The 17 th Century English Literature

1. The 17th Century English Literature THE PURITAN AGE Lecture 8 History of English Literature MA ENGLISH COMSATS Virtual Islamabad

2. Introduction • The Literature of the Seventeenth Century may be divided into two periods— • The Puritan Age or the Age of Milton (1600-1660), which is further divided into: • the Jacobean and Caroline periods after the names of the ruled James I and Charles I, who rules from 1603 to 1625 and 1625 to 1649 respectively; • The Restoration Period or the Age of Dryden (1660-1700).

3. Introduction • The decline of the Renaissance spirit • The writers either imitated the great masters of Elizabethan period or followed new paths • We no longer find great imaginative writers of the stature of Shakespeare, Spenser and Sidney. • Modern temperament • the spirit of observation and of preoccupation with details, and a systematic analysis of facts, feelings and ideas • it was the spirit of science popularized by such great men as Newton, Bacon and Descartes.

4. Characteristics of 17th Century Literature • The art of biography which was unknown during the Sixteenth Century. • Autobiography also came in the wake of biography, and later on keeping of diaries and writing of journals became popular, for example Pepy’s Diary and Fox’s Journal. • The Seventeenth Century upto 1660 was dominated by Puritanism and it may be called the Puritan Age or the Age of Milton who was the noblest representative of the Puritan spirit.

5. The Puritan Age • it had two objects—personal righteousness and civil and religious liberty. In other words, it aimed at making men honest and free. • The name Puritan was at first given to those who advocated certain changes in the form of worship of the reformed English Church under Elizabeth. • Puritanism in course of time became a national movement against the tyrannical rule of the King, and stood for the liberty of the people.

6. (a)  Puritan Poetry • The Puritan poetry, also called the Jacobean and Caroline Poetry during the reigns of James I and Charles I respectively, can be divided into three parts – • (i) Poetry of the School of Spenser • (ii) Poetry of the Metaphysical School • (iii) Poetry of the Cavalier Poets.

7. (i)  The School of Spenser • The Spenserians were the followers of Spenser. In spite of the changing conditions and literary tastes which resulted in a reaction against the diffuse, flamboyant, Italianate poetry which Spenser and Sidney had made fashionable during the sixteenth century, they preferred to follow Spenser and considered him as their master.

8. Conti. • The most thorough-going followers of Spenser during the reign of James I were Phineas Fletcher (1582-1648) and Giles Fletcher (1583-1623). • Phineas Fletcher wrote a number of Spenserian pastorals and allegories. His most ambitious poem The Purple Island, portrays in a minutely detailed allegory the physical and mental constitution of man, the struggle between Temperance and his foes, the will of man and Satan..

9. Conti. • Other poets who wrote under the influence of Spenser were William Browne . George Wither and William Drummond • Browne’s important poetical work is Britannia’s Pastorals which shows all the characteristics of Elizabethan pastoral poetry. It is obviously inspired by Spenser’s Faerie Queene and Sidney’s Arcadia • The same didactic tone and lyrical strain are noticed in the poetry of George Wither. His best-known poems are The Shepherd’s Hunting a series of personal eulogues; Fidella an heroic epistle of over twelve hundred lines; and Fair Virtue, the Mistress of Philarete, a sustained and detailed lyrical eulogy of an ideal woman.

10. (ii)       The Poets of the Metaphysical School • John Donne, Herrick, Thomas Carew, Richard Crashaw, Henry Vaughan, George Herbet and Lord Herbert of Cherbury. • The leader of this school was Donne. • They are called the metaphysical poets not because they are highly philosophical, but because their poetry is full of conceits, exaggerations, quibbling about the meanings of words, display of learning and far-fetched similes and metaphors. • It was Dr. Johnson who in his essay on Abraham Cowley in his Lives of the Poets used the term ‘metaphysical’.

11. Conti. The metaphysical poets were honest, original thinkers. They tried to analyse their feelings and experience—even the experience of love. They were also aware of the life, and were concerned with death, burial descent into hell etc. Though they hoped for immortality, they were obsessed by the consciousness of mortality which was often expressed in a mood of mawkish disgust.

