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The Restoration Age
T(caps)he Restoration Age is the re-establishment of monarchy in England with the return of Charles II in 1600. The period was marked by the creative experience of English Literary figures like Dryden, Rochester, Bunyan, Perys, Locke and the Restoration dramatists. One of the characteristic genres of the period is Restoration comedy or the comedy of manners which developed immediately the theatres were reopened. Its principal writers were Congreve, Etherege, Farquhar, Vanbrugh and Wycherley.
3.1.2 English Literature and the Restoration Age (1649-1713)
The Restoration (1649- 1713) period in the history of England was characterised by years of conflicts, intrigues and wars between the King and parliament in the 1640s. In 1649, the Puritans, (Round heads) executed King Charles I shortly after they emerged victorious in the war; leading to the emergence of Oliver Cromwell as the Lord Protector. His son reigned in his stead after he died in 1658. The son‟s weak and unsuccessful reign made the parliament to invite the son of Charles I who was in France, and installed him asKing Charles II.
The monarch was a puppet, as the parliament controlled power, but with the emergence of two strong parties, the Whigs and Tories, supported by the minister, the country moved on in her usual crisis. Charles II died in 1685, and was succeeded by
his brother, King James II. When he became a Catholic, his reign came to an abrupt end with what was described as “glorious or bloodless” revolution of 1688. That brought the monarchical reigns to an end in England of the Restoration. Afterward, and with the reign of Mary (sister of Charles) and James (her husband), William of Orange from Holland, the new ideology of the society shifted to non-revolutionary consciousness.
With the first half of the century dominated by Revolution, society was no longer interested in Revolution. The middle class members of the society were no longer interested in anything that would hinder progress and wealth creation. This was the era of individual‟s economic advancement and general stability of the society fostered by scientific advancement and growth in commerce, especially with the establishment of the Bank of England in 1694.
The philosophy of the second half of the century entered into imaginative English Literature, with Thomas Hobbes‟s Leviathan which was published in France in 1651. This allegorical novel is about a huge animal character, Leviathan, a metaphor for England. The writer is of the opinion that a strong government is necessary to control the citizen of any nation because only a strong and powerful government can prevent the outbreak of another revolution, and this was the picture of Britain after the Restoration. Also, the citizens of the state needed to be totally controlled.
After Europe had gone into war with the Spanish between 1710 and 1713, the Treaty of Utrech took place and the United Kingdom became temporarily united when the union of the parliament of England and Scotland took place in 1707, but with Ireland still uncooperative. When England took the title, Commonwealth, under the reign of Oliver Cromwell, Andrew Marvel‟s poem „An Horatian Ode Upon Cromwell‟s Return from Ireland‟ (1650) that commemorated/documented the heroic return of Oliver Cromwell. This was a notable political poem in English. The poem earned Andrew Marvel the unofficial Poet Laureate during the Commonwealth. Also, Richard Lovelace‟s, „To Lucasta, Going to the Wars ‟ is a feeling of nostalgia combined with regret and complaint of having to leave his loved ones for the war unavoidably.
The Restoration writers combined politics with the philosophy of man and his society. John Milton, (1608- 1674) was one of the great poets in England who believed in Latin tradition and gave himself to the styles of some English poets including Chaucer, Classical and Christian influences run through his works; some of such are „On the Morning of Christ‟s Nativity‟, „Lycidas‟ (1637) and „Paradise Lost‟ (1667), a major epic poem in English. The poem uses the Biblical creation myth and place Satan and God side by side. Eve disobeys God and ignores the divine path and prefers to be separated from God. The allegory of this is that Eve chooses the human path of knowledge and freedom.
John Milton was also a prose writer on controversial issues of his time. Some of them are war, divorce, politics, religion, freedom of the press and education. He also wrote
„Paradise Regained‟ and „Samson Agonistes‟ . Another English poet, John Bunyan, in the second half of the seventeenth century, wrote „The Pilgrim‟s Progress‟ (1678) and „Second Part‟ . It is a fictional account of a Christian ‟s difficult journey through this world, while he looks up to the unknown God. He faces hardships from the Giant Despair and the slough of Despond (depth of depression) to Vanity Fair (pride), bringing to serious questioning the value humanity attached to life or the world of materialism. Ultimately the pilgrim recognises the more valuable existence of the Christian faith. The poem, „Pilgrim ‟s Progress‟ is still being widely read in England.
