Part V The 17th Part V The 17th CenturyCentury

Part V The 17th Part V The 17th CenturyCentury

The Period of Revolution and The Period of Revolution and RestorationRestoration

Historical Background• It was a period when absolute

monarchy impeded the further development of capitalism in England and the bourgeoisie could no longer bear the sway of landed nobility. The contradictions between the feudal system and the bourgeoisie had reached its peak and resulted in a revolutionary outburst.

• Elizabeth I died in 1603 and James I came to the throne, a succession that marks the change from a united England to a divided England. The government of James I was a despotism based upon the theory of the divine right of kings.

Queen Elizabeth 1

King James 1

Historical background

• Against this royal arrogance, the Puritans offered another theory of divine right, the divine right of the individual conscience. They renounced a life of joy in this world, in hope of an eternal joy in the would to come.

• Even in Elizabeth 1’s time the Puritans were persecuted and some of them went to America for religious freedom.

Charles 1• In the next reign

(Charles I succeeded James I in 1625) the religious tyranny of Archbishop Laud was added to the political tyranny of the king.

• In 1649 Charles I was beheaded and England became a commonwealth under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell. In 1653 Cromwell imposed a military dictatorship on the country.

Oliver Cromwell

The statue of Oliver Cromwell

Historical Background• After Cromwell’s death, monarchy

was again restored in 1660.• That revolution meant three things:

1. the supremacy of Parliament. 2. the beginning of modern England. 3. the final triumph of the principle of political liberty for which the Puritan had fought and suffered hardship for a hundred years.

• Revolution and Restoration

II Literary Characteristics• 1. Medieval standards of chivalry, the impossible

loves and romances perished no less surely than the ideal of a national church.

• 2. A sudden breaking away from old standards, just as society broke away from the restraints of Puritanism.

• 3. On the return of the former officials, they renounced old ideals and demanded the English poetry and drama should follow the style to which they had become accustomed in the gaiety of Paris.

• 4. Restoration created a literature of its own, that was often witty and clever, but on the whole immoral and cynical. The most popular genre was that of comedy whose chief aim was to entertain the licentious aristocrats.

The Metaphysical Poets• The Metaphysical poets( 玄学派诗人 )• About the beginning of the 17th century, there

appeared in England a school of poets called "Metaphysicals" by Samuel Johnson. With a rebellious spirit, the metaphysical poets tried to break away from the conventional fashion of the Elizabethan love poetry. The diction is simple as compared with that of the Elizabethan or the Neoclassic periods and echoes the words and cadences of common speech. The imagery is drawn from the actual life. The form is frequently that of an argument with the poet's beloved, with God, or with himself. The representatives are John Donne and John Dryden

Famous Literary Men in this Period• 1. John Donne (1572—1631) • 2. John Dryden(1631—1700)

• 3. John Milton(1608—1774)• 4. John Bunyan(1628—1688)

John Donne (1572—1631)

• He was the founder of the Metaphysical school of poetry.

• Literary works ： Donne wrote a large number of poems. The Elegies and Satires , The Songs and Sonnets

• Donne is best known by his The Songs and Sonnets. It contains most of his early lyrics. Love is the basic theme.

• The life story on Page 132-134. In1615 he entered the church and rose rapidly to be Dean of Saint Paul’s and became the most famous preacher of his time. In 1617 his dear wife died, Donne fell under the shadow of a terrible spiritual gloom.

• He took such classical forms as satires, elegies, and epistles. The first thing to strike the reader is Donne’s extraordinary frankness and penetrating realism. In his serious love-poems, he suffuses it with an emotional intensity and spiritualized ardor unique in English poetry.

Song• Go and catch a falling star, a• Get with child a mandrake root, b• Tell me where all past years are, a• Or who cleft the Devil’s foot, b• Teach me to hear mermaids singing, c• Or to keep off envy’s stinging, c• And find d• What wind d• Serves to advance an honest mind. d

Stanza II of Song• If thou beest born to strange sights,• Things invisible to see,• Ride ten thousand days and nights,• Till age snow white hairs on thee,• Thou, when thou return’st, wilt tell me• All strange wonders that befell thee,• And swear• No where• Lives a woman true, and fair.

Stanza III of Song• If thou find’st one, let me know,• Such a pilgrimage were sweet;• Yet do not, I would not go,• Though at next door we might meet;• Though she were true when you met her,

• And last will you write your letter,• Yet she• Will be• False, ere I come, to two, or three.

The Holy Sonnets by Donne• John Donne gave

exquisite expression on love and death. His meditation on love deserves the attention from the critics and his followers in the later period.

