis remark against the translation, Bentleyhad to suffer a lot in the hands of Pope inthe epic satire, Dunciad.

After the publication of the Transla-tion of Homer, Pope devoted his energiesentirely to satirical works. The satires ofPope are modelled on the style of Horaceand Juvenal, the classical writers. In his sat-ires Pope attacked the personalities of his age. The su-preme achievement in this direction, however, was theDunciad written between 1725 and 1728. The core ideaof Dunciad was taken from Dryden's Mac Flecknoe.While Dryden's attack was exclusively upon Shadwell,Pope, though aiming principally at Theobald, attackedthe whole battalion of his enemies.

Pope's Essay on Man is a poem which reflects hismoral and political ideas. The Essay is hopelessly con-fused and contradictory at many places, but as a workof art it occupies a place of its own in the poetic evolu-tion of Pope.

The Imitations of Horace and the Epistle to Dr.Arbuthnot are the most autobiographical works of Pope.

Prose of the Age of Pope

Richard Steele (1672-1729)Steele was a typical figure of the times and

represented from the transition from the Restorationperiod to the Augustan Age. His first work TheChristian Hero was thoroughly Augustan in character.

Richard Steele and Joseph Addison laid the foun-dation of the periodical essay during the 18th century.

Steele started The Tatler in 1709, and he stated its pur-pose in these words : "The general purpose of thispaper is to expose the false art of life, to puff off thedisguises of cunning, variety and affectation, and torecommend a general simplicity in our discourse, andour behaviour." Under the pseudonym of Issac Bicker-staff, Steele recommended truth, innocence, honourand virtue as the chief ornaments of life. The Tatler

kept away from politics, its publication wasstopped, and its place was taken by TheSpectator to which Addison and Steelemade diversified contributions.

As a writer Steele in remarkable for hisversatality in conceiving humorous typesof characters, for the wide range of his sym-pathies, for the readiness with which headapts himself to his subject matter whethergrave or gay in character.

Steele paved the way for the futuredevelopment of periodical literature. The aimof Steel's essays was didactic. He desired tobring about a reform of the contemporary

society manners. He is notable for his consistent advo-cacy of womanly virtue and the ideal of gentlemanlycourtesy, chivalry and good taste.

Joseph Addison (1672 - 1719)Addison's lasting contribution was to the forma-

tion of the periodical essay. Together with Richard Steelehe formed and perfected the periodical essay, earlier inThe Tatler and later on in the The Spectator. The firstissue of The Spectator came out on 11th March, 1711. Itwas different from The Tatler, in that it consisted of asingle long essay or pamphlet, whereas The Tatler con-tained several short articles on different subjects. TheSpectator had two principal aims. The first object of thepaper was to present a true and faithful picture of the18th century. The second object was to bring about amoral and social reform in the conditions of the time. Inshort, the essays in The Spectator aspired to be a faith-ful reflection of the life of the time viewed with an aloofand dispassionate observation, and set out to be a mildcensor of the morals of the age.

In the Coverley Papers (The Spectator) Addisonlaid stress on character portrayal, and the characters ofSir Roger de Coverley and Sir Andrew Freeport were

Alexander Pope

Jonathan Swift

finely drawn. In these character - sketches we have theseed of the novel of character developed later on in the19th century.

Addison's prose style

Addison taught and practised neatness, lucidityand precision of expression. His was the language of"actual talk".

Addison's prose style, compared with what wentbefore it, is nearer to the language of conversation. Yetit is not the informal language of conversation alto-gether. Nor is it the ultraformal language of a seriousand heavy treatise. It is free alike from the heaviness ofhigh -bound formalism and the levity and licence ofcommon speech. It is something like a via media be-tween the two. Dr. Johnson calls it an example of the"middle style".

Praising Addison's style Dr. Johnson says, "Hisprose is the model of the middle style ; on grave sub-jects not formal, on light occasions not grovelling................ His page is always luminous, but never blaz-es in unexpected splendour. It was apparently his prin-cipal endeavour to avoid all harshness and severity ofdiction, he is therefore sometimes verbose in his tran-sitions and connections, and sometimes descends toomuch to the language of conversation."

The Periodical EssayThe periodical essay was invented as a piece of

journalism towards the end of the 17th century. Itreached the pinnacle of its achievement in the work ofSteele and Addison. It maintained great popularitythroughout the 18th century, and disappeared about1800. In the 18th century it was a populargenre and even more popular than the mock- heroic and novel. About its phenomenalpopularity A.R. Humphrey observes : "Ifany literary form is the particiular creationand the particular mirror of the AugustanAge in England, it is the periodical essay."

The main reason for the success ofperiodical literature in the 18th century layin the fact that it suited the moral temper ofthe age. In the words of W.H. Hudson, "theyset themselves as moralists to break downtwo opposed influences –– that of the prof-ligate Restoration tradition of loose living

and loose thinking on the one hand, and that of Puritanfanaticism and bigotry on the other. Their method wasadmirably adapted to their purpose. They did not in-dulge in sweeping condemnations and unqualified in-vectives ...... they wrote good humouredly. met all classesof people on their own ground, and made allowance forthe ordinary failings of humanity ; but at the same timethey consistently advocated the claims of decency andgood sense."

Attention to the interests of women became oneof the invariable conventions of the periodical essay.W.H. Hudson says, "..... they addressed themselvesawowedly and directly to women ; and at a time whenwomen in society were, as a rule, immersed in the meretrivialities of existence, they did their best to draw theminto the currents of the larger intellectual life." Theypointed out their follies and frailties but with a view toimprove the status of women in society. The womenwere also thankful to these essayists and read theiressays with keen interest.

The periodical essays were written in a simple, clear,conversational style to be understood by semi-educat-ed or unscholarly readers. They avoided individualwhims, conceits, witticism and harsh words which couldnot be appreciated by the middle classes and womenwho were among the main readers of periodical essays.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1731)Jonathan Swift was one of the greatest literary fig-

ures of the Age of Pope. His writings have been gener-ally considered works of fiction and art. Satire is theprime motive in all his works. His satire remains uniform

in quality, but differs in degree. We havethe same vein of satrical tone in his threegreat satires ––– The Battle of the Books,The Tale of a Tub and Gulliver's Travels.

In The Battle of the Books themoderns are lashed vigorously. Swift rep-resents the Classics by the Bee, whichflies from flower to flower culling all thesweetness that each has to offer, and theModerns by the spider, spinning every-thing out of his own insides. The Battleof the Books is considered a great prosesatire in English literature.

The Tale of the Tub is a brilliant satirical narrativeon the excesses of the Catholics and Puritans as seenfrom the middle position of the Anglican Church.

Swift's, last satire, Gulliver's Travels, is in fourbooks. The entire work is an elaboration of the attitudeexpressed by him to Pope, "I heartily hate and detestthat animal called man." The book describes Gulliver'stravels to the four lands of Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Lapu-ta and Houyhnhnmland. The voyage to Lilliput andBrobdingnag satirised the politics and manner of thepeople of England and Europe ; that to Laputa mockedthe philosophers; and that to Houyhnhnmland lacerat-ed and defied the whole body of Humanity.

Swift's method in all these works is to strike boldlywith sarcasm and irony. In A Modest Proposal for Pre-venting the Children of Poor People from being aBurden, the terrible suffering in Ireland is presented ina mocking suggestion that the poor should devote them-selves to the rearing of children to be killed and eaten.

The prose style of SwiftSwift's style is marked for its clarity, precision and

conciseness. He never attempted to equip his sentenc-es with redundant words, aware that from the simplestand the fewest arise the secret spring of genuine har-mony. Compton - Rickett says, "Like other great styl-ists of the time –– Pope and Addison ––– he achievesa triumphant clarity ; but unlike Pope he is never epi-grammatic ; unlike Addison he had little plasticity ofform. He is plainly and forcefully clear with a greaterstrength than theirs ; all the more striking and urgentfor his lack of ornament and concentrated passion."

Swift made no use of Latin words. Latin words are thecause for obscurity and Swift was dead set against obscurity.

Swift is the most original writer of his time, andone of the greatest masters of English prose. Direct-ness, vigour and simplicity mark his pages.

Other Writers of the Age of Pope

John Arbuthnot (1667-1735)Arbuthnot was an important literary and political

figure of his time. He wrote The Art of Political Lying(1712) following in the footsteps of Swift. His politicalwork, The history of John Bull (1712) ridiculed the warpolicy of the Whigs.

Lord Bolingbroke (1678-1751)Bolingbroke was a great political figure of the Age

of Pope. His prose work, marked with rhetoric, reflecthis Tory views. Prominent works of Bolingbroke are ALetter on the Spirit of Patriotism (1736) and The Ideaof a Patriot King (1738.

The Earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)The Earl (Anthony Ashley Cooper) was an

aristocrat of the time. He had little taste for politics andaspired to be famous as a great writer. His Men, Manners,Opinions and Times (1711) suited the taste of the time.(1711) suited the taste of the time.

r Pope's poem which reflects his moral and politicalideas

- Essay on Man

r The periodical essay was introduced in the 18thcentury by

- Joseph Addison and RichardSteele

r Who started The Tatler (1709) ?

- Richard Steele

r TheTatler was replaced by

- The Spectator

r The writer who took the pseudonym, IssacBickerstaff

- Richard Steele

r An autobiographical work of Swift.

- Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot

r Pope's poem whose immediate aim was to laugh attwo families of his acquaintance into making up aquarrel over a trivial issue

- The Rape of the Lock

r The core idea of Pope's Dunciad was taken from

- Dryden's MacFlecknoe

r –––– is a brilliant satirical narrative of JonathanSwift on the excesses of the Catholies and puritansas seen from the middle position of the AnglicanChurch

- The Tale of the Tub

r The Christian Hero is the work of

- Richard Steele

John Dryden

r The Art of Political Lying was written by

- John Arbuthnot

John Dryden"Every age had a kind of universal genius", wrote

Dryden in his Essay on Dramatic Poesy, and in no poetare his own words more truly verified. In Dryden's workswe have an excellent reflection of both the good andevil tendencies of the age in which he lived.

Dryden was the supreme satirist in verse of hisage. In 1680, a prose tract Absalom's Conspiracy gaveDryden a hint for his most successful satire –– Ab-salom and Achitophel (1681). The Duke of Monmouthand his evil counsellors, Shaftesbury and Buckingham,were mercilessly exposed in Absalom and Achitophel,the most powerful satire in English language.

Shaftesbury was acquitted from the charge of trea-son and a medal was struck to commemorate, the event.Thereupon Dryden wrote The Medal, which was pub-lished in March 1682. It consists of contin-uous denunciation of Shaftesbury.

Dryden's next poem, Mac Flecknoe(1682), which has been described as a highlydeveloped lampoon than a satire, makes funof Shadwell, the Whig poet. In Mac Fleck-noe, we have good-natured contempt. It isredeemed and enlivened by its humour.

Dryden's first religious poem, ReligioLaici (1682) is a defence of the Church ofEngland (the Anglican church) against oth-er sects, especially the Roman Catholics andthe Presbytarians.

His second religious poem, The Hindand the Panther (1687) is a long allegorical fable de-signed as an effort to draw the churches together, andrestore their union. In the poem the "hind" stood forthe Roman Catholic Church and the "panther" repre-sented the Church of England.

Dryden's activities during the last years of his lifewere mainly confined to translations. In 1697 he trans-lated the whole of Virgil. Dryden wrote a few fables inpoetry based on the works of Boccacio and Chaucer. Inthe fables he versified the stories of Sigismonda andGuiscardo, Cymon and Iphigenia from Boccacio'sDecameron, and paraphrased in his own style Chau-

cer's Knight's Tale, Nun Priest's Tale, Wife of Bath'sTale etc. These fables show him at his best and entitlehim to the rank of a great story teller in verse.

Dryden's odes are of immense importance. Thelongest and the best known of this class are the Songfor St. Cecilia's Day and Alexander's Feast. Dryden'snext ode, To the Pious Memory of Mrs Anne Killigrew,was written in 1696. Dr Johnson called it the best ode inthe language.

Dryden is known as a great artist in verse as wellas in prose, and his reputation as a poet rests on hisartistic excellence. T.S. Eliot says, "Much of Dryden'sunique art consists in his ability to make the small intothe great, the prosaic into the poetic, the trivial into themagnificient." He handed with dexterity the heroic cou-plet and the blank verse. In fact, the poetic instrumentremains wholly in the service of the player's hand.

John Dryden exercised a powerful influence onthe poets of the nineteenth century. Dry-den's 'lofty line' was adopted by Pope, Gray,Johnson, Churchill and Canning. Drydenwas, undoubtedly, the outstanding literaryartist of his age.

Restoration SatireSatire may be defined as the expression

in adequate terms of the sense of amuse-ment or disgust excited by the ridiculous,provided that humour is a distinctly recog-nizable element, and that the utterance in-vested with literary form. Without humoursatire is invective, without literary form, it ismere clownish jeering. The manner of thesatirist is different from that of a lyric poet.

Since hatred and contempt are unpleasant feelings thesatirical poet usually avoids giving them direct expres-sion, and makes frequent use of irony. He banks largelyon intellectual dexterity and brilliant versification to fas-cinate his reader and win admiration where he cannothope for sympathy.

The Restoration age is essentially the age of sat-ire. Judging and condemning became a common phe-nomenon of this age, and this habit naturally gave birthto the spirit of satire.

The Restoration of the Stuart monarchy broughtroyalism in its full glory and natural urge to attack theold regime of Puritanism found its best expression in

satires such as Butler's Hudibras. The open denuncia-tion of false spiritual authorities became not only a dutybut a pleasure with the Restoration writers.

Political atmosphere also aggravated the spirit of sat-ire. With the Restoration old poetical spirits sprang up giv-ing rise to political satires, particularly the satires of Dryden.The Whigs and Tories, two major political factions in En-gland, engaged themselves virtually in a pen war.

The influence of classical satirists had much to dowith the growing satirical spirit of the age. The studyof classics promoted familiarity with the works of Hora-ce, Juvenal and Persius. The writers considered it amatter of prestige to follow in the footsteps of the greatmasters of the past.

Finally, the general classical taste of the dayfavouring a type of literature which should be clear,concise and topical also gave rise to the spirit of satireduring the age.

John Dryden wrote three outstanding satires :Absalom and Achitophel, Medal and Mac Flecknoe.They are masterpieces of political vigour, personal an-imosity and anti-puritan spirit. Dryden comes out in hissatires as a man of his times as much under the influ-ence of political conditions as any one of his victims.His manner of expression in his satires is sharp andwitty and his diction is employed with deftness.

Nahum TateNahum Tate (1652-1715) was an Anglo-Irish poet,

hymnist and lyricist, who became Poet Laureate in 1692.Tate published a volume of poems in London in 1677,and became a regular writer for the stage. "Brutus ofAlba, or The Enchanted Lovers" (1678), a tragedy deal-ing with Dido and Aeneas and The Loyal General(1680), were followed by a series of adaptations fromElizabethan dramas. In William Shakespeare's Richard IIhe altered the names of the characters, and changedthe text so that every scene, to us his own words, was"full of respect of Majesty and the dignity of courts";but in spite of these precautions The Sicilian Usurper(1681), as his rewrite was called, was suppressed on thethird representation on account of a possible politicalinterpretation.

King Lear (1687) was fitted with a happy endingin a marriage between Cordelia and Edgar; and Cori-

olanus became the Ingratitude of a Commonwealth(1682). From John Fletcher he adapted The Island Prin-cess (1687); from Chapman and Marston's EastwardHo he derived the Cuckold's Haven (1685); in 1707 herewrote John Webster's White Devil; and Sir AstonCockayne's Trappolin suppos'd a Prince he imitated inDuke and no Duke (1685).

Tate's name is chiefly connected with these man-gled versions of other men's plays and with the famousNew Version of the Psalms of David (1696), in which hecollaborated with Nicholas Brady. Tate collaborated withJohn Dryden to complete the second half of his epicpoem Absalom and Achitophel.

Tate was named as poet laureate in 1692. His po-ems were sharply criticised by Alexander Pope in TheDunciad. Of his numerous poems the most original isPanacea, a poem of Tea (1700). In spite of his consistentToryism, he succeeded Thomas Shadwell as poet laure-ate in 1692. He died within the precincts of the Mint,Southwark, where he had taken refuge from his credi-tors, in 1715. He was succeeded by Nicholas Rowe.

Other Restoration Satirists

Samuel Butler (1612-80)Butler was a Royalist and in his powerful satire,

Hudibras, he satirised Puritanism in doggerel verse. Thework is plainly modelled on Don Quixote of Cervantes.

John Oldham (1653-83)Oldham was also a great satirist of the school of

Juvenal. His two powerful satires are Satire againstVirtue and Satire upon the Jesuits.

Prose literature during the Restoration ageThe Restoration gave rise to a new prose style ––

plain, simple and graceful and suitable for historical andfictional narrative and for critical and philosophicalthought.

The first important factor responsible for the newprose style was the establishment of the Royal Societyof London in 1660. In the words of Thomas Spart, thehistorian of the times, the Royal Society was determinedto "reject all amplifications, digressions and swellingof style to return to the primitive purity, and shortness,when men delivered so many things, almost in an equalnumber of words.

Another distinguishing factor responsible for thenew prose was the diffusion of the spirit of common-sense and the critical temper of mind which was notsuitable for higher flights of imagination and rhetoricaleloquence. A note of rationality and critical appraisalof life came up, and this critical temper did not allowthem to be poets of exuberant fancy and naturally theyintroduced exactness and precision in their writings.Added to this was the growing influence of sciencewhich favoured clarity of thought and plainness of style.

French influence has much to do in the renovationof English prose. The French had cultivated grace, sim-plicity and lucidity in their expressions. The works ofFrench authors were translated during this period, andthat had much to do with the simplification of prose style.

Matthew Arnold summed up the renovation ofEnglish prose during this age in the folowing words :

"The Restoration marks the real moment of birthof our modern prose. It is by its organism –– an organ-ism opposed to length and involvement, and enablingus to be clear, plain and short ––– that English proseafter the Restoration breaks with the style of the timespreceding it, finds the true law of prose, and becomesmodern : becomes, in spite of superficial differences,the style of our own day".

Among the creators of modern prose John Dry-den must be placed in the front rank. He inauguarted anew era in English prose and criticism. He may be calledthe father of English prose style. Being a poet and dra-matist, Dryden had to state the aims and objects of hispoetry, argue new points, defend his heroic tragedy,and thereby create a taste in public for his works. Forthis purpose he employed prose. Dryden wrote essaysand prefaces, and his two outstanding works of thegenre are The Essay on Dramatic Poesy and Preface tothe Fables. Giving up the long-winded, cumbersomesentences of the earlier prose writers of the 17th centu-ry, Dryden used a language marked with simplicity,straightforwardness and ease. A critical touch enliv-ens all the writings of Dryden.

John Bunyan (1628-88)The other great name in the prose literature of Dry-

den's age is that of John Bunyan.

Bunyan's first book is his spiritual autobiography,Grace Abounding. His next work, The Pilgrim'sProgress, is an allegory. Here the allegory takes theform of a dream by the author. The work is remarkablefor the beauty and simplicity of its language, reality ofimpersonations and the author's sense of humour andfeeling for the world of nature. In The Pilgrim's ProgressBunyan deals with the journey of a noble from Thisworld to Paradise.

