THE AUGUSTAN AGE

1. THE AUGUSTAN AGE Queen Anne (the last of Stuart and the protestant daughter of James II ) The Hanoverians :George I, George II and George III

2. QUEEN ANNE REIGN1702 - 1714 • 1707 The Act of Union English and Scottish Parliament • 1701-1714 War of Spanish succession. England sided with Holland and Prussia against France, Spain and Portugal to protect its commercial interests abroad • 1713 Treaty of Utrecht- no single European nation had continental supremacy • Great Britain gained: • Gibraltar and Minorca • Hudson Bay and the control of Canada • The monopoly of the African slave trade for the North –American colonies

3. GEORGE II • Anne no children, the nearest protestant relation was the elector of Hanover • Spoke German • No knowledge of British customs or policy • Had to rely completely on the Whig party, in power for most of the first half. • THE FIRST FORM OF PARLIAMENTARY MONARCHY, the ministers no more chosen by the king , the majority party was free to choose the PRIME MINISTER • 1715-1717 and 1721-1742 Sir Robert Walpole ( Whig) – the longest run as Prime Minister.

4. The AUGUSTAN AGE(the age of Reason- Enlightenment) The first half of the century was characterized by Imperial ideals ( Rome under Augustus was regarded as an example to imitate) • The ruling class looked upon themselves as the true heirs of the Roman Empire with their overseas colonies. • They had the old Roman virtues: fortitude, perseverance and self-control • This Age saw the unification of GREAT BRITAIN and the great expansion of colonialism

5. a Classical outlook • Neo Classicism was a style of life reflected in poetry

6. Architecture • Palladio became a model to imitate • The countryside was dotted with Palladian villas, the cities adorned with terraces, squares and crescents Chiswick House, London

7. Inigo Jones, the Banqueting House at Whitehall

8. The best example is BATH ( the Woods architects- father and son) wanted to rebuild it into a Roman city.

10. English Gardens, • only apparently natural ( no more French and Italian gardens = regular model) they were carefully planned: lawns, forests and streams

11. POLITICS AND IDEAS The contrast between Great Britain and France can be seen in: • Protestants vs Catholics • Parliamentary Monarchy vs Absolute Monarchy • Religious Tolerance vs religious Intolerance But the paradox was that: • The Puritans were forced to flee to America • No civil rights for Catholics

12. The Glorious Revolution(1688)was a turning point: • New balance between Monarchy and Parliament • Newspapers sprang up ( the Tatler and The Spectator ) • Journalism became the main means of information • Coffee-Houses • Methodism preached living by rule and method Respect for rights • LIBERAL THOUGHT: free-will, salvation for all

13. Optimism: faith in progress, trust their own power • Faith in REASON : facts based on their own experience, common sense and wisdom • Toleration • Education, through newspapers and magazines and circulating libraries . Literature considered the best way to educate • Materialistic society: worldly, pragmatic , responsive to economic ventures • Mercantilism grew and it brought money and prosperity but slums, violence, drunkenness, low standard of morality

14. As a consequence of Mercantilism: the rise of the Middle-class • the need to be elegant and to improve their manners and language, • buy or borrow books and magazines ( especially women). • They over-valuate money, social status, human values • morality seemed to be only something related to the rules of good-manners

15. Middle class and Aristocracy • No conflict, they joined their forces in commercial, agricultural and industrial ventures • But different in their values: middle-class protestant , with a puritan morality, religious belief in work, importance of the family , in contrast with the aristocratic life-style

16. Changes inside the family characterized by the assertion of individual freedom- Arranged marriages gave place TO PERSONAL CHOICE • Women , less tied to family duties, started their emancipation. • Their presence in the reading public inspired new subject and a new note of sentimentalism. Samuel RICHARDSON is an example, in his novels we can find women looking for social and economic independence

