History English Literature

The British Restoration Period (1660-1798)

Introduction

The British Restoration Period, also known as The Augustan Age, The Neoclassical Period, The Enlightenment, and The Age of Reason, marks a significant era in British history.

Why is this time known as the Restoration Period?

The period begins with the restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 bringing Charles II from his exile in France.

• Brings with him the indulgent and artistic ways of Louis XIV’s court
• Two distinct political parties resulted, the Whigs and the Tories
  • Whigs want to limit royal authority
  • Tories support absolute royal authority

King James II (brother of Charles II) takes the throne and is voted out by Parliament due to his highly Catholic ways.

• The Glorious or Bloodless Revolution is a reference to the lack of violence needed to change the throne from Catholic James II to his Protestant daughter Mary and her husband William.
• Shortly after James II’s abdication of the throne:
  • Bill of Rights limiting the power of the King.
  • Parliament passed an act forbidding Catholics to rule.

The House of Hanover

George I of Hanover, Germany, took the throne in 1714 when his cousin Anne, daughter of William and Mary, died, ending the rule of the Stuarts and beginning the rule of the House of Hanover.

• George I and his son George II did NOT speak English and relied heavily on their advisors, establishing the role of England’s first Prime Ministers: Richard Walpole for George I and William Pitt for George II.
• Under George I and George II and their Prime Ministers, the British thrived, winning the Seven Years War (aka The French and Indian War) and adding French Canada and India to the Empire.

In 1760, George III became the first British-born Hanover monarch. Although he was less effective than his father and grandfather, his English was reliable, leading him to use his Prime Minister less and is held responsible for the loss of the American Colonies.

Why is this period known as the Augustan Period?

The title of The Augustan Period refers to similarities between England at this time and Rome during the reign of Caesar Augustus, also known as Octavius (63 BC-14 AD).

Octavius ruled in the time after Julius Caesar’s assassination. He restored order and peace to the people of Rome and is often classified as its second founder.

In a similar way, Charles II is taken from exile in France and restored England. He reopened playhouses, brought back a formal court, and had the body of Oliver Cromwell exhumed and decapitated.

Why is this period known as the Neoclassical Period?

Most educated people of the time are familiar with the classical works as well as the works of their own time and country and found enjoyment in their connection. They enjoyed allusions to the political connections of the time periods and references to the classical characters and themes.

Works emphasizing these similarities are labeled “neoclassical” meaning “new classics.”

Why is this period known as the Age of Reason or The Enlightenment?

This period is known as The Age of Reason and The Enlightenment because of the country’s shift from an emotional approach to thinking to an educational and factual one.

The Industrial Revolution, plus advances in science research and mathematics, influenced all aspects of British thought, including literature. People no longer believed in signs and vast punishments from God (e.g., The London Fire and Plague), but began to turn to science and order. They began asking “how” instead of “why.”

The writing content, style, and order of scientists spilled over into all of literature as sentences were shortened with the allusions and extended metaphors of their predecessors.

The Augustan Age and Neoclassicism

The central assumption of The Augustan Age and Neoclassicism was that the ancient authors had already attained perfection. Therefore, the modern authors’ chief task was to imitate them.

• The term “the Augustan Age” comes from the self-conscious imitation of the original Augustan writers, Virgil and Horace, by many of the writers of the period.

Three Divisions:

• Beginning: Age of Dryden (John Dryden)
• Culmination: Age of Pope (Alexander Pope)
• End: Age of Johnson (Samuel Johnson)

The literary principles dictated that the writing and criticism of poetry and drama were to be guided by rules and precedents derived from the best ancient Greek and Roman authors.

Classicism places emphasis upon the qualities of the classical literature:

• Rationalism:
  • Elegant and well-proportioned form
  • Precise idea
  • True-to-life description
  • Standardized language
• Restraint of emotion & passion
• An ability to think logically and to communicate objectively rather than subjectively
• Follow the fixed laws and rules drawn from Greek and Latin works

Poetry

Types of poetry included lyric, epic, didactic, satiric, and dramatic, each class guided by some peculiar principles.

The Spectator dealt with a wide range of subjects; it was written in a maturer style and contained a gallery of vivid portraits of the members of the "Spectator Club," supposed to be edited by a small club headed by Mr. Spectator, a man of travel and learning who often goes to London as an observer.

Age of Johnson (1750-1798)

Named after Samuel Johnson, the period began to emphasize instinct, feeling, or “sensibility,” rather than judgment and restraint.

A renewed interest in medieval ballads and folk literature marked this era as a time of transition between the Neoclassical period and the Romantic period.

Samuel Johnson was a towering figure of 18th-century English literature, known as the last great neoclassicist enlightener in the late 18th century, best known as the author of 1755's A Dictionary of the English Language.

1. His language is characteristically general, of Latinate and frequently polysyllabic. His sentences are long and well-structured, interwoven with parallel words and phrases but clearly expressed.

3. He tends to use “learned words,” using words accurately.

Swift’s Major Concern

Jonathan Swift was a man of great moral integrity and social charm. He had a profound understanding of human nature, seeing it as seriously and permanently flawed.

To better human life, enlightenment is needed, but to redress it is very hard. He intends not to condemn but to reform and improve human nature and institutions, often with an undertone of helplessness and indignation.

Swift’s language is simple, clear, vigorous, with no ornaments. A master satirist, his irony is deadly, and his satire is usually masked by an outward gravity and an apparent earnestness, rendering it all the more powerful.

Simplicity and Directness

Swift is unsurpassed in the writing style of simple, direct, precise prose. He defined a good style as “proper words in proper places,” with diction that is clear, simple, and concrete, sentence structure that is uncomplicated, and language that is economic and concise.

Gulliver's Travels

Gulliver's Travels is a novel of satire and adventure which has four main sections, called “books,” divided into chapters. It is a biting work of political and social satire, a satire on human nature, and a parody of the “travellers’ tales” literary sub-genre.

Structurally, the book is divided into four separate adventures or travels, which Dr. Lemuel Gulliver undertakes by accident when his vessel is shipwrecked or taken over by pirates.

Part 1: Travels in Lilliput

Gulliver is shipwrecked at Lilliput where the inhabitants are six inches tall, except their emperor, who is taller by almost the “breadth of my nail” than any of his court. Travels in Lilliput is a mini picture of modern English society.

• Two parties: High Heel and Low Heel indicates the Tories and the Whigs.
• The war between Lilliput and its neighboring country about how to break eggs (big/small end) represents the Roman Church and the English Church.

Swift satires the party and church fights as meaningless.

Part 2: Travels in Brobdingnag

In Brobdingnag, the natives are tall. Gulliver engages in lengthy discussions with the king, who cannot understand the lofty pretensions and vanity of his own society.