ENG 4339 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Didacticism, An Essay On Man, Daniel Defoe
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UNIT 1: THE RESTORATION AND 18TH: FROM COMEDY TO SATIRE
Britain modernizing. London largest city in Europe. Consumer culture (tea, coffee, porcelain…)
1707 ACT OF UNION (UK created: England and Scotland, first PM, Whighs and Tories.
THE MONARCHY
Charles II restored from exile in France in 1660. Mark new era: RESTORATION. Ended two centuries of civil
wars between kings: INTERREGNUM. He promised religious toleration but TEST ACT (1673) excluded Catholics
from government office. Restoration ended with his death.
James II. Charles‟ catholic brother in throne. VIOLATED ACT. Normalized relations with Rome.
THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTION. James II wanted full power and his son would be raised Catholic. House of Lords
invited his James‟ protestant daughter and her husband WILLIAM THE ORANGE to take over the crown. James
fled, replaced by William. Declaration of Rights/BILL OF RIGHTS signed. No more Divine Rights, rights for
citizens, no more CATHOLICS ON THRONE.
THE CONTEXT OF IDEAS
JOHN MILTON‟s “PARADISE LOST”
JOHN BYUNAN “PILGRIM PROGRESS”: expressed the conscious of the Non-conformist.
Distrust of DOGMATISM (Puritan enthusiasm, papal ineffability, Divine right of the Kings…)
THOMAS HOBBES – “THE LEVIATHAN” which jettisoned the idea of Divine right and spoke of a more natural
approach.
EPICURIAN THOUGHT/DOCTRINE: PIERRE GASSENDI: Materialistic philosophy said that the universe
consisted of minuscule atoms and void. SWIFT mocked it on “A TALE OF THE TUB”.
Many philosophers said humans can achieve a degree of necessary knowledge but pursuit of absolute certainty was
in vain and mad. Scientific revolution furthered by CHARLES II when he chartered the ROYAL SOCIETY OF
LONDON.
NATURAL HISTORY: the collection and description of facts of nature.
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY: the study of the causes of what happen in nature.
NATURAL RELIGION: the study of nature as a book written by god.
DEISM: only relied on reason, not mystery or biblical truth. No active God that punish.
BATTLE OF THE BOOKS: conflict in the late 17th between ancient and modern learning. “THE QUARREL OF THE
ANCIENTS AND THE MODERNS”. SWIFT sided on the ancient, “GULLIVER’S TRAVEL” denounced the
pointlessness and arrogance of the ROYAL SOCIETY and in “MODEST PROPOSAL” he cites the new cruelty and
moral indifference by statistics and economics.
SENTIMENTAL: thought which locates the base of social conduct in instinctual feeling rather than the divinely
sanctioned moral codes.
CONDITIONS OF LITERARY PRODUCTION
Publish boomed in 18th. Before the government practised “prior restraint”, but now too many to control.
STATUE OF ANNE: First copyright law.
Many PERIODICALS.
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GRUB STREET: the lower echelon of the publishing market (named after a street in London)
BLUESTOCKING: women who claimed a high religious and intellectual standards.
Increasing people were literate but books expensive. Libraries appear but membership fee.
AUGUSTAN AGE: changed to elegant simplicity, reaction against extravagance of late Renaissance.
NEOCLASSICAL: writing wanted to be classical and new. It‟s the revival of the style and spirit of classical
antiquity from the classical period. Simplicity in style, understood by all. Readers of the poetry had to imagine
what they read, represent nature.
NATURE for Augustans meant universal nature, permanent elements in human experience.
WIT: quickness and liveliness of the mind, inventiveness and to enliven literary discourse with metaphors, images
and similes.
PERSONIFICATION: representing a thing or abstraction in a human form
PERIPHRASIS: a roundabout way of avoiding homely words. Ex: bananas = elongated yellow fruit.
CLOSED HERIOC COUPLET: pentameters couplets. Perfected by POPE.
CAESURA: slight pause that separate two halves of a line in poetry.
BLANK VERSE: iambic pentameter without rhyme or couplet.
LITERATURE AND LETTERS (Restoration and 18th)
Novel emerged but outshined by ballads and broadsheets (news of the time).
