Module 1 Lecture Notes: The Restoration and the 18th Century Part I
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I. Neoclassic literature - artistic movement during the Restoration period
a. Refers to Restoration of the Stuart kings (King Charles II) to throne of England
b. Before then: bloody battles because of groups fighting for power (Shakespeare)
c. The period of Braveheart, Henry III, Elizabeth – Protestants vs. Catholics
d. ___________________: the reformers such as Wycliffe, Luther, Knox and Calvin
were considered heretics to Catholic church
i. Main belief: People could and should have a direct relationship with God;
are priests themselves and don’t need one to be forgiven
ii. All people should be allowed & expected to read scripture on their own,
and not rely on the church
iii. The Reformation predated the KJV (1611); Tyndale had already translated
many books
II. History before Course even starts
a. 1531 – King Henry VIII – needed a male heir; petitioned Rome for a divorce and
was denied. Declared Eng. Protestant country with himself as head of church;
declared marriage in valid and married Anne Boleyn
i. Jane Seymour mother of Edward (Protestant king)
ii. Mary – daughter of Catherine, returned country to Catholicism, violently
persecute & torture protestants
iii. Elizabeth I – Protestant; practice religious tolerance. Catholic attempt on
life -e even more violent crackdown, even on cousin Mary queen of scots.
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Sovereign for 65 years. Shakespeare, Marlowe & Spenser (Golden age of
England) Virgin queen- unmarried
b. James the I – son of Mary Queen of Scots. 1st Stuart king; end of Tudors
i. Called on scholars to compile canonical Bible
ii. Calvinists, esp. Puritans experienced persecution so they came to America
as the Pilgrims
iii. Milton have much to say about political reform & Christianity
iv. Writers of the period: Bacon, Johnson, Webster, Currew, Marlowe,
Herrick, Donne
c. Succeeded by Charles I (not very strong at controlling parliament, lead to Civil
War).
i. Oliver Cromwell beheads Charles I; his son Charles II goes into exile
ii. Presbyterians vs. Puritans, Catholics vs. Protestants, everyone fought the
Jews for a period of 20 years
iii. When James I’s son returned from exile: begin course here
III. Beginning of the Restoration
a. Increase of Parliamentary power and formation of political parties
b. Colonization of India, America, and East Indies; Domination of the seas
c. Black Death and Great Fire
d. Bloodless (aka Glorious Revolution)
e. James II (Catholic) exiled to Scotland
f. Scientific curiosity; philosophical reflection
g. William III (William of Orange) and Mary II reduced Catholic power
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IV. Events during the Restoration
a. Charles II restored to the throne
b. The Glorious Revolution
c. Act of Union unites Scotland and England
d. Reign of Anne (daughter of James II)
e. The Hanover Kings: George I, George II, George III (aka Mad George)
f. The Gordon Riots
g. Deaths of John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Johnson
V. Literary Genres during the Restoration
a. John Dryden
b. Samuel Butler
c. John Oldham
d. Charles Cotton
e. Alexander Pope
f. Thomas Gray
g. William Cowper
h. Oliver Goldsmith
i. George Crabbe
VI. Literary Genres
a. Novel flourished – but didn’t reach maturity/definition until 19th cent;
b. Picaresque Novel – the “picarro” or hero never changes
i. Gulliver’s travels
ii. Joseph Andrews, Tom Jones, and Jonathan Wild by Henry Fielding
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iii. Humphrey Clinker by Tobia Smollet
c. Episodic Novels – full of episodes and adventures
i. Moll Flanders and Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
ii. Sentimental Journey & Tristam Shanty by Laurence Sterne
iii. Ooronoko by Aphra Behn
d. Episodic Novels
i. Evelina by Fanny Burney
ii. Pamela and Clarissa by Samuel Richardson
e. Gothic Novels: attempted to scare the reader with the supernatural
i. The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
ii. The Monk by Matthew Lewis
iii. The Castle of Otranto by Maria Edgeworth
iv. Wieland, Arthur Mervyn, and Edgar Huntly by Charles Bockden Brown
v. Vathek: An Arabian Tale by William Beckford
f. Religious Novel: during the Restoration, England was experiencing several
religious revivals
i. Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
ii. John Wesley
iii. Joseph Butler
g. Intellectual Readings of the Restoration; the greatest age ever for the Essay
i. History: The History of the Decline and Fall by Edward Gibbon;
Bolinbroke’s Letters on the Study of History by Lord Bolingbroke; Diary
by Samuel Pepys
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ii. Philosophy: John Locke, David Hume, Sir Joshua Reynolds
iii. Science: Sir Isaac Newton, Sir Charles Lyell
iv. Politics: Adam Smith
v. Essays: Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, Joseph Addison, Sir Richard
Steele, George Berkeley, William Law
h. Restoration Drama: Plays; many of them are very bawdy
i. Cato by Joseph Addison
ii. The Man of the Mode by Sir George Etherage
iii. The Country Wife by William Wycherly
iv. The Rover by Aphra Behn
v. Love for Love by William Congreve
vi. The Way of the World by William Congreve
vii. She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith
viii. The Beaux Stratagem by George Farquhar
i. Neoclassicism Movement: Looked to Classics of Ancient Greeks and Romans for
inspiration. Also called the Augustan period (like Caesar Augustus.)
i. Number one characteristic: Rigid adherence to Form, like in Pope’s
“Rape of the Lock”
ii. Lyrical: artificial in thought; deficient in; very precise form
iii. Ode: popular, elaborate lyric that exalts one subject, like spring
iv. Heroic couplet: every pair or lines has end rhymes, following the
grandiose style of the classics that exalted some hero
v. Graveyard: sentimental, melancholy
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vi. Caesura: a strong grammatical break in the middle of a line
j. Nonfiction: Intellectual works posed intellectual solution to man’s problems:
Upper-class flagrant disregard of Christianity and Christian morals. Man no
longer needed God.
i. Plenty of people were writing about evolution in 1700’s, long before
Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859.
k. Aesthetic Imitation of the Classics: like the Iliad & The Odyssey, works designed
to counter social ills and to entertain the leisure class (summary).
