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The Enlightenment




V

1642-1660

The Bourgeois Revolution

English Literature During

IV

Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658)

Charles I (1600-1649)

Charles II (1630-1685)


The English Civil War 1642-1651 was caused by many unpopular political decisions of Charles I.executed in 1649 by Oliver Cromwell, who made a Republic and became Lord Protector.

Charles II, the son of Charles I, established the monarchy in England in 1660.



The English Bourgeois Revolution may be divided into three periods:

1. The Eve of the Revolution (1642);

2. The Civil War (1642-1649);

3. The Formation of the Commonwealth and the
Protectorate under Oliver Cromwell which last­
ed until his death in 1660.

During the last years of Elizabeth's reign Parliament began to be very powerful. In summer 1642 King Charles I raised his army at Nottingham, and a Civil War began between the Royalists (the Supporters of the King) and the Puritans (Protestants who felt that the English Church had too many Catholic trappings). The Puritans were often called the Roundheads, because they cut their hair very close to the head to distinguish themselves from the Royalists. Puritanism was a fanat­ical movement. Its purpose was to purify the Church of England of all Roman Catholic influence. They banned organs in churches and simplified all church rituals. Moreover, the Puritans killed the priests as the media­tors between Man and God. Their fanaticism made them close all the theatres as the centres of disorder and immorality. The Puritans wore black hats and clothes and condemned amusement as a sinful waste of time. Some left to start new lives abroad. The Pilgrim Fa­thers, who set sail in the "Mayflower" in 1620, headed for North America.

The closing of the theatres meant that no important drama was produced. The language of drama was poet­ry. Instead of poetry the political prose came into being. Meanwhile, the political struggle involved broad masses of the population. Not only the crown and parliamentary armies fought over a range of religious, constitutional and economic issues. The population divided into Royal­ists and Roundheads. Political literature appeared: there were leaflets and pamphlets. Leaflets reported the events, and pamphlets explained the events to the


population. Journalism came to start. The proceedings of the sessions of Parliament were printed in "Diurnals" (journals in Old French). The "Diurnals" contained the daily information of the proceedings. Periodical political press sprang up. The most famous among the Round­heads' generals was Oliver Cromwell who managed to destroy the King's army. Cromwell was the first great modern revolutionary leader, the creator of the "New Model Army". A staunch supporter of Charles I was Richard Lovelace (1618-1658), a successor of Ben Jonson, William Shakespeare's close friend. He wrote short and graceful verse and spent all his money in support of the king. In 1642 Richard Lovelace was put into prison for his appeal to free the monarch Charles I. Charles I was sentenced to death, and in 1649 he was beheaded. King Charles I's trial and execution marked a victory for Parliament. England was proclaimed a Commonwealth (a Republic). England was a semi-dem­ocratic republic. The House of Commons ruled the country till 1653 when Oliver Cromwell replaced the king. Royalist Scotland and Ireland were then forced into a short-lived "commonwealth" with England and Wales. As a result of British military power its interna­tional prestige increased. But neither Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell nor his son and successor Richard could devise a workable alternative to monarchic rule. A real fighter of the Revolution in England was John Liliburne, a distinguished publicist of that time. He fought for equal rights for all people. He proclaimed the idea of a democratic Republic that should be based on a free agreement between the population and the gov­ernment. Most of his works were written in the Tower. His pamphlet "The Agreement of the People" appeared in 1647. But the greatest of all publicists during the Puritan Revolution was John Milton. His works and pamphlets gave theoretical foundation to the struggle of the bourgeoisie against the monarchy. Milton became the main ideologist of that time.



John Milton (1608-1674)

John Milton was born in London in 1608 and educated at Christ's College, Cambridge.

It would be reasonable to divide Milton's literary activity into three groups:

1. The first short poems written at Horton (After
leaving the University Milton settled in Horton,
Buckinghamshire, 1632-1637);

2. Prose: "History of Britain" (1646);

3. The greatest epic poems: "Paradise Lost"
(1667), "Paradise Regained" (1671).

John Milton was a great Puritan poet and pamphlet­eer. His life was closely connected with the Bourgeois Revolution, the short-lived Commonwealth and the restoration of English Monarchy.

Milton's father was both competent and fortunate. Music was his passion. He was a talented composer and received wide recognition in Protestant circles. He recognized his son's exceptional abilities early and sent him to an excellent day school. Milton's school days were happy. He blossomed in the atmosphere of love and music.

