The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century Introduction to the Literary Period
Interactive Time Line
Milestone: Cromwell and the Commonwealth
Milestone: The Restoration of Charles II
Milestone: The Neoclassical Period
Milestone: The Age of Reason
Milestone: The Bloodless Revolution
Milestone: The Growth of a New Reading Public
What Have You Learned?
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The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century
1600s–1700sThe Neoclassical PeriodThe Age of Reason
1660The Restoration of Charles II
Choose a link on the time line to go to a milestone.
1650 17501700 1800
1688–1689The Bloodless Revolution
1700sThe Growth of a New Reading Public
1653–1658 Cromwell and the Commonwealth
Cromwell and the Commonwealth
1642–1649
• Strict Puritan laws—eventually military rule by Cromwell as dictator
• England is embroiled in civil war—parliamentary party (Puritans) against the king’s party (Royalists)
1653–1658
• Oliver Cromwell rules England as lord protector
• King Charles I beheaded
• Theaters were closed, arts suppressed
The Restoration of Charles II
• Charles II crowned; monarchy restored
1658–1660
• Parliament invites Charles I’s son back from exile
• Puritan dictator Oliver Cromwell dies
• English traditions also revived: horse racing, bear-baiting, dancing around the maypole
Charles II
The Restoration of Charles II
• Theaters reopened
Charles II (ruled 1660–1685)
• Other sects (including Puritan sects) outlawed and persecuted
• Anglican Church (Church of England) reestablished
• Charles set the tone for courtly life: extravagance and refinement
The Restoration of Charles II
Society During the Restoration and the 1700s
• overcrowded tenements; rats, lice, bedbugs
• no access to doctors, police, or education
• young children forced to work
• filthy streets
• disease prevalent
• death rate higher than birth rate
The Have-Nots• greatly influenced by
the French in furniture, dress, manners
• met in coffeehouses and formal gardens
• liked colorful and extravagant fashions
• enjoyed theatergoing, dining, drinking, card playing, gambling
The Haves
The Augustan Age and the Neoclassical Period
• Augustus restored peace and order to Rome after assassination of Julius Caesar
Augustan Age—name comes from comparisons with the reign of Octavian (Augustus) in ancient Rome
Period between 1660 and 1800 sometimes called
• Stuart monarchs restored peace and order to England after civil wars
The Augustan Age and the Neoclassical Period
Neoclassical Period—term means “new classical”; refers to writings modeled on old Latin works
Classics were considered valuable because they represented what was permanent and universal in human experience.
Click here to listen to a neoclassical recording.
Period between 1660 and 1800 sometimes called
• thought unusual events such as earthquakes and comets were punishments or warnings from God
• asked why these things happened
Before Enlightenment, people . . .
The Enlightenment and the Age of Reason
Enlightenment or Age of Reason—labels that reveal changes in people’s view of the world
Period between 1660 and 1800 sometimes called
• heard more scientific explanations for natural phenomena
• started asking how questions instead of why questions
During Enlightenment, people . . .
The Enlightenment and the Age of Reason
• Scientists begin to explain workings of human body, universe
• Natural phenomena less mysterious and frightening
• Rise of deism—belief that Creator set the world in motion and then let it run by itself
Sir Isaac Newton
The Bloodless Revolution
Beginning in 1685 • Charles II dies; his brother James II (a Roman
Catholic) takes throne
• Power is transferred to James’s daughter Mary (wife of Dutch William of Orange, a Protestant)
1688 William attacks England; James flees
1689 Parliament declares William and Mary king and queen; Protestant rule restored
William and Mary
The Age of Satire
The Growth of a New Reading Public
Alexander Pope—attacks upper classes for immorality and bad taste
Throughout the Period . . .
Writers focusingmore on middle-class concerns
More people inmiddle classesable to read
Readers with different tastes and interests
Jonathan Swift—exposes the mean and sordid in human behavior
The Growth of a New Reading Public
Journalism: A New Profession
Daniel Defoe—stood for thrift, prudence, industry, respectability
Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele—essayists and journalists
Eighteenth-century journalists
• saw themselves as reformers
• published journals; described social and political matters
The Growth of a New Reading Public
• wrote poetry of the mind, not the soul
Augustan Poets
• saw poetry as having a public function• set out to write a particular kind of poem:
Elegy
praises a personwho has died
Satire
ridicules a person or typeof behavior
Ode
is generally written forpublic occasions
Poems were carefully constructed and used exact meter and rhyme.
The First English Novels
The Growth of a New Reading Public
• Corresponded to development of the middle class
• Often broad and comical
• Adventures frequently recounted in a series of episodes or letters
1. After Oliver Cromwell died, _____ was crowned King of England in 1660.
a. Elizabeth b. William of Orange c. Charles II
2. Writers like Pope and Swift used _____ to expose moral corruption.
a. satire b. elegiesc. odes
3. The _____ was a new literary form developed during the eighteenth century.
a. letter b. novel c. sonnet
What Have You Learned?
Choose the word or phrase that correctly completes the sentence.
c. Charles II
a. satire
b. novel
END