12. John Donne (1537-1631) His best-known works are The Progress of the Soul; An Anatomy of the World, an elegy; and Epithalamium. His poetry can be divided into three parts: (1) Amorous (2) Metaphysical (3) Satirical. The Progress of the Soul and Metempsychosis

13. Robert Herrick (1591-1674) • wrote amorous as well as religious verse, but it is on account of the poems of the former type—love poems, for which he is famous. • He has much in common with the Elizabethan song writers, but on account of his pensive fantasy, and a meditative strain especially in his religious verse, Herrick is included in the metaphysical school of Donne.

14. Thomas Carew (1598-1639) • on whom the influence of Donne was stronger, was the finest lyric writer of his age. • Though he lacks the spontaneity and freshness of Herrick, he is superior to him in fine workmanship. • Moreover, though possessing the strength and vitality of Donne’s verse, Carew’s verse is neither rugged nor obscure as that of the master. His Persuasions of Love is a fine piece of rhythmic cadence and harmony.

15. Richard Crashaw (1613-1649) He was a fundamentally religious poet, and his best work is The Flaming Heart. Though less imaginative than Herrick, and intellectually inferior to Carew, at times Crashaw reaches the heights of rare excellence in his poetry.

16. George Herbert (1593-1633) the most widely read of all the poets belonging to the metaphysical school, except, of course, Donne. This is due to the clarity of his expression and the transparency of his conceits. In his religious verse there is simplicity as well as natural earnestness. Mixed with the didactic strain there is also a current of quaint humour in his poetry.

17. Summary: Metaphysical Poets The Metaphysical poets show the spiritual and moral fervour of the Puritans as well as the frank amorous tendency of the Elizabethans.

18. (iii)  The Cavalier Poets • the cavalier poets followed Ben Jonson. Jonson followed the classical method in his poetry as in his drama. He imitated Horace by writing, like him, satires, elegies, epistles and complimentary verses. But though his verse possess classical dignity and good sense, it does not have its grace and ease. His lyrics and songs also differ from those of Shakespeare. Whereas Shakespeare’s songs are pastoral, popular and ‘artless’, Jonson’s are sophisticated, particularised, and have intellectual and emotional rationality. • The important Cavalier poets were Herrick, Lovelace, Suckling and Carew.

19. John Milton (1608-1674) • Milton’s early poetry is lyrical. The important poems of the early period are: The Hymn on the Nativity (1629); L’Allegro, Il Penseroso (1632); Lycidas (1637); and Comus (1934). The Hymn, written when Milton was only twenty-one, shows that his lyrical genius was already highly developed.

20. Paradise Lost • The subject-matter of Paradise Lost consists of the casting out from Heaven of the fallen angels, their planning of revenge in Hell, Satan’s flight, Man’s temptation and fall from grace, and the promise of redemption. Against this vast background Milton projects his own philosophy of the purposes of human existence, and attempts “to justify the ways of God to men. • In Paradise Lost the most prominent is the figure of Satan who possesses the qualities of Milton himself, and who represents the indomitable heroism of the Puritans against Charles I • Blank verse

21. (b)  Jacobean and Caroline Drama • Ben Jonson • John Marston • Thomas Dekker • Thomas Heywood • Thomas Middleton • Cyril Tourneur • John Webster • John Fletcher • Francis Beaumont • Philip Massinger • John Ford • James Shirley

22. (c)  Jacobean and Caroline Prose • The great prose writers were • Bacon • Burton • Milton • Sir Thomas Browne • Jeremy Tayler • Clarendon.

23. Francis Bacon (1561-1628). • Bacon belongs both to the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. • Bacon is best-known for his Essays, in which he has given his views about the art of managing men and getting on successfully in life. They may be considered as a kind of manual for statesmen and princes. The tone of the essay is that of a worldly man who wants to secure material success and prosperity. That is why their moral standard is not high. • Besides the Essays, Bacon wrote Henry VII the first piece of scientific history in the English language; and The Advancement of Learning

24. Robert Burton (1577-1640) Is known for his The Anatomy of Melancholy

25. Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682) Belonged entirely to a different category. With him the manner of writing is more important than the substance. He is famous for: • Religio Medici • Hydriotaphiaor The Urn Burial,

26. Summary of the Lecture • Puritan age • The school of Spencer • The poet of the Metaphysical poetry • The Cavalier Poets • John Milton • Jacobean and Caroline Drama • Jacobean and Caroline Prose

27. REFERENCES • A Critical History of English Literature by David Daiches • A Critical History of English Literature by Dr. Mullik

28. THANK YOU