17. LITERATURE • POETRY • DRAMA • PROSE

18. PROSE • It can be divided into 3 branches: • Journalism • Satire • Novel

19. JOURNALISM • The origin of it can be traced back to the 17th c. when manuscripts, newsletters and diaries started to circulate and when periodical pamphlets “ CORANTOS” and “WEEKLY NEWS” began to be published. • In 1665 the pamphlets form was replaced by the “folio” with the first issue of the “OXFORD GAZETTE” later called “LONDON GAZETTE”

20. In 1694 the abolition of the CENSORSHIP led to an improvement in Journalistic style, the freedom of the press induced many writers to write for newspapers • The first important periodical “ THE REVIEW” was started by DANIEL DE FOE 1704, he wrote political articles . • Then the “EXAMINER” by JONATHAN SWIFT

21. But the most important ones were“ THE TATLER” and “THE SPECTATOR” • The Tatler started by Steel to give the middle class more entertaining information, not only news about politics but also other topics as fashion, gossips from the Coffee-houses. • The Spectator replaced it - Steele and Addison turned the newspaper into an instrument of literary and moral propaganda.

22. ADDISON and STEEL’S INFLUENCE • Great impulse to journalism increasing the number and quality of the reading public • Essays teaching how to combine wit and humour with ethics • They made the 18th c. novel possible: a taste for fiction, a common standard of taste • The style was simple and conversational

23. THE RISE OF THE NOVEL • The new word that characterizes the Novel is “ REALISM • The traditional plot was rejected • TIME : PAST EXPERIENCES ARE THE CAUSE OF PRESENT ACTIONS (developing in the stream of consciousness of the modern novel) • In the new novel Character’s personal identity is changed by the flow of experience. A new type of hero, self-made, endowed with common sense and prudence ( the opposite of the heroic adventurous hero of the romances)

24. The characters are particular human types, acting in particular circumstances ( no more general human types). They struggle for survival or social success: • people who believe in reason( Robinson Crusoe) • people who can’t control their passions and subordinate reason to their cravings ( Moll Flanders). • The early novelists named their characters to suggest that they were to be regarded as particular individuals in the contemporary social environment

25. WHY WERE THESE CHANGES POSSIBLE? • Booksellers, no more under the control of the patronage but under the control of the laws of the market

26. The increase of the reading public in the Augustan Age was due to the growing importance of the middle class the individual’s trust in his own abilities the practice of reason and self-analysis They used to borrow books from circulating libraries Most readers were middle-class women the rise of periodical essays

27. Curiosity • Half a guinea today is £1.05 • Three shillings = today 15p • A Quarter means three months • The first Circulating library was set up at Bath in 1725

28. LANGUAGE • ordered, polished and elegant • clear and precise so as to answer the need of commerce and science • simple enough to be understood by the readers • far from the eccentric, pretentious language of the Metaphysical Poets

29. DIFFERENT KIND OF NOVEL • Satirical Novel • The Picaresque Novel ( 16th c. Spanish picaresque narrative) a picaro or vagabond travelling through a variety of low-life setting – Moll Flanders, Tom Jones • Epistolary- Pamela, Clarissa • Anti-Novel, not linked to a logical sequence of events- Sterne • Gothic Novel – end of 18th c.- precursor of Romanticism • Bildungsroman, or growing up, one character’s development from early youth to maturity- Richardson’s Pamela, Fielding’s Tom Jones • Realistic- DE Foe

30. The spokesman of the middle class The novel 2. The novelist • The fathers of the English novel: • Samuel Richardson the sentimental novel • Henry Fielding the mock-epic novel • Daniel Defoe the realistic novel • Jonathan Swift the satirical novel

31. The novel 4. The characters A bourgeois, self-made, self-reliant man The Hero The mouthpiece of the author The reader is expected to sympathise with him All the characters had contemporary names and surnames  Robinson Crusoe struggled for survival or social success

32. Chronological sequence of events The novel 5. The setting • References to particular times of the year or of the day “I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York” (Robinson Crusoe) • Specific names of towns and streets • Detailed descriptions of interiors to make the narrative more realistic

33. The novel 7. Themes Real life Everything that could affect social status The sense of reward and punishment linked to the Puritan ethics of the middle class

34. Marriage seen as a contract