His difficulties started at Christ's College, Cam­bridge. The difficulties were not of an intellectual char­acter. They were caused by the medieval traditions of drinking encouraged at the college. Some people nick­named John Milton "The Lady", because he never had the strength to drink off a bottle. ...,


Milton's graduation from Cambridge took place in 1629. He received his Master's Degree in 1632. After that he retired to Horton, his father's estate in Buck­inghamshire. He spent there, in Horton, six years of intensive study of modern and ancient history, maths, art, music and poetry. In Horton his first short poems appeared.

In 1642, when he was 35, he rode into the country to collect a family debt of £500 from a royalist, near Oxford, but returned a month later without the money. Instead of the money he brought a bride of seventeen, Mary Powell. From the very beginning the marriage was an unhappy one. His young wife went to her family estate and refused to return. Milton was shocked. He was in despair, because his moral principles were against the very idea of casual love-making. The idea of a good marriage proved his high respect for woman as an intellectual companion and comrade, rather than as merely a housekeeper and childbearer. These ideas were expressed in his work "The Doctrine and Disci­pline of Divorce". But Milton had to accept his wife back in 1645 when Mary's Royalist family decided to appeal to their Puritan son-in-law. In 1652 Mary died. There was no joy in their marriage. More than that, by that time Milton was totally blind. The death of his wife didn't upset Milton much. Since 1646 he had been working on his "History of Britain", and when in 1656 Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector, Milton consid­ered his dictatorship a progressive one. In the same year Milton married 28-year-old Catherine Woodcock. They were very devoted to each other, but in 1658 she died with her infant daughter. But again, Milton was not too much upset because another death, the death of Oliver Cromwell, was more important for him. The


loss was terrible. On his death in 1658 Oliver Cromwell was succeeded by his son Richard. The country, how­ever, decided that it would be reasonable to live under the rule of a king, but not under a protectorship. The restoration of Monarchy was only a matter of months. Finally, Charles II was brought back from exile to rule the country. The Monarchy was restored in 1660, but Parliament remained strong.

Almost alone Milton raised his voice boldly against the restoration of Monarchy. He spoke out in a pub­lished letter to general Monk. Then he wrote an open letter to a new Parliament. A politician and literary man Andrew Marvell (1621-1678) played a great role in Milton's life. His influence in Parliament protected Milton. Marvell welcomed Restoration, although he was disillusioned with the disorder of the new court.

In 1660 the Monarchy was restored, with Charles I's elder son becoming King Charles II, and the search continued for a mutually-satisfactory balance of power between crown and Parliament. Charles II was called the "Merry Monarch", and his court became a centre of cultural vitality.

When Charles II became King, the change in English literature was almost as great as the change in govern­ment. For one thing, the theatres opened again, and new dramatists, therefore, appeared. The plays were written in heroic couplets, the men were brave and the women were beautiful. The public consisted mainly of the court and the wealthy. Moreover, the actors them­selves were fashionably dressed. Even women were allowed to play in the performances. They appeared on the stage in their modern clothes. The stage itself changed the shape: a "picture-frame" form replaced the stage that came forward towards where the audience 68


was. The plots of the plays centred around love and money. Everything and everybody protested against I lie strict rule of Puritanism. Unlike Ben Jonson's moral plays, these Restoration Comedies were cynical. Л handsome young man became the hero of the play and was identified with the males in the public. Wil­liam Congreve (1670-1729) was the master of the "Comedies of Manners" in which he described the manners of the Age: "Love for Love" and "The Way of the World".

In 1660 the Royal Society, the oldest British scien­tific society, was founded. Among its earliest members were the diarist Samuel Pepys, the architect Christo­pher Wren, and the physicist Isaac Newton, whose theory of gravitation brought a new coherence to the universe.

Milton became unpopular. He was arrested. The estate of £2000 was confiscated.

The rest of his story is a great one. Until 1663 his household consisted of three daughters, the two elder of whom had been brought up by Mary Powell's Roy­alist mother. Milton had to depend on them because of his blindness and poverty. The youngest daughter, Deborah, born in 1650 or 1651, had remained at Mil­ton's home during his second brief marriage in 1656-1658. There were several close friends who visited him from time to time. Among them was his doctor who introduced a young woman of 24 to Milton. In 1663 they married.

That was the period when Milton wrote his great epic poem "Paradise Lost", based on the story of Adam and Eve and their failure to keep God's com­mands. Milton dictated his poem because of his blind­ness. It was planned in ten books, but it was written


in twelve. The plot centres round Adam and Eve, Satan] and his rebel-angels, God, three guardian angels: Rap-j hael, Gabriel and Michael. The background is the whole j Universe, including Heaven and Hell.