Another notable work of Bunyan is the novel, TheLife and Death of Mr Badman, which gives the pictureof a soul on its journey from this world to Hell.

John Locke and Thomas Hobbes

Political prose was developed by John Locke andThomas Hobbes. Locke is the author of Essay on theHuman Understanding, which is an examination into thethe nature of human knowledge. Hobbes, in his Levia-than, advocates monarchy, and holds the view that mon-archy alone can preserve the society from disruption.

Restoration comedy of manners

The comedy of manners developed during the ageof Dryden was greatly influenced by the French drama-tist Moliere. The writers of the Restoration comedy de-voted themselves specifically to picturing the externaldetails of life, the fashion of the time, its manners, itsspeech and its interests.

The comedy of manners has been criticised for itslicentiousness, obscenity and immorality. Macaulaydenounced the immorality and obscenity prevalent inthis type of comedy. Leslie Stephen echoed Maculay insaying that this comedy was "written by blackguardsfor blackguards". There were defenders too.Prof. Boname Dobree maintained that Restoration com-edy expressed "not licentiousness, but a deep curiosi-ty and a desire to try new ways of living." Charles Lambdefended the obscenity of Restoration comedy as thedevice of artists to present the sense of reality in theirplays.

The prominent writers of the comedy of manners,apart from John Dryden, are Sir George Ethrege, WilliamWycherley, William Congreve etc.

r Which period of time in designated as the age ofRestoration ?

- 1660 - 1700

r Name a few French writers who deeply influencedthe literature of the age of Restoration.

- Moliere, Pascal, Corneille,and Racine.

r Dryden's play which is regarded as the bestrepresentation of Heroic Play.

- Tyrannic Love

r Name the work of Samuel Butler which is a satireon the Puritans.

- Hudibras

r The first play of John Dryden

- The Wild Gallant

r The first great satire of Dryden in verse.

- Absalom and Achitophel

r "Every age has a kind of universal genius". Thisfamous pronouncement of Dryden is made in his

- An Essay on Dramatic Poesy

r The meaning of Dryden's political satire ReligioLaici.

- "Religion of a Layman."

r The famous religious poems of Dryden which waswritten in defence of Roman Catholicism

- The Hind and the Panther

r "Much of Dryden's unique art consists in his abilityto make the small into the great, the prosaic intothe poetic, the trivial into the magnificent". Namethe critic who made this observation about Dryden.

- T.S. Eliot

r Who is the main object of ridicule in Dryden's MacFlecknoe ?

- Thomas Shadwell

r The spiritual autobigraphy of John Bunyan

- The Pilgrim's Progress

AGE OF DR JOHNSON (1745 -1798)

OR

THE AGE OF TRANSITIONThe Trends of the Age of Transition

Double tendency

Two movements emerged during 1745-1798. Onewas still in the direction of classicism. The notable fig-ure in this movement is Dr Samuel Johnson. There wasalso a romantic reaction against the old order. The searchfor romanticism started as early as 1740 with the publi-cation of Thomson's Seasons.

The new learningThe minor renaissance of the middle and later stag-

es of the 18th century touched nearly all Europe. Inliterature the revival of the Romantic Movement led to(a) research into literary forms such as the ballad and(b) new editions of older authors such as Shakespeareand Chaucer. The publication of Bishop Percy's Rel-iques (1765), which contained some of the oldest andmost beautiful specimens of ballad - literature, is a land-mark in the history of the Romantic Movement.

The new philosophyThe spirit of the new thinking, which found its

consummate expression in the works of Voltaire wasmarked by keen scepticism and the zest for eager inqui-ry. Scotland early took to it, the leading poet being Hul-me. Finally the new spirit assisted the Romantic idealby demolishing and clearing away heaps of the ancientmental lumber, and so leaving the ground clear for newand fresher creations.

Historical researchThe 18th century witnessed the swift rise of his-

torical literature to a place of great importance. It touchedScotland first, and was fostered in France. The histor-ical school had an outstanding leader in Edward Gib-bon, who was nearly, as much at home in French as hewas in English.

New realismThe development of novel, which at first con-

cerned itself with domestic incidents was artonishing.Henry Fielding and his kind faithfully dealt with human

life. In the widest sense, however, the novelists wereRomanticists, for in sympathy and freshness of treat-ment they were followers of the new ideal.

Decline of political writingWith the partial decay of party spirit the activity of

pamphleteering was over. Writers started depending onthe public, and this caused the rise of eminent men likeJohnson and Goldsmith.

Characteristics of the transitional poets of the18th century

The first transitional period in English literature wasthe age of Chaucer. It was a transitional period, becauseit was the meeting ground of the Middle Age and theRenaissance spirit. Similarly the age of Johnson is a peri-od of transition which witnessed a struggle between theold order of classicism and the new order of Romanti-cism, and the gradual triumph of the new. Thomson, Som-erville, Edward Young, Gray, Collins, and Cowper are theprominent transitional poets ; they had their leaningstowards the new spirit of romanticism, but none of themmade a deliberate effort to shake off the worn out dictionthen current. Though these poets maintained their alle-giance to the school of Pope, they were susceptible to adifferent range of influences, and sought fresh subjects,fresh forms, and fresh modes of feeling and expression.We may, at the same time, recognize the breaking up ofthe Augustan tradition in the work of these poets. In thewords of Moody and Lovett, "the death of Pope in 1744is conventionally regarded as marking the end of theperiod during which the classical ideal was dominant inliterature. This ideal was now to give way gradually towhat is called the Romantic movement."

Characteristics of the Age of Transition

Reaction in formThe neo-classical poets strictly adhered to the

closed couplet. With the transitional poets, a reactionset in against this tradition, and experiments were madein other kinds of verse, such as the blank verse and theSpensarian stanza. Growing admiration for Milton wasthe principal cause for the rise and popularity of blankverse. Notable poems of the time written in blank verseare Thomson's Seasons, Someville's The Chase andEdward Young's Night Thoughts.

Many of the poets of the Age of Johnson soughtinspiration from the poetry of Spenser. They repro-duced not only the Spensarian stanza, but even thegreat master's archaic diction. The influence of Spenseris evident in the fact that over 50 poems in Spensarianstanza were published between 1730 and 1775. The re-vival of the Spensarian stanza can be seen in Thom-son's Castle of Indolence.

Return to nature

The reviving love for nature first became conspic-uous in Allen Ramsay's The Gentle Shepherd (1725).The revival of interest in real landscape was popularisedby James Thomson in his Seasons (1730). No doubt,The Seasons still shares the features of the Augustanschool in its note of didacticism, highly Latinised vo-cabulary, conventional poetic diction, and frigid andbombastic style.

John Dyer made a first hand study of nature in hispoem Gronger Hill. From this time on the love of naturebecame increasingly prominent in the poetry of Gray,Collins, Cowper, Blake and Burns.

Cowper's poems reflect his simple pleasures, hislove of nature, his interest in the lives of the humbleand the simple, and his sensibility. Nature was his besthealer, and he anticipates the lake poets he anticipatesthe lake poets in the way he expresses his gratitude. Hebelieved the country is divine and town diabolical. Hesummed up the idea in the off-quoted line.

"God made the country, and man made the town".

The return to feelingThe prominent characteristics of the transitional

poets were the return to feeling, strong passion, senti-ment, aspiration and melancholy. The Augustan poetsrejected the exhibition of any manifestation of feelingand their poetry appeared to the intellect rather thanmoved the heart. Edward Young's Night Thoughts wasthe first great appeal to melancholy. He discovered anexquisite pleasure in nocturnal churchyard meditation,his thoughts haunting newly dug graves, with the palelight of moon shining down upon him. Young was fol-lowed by Robert Blair's The Grave, Thomas Warton'sThe pleasures of Melancholy, Gray's Elegy Written in aCountry Churchyard and Collin's Ode to Evening.

The cult of romanceA Romantic poet is the lover of the wild, fantastic,

abnormal and supernatural. His delight is in imaginationwhich leads his thoughts into the past, and to remotelands. The transitional poets went to the Middle Ages,and the world of the supernatural. Gray's The Bard isbased on a Welsh medieval legend, and his other poems,Fatal Sisters and The Descent of Odin reproduced Scan-dinavian legends. The interest in the Middle Ages wasdue largely to the revival of ballad literature. Bishop Per-cy's The Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765), acollection of ballad literature of the past, proved a greatpower in spreading romantic tales.

Medieval revival was accompanied by the heroicand legendary world of Celtic antiquity. James Macpher-son published his Fragments of Ancient Poetry Col-lected in the Highlands of Scotland and Translated fromGaelic or Erse Language. The work was successful inarousing readers' curiosity in the Celtic mythology.

Thus some of the transitional poets heralded therevival of romanticism which reached its acme in the handsof Wordworth and Coleridge. Though these transitionalpoets represented one or the other characteristic of ro-manticism, yet, they were not thorough romantics, be-cause they had also their association with the Augustanschool. This is evident in their use of poetic diction, useof personification, and the note of didacticism.

r What is generally regarded as the slogan of the"transition poets" ?

- "Return to Nature"

r According to Moody and Lovett whose death isregarded as conventionally marking the end of theneo-classical period ?

- Alexander Pope

r The transition poets were believed to haveanticipated the romantics in their writings onnature. To whom do we attribute this line that bestexplains the change of outlook ?

