1. The 17th century Literature Historical Background.

The early seventeenth century extends from the accession of James I in 1603 to the coronation of Charles II in 1660. But the events that occurred between these boundaries make much more sense if they are seen in a larger pattern extending from 1588 to 1688. Between these two dates massive political and social events took place that bridge the gap between the Tudor tyranny by consent of the sixteenth century and the equally illdefined but equally functional constitutional monarchy of the eighteenth century. A sense of deep disquiet, of traditions under challenge, is felt everywhere in the literary culture of the early 17th century. Long before the term was applied to our own time, the era of Donne and Robert Burton deserved to be called the Age of Anxiety. One may think of the Metaphysical poets who followed Donne (such as Herbert, Crashaw, Vaugham, and Cowley) as trying to reinforce the traditional lyric forms of love and devotion by stretching them to comprehend new and extreme intellectual energies. In the other direction, Jonson and his sons the so-called Cavalier poets (such as Herrick, Suckling, Lovelace, Waller, and Denham) generally tried to compress and limit their poems, giving them a high polish and a sense of easy domination at the expense of their intellectual content. The common contrast of Cavalier with Metaphysical does describe two poetic alternatives of the early century. Yet both style were wholly inadequate containers for the sort of gigantic energy that Milton was trying to express. At the heart of the century of rapid change lies the Puritan Revolt of 1640-60. The century together with the English Revolution was a time of intense ferment in all areas of life religion, science, politics, domestic relations, culture. That ferment was reflected in the literature of the era, which also registered a heightened focus on and analysis of the self and the personal life. However, little of this seems in evidence in the elaborate frontispiece to Michael Drayton's long "chorographical" poem on the landscape, regions, and local history of Great Britain (1612), which appeared in the first years of the reign of the Stuart king James I (1603-1625). The great seventeenth-century heroic poem, Paradise Lost, treats the Fall of Man and its tragic consequences. The first issue: provides important religious, legal, and domestic advice texts through which to explore cultural assumptions about gender roles and the patriarchal family. The second topic for this period, surrounds that radically revisionist epic with texts that invite readers to examine how it engages with the interpretative traditions surrounding the Genesis story, how it uses classical myth, how it challenges orthodox notions of Edenic innocence, and how it is positioned within. The third topic provides an opportunity to explore, through political and polemical treatises and striking images, some of the issues and conflicts that led to civil war and the overthrow of monarchical government. These include royal absolutism vs. parliamentary, monarchy vs. republicanism, Puritanism vs. Anglicanism, toleration vs. religious uniformity.
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2.

The 17th century literature metaphysical Poetry.

Highly intellectualized poetry written chiefly in 17th-century England. Less concerned with expressing feeling than with analyzing it, Metaphysical poetry is marked by bold and ingenious conceits, complex and subtle thought, frequent use of paradox, and a dramatic directness of language, the rhythm of which derives from living speech. John Donne was the leading Metaphysical poet; others include George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, Andrew Marvell, and Abraham Cowley. The name is given to a diverse group of 17th century English poets whose work is notable for the use of intellectual and theological concepts in surprising conceits, strange paradoxes, and far-fetched imagery. Metaphysics refers to the philosophy of knowledge and existence. Their style was characterized by wit and metaphysical conceitsfar-fetched or unusual similes or metaphors, such as in Andrew Marvells comparison of the soul with a drop of dew; in an expanded epigram format, with the use of simple verse forms, octosyllabic couplets, quatrains or stanzas in which length of line and rhyme scheme enforce the sense. The specific definition of wit which Johnson applied to the school was: "...a kind of discordia concors; a combination of dissimilar images, or discovery of occult resemblances in things apparently unlike." Their poetry diverged from the style of their times, containing neither images of nature nor allusions to classical mythology, as were common. Several metaphysical poets, especially John Donne, were influenced by Neo-Platonism. One of the primary Platonic concepts found in metaphysical poetry is the idea that the perfection of beauty in the beloved acted as a remembrance of perfect beauty in the eternal realm. Though secular topics such as scientific or geographical discoveries interested them, there was also a religious or casuistic element to some of their work, by which they attempted to define their relationship with God. The term was created by Samuel Johnson.
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3. Metaphysical poets. John Donne (1573-1631). His life and poetry.

