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 flees1689 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 soulAugustan Poets

• saw poetry as having a public function• set out to write a particular kind of poem:

Elegypraises a personwho has died

Satireridicules a person or typeof behavior

Odeis 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