The 17th and 18th(Neoclassical)

Century1625-1798

Mrs. Cumberland

A Turbulent Time: Historical Background

• In 1649, the English shocked the world by beheading their king and abolishing the monarchy.

• In the decades before the civil wars tore England apart, revolutions in science and religion had already unsettled people’s worldview.

Changes• The new astronomy had

exiled the Earth from the center of the universe to the vastness of infinite space.

• New religious creeds had altered or abolished the traditions of centuries.– John Donne wrote, with

his newfound insecurity, “Tis all in pieces, all coherence gone.”

Monarch is Back • By the 1700s, though, a monarch was

back on the throne, and a new, competitive society had sprung up, with a looser social structure and greater freedom in religion and politics.

Charles I and Parliament• Crowned in 1625• Clashed with Parliament

over money• King Charles needed

money for his wars, and Parliament refused to fund them.

Loans? No Loans?• The king then extorted

loans from his wealthy subjects and pressed the poor into service as soldiers and sailors.

• Parliament tried to prevent such abuses of power, so Charles eventually dissolved Parliament and would not call it into session for 11yrs.

Religious Controversy

• He insisted the clergymen “conform,” or observe all the ceremonies of the Anglican Church.

• Puritans- Calvanists who wished to purify the Church of its Catholic traditions- were enraged by some of these requirements.

Torture• Puritans believed that each group of

worshipers, moved by the members’ divinely granted consciences, had the right to choose its own minister- an idea dangerously close to democracy. For these and other ideas, “dissenters” were persecuted and tortured as criminals.

The Civil War• Charles’s problem grew worse after he was

forced to fight Scottish rebels outraged by his insistence on religious conformity.

• Desperate for money, he summoned a hostile Parliament– Parliament condemned Charles I as a tyrant in

1642– Civil war broke out– In 1645, Parliament’s forces, led by Oliver

Cromwell, defeated the royalist army and captured Charles

Cromwell Rules• Radical Puritans: dominated Parliament• Tried and convicted the king for treason• Charles I was beheaded on January 30,

1649– Cromwell led the new government, called

the English Commonwealth• He dissolved Parliament in 1653 and named

himself Lord Protector• He ruled as a dictator until 1658 when he died

Outlawing• Civil war had not led to the free society that

many who had fought against the king expected.– Hopes, economic hardship = unrest– The Commonwealth fueled discontent by outlawing

• Gambling• Horse racing• Newspapers• Fancy clothes• Public dancing• The theater

The Restoration• By Cromwell’s death, England had had

enough taxation, violence, and disorder.

• In 1658, Parliament offered the crown to the exiled son of Charles I, who became Charles II in 1660.– The monarch was restored

• In sharp contrast to the drab Puritan leaders, Charles II and his court copied the plush fashions of Paris

• Charles– Avid patron of the arts and science– Invited Italian composers and Dutch

painters to live and work in London.

European Political ThinkersThinker Major Ideas QuotationThomas Hobbes

Leviathan

(1651)

People are driven by selfishness and greed. To avoid chaos, they give up their freedom to a government that will ensure order. Such a government must be strong and able to suppress rebellion

“The condition of man [in the state of nature]… is a condition of war of everyone against everyone.”

European Political ThinkersThinker Major Ideas QuotationJohn Locke

Two Treaties of Government

(1690)

People have a natural right to life, liberty, and property. Rulers have a responsibility to protect those rights. People have the right to change a government that fails to do so.

“Men being… by nature all free, equal, and independent, no one can be put out of this estate and subjected to the political power of another without his own consent.”

European Political ThinkersThinker Major Ideas Quotation

Baron de Montesquieu

The Spirit of the Laws

(1748)

The powers of government should be separated into executive, legislative, and judicial branches, to prevent any one group from gaining too much power.

“In order to have… liberty, it is necessary that government be set up so that one man need not be afraid of another.”

A Glorious Revolution• Charles II’s successor: James II

– Devout Catholic.– Parliament invited Mary, the Protestant daughter

of James II, to rule England jointly with her husband, William of Orange.