Another religious writer of the Restoration, John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, was reckless, gave his life to extensive sex and alcohol, but died a Catholic. He was a symbol of the Restoration. His poetry is humorous, rude, satirical and celebrates the pleasure of society, especially during the life and time of the merrying, fun-loving King Charles II. Also, John Dryden, a poet, playwright and essayist wrote „To His Sacred Majesty‟, „Absalom and Achitophel‟ (1681), Mac Flecknoe (1682), Of Dramatic Poesy (1608) and the Secular Masque (1700). Some of Dryden‟s numerous plays are Marriage- a-la mode (fashionable marriage) (1672), and All for Love (1678). Other writers of the age are George Ethereges, who wrote Comical Revenge (1664), Man of Mode (1664). Another writer, William Wycherley, wrote The Country Wife, (1675). The play is the playwright‟s attempt to revive loose morals of London‟s society. William Congreve wrote „The Way of the World ‟ . Others writers are George Farguhar, Alphra Behn and Mary dela Riviere Manley. The works of Dryden and Shadwell copied the style and version of William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlow.
3.2 The Augustan or Neo-classical Age
Augustan period, also known as the age of Pope, (1713- 1789) is a term derived from the period of literary eminence under the Roman Emperor Augustus (27 BC-AD.14) during which Virgil, Horace and Ovid flourished. In English Literature, it refers generally to the early and mid- 18th century Augustan writers such as Pope, Addison, Swift and Steele.
3.2.1 English Literature and the Augustan or Neo-classical Age (1713-1789)
The Augustan period (1713 – 1789) was a clearly marked age of rebellion. The German house of Hanover evaded and took over the British throne. The grandson of James II, a Catholic, led an invasion but lost power to the Parliament and the Prime Minister between 1715 and 1745. The event coincided with the time of great revolutions in agriculture, industry, and the Declaration of American Independence in 1776 as well as the French revolution in 1789. Britain became threatened as she preferred to see her agricultural market grow as it did during the revolution of 1649. The theatre License Act of 1737 made drama infamous and the Classical idea of the Augustans was replaced by a more rational society where people had the freedom of independent thinking in a world that became friendlier with nature. Thus, the novel grew in popularity. As English readership increased and people left other jobs for agricultural economy, novels were more in demand among women.
The novel genre began as early as 1700. It emerged with the works of Thomas Nash after the Restoration of 1660. Aphra Behn wrote about thirty novels, some of which are in the form of love letters between a nobleman and his sister (1683). Aphra Behn wrote Oroonoko (1688). Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift‟s works were followed by Samuel Richardson‟s and those of Henry Fielding. Defoe wrote Robinson Crusoe in 1719. The hero of the novel, Crusoe, makes a home of the Island where he found himself after the ship in which he was traveling was wrecked. Being the sole survivor of the wreckage, he lived in the island for more than twenty-eight years. Crusoe‟s first human contact, Man Friday, and later his bird, Poll, became his companions in the Island. The famous story may be read as a fable of survival in place of human spirit. Man Friday comes with inferior value and ideology of his own kinsmen into the island, but Crusoe ‟s European philosophy overpowers his and he becomes a model for the new capitalist Europe. Defoe recounts the story using the first person narrative technique, „I‟ . The story was inspired by that of Alexander Selkirk who was marooned in an island for many years.