John Donne was an English poet, satirist, lawyer and a cleric in the Church of England. He is considered the pre-eminent representative of the metaphysical poets. His works are noted for their strong, sensual style and include sonnets, love poetry, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satires and sermons. His poetry is noted for its vibrancy of language and inventiveness of metaphor. Donne's style is characterised by abrupt openings and various paradoxes, ironies and dislocations. His early career was marked by poetry that bore immense knowledge of British society and he met that knowledge with sharp criticism. Another important theme in Donnes poetry is the idea of true religion, something that he spent much time considering and theorising about. He wrote secular poems as well as erotic and love poems. He is particularly famous for his mastery of metaphysical conceits. Donne lived in poverty for several years, relying heavily on wealthy friends. He spent much of the money he inherited during and after his education on womanising, literature, pastimes, and travel. In 1601, Donne secretly married Anne More, with whom he had twelve children. In 1615, he became an Anglican priest. In 1621, he was appointed the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London. He also served as a member of parliament in 1601 and in 1614. Donne was elected as Member of Parliament for the constituency of Brackley in 1602, but this was not a paid position. many of his poems were written for wealthy friends or patrons, especially Sir Robert Drury, who came to be Donne's chief patron in 1610. Donne wrote the two Anniversaries, An Anatomy of the World (1611) and Of the Progress of the Soul (1612) for Drury. In 1610 and 1611 he wrote two antiCatholic polemics: Pseudo-Martyr and Ignatius his Conclave. Although James was pleased with Donne's work, he refused to reinstate him at court. Donne was awarded an honorary doctorate in divinity from Cambridge in 1615 and became a Royal Chaplain in the same year, and was made a Reader of Divinity at Lincoln's Inn in 1616. In 1618 he became chaplain to Viscount Doncaster. In late November and early December 1623 he suffered a nearly fatal illness, thought to be either typhus or a combination of a cold followed by a period of fever. During his convalescence he wrote a series of meditations and prayers on health, pain, and sickness that were published as a book in 1624 under the title of Devotions upon Emergent Occasions. One of these meditations, Meditation XVII, later became well known for its phrase "for whom the bell tolls" and the statement that "no man is an island". In 1624 he became vicar of St Dunstan-in-theWest, and 1625 a prolocutor to Charles I. He earned a reputation as an eloquent preacher and 160 of his sermons have survived, including the famous Deaths Duel sermon delivered at the Palace of Whitehall before King Charles I in February 1631. His work has received much criticism over the years, especially concerning his metaphysical form. Donne is generally considered the most prominent member of the Metaphysical poets.
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4. Metaphysical poets. Ben Jonson. His life and poetry. Song To Celia.
Ben Jonson was born in 1572. He was educated at Westminster School and worked in his stepfather's trade. He joined the army, serving in Flanders. He returned to England in 1592 and married Anne Lewis. Jonson joined the theatrical company of Philip Henslowe in London as an actor. In 1597 he was imprisoned for his involvement in a satire entitled The Isle of Dogs. Jonson's second known play, Every Man in His Humour, was performed in 1598 and bring fame to Jonson. Jonson became a celebrity, and there was a brief fashion for 'humours' comedy, a kind of topical comedy involving eccentric characters, each of whom represented a humour of humanity. Every Man Out of His Humour and Cynthia's Revels were satirical comedies displaying Jonson's classical learning and his interest in formal experiment. Jonson's classical tragedy Sejanus, His Fall based on Roman history and offering an astute view of dictatorship, again got Jonson into trouble with the authorities. Jonson was called before the Privy Council on charges of 'popery and treason'. In 1605, Jonson began to write masques for the entertainment of the court. The masques displayed his erudition, wit, and versatility and contained some of his best lyric poetry. Masque of Blacknesse (1605) was the first in a series of collaborations with Inigo Jones. This collaboration produced masques such as The Masque of Owles, Masque of Beauty (1608), and Masque of Queens (1609), which were performed in Inigo Jones' elaborate and exotic settings. The collaboration with Jones was finally destroyed by intense personal rivalry. The first comedies, Volpone is often regarded as his masterpiece. The following plays, Epicoene: or, The Silent Woman, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair are all peopled with dupes and those who deceive them. He was appointed as poet laureate and rewarded a substantial pension in 1616. Jonson was appointed City Chronologer of London in 1628, the same year in which he suffered a severe stroke. Jonson died in 1637 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Song: to Celia is an epigram that praises love. Jonson starts of his poem completely ridiculing love. This is seen noticed in the lines, Suns that set may rise again, for example because it mocks the fact that their love will be so powerful that it will make the sun rise again once it has already set. At this point, the poem begins to sound a lot like Andrew Marvels To His Coy Mistress not only because it ridicules love. Toward the end of the poem when Jonson talks about his love for Celia, the theme is immediately noticed. The theme, eternal love, can been noticed in lines Tis no sin loves fruit to steal;/But the sweet theft to reveal:. With these lines Jonson uses personification to talk about staling time, and how they should not focus on the fact that time is passing and they are growing old and just focus on the love they have for each other. He starts talking about how they should forget about the fact that they are growing older, and just focus on loving each other. Once this is read, the reader can automatically recognize the change in tone that has also occurred. The tone on the poem changed from ridiculing at the beginning to praising towards to end. This proves that the poem had a round tone.