The revolutionary spirit is shown in Satan who re-i volts against God, and is driven away from Heaven with the rebel-angels. They fall into Hell where "No light,, but rather darkness visible,... and rest can never dwell, hope never comes". Though banished from Heaven,! Satan is glad to have got freedom. Satan possesses human features. He is a rebel. God personifies Monar-' chy, Satan is determined to go on with the war against God. Milton's Adam and Eve are full of energy. They love each other and are ready to meet whatever the earth has in store for them. God banishes them from Paradise to the newly created world where they are to face a life of toil and woe. Milton's sympathies are with them.

"Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven." "The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven."

The second great epic poem "Paradise Regained'" was published in 1671. This story is more severe. It is devoted to the description of Christ's temptations in the desert. Much in this book is taken from Milton's youth­ful ambitions.

Milton wrote of life because he loved it enough to fight for it; he fought for freedom. Milton died in 1674, leaving all his property to the wife who spoke with warm affection of her talented husband.

In 1660's the biographies and diaries became a form of literature. Some of them were written as a


record of the main events of the day. The Great Plague (1665) killed more than 70,000 of the total population of London. The Great Fire (1666) destroyed 13,000 houses, 87 churches and St Paul's Cathedral. The fire was blazing for five days and two-thirds of the popula­tion of London became homeless. Some people believed that both events, the plague and the fire, were the work of God angered by the killing of Charles I and the Civil War. All the rest thought that the fire was started by the Catholics to put an end to the plague.

Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) began to write his diary in 1660 when he was very poor and finished it in 1669 when he was an important figure in the Navy Board. It is interesting to know that his diary was written in cipher and was not deciphered until 1825. In 1673 Pepys became a Member of Parliament and was a hospitable, generous, industrious and curious person skilled in music and many other things.

John Evelyn

John Evelyn (1620-1706) also was a man of varied interests. He was a secretary of the Royal Soci­ety and published his translations of Greek and Latin writers. Eve­lyn's diary was published in 1818. Unlike Pepys, he wrote his diary from time to time, even added to it some time after the event.

John Evelyn is best known as one of the most vivid of English diarists. Gardener and scholar, bibliophile and servant of the state, he was also a key figure in the assimilation of European culture in early English


 
 


Enlightenment. The British Library is rich in his books, manuscripts and personal papers.

It is interesting to compare Evelyn's and Pepys'sj entries on the same events in 1665. Evelyn wrote about the morning of the Great Fire in London: "2nd Septem­ber. This fatal night, about 10, began the deplorable fire, near Fish Street, in London."

Pepys noted: "Jane called us up about 3 in the morning, to tell us of a great fire they saw in the City... and that is now burning down all Fish Street, by Lon­don Bridge."

The diarists gave the start to the Age of Enlighten­ment in English Literature.



London. 18th century. The Age of Reason

By 1714 the success of British armies against France had made Britain a leading European power. Moreover, Britain had many new colonies. This led to self-confidence. London became far larger than any other town, with more than 500,000 people. A new class of rich aristocrats appeared in London. The power of the monarchy was brought under control.


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The Age of Enlightenment was a period in Europe during the 18th century (1688-1789) when the writers wrote that science and the use of reason would help the society to develop. The Age of Enlightenment is often called "The Augustan Age", because that title was chosen by the literary circles for the admiration of Rome under the Emperor Augustus. The form of polite liter­ature was poetry. At the beginning of the 18th century verse was preferable to prose. By the end of the century prose and verse exchanged their places.

The history of England of the second half of the 17th century and during the 18th century was marked by British colonial expansion. London became a great trad­ing metropolis as well as administrative, political and legal centre of England. Its commercial wealth helped the government become the ruling government all over the British Isles and develop contacts outside Britain. London was the centre of wealth and civilization. The City became the most important district in London; houses were not numbered, because common popula­tion couldn't read. Instead of the numbers pictures were used. Coffee-houses were very popular at that time. People met there to discuss the latest news, to drink tea or coffee, which became very popular as common drinks. Thus the coffee-houses eventually became cen­tres of political life. Each social group had its own coffee-house. The poets and the literary men attended the coffee-houses to read their creations.

In 1688 the bourgeoisie managed to bring the royal power under the control of Parliament. The compromise was reached between the royal power and the bourgeois middle class in England. This agreement was called "The Glorious Revolution" which was relatively blood­less. It brought the Protestant William III (William of Orange) to the throne in place of his Catholic father-in-law King James II (1685-1688).