"God made the country, and man made the town"

- William Cowper

r The Complaint and The Consolation form part ofEdward Young's poem

- Night Thoughts

Prominent Transition Poets

James Thomson (1700-1748)Thomson was a Scottish poet endowed with a love

and appreciation for nature and the dreamy life of theMiddle Ages. His poem, The Seasons, introduced forthe first time genuine love for nature. It is a blank-versepoem with descriptive passages dealing with naturalscenes, mainly those with which he was familiar duringhis youth on the Scottish border. The poem exerted astrong counter influence against the artificial school ofpoetry.

Thomson's The Castle of Indolence was publishedin the last year of his life. The poem is in the Spensarianstanza, and in the true Spensarian fashion it gives adescription of a lotus - land, into which world - wearysouls are invited to withdraw.

Thompson gave voice to deep aspirations whichmany shared. He restored nature to one of the first plac-es among the subjects of poetry, and to a place fromwhich she was never to be dislodged.

Edward Young (1638-1765)Young belongs to the Graveyard School of Poetry.

The notable poems of Young are The Universal Pas-sion and Night Thoughts. The Universal Passion is asatire against fame and women. The Night Thoughts isa long meditation on the futility of life. The poem con-tains a series of reflections upon the brevity and tragic,uncertainties of life leading to a view of religion as man'sconsoler.

With Young, self came into the foreground andhis work represents the real beginning of the literatureof sensibility. Necessarily subjective in principle, it endswith all its might to bring about the overthrow of thebarrier of the intellectuality, measure, and order, as wellas the general effacement, by which classicism limited,repressed and transposed the troubled impatient flowof life.

Thomas Macpherson (1736-1796)Macpherson contributed immensly to popularis-

ing the literature of the Middle Ages and the Highlandby publishing his two books, Fingal (1762) and Temo-ra (1763). The central motive of these poems is the pa-thetic sense of regret for what once has been. They

Oliver Goldsmith

pass in review the glorious imagery of bygone daysand they touch upon the sadness of modern times.

Thomas Percy (1729-1811)Percy, the Bishop, was an antiquarian scholar with

literary sensibilities. His two prominent works are TheReliques (1765) and Northern Antiquities (1760). TheRelics included many old Scottish ballads from the timebefore Chaucer to the end of the reign of Charles I.Literature owes a deep debt to Percy as the first popu-lariser of old English ballads. The ballads had a splen-did effect in quickening the romantic impulse, by virtueof their naive feeling and simple passionate expression.The work of Percy helped to restore to English poetrysimplicity of emotion, of language and poetic art.

George Crabbe (1754-1832)Crabbe came late among the transitional poets and

he used the heroic couplet of Pope in the expression ofhis romantic sympathy for the poor. Crabbe was a clergy-man, and his three poems, The village(1783), The Parish Register (1703) and TheBorough (1810), bring him in line with theprecursors of the Romantic Movement, be-cause in these works he realistically butsympathetically described the life of thesimple villagers and coltagers whom he hadknown as a priest. He painted the life of thepoor as he know it, sternly and uncompro-misingly. The motivating power behindCrabbe's poetry is his desire to state theplain unvarnished truth about the life ofthe peasant and to destroy the idealised,artificial picture of it presented by the 18thcentury pastoral.

William Cowper (1731-1800)Cowper's poetry breathes a sympa-

thy which shows a long association with the world ofreality and an intimate knowledge of its way. His themesare common place, but they represent the elementarytruths of the heart, rather than of intelligence

In technique, Cowper belongs to the old ratherthan to the new. Some of the good qualities of the oldschool that he shared are clarity, painstaking care ofexpression, and, on the whole, an easy tranquillity ofatmosphere. We shall find in his work neither the pas-

sion nor the strangeness of the Romantic School. Ac-cording to Compton - Rickett, "Cowper is a blend of theold and the new with much of the form of the old andsomething of the spirit of the new."

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774)His contribution to the poetry of the Romantic revival

Goldsmith shared the qualities of classicism andromanticism. Though he stood midway between theschool of Pope and the Romantic School, Goldsmithwas more sympathetic to the former. In his ideals andconcepts of literature, Goldsmith was a staunch sup-porter of the classical school. For him the classical cou-plet (Heroic Couplet), the form adopted in Traveller,was the best vehicle for the highest kind of poetry, thedidactic poetry. In his use of the heroic couplet, Gold-smith was a dedicated follower of Alexander Pope.

Goldsmith's language was in accordance with therules set up by Pope. He indulged in stilted (too formal),pompous and Latinized expressions and showed a great

love for abstractions and personifica-tions, which were loved by Pope. Forinstance, he used "angel for the finnyprey" for fish and "attic warbler" forthe nightingale.

Goldsmith retained the didactic orteaching element in his poetry, andthereby he kept up his link with Popeand his followers. His poems The Trav-eller and The Deserted Village arephilosophical and didactic.

Goldsmith also exhibited his pow-er of writing satiric poetry in his Retal-iation. The pictures of Garrick, Burkeand others in the poem are pungent,sharp and satirical in tone and style.

Goldsmith's treatment of natureand rural life is romantic. He loved nature, and in hispoetry, there are beautiful pictures of natural beauty.

Goldsmith's sympathy for the poor and simple peo-ple of The Deserted Village and the simple peasants ofSwitzerland in The Traveller connects him with Word-sworth. His heart moved with sympathy at the sight ofsuffering people and idealized the simple lives of thepoor. Like Gray, Goldsmith found a splendid source ofinspiration in "the short and simple annals of the poor".

Goldsmith's poetical worksGoldsmith's first poem, The Traveller, deals with

his wandering through Europe. The poem, written inheroic couplet, is a series of descriptions and criticismof the people and places he had seen. The work revealsa clear perception of the suffering of the poor, where"laws grind the poor, and the rich men rule the laws."The poem abides by the heroic couplet, and to thatextent he is Pope's pupil.

The Traveller is a didactic poem, and it aims at theteaching of some sphilosophic truths. Its purpose is toestablish the preposition that, when all things are takeninto account and advantages and disadvantages areduly tabulated and balanced, one country offers to awise man as good a chance of happiness as another.

The poem is highly pictorial and picturesque. Itbrings before us fleeting pictures of various countriesof Europe. Italy with its rich natural scenes, Switzerlandwith its hard-toiling peasants, Holland with its sea andslavery, France with its drollery and gay - display, andEngland with its proud people, full of the zeal for free-dom, come dancing before our eyes as we pass fromone description to another.

The Traveller is autobiographical in character.It tells about Goldsmith's own experience and is intenselysubjective in nature. The poem is really a masterpiece.

The Deserted VillageThe poem, which appeared in 1770, is full of charm-

ing pictures of village life and contains melancholicpersonal reflections.

The Deserted Village is a pastoral lyric that carriesno artifice but genuine emotion that beats into rhythm,the ecstacy of beholding the joys of the peasantry, thepathos of seeing those joys transforming into sorrows,and the indignation that is not against the governmentthat framed laws to grind the poor and elevate the rich.

r Name the poems of Goldsmith that were describedby Swinburne as "priceless and adorable power ofsweet human emotion".

- The Deserted Village and TheTraveller

r –––– was Goldsmith's first poem.

- The Traveller

r Which poem of Goldsmith deals with hiswandering through Europe ?

- The Traveller

r Which poem of James Thomson gives a descriptionof a lotus - land into which world weary souls areinvited to withdraw ?

- The Castle of Indolence

r "A Pope in worsted stocking". The poet who islabelled thus by Horace Smith.

- George Crabbe

4 Horace Smith called Crabbe so, because of thelatter's frequent use of the heroic couplet,popularised by Alexander Pope.

r The Castway is a poem by

- William Cowper

r Who was characterised as the "marvellous boy"by Wordsworth in his Resolution andIndependence ?

- Thomas Chatterton

r The Parish Register was written by

- George Crabbe

r Name Goldsmith's poem that is regarded asautobiographical in nature.

- The Traveller

r The expression "attic warbler" is reflective ofGoldsmith's pompous style. "Attic Warbler" means

- Nightingale

Thomas Gray (1716-1771)Gray began his poetic career in 1742. During this

year, he wrote the Odes, On Spring, On a DistantProspect of Eton College and Hymn to Adversity. Thesepoems reveal two things first, the appearance of thatmelancholy that characterises all the poetry of time, andsecond, the study of nature, not for its own beauty ortruth, but rather as a suitable background for the playof human emotions. In each poem, sentiment leads to areflection, and reflection to moral.

Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard isthe supreme expression of his poetic genius. It is hismost popular work. Some vital characteristics ofRomanticism are present in the Elegy. Firstly, the poem

expresses sympathy with the lot of the common peoplewho lived far away from the madding crowd, therebyfailing to gain recognition. This adoration of the annalsof the simple people is essentially a romantic trait andGray introduces it in the Elegy commemorating life ofthe people living in the country sorroundings. Secondly,there is a note of pessimism and melancholy in the poem,which was, later on, cultivated and developed by Keatsand Shelley. The love for nature and landscape, thesolitary atmosphere of the night, the haunted placeswhere the owl hoots, all clearly show that the poet hadcaught the spirit of Romanticism in a subdued form.The Elegy represents Gray's transitional frame of mind.

Gray's The Progress of Poesy is a poem on thehistory of poetry. The Bard is closely associated withCeltic mythology. The poem is founded on the commandof Edward I that all the bards should be killed. Anotherpoem, Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, exhibitsGray's comic or humorous side. The poem tells how acat in search of a fish in a tub got drowned and feltsorry for her greed. Even a humorous poem has a noteof moral attached to it quite in the manner and style of18th century poetry.

The Fatal Sisters and The Descent of Odin arepoems in which Gray reveals himself as an ardent loverof nature and the beautiful. The poems mark the end ofGray's poetic career. During the course of thirty yearsof his poetic career Gray could not produce much.Inspite of his slender poetic output Gray is regarded asone of the greatest poets of his age.

