Letteratura Inglese 1

Henry Fielding

Henry Fielding was born in England in 1707 and he died in Lisbon in 1754. He studied at the Eton College but then he was forced to leave the country after he tried to kidnap his cousin, who was wealthy. He studied law, but because he had little money he decided to pick up writing and he began with theatre. He turned towards novel writing for satirical purpose, he wanted to make fun of Richardson masterpiece "Pamela", in fact he wrote "Joseph Andrews", which main character (the same Joseph) was Pamela's brother; this is an example of mock-epic novel. His works were satirical. It was him who favoured the passing of the "Licensing Act".

Some of his most important works are:

• "The History and Adventures of Joseph Andrews" (1742);
• "The History of Jonathan Wild the Great" (1743);
• "The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling" (1749);
• "Amelia" (1751).

Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson was a critic, biographer,...

essayist, poet and lexicographer. He was always very ill since he was very little and almost blind from one eye. He suffered from many ticks and he began to study at Oxford although he had to leave his studies because he didn't have enough money to pay. He believed that his parents' marriage wasn't a happy one because his mother was not educated, so he decided to marry an educated woman who was 20 years older than him.

After the marriage, he opened his own school but it failed, so he moved to London where he began writing for "The Gentleman's Magazine", which is believed to be the first modern magazine. He also did many translations. His most famous work is his dictionary, which didn't include just words and their meanings, but it also includes literary quotations and historical references about English language; it was published in 1754 and it remained in use until 1828 (the year in which Noah Webster published a new dictionary). He also wrote a play, "Irene".

which was represented thanks to help of his friend David Garrick.

Some of his most important works are:

• “History of the English language” (1755);
• “Plays of William Shakespeare” (1765);
• “The Lives of Most Eminent English Poets” (1779/1783).

OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Just like Swift, Oliver Goldsmith was an Anglo-Irish author, he wrote poems, novels, dramas and essays. He studied at the Trinity College in Dublin, after college he wanted to study medicine in Edinburgh (Scotland), but he never managed to do it. Although he arrived to London penniless, he managed to be noticed by the élites because of his readable style and through his works he managed to earn some money, but he was quite extravagant and he liked to spend money, so he was always in debt. The declining conditions of his health led him to death in 1774.

Amongst the works of Oliver Goldsmith we remember:

• “The Vicar of Wakefield” (1755);
• “The Traveller” (1764);

“The Deserted Village” (1770). Poetry:

ALEXANDER POPE

Alexander Pope was born in 1688 (the year of the Glorious Revolution). His father converted to Catholicism and, because of anti-Catholic legislation from Parliament, he had to move from London to Berkshire and because of his religion he couldn’t go to school or university, then he had to educate himself, so he was a self-taught in Greek, Latin, Italian and French. When he was only 20 years old, he wrote his first poem. Another part of his production is of a more theoretical nature, for example the essay on criticism, this one is very important and was published in 1711 and it established the heroic couplet a the main poetic meter. The heroic couplet is a rhyming couplet that uses a meter called iambic pentameter (iambic= a iamb is a weak syllable which is followed by a strong syllable; pentameter= a meter that has 5 iambs in each verse). Then, a iambic meter is a meter divided into groups of strong and weak syllables.

From the 1714,

Pope began to translate, for example he translated Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey", he also translated Shakespeare. The critics that he received for Shakespeare's translations led to "The Dunciad" which is divided into 4 books and it is a sort of mock, it celebrate a Goddess Dullness and the progress of her chosen agents that bring decay, imbecility and tastelessness to the kingdom of Great Britain. Pope died in 1744. He was quite ill from a very young age.

His works are:

• "An Essay on Criticism" (1711);
• "The Rape of the Lock" (1712);
• "Windsor Forest" (1713);
• "Homer's Iliad" (1715);
• "Poems on several Occasions" (1717);
• "The works of Shakespeare Collated and Corrected" (1725);
• "Homer's Odyssey" (1726);
• "The Dunciad: An Heroic Poem" (1743);
• "An Essay of Man" (1733/1734);
• "An Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot" (1735);

“Imitations of Horace” (1738).