 

King William III and his wife Queen Mary reigned together (1689-1702). He accepted his role as a constitutional monarch.

King William III

Meanwhile, in Parliament the lines of the modern party system were already being drawn. The party of landowners was called "Tories", the party of merchants and nobles was called "Whigs". Both parties hated each other, that's why both words were of negative meaning. "Tory" was the name of certain Irish robbers, "Whigs" was an exclamation of the men driving horses. "Tories" wanted the peaceful domestic policy in England, "Whigs" wanted to force the king to rule through Par­liament.

The Glorious Revolution was the political back­ground of the development of the political literature. Literature met the interests of the bourgeoisie. The writers of the Enlightenment fought for freedom. Most of them wrote political pamphlets, but the best came from the pen of Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift. The greatest essayists were Richard Steele and Joseph Addison. Addison spoke more gently, Steele — a little bit warmly, Alexander Pope — more sharply. But all of them used to flatter the upper-class readers who thought that those essays were written about their neighbours or somebody else. Those writers could cre­ate such an illusion. That illusion was comfortable for the contemporary society.

Periodical newspapers had been published since the Civil War, and in 1702 the first daily newspaper was established. Much of the drama was written not in poetry but in prose. The leading form of literature be­came the novel. The hero o\ the novel was a represent­ative of the middle class. Earlier the common people were shown only as comical personages.


 




 


The writers of the Age of Enlightenment wanted to improve the world. But some of them hoped to do this only by teaching. Others openly protested against the social order.

Thus two groups of the Enlighteners could be distin­guished:

I. Daniel Defoe (1661-1731)
Joseph Addison (1672-1719)
Richard Steele (1672-1729)
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
Samuel Richardson (1689-1761)
Laurence Sterne (1713-1768)

II. Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
Henry Fielding (1707-1754)
Tobias Smollett (1721-1771)
Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774)
Richard Sheridan (1751-1816)


Daniel Defoe (1661-1731)

Daniel Defoe (Foe, he added "De" 40 years later) called himself fortunate in his education as well as in his family. He was the eldest son of an intelligent London chandler James Foe. His father expected him to be­come a Minister, but as Defoe later said of his desire to write about economics rather than politics, "trade was the thing I really desired to have taken up with". In 1680 when he was 21 he became a commission merchant, dealing manufacture and acting as a jobber for wine, tobacco, woollens and other goods. He travelled a lot and knew several languages. Defoe wrote several comparative notes on manners and cus­toms of different nations in the countries of Europe.

By 1684 Defoe was a well-to-do businessman, and he could marry an attractive young girl of 20 brought up in a rather more important commercial family than his own. Defoe was too energetic. That's why when his business began to bore him he looked for more thrilling speculations. As a result, in 1692 Defoe was forced into bankruptcy. But he wasn't upset. He was an optimist. He decided to publish his first real book "An Essay upon Projects" in 1698. He wrote down the sugges­tions how to improve roads.

Twenty years later in 1719, his masterpiece "Robin­son Crusoe" appeared. Then he retired to the comfort­able country house that he shared with his wife and two unmarried daughters.


In 1722 Defoe published his novel "The Adventu of Colonel Jack", in 1724 his well-known book "Rox na" appeared.

Despite his several bankruptcies, Defoe wrote wit enthusiasm about trade. In 1726 his "History of t History" was published, in 1727 his "Essay on th History" and in 1728 his "Plan of the English Com\ merce" appeared.

Defoe died in 1731 in London.

ROBINSON CRUSOE

"Robinson Crusoe" is Defoe's best novel. The full title of that novel sounds like that: "The Life an Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, о York, Mariner Who lived Eight and Twenty years, att alone in an uninhabited Island on the Coast of the Great River of Oroonaque, Having been Cast on Shord by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himselfi With an account how he was at last strangely deliver'm by Pirates, written by Himself."

, ■
Shipwreck

The story is based on a realj event. Alexander! Selkirk, a sailor who quarrelled with his captain, was put on the island of Juan Fernandez, near Chile, and lived there alone for four years. The 78


story follows the popular tradition of personal travel books about the adventures of their heroes. "Robinson Crusoe" praises human labour which saves him from despair. Defoe portrays his hero with warmth and sympathy. He shows the development of Robinson Crusoe. Therefore the charm of the novel lies in Robinson as a person.

