The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century1660-1798

The Restoration•1660: Charles II is restored back to the

throne. In his reinstatement after the reign of Oliver Cromwell he led a 7 hour parade through the streets of London.▫This procession marked not only the

restoration of the monarchy but the restoration of a new era. A time of livelier times from the pre-Puritan regime and Cromwell’s oppressive mandates.

The Glorious Revolution•1685: Upon Charles’s death, his brother

James II took the thrown. •1688: James II was so unpopular that

Parliament asked Charles’s daughter Mary and her Dutch Protestant husband William to replace James.▫This is when the Glorious Revolution begins

because this transition in thrones took place without bloodshed.

The Glorious Revolution•1689: Mary and William affirm the Bill of

Rights which allowed the propertied classes to rule Parliament though an elected Parliament.

•1694: Queen Mary dies•1702: William dies and Queen Anne takes

the thrown.▫Anne was the young daughter of James II,

and she would be the last of the Stuarts rule in England.

The End of the Stuart Line•To prevent any Roman Catholic Stuarts

from reigning in the future, Parliament passed the Act of Settlement, which stated the throne should go next to the James I’s Protestant relation.

•1707: Act of Union was passed▫Scotland joined England to form the

Kingdom of Great Britain.

The House of Hanover•1714: Queen Anne dies and the reign of

George I begins.▫George came from Hanover, Germany.▫He did not know any English and took little

interest in learning any.▫Very unpopular▫Son George II succeeded him and he too

was unpopular.

The House of Hanover•1756: Seven Year’s war with France begins•1760: George II dies and George III takes

the throne.▫George II and George II both spoke English

and grew up as an Englishman but were unpopular with the English.

•1762: Spain enters the Seven Years War•1775: American Revolutionary War begins•1789: French Revolution begins.

The Industrial Revolution• The industrial revolution brought with it lasting

changes in manufacturing, the economy, and society in general.

• As technology developed, goods were no longer manufactured by families in small shops.

• Factories opened, and people began to migrate from their rural farms to urban communities.

• New class distinctions emerged.▫Those who owned factories or controlled production

were called “capitalists” and were considered to be in a higher social class than workers.

Life of the Time• 1660: Opera Houses are being built in Italy.• 1665: Approximately 70,000 people died after being

bitten by fleas that had sucked rats’ blood.▫ The Plague swept through Europe. The disease was carried

by rats from ships that sailed abroad.• 1666: The Great Fire of 1666

▫ A fire had begun in a bakery and destroyed13,000 houses and 88 churches in only 4 days.

• 1668: Sir Isaac Newton builds the first reflecting telescope

• 1742: Handel’s Messiah is first performed.• 1752: Ben Franklin invents the lightning rod.• 1793: Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin.

Food & Fashion, Arts & Entertainment• Food prices rose sharply.• Dinner continued to be served midday in the houses

of common folk, but the wealthier began eating their main meal around 2 or 3.

• Light colors ad fabrics began to replace the dark, heavy clothes worn by men and women.

• French King Louis XIV introduced the wig• Painted portraits became a high demand.• In pleasant weather, people spent time outdoors

visiting parks and gardens.• Enjoyed watching puppet shows, animal baiting, and

prizefighting.

Literature of the Time•1660: Smauel Peppys begins his diary•1712: Alexander Pope, The Rape of the

Lock•Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels

Literature of the Time• People read censored Newspapers, periodicals about the

developments in art, literature, and science, and novels.• People began writing diaries and letters.

▫ Poetry had dominated the world of English literature from medieval times through the Renaissance. Many writers switched from writing poetry to prose in the eighteenth century.

• Eighteenth century writers took pride in looking at the world around them with a sharp eye, and writing about what they saw with a sharp pen.▫ Wit and satire began to be a big part of writers literature. Wit or

cleverness was prized in conversation and in writing.▫ Two types of Satire emerged in English literature during this period:

Horatian: author mildly pokes fun at a subject. Juvenalian: author mercilessly criticizes certain practices or characters.

Jonathan Swift• “A Modest Proposal” & “Gulliver’s Travels”• Started his career writing poetry, wasn’t good at it, and so found

his niche in writing prose.• Considered to be one of the world’s finest satirists.• Born in Dublin, Ireland.• Had a difficult childhood.