– Rather than fight, James escaped to France• The people of England hailed the event as the “Glorious

Revolution of 1688” because not a drop of blood had been shed.

1689 Bill of Rights• William and Mary agreed to Parliaments

Bill of Rights

• This bill guaranteed Parliament the right to approve all taxes and forbade the monarch to suspend the law.

• England thus attained a limited, or constitutional, monarchy.

Tories and Whigs• In ensuing decades, two political

factions crystallized in Parliament: the conservative, aristocratic Tories and the Whigs, drawn largely from Britain’s growing merchant class.– A cabinet of ministers drawn from

Parliament, and eventually unified under the leadership of a prime minister, began to rule the country.

An Agricultural Revolution• By the late 1600s, new farm tools made

it possible for farms to produce much more food.– Population surged upward– Many people left the countryside– Growing towns

• Became factory hands who ran the machines of the early Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Age• British inventions after 1750 made the

spinning and weaving of cloth much more efficient.– The steam engine was perfected and adapted to

run a power loom– Factories were built to produce vast quantities of

cotton cloth– Merchants sold goods all over the world– As late as 1790s: most were still earning a living

as farmers

The Enlightenment• The scientific revolution that made

industry possible stemmed from a larger development in thought known as the Enlightenment.– Through reason and observation of nature,

human beings could discover the order underlying all things

The Enlightenment• Sir Isaac Newton:

study of gravity

The Enlightenment• Men, women, and children toiled at

machines for 12-14 hr/day• Poor people crowded the towns and

cities• By the late 1700s “progress”= misery• Writers and intellectuals began to lose

faith in the ability of human reason to solve every problem

Technology and Society Connections

• Efficiency and agriculture and industry had deep social consequences

• Rich landowners pushed ahead with enclosure, by which they took over and fenced off the common land formerly shared by peasant villagers.

• Farm output rose• Profits rose because

large fields needed fewer people to work them

• Small farmers were forced off their land because they could not compete with large landholders

• The jobless or landless farm workers migrate to the cities.

Literature of the PeriodThe Schools of Jonson

and Donne

17th and 18th Century

Ben Jonson ( 1572-1637)• Strove for the perfection and harmony

he found in his beloved classical authors, turning away from the ornate style of Elizabethan times to create his own modern, strong voice.

• He wrote poems, plays, and masques (court entertainments)

Ben Jonson• Took seriously the role of the poet• He believed, in fact, that no other profession

could compare to it.• Poets, he wrote, encourage “young men to all

good disciplines, inflame grown men to all great virtues and keep old men in their best and supreme state– “A person could not be a good poet without being

a good man,” he asserted

Jonson Influences• His critical opinion exercised a powerful

influence on other poets of the time.– Robert Herrick ( 1591-1674)– Sir John Suckling (1609-1642)– Richard Lovelace (1618-1657)

The Products of Jonson

Robert Herrick

Sir John Suckling

Richard Lovelace

John Donne ( 1572-1631)

John Donne• Pioneered a new, witty, cerebral style

later known as Metaphysical Poetry– Characterized by:

• Unusual degree of intellectualism• Subtle arguments that raid the worlds of

science, law, and philosophy for surprising but strangely accurate comparisons.

Examples of such…• “A Valediction of Weeping”

– Compares his tears, which reflect his lover’s face, to coins that are stamped with her image

• “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”– Compares parted lovers to the two legs of

a drawing compass

Followers of Donne:

• George Herbert ( 1593-1633)• Andrew Marvell ( 1621-1678)

The Followers

• George Herbert– His mother was a friend

of Donne’s– His life parallels Donne’s– Felt tension between

worldly ambition and religious devotion

– Became an Anglican deacon

– Best poems are religious lyrics collected in “The Temple”

• Andrew Marvell– Best lyrics blend the

brilliance of Donne and the classical finish of Jonson

– Offer observations on nature, love, and God that, at first, seem urbane and perhaps conventional, but on closer inspection prove profound.