1740 only novels written by women, not considered worthy enough to be written by men)
Difference between Restoration and 18th literature
Restoration
18th
Pursuit of pleasure
Diffusion of taste
Intensity and immediacy of contact
Politeness and sociability (Sensibility)
Handwritten manuscripts
Artist recognised, copyright invented, booksellers and publishers, shift to print.
Published letter EPISTOLARY novel
POETRY
Not the most popular form of writing (metaphysical and romanticism). Too simple, formal and topical.
HEROIC COUPLETS (ten syllables, 5 feet each, each line rhyme)
Restoration poetry
18th poetry
Only rich write
Working class
Both satirical, influenced by Milton.
John Driden
- The state of Innocence and the Fall of men.
Alexander Pope
- An essay on Criticism
- An essay on Men
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JOHN DRYDEN
Use of simplistic language to reach a new audience. Masterpiece “ALL FOR LOVE”.
COMEDY OF MANNERS: brilliant, witty, cynical view of human nature which shows to be sensual, egoistic and
predatory. Picks social behaviour. It brings the moral and social behaviour of characters to the test of comic
laughter.
ALEXANDER POPE
“ESSAY ON CRITICISM”: best critics are authors and viceversa. Tells people to read homer.
“ESSAY ON MEN” tries to answer same question as Milton, but in a different way. Both start in a garden with
tempting fruit. But EOM is not epic. It‟s epistle, not in blank verse, in heroic couplets with 5 syllables on each side
of the caesura.
GRAY “ELEGY WRITTEN IN ACOUNTRY CHURCH YARD” shift from classical roman towards Romanticism.
Authors laments poor genius might lay buried without recognition.
DRAMA: Stuart Reformation. Charles II restored two theatres. The kings and the Dukes, women allowed to act.
BALLAD OPERA: John Gay‟s “The beggars‟ opera”. Today it would be a musical.
THE NOVEL
18th
19th
Global
Domestic
Crusoe and Gulliver
City/country
Terra incognita
landscapes
Shorter and less voices
Lengthy and overlapping
Both flexible, fluid and open. Deal with different issues, genres and uses of print.
EPIC AND THE NOVEL
EPIC: long fictional narrative in verse. Part of the past.
NOVEL: long fictional narrative en prose. Part of the present.
18th LITERATURE (SWIFT, ADDISON, STEEL, POPE, GAY)
Wanted to maintain good sense and civil values. Literature of wit, turned against fanaticism and innovation. AGE
OF SATIRE. Finest works of the period are MOCK HEROIC.
NEW JOURNALISM reached upper class women, rich and leisure of both sexes, lots of newspapers, periodicals
flourished. Hunger for info about politics, society, science…
Old Commedy of Manners replaced by SENTIMENTAL writing: faith in triumph of the good heart over
vice/dialogue dealing with high moral sentiments and heroines/heroes suffer misfortunes that moves readers to
tears. SENTIMENTAL COMEDY: art and pleasure of weeping. THE BEGGAR‟S OPERA resisted this trend.
NATURE: its description flourished. THE SUBLIME: vast spaces, mountainous country and wild and untamed
landscapes.
THE EMERGENCE OF NEW LITERARY THEMS AND MODES / AGE OF JOHNSON
Decline of lyrical poetry. PROSE flourished. Johnson‟s Dictonary codified language. THE AGE OF JOHNSON.
“THE LIVES OF THE POETS”.
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Document Summary
Unit 1: the restoration and 18th: from comedy to satire. 1707 act of union (uk created: england and scotland, first pm, whighs and tories. Charles ii restored from exile in france in 1660. Ended two centuries of civil wars between kings: interregnum. He promised religious toleration but test act (1673) excluded catholics from government office. James ii wanted full power and his son would be raised catholic. House of lords invited his james protestant daughter and her husband william the orange to take over the crown. No more divine rights, rights for citizens, no more catholics on throne. John byunan pilgrim progress : expressed the conscious of the non-conformist. Distrust of dogmatism (puritan enthusiasm, papal ineffability, divine right of the kings ) Thomas hobbes the leviathan which jettisoned the idea of divine right and spoke of a more natural approach. Epicurian thought/doctrine: pierre gassendi: materialistic philosophy said that the universe consisted of minuscule atoms and void.
