Literature in the 17th and 18th Century

• The 17th Century comprised of 1601 to 1700s. The first half of the seventeenth century as a whole, was a period of relaxing Vigor.
• the 17th Century, English poets are divided into two:

  1. The Metaphysical - represent a closely related movement; their poetry likewise sought unusual metaphors. Which they then examined in often extensive detail.

  The Cavalier poets - their poetry is light in style and generally secular in subject.
• John Donne - A Jacobean poet and preacher, representative of the metaphysical poets of the period. He was considered a master of the conceit, an extended metaphor that combines two vastly unlike ideas into a single idea, often using imagery.

  • Biathanatos (1644) - a half serious extenuation of suicides, in which he argued that suicide is not intrinsically sinful.
• John Milton - An English poet, polemicist, and civil servant for the English Commonwealth. His most famed for his epic poem Paradise Lost.

  • Paradise Lost (1667) - It is an epic poem that talks about the Fall of man, the temptations of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from the garden.
• Ben Jonson - An English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. He is best known for his satirical plays that include Volpone and The Alchemist.

  • Volpone of The Fox (1606) - drawing on elements of city
• George Herbert - A Welsh poet, orator and a priest. He wrote A Priest to the Temple (or The Country Parson).

  • Priest of the Temple (1652) offering practical advice to country parsons.
• Andrew Marvell - An English metaphysical poet, and the son of an Anglican clergyman. His style is often witty and full of elaborate conceits in the elegant style of the metaphysical poets. One of his works is The Garden.

  • The Garden (1681)-is an argument in praise of gardens.
• In the 18th Century starts the Age of Enlightenment in Europe. Literature explored themes of:

  1. Social Upheaval
  2. Reversals of Personal Status
  3. Political Satire
  4. Geographical Exploration
  5. Comparison between the supposed natural state of man and the supposed civilized state of man.
• Three discreet literary eras:

  1. The Restoration (1660-1700)
  2. he Age of Satire (1700-1745)
  3. The Age of Johnson (1745-1790)
• The Restoration (1660-1700)

  • Dominated by Dryden. His occasional verse, comedy, blank verse tragedy, heroic play, ode, satire, translation, critical essay and his precepts had great influence.
• The Age of Satire (1700-1745)

  • Dominated by Swift and Pope. Chiefly a literature of wit, concerned with civilization and social. Critical and in some degree, moral or satirical.
• The Age of Johnson (1745-1790)

  • Dominated by Johnson. A new kind of poetry and a major new literary form, the novel.
• Sense of order or balance was one of the many characteristics of literature. There is formal structure, the use of heroic couplets, elaborate metaphors, similes, and lofty diction that reflected education. Classical allusions were also present. It demonstrates extensive learning and interest in Ancient Greece and Rome.
• Display of wit was also noticeable. There was no emotion; detached, urbane tone, often satiric. There was also emphasis on reason, logical arguments, scientific observation and discovery as well as mathematical principles. It is concerned with social matters.
• John Dryden - An influential English poet, literary critic, translator and playwright. He dominated the Age of Restoration.

  • All for Love (1678) - An acknowledged imitation of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. Focuses on the remaining or last hours of the hero and heroine.
• Samuel Johnson - He was also a great wit and prose stylist, well known for his aphorisms. The latter part of the 18th Century was called the Age of Johnson.

  • A Dictionary of the English Language (1755) The dictionary responded to a widely felt need for stability in the language.
• Jonathan Swift was a prolific writer, famous for his satires. His writing represents the new, the different and the modern attempting to change the world by parodying the ancient and incumbent.

  • The Battle of the Books (1704)-it depicts a literal between books in the St. James library, as ideas and authors struggle for supremacy.
• William Congreve – He was an English playwright and poet. He had written four comedies, including The Way of the World.

  • The Way of the World (1700) - it is widely regarded as being one of the best Restoration comedies written and is still performed sporadically to this day. The play is based around the two lovers who can't be together because the aunt of the woman wants her to marry another man.
• Daniel Dafoe - A British writer, journalist and spy. He gained enduring fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe.

  • Robinson Crusoe (1719) - sometimes regarded as the first novel in English. It is a fictional autobiography of the title character, an English Castaway who spend 28 years in a remote island.
• Alexander POPE - Generally regarded as the greatest poet of the early eighteenth century, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer."

  • An Essay on Criticism (1711) - it is written in a type of rhyming verse called heroic couplets