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Seventeenth-Century British Literature

Seventeenth-Century British Literature. The devil made me do it! . A quick grammatical sidebar. If you’re naming the century, no hyphen: The seventeenth century was a time of upheaval in England. If you’re describing the period, hyphen:

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Seventeenth-Century British Literature

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  1. Seventeenth-Century British Literature The devil made me do it!

  2. A quick grammatical sidebar • If you’re naming the century, no hyphen: • The seventeenth century was a time of upheaval in England. • If you’re describing the period, hyphen: • Seventeenth-century literature can be hard to describe. • Do not capitalize centuries, per MLA, and do spell them out if you’re writing formally.

  3. Periodization • How do we categorize literature? • By movement (The Romantics) • By monarch (The Elizabethan Age) • By history (WWI Poets) • By theory (Modernists) • And, by arbitrary chunks of time.

  4. What is the Seventeenth Century? A VERY BUSY TIME IN ENGLAND East India Trading Company, Royal African Company, slave trade, Bank of England, Bank of Scotland, checks, banknotes, milled coins, Stock Exchange, national debt, excise tax, land tax, insurance companies, settlements at Virginia, Massachusetts Bay, Barbados, Novia Scotia, establishment of Calcutta, newspapers, tobacco, sugar, rum, gin, port, champagne, peppermint, Cheddar cheese, tea, coffee, chocolate, gentlemen’s clubs, steam engine, iron, pressure cooker, WC, commode, umbrellas, waistcoats, hoopskirts, springed carriages, turnpikes, tolls, postal service, circulation of blood, chemical elements, gravity, Royal Society, plant classification, logarithms, Halley’s comet, multiplication sign, binomial theory, differential calculus, microscope, vacuum, forceps, diabetes, blood transfusion, cricket, golf, yachting, Covent Garden, St. James Park, Baptists, Quakerism, actresses, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, Paradise Lost, Pilgrim’s Progress, The Country Wife, Leviathan, Two Treatises of Government, and The King James Bible --From Kishlansky, A Monarchy Transformed

  5. How busy was it? So much so that almost all literary scholars break the century into pieces! So shall we. For sanity’s sake. For now.

  6. Background – Religion and State The Sixteenth Century in England = The Tudors

  7. If only . . .

  8. The Tudors (16th century) • 1531-2 Henry VIII separates from the Catholic Church • 1547-1553 Edward VI, Protestant • 1553-1558 Mary I, Catholic (married a Spaniard!) • 1558-1603 Elizabeth I, Protestant-ish Elizabeth I dies without an heir, and so her courtiers bring James VI of Scotland, her cousin, to England.

  9. The Stuarts (1603-1649)

  10. 17th Century, Part One The Stuart Dynasty • James I (1603-1625) • Charles I (1625-1648) – EXECUTED 1649 • [English Civil War  Commonwealth] • Charles II (1660-1685) sons of Charles I • James II (1685-1688)

  11. King James I

  12. James I • Protestant • United England, Scotland, and Wales • Increased powers of Reformers in Parliament • Sold knighthoods for quick cash • Believed in Divine Right of Kings • The True Law of Free Monarchies • BasilikonDoron (The Royal Gift) • “no bishop, no king”

  13. Touchstones for James I • The Gunpowder Plot (1605) • “Remember Remember the Fifth of November” • Sponsored a new translation of Bible • The King James Bible (1611) – committee! • The Separatists left during this time to go to Leiden and then to Massachusetts (1620)

  14. King Charles I

  15. Charles I • Religious conservative (Anglican leaning Catholic) • Great supporter of arts • Belief in absolutism • Reintroduced feudal taxation to bypass Parliament • Refused to summon Parliament for 11 years

  16. Touchstones for Charles I • William Laud made Archbishop of Canterbury (1633) • Scottish Revolution & Invasion (1638-40) • Bishops’ Wars (1639-40) • Irish Rebellion (1641) • Attempt to Arrest MPs (1642) • Executed January 30th 1649

  17. Roundheads and Cavaliers

  18. 1642-1649 English Civil War

  19. Potential Causes • Religion! A Puritan Revolution! • Politics! Tensions between Charles I and Parliament! • Social! Declining aristocracy and the rising middle class! • Geography! Britain is too damn big to rule!

  20. Civil War of Ideas The early 1640s were “a period in which the most fundamental political and social certainties seemed suddenly open for debate.” --The Broadview Anthology of British Literature

  21. Civil War of Ideas • Several radical voices emerged • The Levellers • Universal suffrage, a written constitution, freedom of worship, equality before the law • The Diggers • Private property is theft • Oliver Cromwell • Attempted to demilitarize the government, readmitted the Jews to England (banished since 1290!)

  22. Lord Protector

  23. Touchstones for English Civil War • Charles raises his standard at Nottingham (1642) • “First” Civil War lasts until 1646 with defeat of Royalists • “Second” Civil War 1648-49 • Defeat of Ireland and Scotland in 1649-51 • Charles I recaptured, tried by Parliament, and executed (1649)

  24. Charles I’s Standard – similar to this modern coat of arms used by QEII

  25. Executing the King January 30, 1649

  26. The Commonwealth • Cromwell became Lord Protector of the Commonwealth in 1653 • Parliament replaced by members who were elected by religious congregations • Cromwell’s son Richard cannot sustain the rule and is overthrown by the army who brings back Charles II, son of the late king.

  27. 1660-1688 The Restoration

  28. Charles II (1661-85) Things have changed!

  29. Charles II returns • The Act of Oblivion – forgive rebels • Although the Commonwealth is now called the Interregnum (between kings) • Many children, none of them legitimate • Reopens the theaters, which were closed by Parliament in 1642

  30. Touchstones for Charles II • 1665 Great Plague in London • 1666 Great Fire of London • 1673 The Test Act • 1678 The Popish Plot • 1683 The Rye House Plot

  31. James II (Duke of York) 1685-88

  32. NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITHJames of Monmouth Charles II’s eldest son (illegitimate) who attempted to depose his uncle in 1685 on the grounds that he was the heir AND he was Protestant! James II had him executed.

  33. James II • CATHOLIC! Interested in returning England to Catholicism • He did not last long – forced out and replaced by William and Mary of Orange (Mary is his daughter, but she’s Protestant) • Years of Jacobite rebellions followed his deposition and flight to France • Battle of the Boyne 1690; his sons continued

  34. Touchstones for James II and W&M • 1687 – Declaration of Liberty of Conscience • 1688 – William of Orange invades, James II flees to France • 1689 - Parliament issues Bill of Rights; establishes a constitutional monarchy in Britain; bars Roman Catholics from the throne; William III and Mary II become joint monarchs

  35. Looking forward • The Cavaliers evolved into the Tory Party, royalists intent on preserving the king's authority over Parliament, while the Roundheads transformed into the Whig Party, men of property dedicated to expanding trade abroad and maintaining Parliament's supremacy in the political field.

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