Characteristics of Gray's poetry

In Gray's poetry we have glimpses of sentimentand emotion which later on were cultivated withdevotion by the romantic poets. In the earlier poems ofGray there is the touch of cold intellectuality but fromthe publication of The Elegy to The Descent of Odin,the emotional tone gets the upper hand and the poemswritten after 1750 are coloured by emotion and sentiment.

In Gray's poetry we have for the first time adeparture from the treatment of town life. He focussedhis attention on the Middle Ages and the Norse andScandinavian Mythology. The poems, The Bard, TheFatal Sisters and The Descent of Odin are based onmedieval superstition, primitive legends and beliefs.

The poetry of Gray is intellectual and rational ischaracter. It is always disciplined by his intellect andrefined by his taste.

There is a love for nature in Gray's poetry, but nosubjective treatment of nature as we notice in theromantic poets. Gray finds delight in the presentationof scenes of nature.

Love of humanity is an important characteristic ofGray's poetry. We come across, in his poems, love ofhumanity, particularly for the villagers which was lateron cultivated by Wordsworth. In his Elegy Gray bringsbefore us most sympathetically the life-story of thevillagers who led a simple life far away from the maddingcrowd, and who were not governed by feeling ofjealousy, ambition and hatred. This representation ofthe simple life makes Gray one with Wordsworth in thetreatment of human beings in villages and cottages.

The note of melancholy and gloominess is anotable characteristic of Gray's poetry. This wasprimarily because the life of the poet was sorrowful.The poet's own personal life is represented in The Elegywith a note of melancholy in the concluding part of thepoem. The presentation of the life of the country peopleis also coloured by the same gloomy note. For Grayhuman life was a painful affair.

There is a natural sensitiveness to musical cadencein Gray's poetry. Gray learnt the power of music fromMilton and Dryden, and in his poetry there is a flowand a melody which we find in the odes of Dryden.

William Collins (1721-1759)Collins's poetry is marked by a note of melancholy.

His debilitated state of health gradually settled intoabsolute melancholia. Another feature of Collins's po-etry is the note of simplicity.

Regarding his affinity to nature it should be saidthat the pictures of landscapes and natural scenery pre-sented in his poems are realistic as well as graphic. Inhis Ode to Evening the note of naturalism is fresherthan is to be found among the poets of his age.

It is as a lyric poet, as a singer that Collins standsout from among his contemporaries. A note of musicand lyricism is well struck in the Ode to the Passions. Itis in Ode for Music and Passions that Collins's love formusic and lyricism is brought.

A peculiar romantic characteristic which is foundin Collins's poetry is his love for liberty. In this way thepoet proved to be the true harbinger of the RomanticMovement.

Robert Burns (1759 - 1796)Robert Burns was probably the greatest of Word-

sworth's forbears. With the appearance of Burns it couldbe said that the days of Romanticism had come. Burns'ssole poetical work of any magnitude is his Volume of Po-ems (1786), which he edited five times during his life time,making numerous additions and corrections each time.

Burns is regarded as the national poet of Scot-land. Many of the familiar features in Scottish poetryreappear in Burns. Love and intimate knowledge of na-ture, quaint dialect, passionate concreteness of imag-ery, rich allusiveness (qualities of Scottish life) are foundwell illustrated in his poetry.

Regarding Burns's contribution to the eighteenth cen-tury poetry, it could be said that inspite of his feeble attach-ment to the school of Pope, he heralded the birth of Roman-ticism. The inner elements of Romanticism - personal effu-sion, sensibility, a keen love for nature, a wealth of imagina-tive fancy and a symapthetic interest in the poor and theanimals - are to be found in the work of Burns.

r Which poem of Thomas Gray is regarded as thesupreme expression of his poetic genius ?

- Elegy Written in a CountryChurchyard

r Gray's poem which is considered to be the historyof poetry.

- The Progress of Poesy

r Name the poem of Gray which is associated withCeltic mythology.

- The Bard

r –––– is a poem that displays comic or humorousaspect of Gray.

- Ode on the Death of aFavourite Cat

r Ode to Pity is a melancholic poem written by

- William Collins

r Collins's love for simplicity is presented in his

- Ode to Simplicity

r About whom does Campbell say : "His lyricalpieces are like paintings on glass which must beplaced in strong light to give out the perfectradiance of their colouring".

- Thomas Gray

r The line, "My Love Is Like a Red Red Rose" isattributed to

- Robert Burns

r –––– was Goldsmith's first poem

- The Traveller

William Blake (1757-1827)William Blake was the most mystical and metaphys-

ical poet of the Romantic Revival during the 18th centu-ry. Blake's first publication was Poetical Sketches(1783), a series of imitative poems, in which he experi-mented with various forms, in the manner of Shakes-peare, Spenser and Milton. Songs of Innocence, whichcame out in 1789, are short lyrics concerning Blake'sviews of the original state of the human society, sym-bolized in the joy and happiness of children. The po-ems present a passionate sympathy and deep sincerityfor the child.

The French Revolution (1791), The Visions of theDaughters of Albion (1793), America (1793) and TheEurope (1794) are the revolutionary prophetic works ofBlake. The French Revolution and America containBlake's thoughts about freedom, not only politicalfreedom,but freedom from the restrictions of conven-tion and established morality. In 1794 appeared theSongs of Experience. In this is presented the two con-flicting aspects of nature which is so beautiful yet socruel. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is the mostprophetic of Blake's poems.

Main features of Blake's poetryBlake was a lyrical poet. In his earlier lyrics, Blake

followed the Elizabethan models, and in his PoeticalSketches and The Songs of Innocence are embodiedsome of the best lyrics of English language. Still in somepoems, for example, A War Song to an English Man,the mystic note is traceable.

In The Songs of Innocence, we have happy notes,purity, sweetness, intensity of feeling, simple perfec-tion of diction and a variety of rhythm.

Blake's The Little Black Boy is a metaphysicalpoem. In his Songs of Experience thought begins topredominate and the prophetic creed become clear still.After this volume, Blake ceased to be a writer of purelyrics, and became more and more a poet of visionaryidealism, symbolism and mysticism. It is in this note ofsymbolism and mysticism in his lyrics that Blake differsfrom Burns and Swinburne whose lyrics are simple andrealistic. C.M. Bowra remarks" : Indeed no English poet,except Shakespeare, has written songs of such experi-ence, lightness and melody. His words have an Elizabe-than lilt, a music which emphasizes their meaning andconfirms exactly to it."

Blake struck the note of humanitarianism in hispoetry. A note of love and sympathy was sounded byBlake in his poetry for the common and oppressed peo-ple of the society. His sympathy included even animalsand birds.

Blake was the poet of revolt, and he thundered atking's and priests and oppressive rulers in his prophet-ic writings. He revolted against the religious conven-tions of the day and mercilessly attacked priest craftand hackneyed conventions of the contemporarychurch which he thought to be the greatest obstacle inthe way of human progress.

Blake was a mystic and visionary idealist. Theworld of Blake was spiritualistic, infinite, illimitable, andeverlasting rather than temporal and momentary. In hisworld of thoughts, ideas and visions, love was the su-preme governing authority.

Blake was the supreme mystic poet of his age. Likeall mystic poets Blake emphasised the momentarinessof the body and immortality of the soul. He regardedthe world as a dark prison and physical senses as nar-row windows darkening the infinite soul of man.

As a follower of naturalism, Blake dealt with thesimplest phases of life, with the instinctiveness of a child,with the love of flowers, hills, streams and the blue sky.Yet the mystical vision of the poet transformed thesefamiliar things into something strange and wonderful.

Blake had his own vision and he lived in a worldwhich was entirely his own what he experienced in hisstrange spiritual vision was inexplicable in ordinarywords and phrases. Thus it was inevitable and neces-sary for him to arrange visible symbols of invisible real-

ities that he experienced in his vision. To present allthat he saw and believed to be real, he thought thatordinary language would fail miserably. Thus he tookto symbolism. Like Shelley he used the objects of na-ture as symbols to suggest spiritual realities. Blake'ssymbols are also taken from The Bible. His symbolicexpressions through poetry kindle the imagination ofthe readers and arise in them a curiosity for a worldunknown.

As a poet of childhood, Blake's contribution isimmense. The innocence of childhood finds its finestexpression in Blake's Songs of Innocence. The sorrowsthat subdue one in the growing years are presentedrealistically in the Songs of Experience. It is commonlybelieved that in his treatment of childhood Blake antic-ipated Wordsworth.

r Name the pre-romantic poet who is also noted asan engraver.

- William Blake

r The first publication of William Blake was titled

- Poetical Sketches (1783)

r Blake presents the defence of the satisfaction ofphysical appetite in his poem titled

- The Visions of the Daughtersof Albion

r The Little Black Boy of Blake is a –––– poem

- Metaphysical

r In his zeal and enthusiasm for liberty and equalityof man, Blake is believed to have anticipated theromantic poet

- Shelley

r In the poem Clod and the Pebble, what do clodand pebble stand for ?

- Clod - Selfishness

- Pebble - Selfish love

r Name the collection of Blake's poems that dealswith the innocence of childhood.

- Songs of Innocence

Eighteenth century poetic diction

The term poetic diction is applied specifically tothe practice of the neo-classical writers who believedthat the poet must adopt his diction to the mode and

elevation of the genre called poetry. When the eigh-teenth century poets began to write epics, pastorals orodes, they required a special diction to raise the matterto the height of the form. This special diction, some-what stilted (stiff and unnatural) and artificial was chal-lenged by William Wordsworth in preface to the sec-ond Edition of The Lyrical Ballads (1800). Wordsworthprotested against what he called "the gaudiness andinnane phraseology of many modern writers".