IV. “The Rape of the Lock”
a. Alexander Pope achieved popularity as a Catholic writer when Catholics couldn’t go
to college, vote, or be priests. Earned a fortune from translating Iliad and Odyssey
(poetry was big business).
b. Handicap: Always sick, tuberculosis (only 4 ½ feet), crippling headaches.
c. Essay on Criticism 1711
d. “Rape of the Lock” 1712 – greatest Mock epic, established his fame
e. Club called the Scriblerus – Swift, Grey, Purnell
f. NOT making fun of the epics; making fun of its own age for inflating the problems of
the rich – pettiness, trivialities, flirting instead of courage and great battles.
g. Characteristics of an Epic:
a. Lofty subjects, heroic characters
b. Long narrative, elevated language
c. Formal statement of theme
d. Divided into books or cantos
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e. Grandiose speeches, invoking muse
f. Anaphora, Homeric simile, Iambic heroic couplet
g. Capricious gods directing of action and messing with the lives of mortals
h. Malicious or benevolent gods
h. Religious language: toiletry described as if it’s a religious ritual. Why?
i. Imagery of war during the card game? What’s Pope’s point?
j. Important symbols:
a. The sun (Belinda is compared to it) – Pope making fun of her vanity;
symbolizes passing of time
b. China (porcelain), delicate, fragile, ornamental – represents the fragility of
women’s chastity or one’s reputation
c. Silver and gold, glittering – what is important is what is underneath
V. Jonathan Swift – author of Gulliver’s Travels.
George Orwell: “If I had to make a list of 6 books to be preserved, I would certainly put
Gulliver’s Travels among them.”
a. Wrote many Satirical pieces, esp. about religion. Chaplain to Lord Justice of Ireland;
Dean of St. Patrick’s cathedral at Dublin. Spoke out against Deists, Roman Catholics,
and anyone who posed a threat to the Anglican church (main church; controlled
politics)
b. Leader against British oppression of the Irish.
c. “It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.”
d. “We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one
another.”
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e. Read all the footnotes for The Modest Proposal:
a. Par. 1: Irish citizens– came as indentured servants to America, because of
poverty. Also to Spain – to support the real Catholic heir, James Francis Stuart
to the British throne. Most British supported transfer of power to William of
Orange, out of fear of a Catholic monarch, son in law to present king. James
III – old pretender, and his son, Bonnie Prince Charlie, the new pretender.
Neither regained the throne for the Stuarts.
b. Oliver Cromwell: Lord Protector of England. Led a revolt against King
Charles I (tried to rule without Parliament). Cromwell went to Ireland and
seized property belonging to Catholics. ½ of Ireland had been given to British
landlords, forcing the Irish to raise sheep and cattle for English.
c. The Irish tenant farmers: Irish farmers raised potatoes to support themselves,
because they were forced to send everything else they raised to England to
pay for their land. Avg. male ate 12-14 lbs of potatoes a day with little else.
America – hopes of a better life. During the potato blight of 1845; about ½ of
Ireland immigrated to America.
d. St. Patrick – Catholics were called Papists (because they believed in papal
supremacy over Anglican church). Concern: English have political and
military support for Rome instead of England. Patrick – Ireland to Christianity
in 5th century; Catholicism was national religion of Ireland until Cromwell.
e. Swift is satirizing Irish catholic families who reduced themselves to nothing
but breeders (disregarding marriage & family). Admonishes those who don’t
have compassion for poor because of greed and greedy capitalism.
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f. Cannibalism – not being literal. Analogy between eating people and other
ways in which people or a nation can be devoured. British oppression –
voracious consumption of all things Irish – humans devouring humans in a
cannibalism of injustice and inhumanity. Also critiques Irish landlords: a
nation consuming itself and its resources.
VII. Thomas Gray (1716-1771).
a. Staunch history professor at Cambridge; recluse. Samuel Johnson – “the Elegy
was the most beloved poem of its time”
b. Only child of 8 to survive infancy
c. Attended Eaton (prep school for Cambridge). Best friends with Horace Walpole
(son of prime minister, future essayist) and Richard West (His death prompted the
elegy)
d. Elegy Written in a Country churchyard
i. 1st two stanzas – describe setting
ii. 4th stanza – describe graveyard. Focus: ordinary people. Warns against
iii. 33-93: Grey’s philosophy of death and criticism of class divisions.
iv. Remainder: What people would like to be said about them.
v. Elegy – form of a pastoral – Latin for shepherd; shepherd is at peace with
nature and himself. Nostalgic longing for more simple times. Celebration
of the unhonored dead.
vi. Precise rhyme scheme: ab,ab, cd,cd… Heroic Quatrain.
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vii. The Poem’s Rhythm: iambic pentameter. Like the heroic authors – each
line has two distinct images and is separated into two parts by a caesura
viii. Emotional Atmosphere: melancholy and loneliness (like romanticism).
Grey – also considered pre-romantic.
VIII. “A Reading of Moliere” by Jean Francois de Troy. Identify neoclassical
characteristics.
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