At the beginning of the story we get acquainted with an unexperienced young creature who later becomes a strong-willed and hard-working man, and at the end of the book we see a philosopher able to withstand all the misfortunes and hardships of his extraordinary destiny.

Robinson Crusoe doesn't lose his courage. He tries to be reasonable. His motto is: "Never say die". Some­times panic overtakes him, but never for long. He always hopes for the best. Robinson becomes an en­thusiastic worker, he proves to be skilful and talented. Crusoe keeps his diary as long as he has something to write with.

Defoe proves the fact that Man can live by himself even in such a situation, on an uninhabited island. Defoe is a writer of the Age of Enlightenment, that's why he teaches people how to live and what to do in order to live better. Defoe's Crusoe, like Defoe him­self, is typically bourgeois. He is very practical and straightforward. He is extremely interested only in himself and his property. He wants to be the master of the island. He is glad and proud of his self-confi­dence. As soon as a coloured man appears on the island, Robinson Crusoe makes him his servant, be­cause slavery seems natural to Defoe. Crusoe takes it for granted. "Master" is the first word he teaches Friday to pronounce.


           
   
 
 
 
 
   
 

Robinson j and Friday

Friday is the other main character of the book. author sympathizes with him, appreciates his willingJ ness to help, his obedience to his "master". The authoq reveals his characters superstitious. Both are very re-| ligious. Crusoe believes in God and in Providence.

The novel is a glorification of labour and energy. Butj these qualities are exaggerated. According to Defoe,] man can live by himself comfortably and make all the] things he needs with no other hands to assist him. This individualism is characteristic of Defoe. Defoe fails to see that Robinson Crusoe succeeds in making things'; only thanks to some tools he has found on the ship.' Besides, he uses the experience of the previous gener-l ations and civilizations. Nevertheless, Daniel Defoe is i a master of realistic details. His novel "Robinson CruA soe" is not only a work of fiction and an educational i pamphlet. It is a study of man in relation to nature and civilization as well as in relation to labour and private property. The author emphasizes the triumph of man over nature.


Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)

Jonathan Swift was one of the fa­mous English writers of the Age of Enlightenment. Moreover, he was a bitter satirist of the beginning of the 18th century.

In his "Battle of the Books" (1704) he supported the ancients. In the "Tale of a Tub" (1704) he at­tacked the religious ideas. Swift is known to students of literature as the writer of most bitter and utterly damning satire ever written in England — "A Modest Proposal" (1729). Jonathan is still loved and valued in Ireland as one of the first and greatest of the fighters for Irish freedom.

The Custom House, Dublin

Swift was born in Dublin. The city's name comes from Irish dubh lin, the dark pool where the peaty waters of the Liffey flow into the bow of the great horseshoe of Dublin Bay. For 300 years it was the core of the Pale, the area fortified by dyke, bank and palisade,


from which the Norman English attempted to rule Ire- j land. Later it was the centre from which Tudor, Stuart and Cromwellian governments sought to plant and col­onize the land. In the 17th and 18th centuries Dublin grew to be the second city of the British Isles. Much of the beautiful architecture which its citizens cherish dates from this period.

Although Swift was born in Dublin, his parents were' both English connected with several important fami­lies, but themselves possessed little property. His fa­ther was unfortunate, he died at 25 with his son still unborn. Swift was born on 30 November, 1667, six months after his father's death. His uncle Godwin Swift undertook to pay for his upbringing and education, but Swift hated his uncle.

Swift was educated at Trinity College with little satisfaction to either himself or the teachers. This is a fragment of Swift's autobiography: "... he (Swift wrote in a third person) too much neglected his academic stud­ies, for some parts of which he had no relish by nature, and turned himself to reading history and poetry."

Swift was graduated without honours in 1688. In those times Sir William Temple was an important states­man and diplomat in England. In 1688 he had already retired and met with leading writers and politicians at Moon Park. Jonathan Swift became his secretary. This was an interesting position for a young man of 21, because it gave him wonderful chances of meeting the important people of that time. On the other hand, Swift learned much of the dishonesty of successful politicians.

Jonathan Swift remained at Moon Park until he was 32. During his work at Temple's Swift taught the housekeeper's daughter Stella who became his inti­mate friend and close companion up to the end. In 1699 Sir Temple died, and Swift had to search for a new job.


He was given the position of chaplain to the Earl of Berkeley who soon gave him a small living, the vicar­age of Laracour in Ireland. Swift visited different polit­ical clubs, wrote his important pamphlets and got acquainted with famous people.