It was John Dryden who is actually credited with theintroduction of poetic diction. In his translation of Virgil,Dryden employed dignified diction. Dryden's mind wasfired by an unflagging admiration for great poetry, andthis feeling finds expression in his translations and odes.

The eighteenth century poets were particular aboutthe division of poetry into various kinds, such as elegy,satire, epic ec. And, these different types called for dif-ferent kinds of vocabulary. In the eighteenth century,writing poems was a communal art in the sense that thepoet was not free to choose an independent mode ofwriting . He had to learn much before he could writecorrectly. He could not offend rules and distinctionsacknowledged by the poets and readers.

Alexander Pope applied artificial diction in histranslation of Homer. Pope felt that the dignity and sub-limity of Homer could not be effectively expressed inordinary language. Pope used the term poetic diction"in the preface to his translation of the Iliad to mark thedifference between the vocabulary of prose and poetry.

After Pope poets such as Thompson, Gray, Col-lins, Cowper, Goldsmith and Dr. Johnson made use ofpoetic diction, the prominent characteristics of whichwere the use of conventional epithets, compound - ep-ithets, avoidance of direct statement and the use offantastic phraseology.

r Which group of writers are chiefly associated withthe concept of poetic diction ?

- Neo-classical writers

r Name the romantic poet who first challenged theartificial diction, which was the hall-mark of theeighteenth century writers ?

- William Wordsworth

r Biographia Literaria is the work of

- Samuel Taylor Coleridge

r Who was the outstanding eighteenth centurycritic who expressed his keen dislike for Milton'sLycidas on the ground that much in it was unnaturalor away from common experience ?

- Dr Johnson

r De Vulgari Eloquentia which contains valuableobservations on the language of poetry, is the work of

- DanteDrama of the Eighteenth Century

Decline of dramaDuring the 18th century drama steadily declined.

There are many factors that led to the decline of drama.First of them was the popularity of novels; free frommost of the conventions which burdened the theatre, itsucceeded better in depicting life, manners and ideas.During this age actors and actresses became more im-portant than playwrights. The attraction which the peo-ple felt for actors rather than for playwrights discour-aged writers to produce good plays.

Another factor was the revival of old plays, it hin-dered the creation of new plays. The plays of Shakes-peare, Beaumont and Fletcher were revived. This re-vival gave no incentive to writers to the age to producenew plays. They thought the writing of new plays wouldbe a futile effort since people of the age were moreinterested in the revival of old plays. The French fash-ions and costumes were in vogue in the 18th century.The theatre managers were attracted by the gorgeousand extravagant fashions and the attention of the audi-ence was taken off from the living stage.

Drama declined during this age because it failed toreceive the support of the king. William III was no pa-tron of the theatre, nor was Queen Anne. Without thesupport of the king it was difficult for dramatists tomake their influence felt in the public. During this agedramatists were debarred from indulging in the presen-tation of obscene scenes. It was Collier who inaugarat-ed the moral reform in the drama and the audience feltthat drama should only be written on lines of moraledification. Naturally the scope of drama became re-stricted and sentiment began to have its way in theworld of comedy. Everything that seemed to have thetone of fun and humour was regarded as a matter ofdistaste by the public. It was of great significance that

Goldsmith and Sheridan broke new ground by writingthe comedy of humours and by setting their face againstthe sentimental comedy of this age.

Moral restraint was followed by political restraint.The Licensing Act was passed in 1737. As a result,dramatists were restrained from writing in which therewas the slightest reflection on the political figures ofthe time. Tragedy particularly suffered because of theclassical spirit of the age. Full blooded tragedies, markedwith emotional excitement and fervour could not be pro-duced in the age because of the attitude of reason andrationality towards literary productions.

Sentimental comedyThe sentimental comedy of the eighteenth centu-

ry was a reaction against the comedy of manners of theRestoration period. The comedy of manners was char-acterised by light-hearted fun, obscenity and trenchantdialogues. Their aim was to make fun of pious and holycharacters.

In sentimental comedy laughter and humour werecompletely driven out and in place of comedy, whichwas rich in humour, pathos and pathetic situations wereintroduced. The life force of comedy is humour, whichwas casted out in sentimental comedy. The writers ofthis school introduced characters from middle class lifecharacterised by virtue without any grain of vice inthem. They sought to eulogise virtue and condemn vice.Comedy writers were in fact moralists and their purposewas to teach moral lessons through the medium of theirplays. They wanted to propagate something moral andpathetic and something edifying and genteel.

Sentimental comedy remained popular for near-ly half a century. It drove out genuine comedy from theEnglish stage. It provided moral lectures and sentimen-tal platitudes in place of real entertainment. It was seri-ous from the beginning to end and was entirely removedfrom the realities of life. It was replete with improbableand unnatural situations; its characters were not realmen and women, but abstractions conceived in theminds of the playwrights.

Dramatists of the 18th century

Richard Steele (1672-1729)Steele, who popularized the Periodical Essay was

perhaps the greatest figure among the writers of thesentimental comedy. He made the pathetic treatment ofa moral sentiment, the basis of the action of a comicdrama. His works are Lying Lover, Tender Husband andThe Conscious lovers.

Henry Fielding (1707-54)He was equally a great novelist, writer of comedy

and farce. He made clever adaptations of French works.It was in parody and political satire that he obtained hispersonal success. He achieved success in his Tragedyof Tragedies or The Life and Death of Tom Thumb theGreat, Pasquin, The Historical Register for the Year.His raillery at the fashions of the time, his banter of wellknown people, especially in high places and membersof the government, disturbed the authorities to such anextent that they re-established the censorship.

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-74)Goldsmith revived the Comedy of Humours of the

Elizabethan Age and gave a hard blow to the sentimen-tal comedy. He said that sentimental comedy was morelike a tragedy. He tried to revive sincere laughter on thestage. This first attempt was The Good-natured Manwhich was a failure. The second play She Stoops toConquer was a great success. The plot was well-knit,mawkish sentimentality was driven out, the sense ofpathos supplanted by mirth and delight. In this he in-troduced the qualities of a true comedy.

Goldsmith was a versatile genius. He was born inIreland as the second son of a poor Irish clergyman. Hischildhood was not memorable with his illness, disfigu-ration due to it and was often the laughing stock of hismates and teachers. He struggled a lot to attain his live-lihood by trying different professions but succeeded innone of them. Finally he obtained a medical degree. Butlater he found literature as a means for livelihood. Hegot acquainted with Dr Johnson which provided a foun-dation for the life-long friendship between them.Johnson's friendship proved valuable for Goldsmith.Johnson made him the member of the literary club. Hehad high hopes from Goldsmith, which he later justifiedby writing. The Traveller, The Deserted Village, TheVicar of Wakefield,, She Stoops to Conquer, The Retal-iation, The History of Greece and Animate Nature In1774 he caught feven, of which he died.

He was a great dramatist, novelist and an even agreater essayist. He had a prominent place in the 18thcentury literature. He was a great poet, his prose ofastonishing range and volume. He wrote many essayson personal and impersonal objects in the manner ofAddison. The essays of Goldsmith are characterisedby whimsicality, satire, mild humour and graceful charm.They are satirical reflections upon society of his times.He criticises manners and ideas in England.

His prose style was graceful, charming and amia-ble; pure and easy, and on proper occasion pointed andenergetic. It may be said that he is uniformly pleasingThe Citizen of the World is a series of imaginary lettersfrom a philosophical Chinaman, writing letters home fromLondon, giving Goldsmith the opportunity of express-ing his own mind upon the society and literature of theday. His essays in The Bee are admirable. He wrote shortmemoirs and lives such as Life of Beau Nash, Memoirof Voltaire and Life of Bolingbroke.

His contribution to literature, whether in prose,verse or drama, was to sweeten and purify it from itsviolence, coarseness and bitter wit. He had qualities ofhis own, a tranquil magic, a tender homeliness, a lightiridescent humour that will ever endear him to posterity.As a stylist Goldsmith is definitely superior to Addi-son. He is great because style in inseparable from thought

R.B. Sheridan (1751-1816)Sheridan's dramas are written in the mood of satir-

ical observation of life. He was not a psychologist but ashrewd and penetrating observer ; he was more able toperceive the secret movement of vanity or envy than toconstruct character. His main plays are The Rivals, TheSchool for Scandal, The Critic, The Duenna, St.Patrick's Day, The Scheming Lieutenant etc. Sheridanhas been justly called a dramatic star of the first magni-tude. His prose comedies resemble the best of the Res-toration comedies. The plots are ingenious and effec-tive. The dialogue is brilliant in its picturesque, epi-grammatic repartee. The plays are remarkable for theirvitality and charm.

r Who is credited with the initiation of moral reformin drama ?

- Collier

r Name two playwrights of the 18th century who

were associated with the comedy of humours.

- Sheridan and Goldsmith

r A legislation of the 18th century that restraineddramatists from writing plays with reflections onthe political figures of the day.

- The Licencing Act of 1737

r The sentimental comedy was basically a reactionagainst

- the comedy of humours

r The School for Scandal is a play by

- Richard Brinsley Sheridan

r Name two plays of Oliver Goldsmith.

- She Stoops to Conquer andThe Good-natured Man

Prose of the 18th century (Age of Transition)

Types of prose of the period : In the period of transition,prose was immensely enriched by thecontributions of a host of writers.

Critical prose : The work of Dr Johnson his Lives ofPoets and Preface to Shakespeare.

Biographical prose : Biography was attempted withgreat success by Boswell in Life of Dr Johnson.

Essay : Essay was cultivated both in the style of theperiodical essay and the personal essay byDr Johnson and Goldsmith.