5. Metaphysical poets. Andrew Marvell (1621-1678). His life and poetry.

Andrew Marvell was born in 1621. Marvell became lecturer in Holy Trinity Church. He was educated at the Hull Grammar School, and in 1633 he matriculated as a Sizar of Trinity College, Cambridge. Two poems by Marvell, one in Greek, one in Latin, were printed in the Musa Cantabrigiensis in 1637. In 1638 Marvell was admitted a Scholar of Trinity College, and took his B.A. degree in the same year. He travelled abroad in France, Holland, Switzerland, Spain, and Italy from 1642-46. In 1650, Marvell became the tutor of twelve-year-old Mary Fairfax (later Duchess of Buckingham), daughter of Sir Thomas Fairfax. At the Yorkshire seat of the Fairfax family Marvell seems to have written, over a period of about three years, most of his non-satiric English poems. The sojourn provided material for Marvell's most profound poem, "Upon Appleton House," a poem crucial to his development both as man and as poet. Here he examines the competing claims of public service and the search for personal insight. To the same period probably belong Marvell's "To his Coy Mistress" and "The Definition of Love." Marvell had befriended John Milton by 1653, when Milton wrote a glowing recommendation for Marvell for the post of Assistant Latin Secretary to the Council of State, a post he eventually secured in 1657. Marvell, who had been a supporter of the King, under the Commonwealth, became an adherent of Cromwell. In September, 1657, Marvell was appointed assistant to John Milton. During his last twenty years of life, Marvell was engaged in political activities, taking part in embassies to Holland and Russia and writing political pamphlets and satires. Marvell's Miscellaneous Poems were printed posthumously in 1681. Marvell died on 16 August, 1678 of tertian ague, and the malpractice of the attending physician. He was buried in the church of St. Giles-in-theFields.
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6. Cavalier Poetry. Robert Herrick (1591-1674). To the Virgins to Make Much of Time.

Robert Herrick was born in Cheapsidein 1591, the seventh child of Nicholas Herrick, a prosperous goldsmith. There is no record of Herrick attending school, although it is possible he attended Westminster School. In 1607 he became apprenticed to his uncle Sir William Herrick as a goldsmith. Herrick entered St. John's College, Cambridge in 1613, graduated a Bachelor of Arts in 1617, and Master of Arts in 1620. He became the eldest of the "Sons of Ben", Cavalier poets who idolized Ben Jonson, mixing in literary circles in London. He lived in Devon in the seclusion of country life, and wrote some of his best work, never completely ceasing. In Herricks To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time, it seems the speaker is a man who is simply trying to urge the virgins to be more promiscuous. However, while the title of the poem and the use of the word coy allude to the fact that sexual pleasure is key, the rosebuds are symbolic of pleasures of all types. Herrick uses figurative language to appeal to the reader and of course, his audience, the women he speaks of. When he writes this same flower that smiles today, tomorrow will be dying, he is not speaking of an ordinary flower. He is referring to the virgins, who are young and warm-blooded, now, but with time, will age and ultimately, die. The women are being likened to blooming flowers that are full of beauty in one season of life and then, wither away and are gone the next. With a beautiful metaphor, the sun is compared to the glorious lamp of heaven and the sun is referred to as he. The Sun given human characteristics and is personified as a race-runner who will soon finish his race. The sun will set and the day will be over. Today, as Herrick uses it in the first stanza seems to refer to ones life. With life being so short, the poem urges the reader, and specifically, the virgins, as the targeted audience, to make the most of time, just as the title suggests. Herrick has an uplifting tone in this poem. There is internal rhyme through Herricks poem, strengthening its structure and encouraging a light, lyrical nature, making it read like a song. His tone is also persuasive, as the speaker is urging the virgins, or maidens, to make the most of their lives. He urges the virgins to be not coy and to go marry, making sexual pleasure an important rosebud to gather, but in saying gather ye rosebuds while ye may, he makes the pleasures plural and not singular. He urges the women to enjoy life to its fullest and to experience as many pleasures as possible before life runs away with itself. The last stanza warns that if the virgins are coy and wait too long to marry, having lost their appealing youth and beauty, they may remain alone forever. In doing so, they would neglect to gather a very desirable rosebud, or pleasure that life stands to offer. This poem has been called a carpe-diem poem, which means seize the day in Latin and Herricks counterparts also wrote English poetry of this type in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. In 1648 Herrick published his major collection, Hesperides, consisting of 1200 poems.
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7. Cavalier Poetry. Richard Lovelace.