Theatre1737: THE LICENSING ACT

Even theatre is linked to the rising of Middle Class. The number of theatres in England wasn’t large and it was mostly because of the “Licensing Act” of 1737, which gave the Lord Chamberlain powers to censor all plays and to maintain the monopoly of 2 theatre in London (Theatre Royal Drury Lane and Theatre Royal Covent Garden). However, theatres managed to find a way around this by filling programs with musicals.

An important name in 18 century England was that of David Garrick, who was the one who developed a more convincing style of acting. He was also the one who introduced the stage lighting.

1819: THE NEWSPAPER AND STAMP DUTIES ACT

In the year 1819, Parliament passed 6 different acts, which wanted to operate against those rights that were considered to be dangerous radicalism.

These 6 acts wanted to:

• Prohibit meetings of 50 people or more;
• Give magistrates the power to search private houses for

• Prohibit military training by civilians;
• Reinforce for the laws against blasphemous;
• Limit the right of an accused to have a trial postponed in order to prefer a defense;
• This last one is the most important for us: The "Newspaper and Stamp Duties Act" > the increase of the stamp duties went against a more radical press. This act:
  • Reduced the freedom of legitimate press;
  • Increased taxes printed matter (newspapers, periodicals, pamphlets);
  • Publishers and printers provide securities for their 'good behaviour';
  • Any publication appearing at least once a month and cost less than 6o d. subject to a tax of 4 d.

From the 1860s onwards, the end of taxation on newspapers led to a boom in local publishing and it also had effects on the appearance and the structure of the city. Newspapers' offices began to built on main streets on near market squares. Reading newspapers were a really important activity and, for this reason, the biggest room in newly built

Public libraries were designed for this purpose. The articles included in Victorian newspapers reported news in a factual way, which means that those articles didn't include commentaries or opinions, they just told what happened, when, where and how it happened.

Some of the Victorian newspapers were:

• "Times" (1785);
• "Daily news" (1842-1930);
• "Pall Mall Gazette" (1865-1923);
• "Daily Mail" (1896).

1843: THEATRE REGULATION ACT

In 1843 the "Theatre Regulation Act" amended the "Licensing Act". It did so by reducing the power of the Lord Chamberlain and increasing the power of local authorities.

Playwrights and plays on the 18th century

• George Lillo (1691-1739) > "The Merchant" (1731);
• Richard Steele (1672-1729) > "Conscious Lovers" (1722);
• Colley Cibber (1671-1751) > "Careless Husband" (1722);
• Richard Sheridan (1751-1816) > "The School for Scandals" (1777),

For Britain, the date of the beginning of Romanticism is 1798, because William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge published the “Lyrical Ballads”, which were a collection of poems considered the manifesto of Romanticism in Britain. In the preface Wordsworth, in particular, discussed what he considered to be the elements of a new type of poetry, which is based on real language of men, that avoids the poetic diction of 18th century poetry. Wordsworth gave his famous definition of poetry, that is: “a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings from emotions recollected in tranquillity”. To him, the poet is a man who speaks to men: a man who is true endued with more lively sensibility and who has a greater knowledge of human nature.

In Italy, instead, we can mention Romanticism only from 1816 onwards.

French Romantic school appeared even later with Alfonse De Lamartine and his “Meditations Poetic” (1820) and Victor

Hugo's "Les Odes" (1822).

Romantic writers

In British Romanticism, we have to distinguish 2 generations of Romantic writers.

The members of the 1^st generation are:

• William Wordsworth (1770-1850);
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834);
• William Blake (1757-1827);
• Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832).

Some of the members of the 2^nd generation are:

• John Keats (1795-1821);
• Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822);
• Lord Byron (1788-1824).

A striking difference between this 2 generations is that the members of the 1^st generation were born before the members of the 2^nd generation. However, the members of the 2^nd generation died much younger and they were mostly poets.

Generally, most members of the 1^st generation acquire fame while they were still alive, ap