Letters and memoir writers : Prose was used in writingletters and memoirs and the prominent figures areLady Mary Montague, Horace Walpole, Earl ofChesterfield and Dr Johnson.

Historical prose : A number of authors wrote historicalprose of rare charm and excellence. Hume,Robertson, and Edward Gibbon were prominentfigures.

Political prose : Edmund Burke and Bolingbroke werethe important political writers. Most of their workis characterised by political insight.

Prose fiction : The 18th century can be regarded as theage of fiction. For the first time, seasoned novelistsgave to English novel a form and a shape. Thebest works of Richardson, Fielding, Smollett, Sterne––– the four wheels of the English novel –– were

produced in this period. The Gothic romancers ofthe age, Mrs Ann Radcliffe, Horace Walpole andMathew Gregory Lewis produced romanticism infiction which was further carried forward in adifferent style by Walter Scott.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)Johnson was born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, in

1709 as the son of a small book seller. From his child-hood Johnson had to struggle against physical defor-mity and disease. He was a voracious reader and whenhe entered Oxford he had read more classical authorsthan had most of the graduates. He had to leave theuniversity on account of his poverty. He had to strug-gle in the beginning to earn a living. But gradually suc-cess came to him steadily. He wrote poems and startedtwo magazines The Rambler and The Idler.

His literary labours were rewarded when he re-ceived a pension at the age of 53. He founded theLiterary Club in which all the great literary men andpoliticians of the time were members. His greatness liesin the Dictionary of the English Language which is agreat contribution to scholarship. He was a great critictoo. The Lives of the Poets and Preface to Shakes-peare are examples. He died in 1784.

The Rambler ; The IdlerThese magzines follow the tradition of the Specta-

tor. The essays deal with a great variety of subjects andthe treatment was serious. The papers which appearedtwice a week are full of deep thoughts and observa-tions of Dr Johnson. Their aim is didactic. More of clas-sicism is to be found in Johnson's essays. The period-icals re-established the periodical essay, at a time whenit was in danger of being superseded by the newspaper.

The DictionaryIn 1749 Dr Johnson began the Dictionary of the

English language and completed it in 8 years. It is thefirst ambitious attempt at an English lexicon. It has itsweakness ; it was a poor guide to pronunciation, theetymology was inaccurate. For the first time, authori-ties, for the actual use of words, were quoted. It wasintroduced by a very fine preface setting forth his loftyaims to preserve the purity and ascertain the meaningof our English idiom and prevent the language frombeing overrun with 'cant' and Gallicized words. The dic-

tionary registers and concentrates the intellectualisa-tion of the language effected by a whole century ofanalysis and logical effort. It remains, however, a mon-ument of industry and intellectual conscience.

Dr Johnson as a criticHis fame as a critic of literature rests on The Lives

of Poets and Preface to Shakespeare. He belonged tothe school of judicial or dogmatic critics. His method asa critic is to pronounce verdicts and judgements ac-cording to his understanding and his own personalappreciation of the authors whom he judged. In his crit-icism he was a neo-classicist and traditionalist, and hiscritical methods were diametrically opposed to that ofthe critics of the romantic revival.

The Lives of PoetsIn this work, Johnson presents the lives and poet-

ic characteristics of English poets from Chaucer to Al-exander Pope. This work is his longest and most popu-lar one. In three volumes Johnson gives us biographi-cal and critical studies of fifty-two poets. In this bookhe gives less space to criticism and more to biography.

Preface to ShakespeareDr Johnson's Preface to Shakespeare was pub-

lished in 1765. Preface is remarkable for itsforthright honesty in recognizing Shakespeare's faultsand in defending him against the charge of ignoring theclassical unities, and for its analysis of the causes ofcorruption in the text. The book is a landmark, not onlyin Shakespearean scholarship but also in English criti-cism as a whole.

All Johnson's gifts are seen at their best in it, thelucidity, the virile energy, the individuality of his style,the unique power of first playing himself on the level ofthe plain man and then lifting the plain man to his stat-ue, the resolute insistence of life and reason, not learn-ing or ingenuity, as the standard by which books are tobe judged.

His limitations as a critic are mainly due to hisprejudices. He was led away by prejudice and under thestress of bias failed to appreciate the merits of poets,dramatists and novelists of repute. He wrote so welland because he knew so much of real life. The power ofhis criticism springs not only from his intellect, but alsofrom him vitality. His prose style has been the object of

much ridicule, epitomized in the popular conception of'Johnsonese' as pompous, artificial, verbose Prose.Antithesis and Latin diction were conspicuous fea-tures of his prose style. It is the most symmetrical aswell as one of the most vigorous, of the great prosestyles in English.

Johnson's influence on English style was a goodone. He confirmed the tradition of order, correctnessand lucidity, which had begun with Dryden. He intro-duced a greater variety of effect, a more complex sen-tence structure and a more copious diction.

James Boswell (1740-1795)Life of Johnson is considered one of the best bi-

ographies of the 18th century. This biography, whichappeared posthumously, is thebest biography of the great lit-erary man. Boswell presentsthe complete picture of DrJohnson's bulky, awkward ap-pearance, his brusque, over-bearing manner, his porten-tious voice, his uncouth ges-ture, and attitudes, his habitof whistling, all these havecome down to us, togetherwith the record of a great massof his conversation and a viv-id picture of incisive and com-prehensive mind.

The work is the first standard biography and themerit of the book lies in the fact that for the first time wehave a faithful record of Johnson with all his faults andmerits. It brings us in closer contact with Dr Johnsonwho influenced the course of literature and life duringhis times. It is full of anecdotes and conversation.Boswell is too careful a biographer. Modern biographersdiffer from the technique of Boswell.

They lay importance on selection and dramatic pre-sentation rather than on mere recording of irrelevant facts.In that aspect, Boswell's biography is an ill-assorted massof work on facts of Dr. Johnson's multifarious personali-ty. In spite of it being out of fashion, it remains one of theoutstanding works in the field of biography.

Contribution of historians in the 18th centuryDuring the 18th century two Scottish historians

David Hume and Robertson, and one English histori-an, Edward Gibbon, made remarkable contribution tohistory.

David Hume (1711-76)Hume was the great historian and philosopher of

England during the 18th century. His works are A Trea-tise of Human Nature; Essays, Moral and Political andThe History of England, in six volumes. He was not atrustworthy historian because he had no access to manyauthentic documents. He never bothered about exacti-tude and he never carried the scientific scruple for exac-titude two far. His aim was to rise above events, groupthem, judge them and extract what they had to teach. Hepossessed a clear and logical mind and a swift and bril-liant narrative style. In the history of literature his workis of importance and being the first of the popular andliterary histories of the country.

William Robertson (1721 - 1793)Robertson had greater merits than Hume. The read-

er is struck by his prudence and taste for precision. Hecreated the impression of a very safe mind, fullyequipped for the pursuit of truth. His main works areThe History of Scotland, History of the Reign of Em-peror Charles V, and History of America. We find inhim a judicial and critical spirit as well as a broader andmore philosophic outlook.

Tobias Smollett (1721 - 1771)He wrote The History of England. The work was

quickly written. His work in clear and lively and it isbecause of his realism and penetrating Psychologythat his history makes an interesting reading.

Edward Gibbon (1737-94)He was the great historian of England during the

18th century. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Em-pire (1777) in 6 volumes is his masterpiece. It ranks asof one of the greatest of historical works. It is an exam-ple of what a history ought to be. Gibbon treats thehistory of Rome from the second century to the end ofthe fifth and then follows the Byzantine empire, untilthe fall of Constantinople. In time it covers more than a

James Boswell

thousand years, in scope it includes all the nations ofEurope. The subject is the revolution of a world order.He was completely master of his subject and treatmentof his theme is so discriminating and thorough that hecannot be superseded.

Edmund Burke (1729-97)Burke was a famous Irish

orator, historian, scholar andpolitical writer. His philosophicwritings are A Vindication ofNatural Society, and The Ori-gin of Our Ideas of the Sublimeand Beautiful. His political writ-ings mainly concerned with theAmerican Revolution, WarrenHastings and the French Revo-lution. He was a practical politi-cian applying to the problems of his day the light of aclear and forcible intelligence. He was a great orator andhis speeches were remarkable for their political wisdom,stateliness and rhetorical power. His prose style is char-acterised by proportion, dignity and harmony. He hasthe tendency and capacity of building up an argument ofa picture by a succession of complementary strokes lead-ing one on the other . Rhetoric, in his hand, assumes agreat force; amplification becomes superb and declama-tion reaches its perfection.

Memoir writingMemoir literature enjoyed a greater vogue in France

than in England. The most famous series of letters ofthis period have a common character. They express inthe field of familiar moralising or of the worldly intercourse, the spirit of a society eager for truth, greed, forpleasure, cosmopolitian in taste, secretly distasteful orhostile with regard to any enthusiasm or any rigorousdiscipline. The prominent writers are Lady Montague,Philipstanhope, Robert Walpole, Horace Walpole,Junius etc.

Horace Walpole's memoirs give a highly satiricalpicture of court life during the reign of George II. Hewas a witty, satirical letter writer. Stanhop's Letters toHis Son is the advice tendered to his son of seven, isnot meant for him but is the expression of his own viewsand disburdening of his own heart.

r Lives of Poets and Preface to Shakespeare areworks by

- Dr Samuel Johnson

r ––– was an important political writer of theeighteenth century.

- Edmund Burke

r The Castle of Ortranto is a Gothic novel by

- Horace Walpole

r The magazines, The Rambler and The Idler, werestarted by

- Dr Johnson

r The Rambler and The Idler followed the tradition of

- The Spectator

r Goldsmith's work which is in the form of a series ofletters from a philosophical Chinaman.