In 1710 Swift joined the Tory party.

In 1720 he published his powerful pamphlet "A Proposal for the Universal Use of Irish Manufac­ture' which proclaimed an economic independence for Ireland. Swift became the hero of Dublin, but the police were searching for the author of the rebellious pamph­let. The police didn't know who the author was, but the population knew the author quite well.

Jonathan's masterpiece, "Gulliver's Travels", ap­peared in 1726. It is divided into four books, but the young people prefer to read only two of them: about Gulliver's voyages to Lilliput (where the people are six inches high) and Brobdingnag (where the people are giants). The Lilliputians fight wars which seem foolish. The King of Brobdingnag thinks that people are the most terrible creatures on the Earth.

GULLIVER'S TRAVELS

Lemuel Gulliver is the main character of the book. He is educated both as a doctor and as a sailor. He is given the job of a ship surgeon and sets sail from Bristol on 4th May, 1699.

It is his first voyage. The cruise is a success, but after a long trading tour in the East India the crew of the ship is driven out of their route by a storm and ship-wrecked in a strange land. While asleep he is captured and bound by several thousand of the six-inch tall inhabitants. After many thrilling adventures Gulliver returns to England. There he succeeds in a


             
   
 
   
 
   
 

small business by selling a 1 number of the Lilliputian sheep, cows and other things which he has taken with him. I

Lemuel Gulliver

Two months later, on 20 June, 1702, he goes to sea) again. The ship is immediately driven out of its course by a storm. The members of the crew row to a strange shore to get drinking water. While Gulliver wanders along the shore, the others are terrified by some giants and escape, leaving Gulliver alone. He is soon picked up between thumb and forefinger by one of those giants. But in the end Gulliver manages to escape, and returns home.

Gulliver's third voyage takes place a few months later. Gulliver is captured by pirates, and set adrift in a small boat in which he reaches an uninhabited island After that Gulliver manages to escape with the help of people of Laputa — a sort of floating island. These people are very strange. They are fond of mathematics and music Moreover, they can make their floating island move at will. Finally, Gulliver returns home, to England He has been absent for about six years.

Stella, Swift's close friend, died in 1728. Swift suf­fered a lot, his mind was breaking. Ten years (1730-1740) he spent in loneliness... In 1742 at the age 74 Swift was declared insane. In 1745 he died and was buried with simplicity. It is interesting to know that he composed the Latin epitaph for himself. He made it in 1735 when he wrote his will. Translated it sounds like this:


Here Lies the Body

of

Jonathan Swift Once Dean of the Cathedral Where Savage Indignation Can No Longer Tear His Heart

Go, Passerby,

And do, if you can, as he did

A Man's Part in Defence

of Human Freedom.

Swift remains one of the very few who have made satire an effective weapon with which he attacks the enemy.

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774)

Oliver Goldsmith is known for his humorous "Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog" (1761) in which a good man is bitten by a dog:

The wound it seemed both sore and sad To every Christian eye; And while they swore the dog was mad, They swore the man would die.

But soon a wonder came to light That showed the rogues they lied. The man recovered of the bite, The dog it was that died.

Later Goldsmith wrote "She Stoops to Conquer" (1773) where a private house is mistaken for a hotel.


Richard Sheridan (1751-1816)

Richard Sheridan is famous for his] two well-known books; the first is "The School for Scandal" (1777), the second is "The Critic" (1779).

In his "School for Scandal" three j main personages are fond of scandal and can't stop striking a character dead at every word.

In "The Critic" Sheridan mocks at drama and liter-, ary criticism. He makes fun of two critics who discuss the foolish play's qualities with the author of that play.

The novel became a popular literary form of the 18th century. The development of the novel was influenced by the several literary factors. Diaries, memoirs and biographies were widespread in those times. Letter writing and travel books came into being too. Further­more, there appeared a form of prose fiction describing the adventures of smart and cunning people who were fond of playing tricks. The most famous novels of the 18th century were: "The Life and Strange Surprising Adventuries of Robinson Crusoe" (1719) by Daniel Defoe, "Gulliver's Travels" (1719) by Jonathan Swift, "Pamela" (1741) by Samuel Richardson, "Tom Jones" (1749) by Henry Fielding and "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy" (1767) by Laurence Sterne.

After the Restoration of Monarchy the public atten­tion was concentrated on the social destiny of the indi­vidual and the social laws of the society. The money-making middle class in the towns and the gentry in the countryside grew closer together, providing a new and large reading public in the 18th century.





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