The Restoration and early 18th century

In 1660, after the death of Oliver Cromwell and the incompetent administration of his son, Charles II, son of the executed Charles I, was called back to the throne of England. However, out were the days of the absolute monarchy, and in were those of the constitutional monarchy with an empowered parliament.

In this interesting time of newly emergent politics, we can see that different literary forms appeared - journalism, the essay and the novel. The characteristics of the literature of this time are clear, matter-of-fact descriptions of rational concepts and town themes. Satire, the ridicule of human folly with the aim of correction (remember Chaucer), was a typical product of the age, but this time with the aim of attacking political and personal enemies.

One of the masters of satire was Jonathan Swift. Born in Ireland to English parents, he ruthlessly criticised the English administration in such works as A Modest Proposal and Gulliver's Travels. This week we read a short passage from the latter work, in which Gulliver was called to help extinguish a fire at the Lilliputian palace. His inconventional method of help was actually an insult to the Lilliputians, and he ended up having to leave the island. Swift's description of the event is very amusing- it is possible to feel Gulliver's sadistic pleasure in insulting the Lilliputians while helping them! "By the luckiest chance in the world, I had not discharged my self of any part of it.........I voided in such a quantity and applied well to the proper places, that in three minutes the fire was whole extinguished..." and he considers his act as "a very eminent piece of service".

The Pilgrim's Progress

This week we looked at the life and works of John Bunyan, an interesting literary figure given his humble upbringing. He's also interesting in that he lived during some very different periods in English history - the Renaissance, English Civil War, the Interregnum and the Restoration.

He adopted strong Puritan beliefs during the Interregnum and started to travel and preach to villagers. However, he was put in prison for this with the Restoration of the monarchy. During his time in prison, he wrote "The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which is to Come", which was to be translated into 200 languages and to never go out of print. It is an allegorical story with the familiar metaphor of life as a journey. The protagonist, Christian, sets out on the difficult journey to salvation and is helped and waylaid by many different characters, all representing human characteristics. At the end, his hope helps him to enter Heaven.

The extract we read in class described a place called Vanity Fair. This was a fair set up by Satan to tempt people with the products of this mortal world in order to divert them from the straight and true path. For Bunyan, the biggest sins in life were offered by the Catholic church (the wares of Rome). Remember, he was a Puritan believing in the purity of worship.

The extract continued with a description of the trial of Faithful, one he was destined to lose given the nature of the judge (Mr Hate-good), the witnesses (Envy, Pickthank and Superstition), and the jury (Mr. Blind, Mr. No-good, Mr. Liar etc.). Perhaps here Bunyan is criticising the English Judicial system. After all, he was put in prison because of his beliefs in 1660, and it is likely he had a similar biased trial himself.

The subjects we have been dealing with for the last couple of weeks are quite different from that of the Renaissance. Maybe you don't find them that enjoyable. However, it's essential to cover them in order to appreciate the great changes that happened in English literature as from the 17th century. Don't worry, we will be covering more appealing topics in the coming weeks!!

Sing, Heavenly Muse!

Hello everybody, and welcome back after the winter break.

This week we left the Elizbethan age of tolerance and prosperity and entered the Interregnum period, following the civil wars between the supporters of the king and those of Parliament.

With the Puritans in power, English literature changed greatly. First of all, the theatres were shut down because the Puritans believed them to be immoral places. Thus, there was no drama written in this period. While the Cavalier poets, supporters of the king, continued with the "carpe diem" approach to life, the literature was dominated with much more serious works of political and religious significance since the Puritans needed to justify the execution of King Charles and the establishment of the new form of government - the Commonwealth.

One of the prominent literary figures of this time was John Milton, considered as one of the greats of English literature along with Shakepeare. While his works could be the subject matter of a whole sememster-long course, we only have time to look at a very small part. The text we looked at today was the "invocation" of his epic poem "Paradise Lost".

The text is difficult to understand because he used Latin syntax, something for which he received a lot of criticism. He starts by calling for (invoking) the help of a muse to start his ambitious poem, or his 'adventurous song', which aims to acheive what no other poem has attempted to do, or in his own words, 'while it purues things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme'. He also calls for help from the Holy Spirit, because his ultimate aim in writing this poem is very difficult - to 'justify the ways of God to man'. As a pious Puritan, he wanted to tell the people of England that there was a purpose to human suffering on Earth - only by suffering could humans regain their place in Heaven.