- The Citizen of the World

r Life of Johnson is the biography of the great criticby

- James Boswell

r Who is the author of The Decline and Fall of theRoman Empire ?

- Edward Gibbon

r –––– was a famous Irish orator, historian, politicalwriter and his prominent work is A Vindication ofNatural Society.

- Edmund Burke

Origin and rise of the English novel

Of all the major literary forms, the novel is of recentorigin. But the germs of the novel lay in medieval ro-mance, a fantastic tale of love and adventure. In 1350,Boccaccio wrote Decameron, a world famous collectionof love stories in prose. Such short stories are called inItalian "novelle" which meant a novel or fresh story butgradually it signified a story in prose as distinguishedfrom a story in verse usually called a 'romance'. Whenprose became the universal medium, 'romance' came tosignify a story or series of stories of the legendary past.Malory's Morte de Arthur is an example. It is the loosestliterary form having full freedom of a full representationof real life and character. It is a very effective medium forthe portrayal of human thought and action.

Edmund Burke

Many Elizabethans wrote prose works of fictionsimilar to that of the novel. They are Lyly's Euphues,Thomas Lodge's Rosalynde and Sidney's Arcadia. Theywere all romances. The realistic element became prom-inent in Thomas Nashe's The Unfortunate Traveller.Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress has in it many ele-ments of novel proper. Robinson Crusoe Defoe pro-duced the first English novel of genius. It can be de-scribed as a 'picaresque' novel like Don Quixote ofCervantes. Swift's Gulliver's Travels is also a work offiction.

The English novel was almost an off shoot of theperiodical essay. Addison and Steele presented imagi-nary characters like sir Roger de Coverley. In the firsthalf of the 18th century, the novel acquired its modernform. The first English novel Pamela was written byRichardson in the form of letters Henry Fielding wroteJoseph Andrews as a parody of Pamela. TomJones is Fielding's masterpiece. Fielding's contributionto English prose fiction is substantial. He is out and outa realist. The next great pillar of the English novel wasLaurence Sterne. His Tristram Shandy was a forerunnerin using stream of consciousness method which is prac-tised by 20th century novelists. Smollett's novels dealwith sea life. Gothic novel, born in Germany, was intro-duced in England by Horace Walpole and MrsRadcliffe. Gothic novels deal with horror and mystery.It was transplanted to America by Edgas Allen Poe.

Among the later novelists, Oliver Goldsmith de-serves special mention for his brilliant studies in char-acter, easy, innate style in The Vicar of' Wakefield, whichbecame a model for writers of victorian prose fiction.Dr.Johnson used the novel as a vehicle for moral philoso-phy in his Rasselas Fanny Burney established the ad-vent of women novelists with her Evelina in 1778.

Novel in the 18th Century

Eighteenth century novel begins with Richardsonand ends with the coming of Jane Austen.

Samuel Richardson (1689-1761)He was the first of the great novelists of the 18th

century. He was a spokesman of his own times andimparted a new tone and touch to English fiction. Hemade a close study of the feminine heart and revealed itin his novels. He emphasized the cultivation of moral

virtues and became a moralistic novelist. He laid empha-sis on sensibility and sentiment, and introduced pathosin his novels. He was all serious. He sought his plots inthe middle class life. He brushed aside the paraphernaliaof romance and brought in realism. His greatest abilitylies in characterisation. His important works are Pamela,Clarissa Harlowe and Sir Charles Glandison.

Henry Fielding (1707-1754)Fielding introduced solid and plausible realism in

his novels. He sought to present a realistic picture ofsociety as he witnessed around him, with all its follies,foibles, and weaknesses. He aimed to be a reformer anda moralist and made efforts to purge off the evils ram-pant in the society. His weapons were irony, satire, andscathing criticism. The fame of Fielding rests on hisfour novels Joseph Andrews, Jonathan Wild, Tom Jonesand Amelia.

Tobias SmollettSmollet added satiric caricatures to the novel. He

has a certain waspishness of character which finds anexpression in all his novels. He has a knack for present-ing sarcastic and boisterous picture of life and he wasdrawn more towards ugliness and evil than towardsgoodness and faithfulness in his novels. He was obvi-ously obsessed with dirt. He had a descriptive and nar-rative gift and his picture of sea-life was unparalleled inEnglish literature. His fame as a novelist rests on Rod-erick Random, The Adventures of Sir Lancelot Greaves,Humphry Clinker.

Laurence Sterne (1713-1768)He opposed sentiment to reason, sensation to re-

flection. He did not care for the regular development of theplot. He introduced the impressionistic method of storytelling which was later popularised by James Joyce andothers. He delineated humorous characters. He carriedforward the sentimentality of Richardson. His major worksare The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gent and ASentimental Journey Through France and Italy.

Oliver Goldsmith Goldsmith introduced the subject of domes-

tic life and happy fire side as the subject of fiction. Hisentire contribution to novel rests only on one novelThe Vicar of Wakefield. It is a benign comedy of do-

mesticity and human character. He pointed out idea-lised picture of country side in his novel. He followedthe direct method of narration through the principalcharacter of the hero. He laid emphasis on the story andcharacterization. His characters were life-like and hadforce in them. He contributed much to the pathetic veinin the novel. Satire, morality, reformative zeal was alsothere in his work.

PamelaIt is the first English novel written by Richardson

in the form of letters. It consists of a series of familiarletters from a young beautiful girl to her parents. So it isan epistolery novel. It has a sub-title Virtue Rewarded.The story is very simple. Pamela, a virtuous maid ser-vant resists the attempts of seduction by the son of herlate land lady. Finally, a proposal of marriage comesfrom his and it is accepted. Pamela is part of a trilogyalongwith Clarissa Harlowe and Sir Charles Grandison.

Factors that led to the rapid growth of novel inthe 18th century.

Factors that led to the rapid growth of novel arethe decline of drama, rise of the periodical essay ofAddison and Steele,and the availability of material need-ed for the development of novel. Horace Walpole wasthe first great Gothic romancer and his monumental workis The Castle of Otranto. It was professed to be a trans-lation of a medieval Italian Romance. In it he painted thelife and manners of the feudal period. Impossibilities forthe sake of horror are introduced in the novel. Original-ly he aimed to find a middle way between medieval ro-mance and the matter-of-fact novel.

Pantomime : Pantomime became popular in the 18thcentury. Rich, a theatre manager, found it veryprofitable and produced several pantomimes whichattracted popular attraction. It is acting withoutspeech, using only posture, gesture, bodilymovement and exaggerated facial expression tomine (mimic) a character's actions and to express acharacter's feelings. Rich's pantomimes werepuppet shows. Later on Fielding satirised them inhis novels. A steep decline followed and the vogueof writing pantomimes came to an end.

Opera : Opera in Italian style was also cultivated in18th century. By far the best of the ballad - operas

was Gay's Beggar's Opera, and The Dragon ofWantley by Henry Carey. Operas werecharacterised by humorous scenes, pretty songs,rollicking fun, and clever dialogues.

Burlesque : Burlesque is a kind of satirical play inwhich the spirit of true comedy is presented in asatirical manner. 18th century writers excelled inwriting Burlesque. Carey's The Tragedy ofChronohotonthologos, Henry Fielding's TheTragedy of Tragedies, or The life and Death ofTom Thumb the Great were popular.

Farce : Farce is a low type of comedy, replete withludicrous situations, deficient in plot -construction, and sober characters. The aim of thefarce writers is to produce hoarse laughter andtickle the fancies of the audience so that throughthe play there may be fun and nothing else. Themost prolific writers of the farcial comedy wereSamuel Foote, Fielding, George Colman etc.

Daniel Defoe : (1661-1731). The real beginning of theEnglish novel took place in the 18th century with thework of Daniel Defoe. His Robinson Crusoe has heldits popularity undiminished for nearly two hundredand fifty years. The hero represents the whole ofhuman society, doing with his own hands, all thethings which by the division of labour and demandsof modern civilization are now done by many.

Adam Smith (1723-90) : Smith's famous book The Wealthof Nations,written in 1776, is looked upon as thefoundation of political economy as a science.It laidthe foundations of modern economic theory.

Thomas Gray (1716-1771) : In Gray's "letters", whichare infinitely various, we can read the whole storyof his life and personality. They are full ofscholarship, wisdom and wit in the best sense ofthe word.

William Cowper (1731-1800) : His Letters are perhapsthe best in the language, being absolutely natural,graceful and frank. He had the gift to makingtrivailities interesting in easy and attractive style.

r John Lyly's Euphues, Thomas Lodge's Rosalyndeand Sidney's Arcadia could be collectivelycategorised as

- Romances

r Name Daniel Defoe's novel which is picaresque in nature

- Robinson Crusoe

r Who is the author of Pamela, the first English novel ?

- Richardson

r Henry Fielding wrote a parody of Pamela entitled

- Joseph Andrews

r Name Laurence Sterne's novel, which is regarded as the forerunner of the stream of consciousness novelpractised by writers of the 20th century.

- Tristram Shandy

r Gothic novel, which had its beginning in Germany, was introduced in England by

- Horace Walpole

r –––– is the masterpiece of Henry Fielding.

- Tom Jones

r Gothic novels are characterised by

- horror and mystery

r Who is credited with the introduction of Gothic fiction in America ?

- Edgar Allan Poe

r Amelia and Jonathan Wild are novels by

- Henry Fielding

r A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy is the work of

- Laurence Sterne

r Which novel of Richardson is sub-titled as Vir tue Rewarded ?

- Pamela

r ––– is acting without speech, using only posture, gesture, bodily movement and exaggerated facial expressionto mimic a character's actions.

- Pantomime

r Who is the author of the Wealth of Nations which is regarded as the foundation of political economy?

- Adam Smith