– His best known poem, “To His Coy Mistress” is one of the best lyrics in English literature.

The Puritan Writers• Perhaps the greatest poet of the 17th

century was a Puritan, not a Cavalier: John Milton

• The Puritan movement also produced the best-selling prose writer of the century, John Bunyan– Only the Bible sold more copies than

Bunyan’s religious narrative, “The Pilgrim’s Progress.”

John Milton ( 1608-1674)• Learned disciple of

Greek and Latin authors

• Studied the Old Testament in Hebrew

Milton• Born to a prosperous

middle-class family• Studied at Cambridge• Wrote political

pamphlets for the Puritan cause when the battle between Charles I and Parliament was in the midst.– Areopagitica ( Milton’s

pamphlet): a ringing call for freedom of the press

• Supported the Commonewealth and Protectorate and defended the execution of Charles I.

• Milton lost hope of forming a just society on earth when Cromwell’s rule turned to dictatorship

Timeline 1625- 1798

British Events/ World Events

British Events/ World Events

• 1627 Sir Francis Bacon publishes The New Atlantis

• 1628 Willam Harvey explains blood circulation

• 1633 John Donne’s Songs and Sonnets published

• 1635 Public mail service established

• 1637 John Milton publishes Lycidas

• 1600 Japan: Kabuki theater developed

• 1614 North America: Dutch found New Amsterdam

Events

British Events/World Events

• 1640 Charles I summons Long Parliament

• 1642 English Civil War begins• 1646 John Suckling publishes

Fragmenta Aurea• 1647 George Fox founds

Society of Friends ( Quakers)• 1649 Charles I beheaded;

Puritans close theaters; Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector

• 1650 Early newspaper ads appear; Full-blown wigs come into fashion

• 1640 India: English settlement established in Madras

• 1640 North America: Bay Psalm Book published in Massachusetts

• 1643 France: Louis XIV becomes king

• 1650 North America: Anne Bradstreet’s collection of poems is published

• 1651 North America: William Bradford finishes Of Plymouth Plantation

Events

British Events/World Events

• 1658 Oliver Cromwell dies; Puritan government collapses

• 1660 Monarchy restored; theaters reopen

• 1666 Great Fire of London• 1667 John Milton’s Paradise

Lost published• 1668 John Dryden publishes

An Essay of Dramatic Poesy

• 1662 France: Louis XIV begins building palace of Versailles

• 1664 North America: Britain seizes New Netherlands

• 1666 Italy: Stradivari labels first violin

Events

British Events/World Events

• 1685 James II becomes king

• 1688 Glorious Revolution

• 1688 Bill of Rights becomes law

• 1702 First daily newspaper begins publication

• 1680 China: All ports open to foreign trade

• 1685 France: Louis XIV revokes Edict of Nantes, provoking persecution of Protestants

• 1690 India: Calcutta founded by British

• 1703 Russia: Peter the Great begins building St. Petersburg

Events

British Events/World Events

• 1712 Alexander Pope published The Rape of Lock

• 1714 George I becomes king• 1719 Daniel Defoe publishes

Robinson Crusoe• 1726 Jonathan Swift

publishes Gulliver’s Travels

• 1751 Thomas Gray publishes “Elegy in a

Country Churchyard”

• 1715 France: Louis XV succeeds to throne

• 1721 Germany: Bach composes Brandenburg Concertos

• 1727 Brazil: First coffee planted

• 1752 North America: Benjamin Franklin invents lighting rod

Events

British Events/World Events

• 1755 Samuel Jonson publishes Dictionary of the English Language

• 1756 Britain enters Seven Years’ War

• 1793 England goes to war with France

• 1773 North America: Boston Tea Party

• 1775 North America: American Revolution begins

• 1784 France: first school established for the blind

• 1789 France: Revolution begins with storming of the Bastille

Events

Milton• Went blind in 1652 as a

result of his labors• Composed an epic that

would explain why God allows suffering in this world: The epic, Paradise Lost, reflects Milton’s humanistic love of poetry and his Puritan devotion to God.