Donne’s StyleStyle ： (1) The use of conceits ： In his poetry, D

onne frequently applies conceits, i.e. extended metaphors involving dramatic contrasts. His conceits may be divided into two kinds: easy ones and difficult ones. Easy conceits, found in all Elizabethan poetry with images concerning mythology and objects, are not a novelty; but the difficult ones rely largely choice of imagery. Donne's images are linked with new resources such as law, psychology and philosophy which endow his poetry with learning and wit, and which provide certain intellectual difficulties. By combining the easy conceits with the difficult ones, Donne achieves surprisingly good effects in his poetry.

Donne’s Style• (2) The involvement of a certain kind of argume

nt ： Donne's poetry involves a certain kind of argument, sometimes in rigid syllogistic form. He seems to be speaking to an imagined hearer, raising the topic and trying to persuade, convince or upbraid him. With the brief, simple language, the srgument is continuous throughout the poem. It begins with a certain idea but ends in quite a contrary one. It is not only playful but paradoxical; it is not only witty, but implies different kinds of feelings, which can only be interpreted through the rhythms and reflections of the verse.

John Milton(1608—1774)• His life story on Page 139-144.

• Main works: Paradise Lost (1667),

Paradise Regained (1671),

Samson Agonistes (1671)

• Literary Achievements ：• (1) Early poetic works Lycidas (1637) composed for a collection o

f elegies dedicated to Edward King, a fellow undergraduate of Milton's at Cambridge, who was drowned in the Irish Sea. The climax of the poem is the blistering attack on the clergy, i.e. the "shepherds", who are corrupted by self-interest.

• (2) The middle prose pamphlets ： Milton devoted almost twenty years of his best life to the fight for political, religious and personal liberty as a writer. Areopagitica (1644) is probably his most memorable prose work. It is a great plea for freedom of the press. The gist of Milton's argument is this: No censorship could decide what was truth and what was error, for truth could only be decided by free discussion.

• (3) Later works ： After the Restoration in 1660, when he was blind and suffering, and when he was poor and lonely, Milton wrote his three major poetical works: Paradise Lost (1667), Paradise Regained(1671), and Samson Agonistes (1671) .

The Paradise Lost• The Paradise Lost is the

greatest, indeed the only generally acknowledged epic in English literature since Beowulf ; Paradise Lost is Milton's masterpiece. The theme is the "Fall of Man", i.e. man's disobedience and the loss of Paradise, with its prime cause -Satan. His purpose was "to justify the ways of God to man"- i.e. submission to the Almighty.

• The plot overview (Click).

The Paradise

Adam and Eve

Satan• Some readers

consider Satan to be the hero, or protagonist, of the story, because he struggles to overcome his own doubts and weaknesses and accomplishes his goal of corrupting humankind.

Satan, the image• Satan and his fellow rebel

angels who are found chained to a lake of fire in Hell quickly free themselves and fly to land, where they discover minerals and construct Pandemonium, which will be their meeting place. Inside Pandemonium, the rebel angels, who are now devils, debate whether they should begin another war with God.

Satan and God• The symbol for

Satan.• The God and

Satan

The Theme• Themes are the fundamental and often universal

ideas explored in a literary work.• The Importance of Obedience to God• The first words of Paradise Lost state that the poem’s

main theme will be “Man’s first Disobedience.” Milton narrates the story of Adam and Eve’s disobedience, explains how and why it happens, and places the story within the larger context of Satan’s rebellion and Jesus’ resurrection. Raphael tells Adam about Satan’s disobedience in an effort to give him a firm grasp of the threat that Satan and humankind’s disobedience poses. In essence, Paradise Lost presents two moral paths that one can take after disobedience: the downward spiral of increasing sin and degradation, represented by Satan, and the road to redemption, represented by Adam and Eve.

The theme• While Adam and Eve are the first humans to disobey G

od, Satan is the first of all God’s creation to disobey. His decision to rebel comes only from himself—he was not persuaded or provoked by others. Also, his decision to continue to disobey God after his fall into Hell ensures that God will not forgive him. Adam and Eve, on the other hand, decide to repent for their sins and seek forgiveness. Unlike Satan, Adam and Eve understand that their disobedience to God does not know that their disobedience will be corrected through generations of toil on Earth. This path is obviously the correct one to take: the visions in Books XI and XII demonstrate that obedience to God, even after repeated falls, can lead to humankind’s salvation.

character analysis• The character analysis in the Paradise Lost• Satan• Adam• Eve• God• The son• (See details. Click Here)

Milton’s will• The freedom of the will is the keystone of Milto

n's creed. His poem attempts to convince us that the unquestionable truth of Biblical revelation means that an all-knowing God was just in allowing Adam and Eve to be tempted and , of their free will, to choose sin and its inevitable punishment. And, thereby, it opens the way for the voluntary sacrifice of Christ which showed the mercy of God in bring good out of evil. Eve, seduced by Satan's rhetoric and her own confused ambition - as well as the mere promptong of hunger - falls into sin through innocent credulity. Adam falls by consciously choosing human love rather obeying God. This is the error wherein greatness lies.