Notice the Latin structures: "what in me is dark illumine" cf. "illumine what is dark in me" (i.e. teach me what I do not know"

and "what is low raise and support" cf. "raise and support what is low" ("help me to do what I cannot manage").

The following quotation is also important as it shows Milton's Puritan beliefs: "O Spirit, that dost prefer before all temples th'upright heart and pure" which means "O Spirit, that prefers the worship of a pure, honest heart to that performed in extravagant temples". Remember that one of the things Puritans opposed was the extravagance and excessiveness of the Catholic Church.

Difficult? Intersting? What did you think??

REMEMBER - PLEASE KEEP YOUR COMMENTS LIMITED TO YOUR OWN THOUGHTS AND IMPRESSIONS. DO NOT REWRITE MY SUMMARY!!!

O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!

When we first see Romeo, he is suffering from unrequited love for Rosaline, and is consequently coming up with confused poetry full of contradictions ("O! Brawling love! Loving hate! Anything of nothing first create!). However, when he first sees Juliet at the Capulet ball, we hear the most beautiful poetry flowing from his lips "O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear; Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!"...

He finds an excuse to talk to her, by touching her hand ("If I do profane with my unworthiest hand this holy shrine..."), and they finally kiss. Remember that in real life, courtship would have taken a much longer time, but since this is not the main focus of the play, Shakespeare passes over this very quickly. Moreover, everything happens very quickly in the play, Romeo and Juliet meet, fall in love, marry and die within the space of about 3 or 4 days.

They find out, too late, that they are the children of their enemies and that their love is destined to fail. " My only love sprung from my only hate! Too early seen unknown, and known too late!Prodigious birth of love it is to me, That I must love a loathed enemy." (Juliet)

After the ball, Romeo escapes his friends to find Juliet, and the exchange their vows of love with the most beautiful expressions:

"Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven, Having some business, do entreat her eyes To twinkle in their spheres till they return. What if her eyes were there, they in her head? The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars, As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven Would through the airy region stream so bright That birds would sing and think it were not night."(Romeo)

A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life...

Despite all the technical hitches and obstacles, at last we have started to read Shakespeare! After looking at the overall plot of the play, we read the Prologue, which is in the form of a sonnet. Interestingly, Shakespeare reveals what will happen at the end of the play, but he still manages to hold the audience's attention. At the beginning of the play, we see Romeo sufferin unrequited love for a girl name Rosaline, and Juliet is about to be engaged to a you g nobleman, Count Paris. We cannot help wondering what circumstances will bring the two lovers together and then bring about their sad end.

Carpe diem!

Carpe diem! Seize the day! The motto of Renaissance England, where life was too short too waste even a minute.

Now we're in the Golden Age of English literature-one of the richest periods of time for the art in England. After years of religious unrest during Henry VIII's reign and the ensuing short reigns of Edward VI and Mary I, the long reign of Elizabeth I and her love of poetry and drama was an ideal environment for the likes of Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson and, of course, William Shakespeare to blossom.

The Renaissance, a cultural rather than political movement, had started in Italy over a century previously. Chaucer had started to bring French and Italian literary styles to England, and this increased in Elizabeth's time. The notion of love, courtly and divine, was being dealt with more widely in English poetry. The Italian sonnet of Petrarch- a 14-line poem with intricate rhyme schemes devoted entirely to the subject of the unrequited love of a melancholy lover for his lady- was popular with English poets such as Sidney, Spenser and Shakespeare.

This week we read two such sonnets: the first, a sonnet in a sequence called "Astrophil and Stella" by Philip Sidney, who discovers he was looking in the wrong place for insipiration for his poetry - "'Fool,' said my Muse to me, 'look in thy heart and write'";

the second, a sonnet from the sequence "Amoretti" written by Edmund Spencer describing the courtship of his wife: "My verse your virtues rare shall eternise, And in the heavens write your glorious name."

The idea of immortalising ladies through poetry was common in the period, as we shall see with Shakespeare later.

Mid-term exams

Hello all,
No new material to talk about this week, but I'd just like to wish you good luck for the exam.
By the way, some of your comments have been including factual information rather than personal reactions. I'm giving the factual information in the main post, so you don't need to repeat that.