The Restoration1660-1800

Also know as . . .

• The Age of Reason• The Enlightenment• The Neoclassical Age• The Augustan Age

Called the Restoration because . . .

 1642- ‐1651 - ‐ English Civil Wars

 Charles I is beheaded

 Oliver Cromwell takes

over and . . .  abolishes monarchy  institutes a republican

gov’t  drafts a constitution  outlaws common

practices

In 1651

Charles, the son of Charles I, who has been in exile in Holland, returns to England and is RESTORED as King Charles II

Vauxhall- Charles II garden

The Great Fire of London 1666

13,200 houses

87 churches

Bridges, stores, prisons

8 million pounds in repairs

Sir Francis Bacon (Renaissance) is a bridge to this era

• He began to use a slow, careful process of examining physical evidence (Reason).

•  People started to ask “HOW?” Instead of “WHY?”

•  Example- ‐Halley’s comet is discovered to return by Earth every 76 years (last time was 1986)

•  People looked for explanations for natural phenomena

Religion . . .

• Mainly Deism - ‐ God has created a perfectly working universe and does not need to interfere (clockmaker)

• Popular idea after Puritans lose power

The Glorious Revolution

• 1688 James II (Charles II’s brother), a Catholic king whom no one trusted, fled to France

• His daughter Mary and her husband, William of Orange (from Holland), take throne

• Both are Protestant - ‐ all future monarchs will be Protestant

• Called glorious because no one was killed

Literature of the era

• Modern English Prose was stripped down, precise, plain, has short sentences and used very little figurative language

• The Age of Dryden • Very reason or science

like

More literature

• Charles II reopens theaters and allows female performers

• Theater becomes a popular form of entertainment, esp. among the rich

Even more literature

• Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope both used SATIRE to reveal immorality and shortcomings of the elite

• Daniel Defoe and Addison and Steele used JOURNALISM to defend the middle class (The Spectator and The Tattler)

And even more literature

• Poetry was for public purposes

elegies

satire

odes

And the last literature slide

• Novels - ‐ “new” long narratives

• Popular among women (time)

• Daniel Defoe - ‐ Moll Flanders

• It all ends with Samuel Johnson who believed everyone could be good - this makes a good transition to the Romantic period