• The first 26 lines.• The essay topics.• (See Details)

• The poem is written in blank verse. In Milton's hands it became a magnificent organ-music. His diction is a combination of plain English and classical Latin - stately, sonorous, and yet essentially simple. It is the "grand" style.

• Paradise Regained shows how mankind, in the person of Christ, withstand the tempter and is established once more in the divine favor. Christ temptation in the wilderness is the theme, and Milton follows the account in the fourth chapter of Matthew's gospel.

Samson Agonistes• It is a dramatic treatment of the story of

Samson. Apparently, Samson had a special appeal to Milton. Like Milton, he is a dedicated soul. Like Milton, he has been embittered by an unwise marriage, has suffered blindness, and yet is unconquerable. The whole poem strongly suggests Milton's passionate longing that he too could bring destruction down upon the enemy at the cost of his own life.

Features of Milton's poetry• When we study Milton, we should first

remember that Milton the revolutionary is as great as Milton the epic poet. He dedicated himself by choice to a noble cause political cause, and turned poet only because that cause failed. Shakespeare commands our wonder and admiration, but Milton our respect and awe. Milton is a great artist. He is a great master of the blank verse. He is the glorious pioneer to introduce blank verse into non-dramatic poetry, and has made it an admirable tool for the expression of epical themes.

John Bunyan• John Bunyan (November 30, 1

628 - August 31, 1688), was the most famous of the Puritan writers and preachers. He was born at Harrowden (1 mile south-east of Bedford), in the Parish of Elstow, England. He is most well-know for his book “The Pilgrim's Progress”, one of the most printed books in history, which he composed while in prison for the crime of preaching the Gospel without a license.

Life story• John Bunyan had very little schooling. He followed his father in t

he tinker's trade, and he served in the parliamentary army from1644 to 1647). Bunyan married in 1649 and lived in Elstow until 1655, when his wife died. He then moved to Bedford, and married again in 1659. John Bunyan was received into the Baptist church in Bedford by immersion in 1653.

• In 1655, Bunyan became a deacon and began preaching, with marked success from the start. In 1658 he was indicted for preaching without a license. The authorities were fairly tolerant of him for a while, and he did not suffer imprisonment until November of 1660, when he was taken to the county jail in Silver Street, Bedford, and there confined (with the exception of a few weeks in 1666) for 12 years until January 1672. Bunyan afterward became pastor of the Bedford church. In March of 1675 he was again imprisoned for preaching publicly without a license, this time being held in the Bedford town jail. In just six months this time he was freed, (no doubt the authorities were growing weary of providing Bunyan with free shelter and food) and he was not bothered again by the authorities.

Life story• Herein is a great controversy. As John Bunyan was married

with children to support, and he could have walked out of the jail a free man at any time if he simply promised to stop preaching publicly without a license, one must ask if he really did the right thing. He was not asked to deny Christ or to recant his faith as the Protestant martyrs of a century earlier were. Indeed, many of those around him were openly Christians who shared his faith. Bunyan was simply asked to stop preaching without a license, or to move on. Should Bunyan have simply agreed and walked out of the jail and gone home to fulfill his duties before God as a husband and father? Or did he do the right thing in making those duties secondary to his personal conviction that he should be allowed to preach in that city without a license? Bunyan was not a martyr, nor was he ever violently persecuted, but his convictions, whether admirable or misplaced, were quite strong and vexed the local authorities who viewed him more as a troublemaker than any real threat.

• On a trip to London, John Bunyan caught a severe cold, and he died at the house of a friend at Snow Hill on August 31, 1688. His grave lies in the cemetery at Bunhill Fields in London.

His Writings

• John Bunyan wrote many other books, including one which discussed his inner life and reveals his preparation for his appointed work is “Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners” (1666). Bunyan became a popular preacher as well as a very voluminous author, though most of his works consist of expanded sermons. In theology he was a Puritan, but not a partisan. He was no scholar, except of the English Bible, but that he knew thoroughly.

The Pilgrim's Progress• John Bunyan wrote The Pilgrim's Progress in two

parts, of which the first appeared at London in 1678, which he had begun during his imprisonment in 1676. The second part appeared in 1684. The earliest edition in which the two parts were combined in one volume came out in 1728. A third part falsely attributed to Bunyan appeared in 1693. “The Pilgrim's Progress” is the most successful allegory ever written, and like the Bible has been extensively translated into other languages. Protestant missionaries commonly translated it as the first thing after the Bible. It is said that in the days of westward expansion in the United States, early settlers often owned only two books, one being the Bible, and the other being John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.

The Pilgrim’s Progress