▫ Before he was born his father died, leaving his family poor causing his mom to send her newborn son to live with his uncle.

▫ Started reading when he was 3▫ At 6 he was sent to Kilkenny School, which was the best school in

Ireland at the time.▫ Suffered from depression, which would affect his education and he

barely graduated from Dublin Trinity College.▫ Died at the age of 78 and his remaining money was donated to build

a hospital.

Alexander Pope• “Epigrams” & “An Essay on Man”• Faced many obstacles in his lifetime.

▫Chronically ill- Tuberculosis of the spine stunted his growth causing him to be crippled and the object of ridicule

▫Little formal education- Anti-Catholic laws kept him from attending England’s universities

▫Roman Catholic when England was predominately Protestant at this time.

• One of England’s most respected satirist poets.• Translated the Greek poetry, Iliad and the Odyssey

into modern verse.

Aesop• “The Raven and the Fox”• Has written several well-known fables such as “The

Tortoise and the Hare” and “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”.• Born a slave, Aesop won his master’s favor by offering

him advice in the form of witty animal stories.• Won his freedom by making a bargain with the council

in Thrace, where he was born, that if he interpreted the future of Thrace then he could be free.

• In reality, no evidence exists to prove that Aesop ever lived or wrote the fables associated with his name.

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu• “Letter to Her Daughter”• Went after what she wanted in life, even if that meant

defying social customs.▫ Received a high education when men were the ones who

were suppose to be receiving the better education at this time.

▫ She chose not to marry the man her father had arranged for her at the age of 23 and instead eloped with the man she loved.

▫ After 25 years of marriage and having a son and a daughter with her husband she decided to separate from her husband and then spent the next 20 years living in Italy and France.

▫ She eventually died at the age of 73 from cancer.

Samuel Pepys• “The Diary of Samuel Pepys”• Primarily recognized for his contributions to the

British navy. Now he is recognized for his diary which had been unnoticed for 100 years after Pepys death.

• Pepys’s diary provides vivid account of some of the most stirring events of the seventeenth century, as well as an intimate portrait of Pepys himself.

• Attended Cambridge University on a scholarship.

Joan Didion•“On Keeping a Notebook”•Born in 1934 in California•Launched her writing career by entering

into a Vogue essay writing contest.

Daniel Defoe•“A Journal of the Plague Year”•Bounced back and forth between bankruptcy

and prosperity, prison and political preferment.•At 25 he joined a rebellion against the Roman

Catholic King James II in which 600 rebels died, but he escaped.

•In his lifetime, Defoe published 2 newspapers, wrote fictional narratives, and penned more than 500 pamphlets and books, including the popular novel Robinson Cruso.

Thomas Gray• “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”

▫One of the best loved poems in the English language.▫Did not plan on publishing this elegy, but he had shown it

to his friend who in turn showed it to other people and an imperfect copy made its way to an editor of a periodical.

• Allowed only 13 bodies of his poems to be published in his lifetime.

• Born in London to a good mother and a violent, indifferent father.▫His mother sent him away at 8 to Eton so that he could

get a good education.▫He then went on to study at Cambridge University

Samuel Johnson• “A Dictionary of the English Language” & “Letter to Lord

Chesterfield”• One of the greatest writers of his time he struggled to

making ends meet. • As a young child he contracted tuberculosis of the lymph

nodes and ended up deaf in one ear, almost blind in one eye, and badly scarred.

• At the age of 30 he began working with 6 assistants to compose and English dictionary. ▫ It took them 8 years to compose this dictionary of almost

40,000 entries.• In his 50’s Johnson was freed from financial worries

when King George III granted him a pension for life.

Fanny Burney• “The Diary of Fanny Burney”

▫Gives us an entertaining look at English society during the late 1700s and early 1800s

• Began keeping a diary at 15▫The same year her father remarried

• Burney planned on keeping her authorship a secret, but as she started showing her family members and friends her writing the secret got out.

• Burney was best known and acclaimed for her novels. Today she is known for her diaries and he letters.