Daniel Defoe also wrote Moll Flanders (1722), the story of a woman who has been a thief, prostitute, committed incest and has been in and out of prisons. The woman tells her own story as a refined citizen of her society. The novel reflects the immoral nature of the Augustan age or eighteenth century. But Jonathan Swift‟s Battle of the Books (1704) tells the differences between the ancient (classical writers) and moderns (literary ideology after Augustan period). The work appeals to the ancient to give the modern a room for creative expansion. Swift‟s Gulliver’s Travel (1726) reflects the sense of the satire and humour that took over the English creative space with its humorous way of telling the world what he saw that was really wrong with it. In the novel, which is in four parts - Gulliver travels to Lilliput, meets the small inhabitants but meets more „gigantic‟ people when he gets to Brobdingnag. The king of Brobdingnag, when he hears the description Gulliver gives of the people of England, concludes that the English are “the most pernicious race of little odious vermins that nature ever suffered to create upon the surface of the earth.” The third part of the book reveals the Royal Society of 1662 and 1663 that was founded for the improvement of natural knowledge (science and culture). But, in the fourth part of the book, Gulliver meets the more cultured horses, the houyhnhnms, and compares their culture to that of the naughty monkey–like social yahoos called man. Swift also wrote A Modest Proposal (1729).
Samuel Richardson wrote Pamela (1740), and Clarissa, 1747-49, while Henry Fielding wrote Joseph Andrew (1742), Tom Jones, (1749). Charlotte Lennox wrote, The Life of Harriot Stuart (1750), Harace Walpole wrote The Castle of Otranto (1764). After John Dryden died, Alexander Pope wrote The Rape of the Lock, (1712), Dunciad, (1728,) Dryden had also published Mac Flecknoe, Essay on Criticism, 1711, and Essay on Man, 1733-4. Other writers of this period include Thomas Gray, „Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard‟ (1750); Edward Young, „Night Thoughts (1742); Robert Blare, „The Grave‟ (1743); James Thompson, „The Seasons‟ (1726- 1730); and Oliver Goldsmith‟s, „ The Deserted Village’ (1770).
With the growing demand for the printed word among the middle classes, writing became a profession, as people became full-time writers of poetry, prose, plays, essays as well as journals. Magazines and journalism too became popular; thus there was growth in information and communication about Scotland, her capital, Edinburgh, and the English capital city, London.
Philosophical writings too became part of the developments of the eighteenth century with the works of the Economists, Adam Smith and David Hume. Richard Steele started The Guardian and the Englishman Magazines (1793- 1714). These magazines were often about the socio- economic and political developments in England; such issues often caused controversies whenever discussed in the magazines. As a result, many writers and editors were often imprisoned for expressing their opinions too frankly or disparagingly. For example, Daniel Defoe was imprisoned for writing a pamphlet, The Shortest Way with the Dissenters (1702). Samuel Johnson wrote the Dictionary of the English (1755), The Lives of English Poets (1779- 1781), and a preface to William Shakespeare (1765), a work that marked the beginning of critical writings on Shakespeare. Johnson‟s impressive comments on the works of William Shakespeare promoted the aesthetics of his works as well as Shakespeare‟s personality. James Boswell wrote Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), which is the first great biography in English. Oliver Goldsmith wrote She Stoops to Conquer (1767). All kinds of writings existed in the period; letters and diaries such as Lord Chesterfield‟s Letters to his Son (1774), described as a book of manners. Many critics, including Samuel Johnson, disliked the kind of manner the letters described.
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
What is the Restoration Age?
4.0 CONCLUSION
In this unit, we have defined the Restoration as well as the Augustan ages. We have also explained the reasons the Restoration and Augustan periods are so named. We have also provided useful information on causes of the various rebellions and conflicts in the Age of Restoration as well as Augustan. We have mentioned the names and works of great writers in the Restoration as well as the Augustan. Reading through the unit, you will realise that the Restoration and Augustan ages overlapped. The point at which they appeared separated is clear in the unit.
5.0 SUMMARY
In this unit, you have learnt:
. The reasons Restoration and Augustan ages have been so described;
. That it is important for you to know the causes of the major rebellions in the Restoration and Augustan ages;
. The Restoration period is different from the Augustan period, but related events characterised the periods;
. How the Restoration and Augustan evolved;
. The chronology of the works and popular genres of the Restoration and Augustan periods.
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