Cavalier Poetry is an early seventeenth century movement centred mainly on Robert Herrick, Thomas Carew, John Suckling, Richard Lovelace, and Henry Vaughn. Most of these poets were admirers of Ben Jonson. Cavalier Poetry gets its name from the supporters of King Charles I in the seventeenth century who was at that period called the Cavaliers; they were royalists during the Civil Wars. Cavalier Poetry is different from metaphysical poetry since it does not use complicated metaphors and unrealistic imagery, but prefers a rather straightforward expression. This poetry was erotic and its strength lied in its shortness. Simply, it did not confuse readers with deep meaning and allegory but reflected every thought as they were supposed to be understood along with their motto "Carpe Diem" meaning "seize the day". The most common characteristic of Cavalier Poetry is its use of direct language which expresses a highly individualistic personality. In more detail, the Cavaliers, accept the ideal of the Renaissance Gentleman who is at once a lover, a soldier, witty, a man of affairs, a musician, and a poet, but abandon the notion of his being also a pattern of Christian chivalry. They avoid the subject of religion, apart from making one or two graceful speeches. They attempt no plumbing of the depths of the soul. They treat life cavalierly, indeed, and sometimes they treat poetic convention cavalierly too. For them life is far too enjoyable for much of it to be spent reading verses in a study. The poems must be written in the intervals of living, and must reflect things that are much livelier and enjoyable than mere philosophy or art. The Cavaliers made one great contribution to the English Lyrical Tradition. Richard Lovelace was born into an old and wealthy Kentish family in 1618 in Woolwich. He was educated at Charterhouse School and at Gloucester Hall, Oxford. He was attractive, handsome, and witty, the very model of a courtier. His comedy, The Scholar, was acted at Oxford in 1636. King Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria admired his demeanor so much when they visited Oxford.Lovelace took part in the King's military expeditions to Scotland in 1639-40. After the failure of the campaign he withdrew to his estates in Kent where he remained until 1642. Presumably, Lovelace made Sir John Suckling's acquaintance at this time. In 1642, Lovelace presented a Royalist petition to Parliament favoring the restoration of the Anglican bishops who had been excluded from the Long Parliament. He thus aligned himself with such royalist upstarts as Sir Edmund Dering. Lovelace was imprisoned in Westminster Gatehouse from April 30 to June 21, 1642. While in prison, Lovelace wrote "To Althea. From Prison" which includes the famous words: "Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage." Following his release, Lovelace lived briefly in London, after which he removed himself to the Low Countries and France until after King Charles' capture at Oxford in 1646. Lovelace left the field when he was wounded at the battle of Dunkirk. He was committed by Parliament to Peterhouse Prison, Aldersgate in October 1648, probably for his connection with some disturbances in Kent. Released from prison in April 1649, Lovelace published Lucasta. The Lucasta of the poems was Lucy Sacherevell, whom Lovelace liked to call Lux casta. Upon hearing that Lovelace had died of the wounds he received at Dunkirk, she married another. Financially ruined by his support of the royalist cause, Lovelace lived on charity and died in poverty in 1658. He was buried at St. Bride's, one of the churches that burnt down in the Great Fire of London in 1666. Lucasta: Posthume Poems was published the year after Lovelace's death.
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8. Cavalier Poetry. Sir John Suckling (1609-1642). His life and poetry.

Sir John Suckling was born at Whitton in 1609. Suckling matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1623 but left without taking a degree in 1626. Suckling inherited extensive estates on his father's death in 1626, and was admitted to Gray's Inn in 1627. Just eighteen years old, he pursued a military and ambassadorial career in the Low Countries, and joined the English soldiers serving in the army of Gustavus Adolphus during the Thirty Years' War. Suckling was knighted in September 1630. He returned to the English court in May, 1632, where he became very popular through his wealth and charm. He was known as a gamester, and is credited with having invented the game of cribbage. In 1637, Suckling wrote the prose work Account of Religion by Reason. His play, Aglaura, was published in 1638 and performed twice for Charles I. The play had two different endings, one tragic and one happy. It was not a critical success, but it introduced the wonderful lyric poem "Why so pale and wan, fond lover?" In the same year, Suckling's comedy The Goblins was published. It was much influenced by Shakespeare's The Tempest and is generally thought to be Suckling's best. In 1639, Suckling recruited and equipped cavalry to help King Charles I in his first Scottish war. He was ridiculed in London for the troops' scarlet uniforms and plumed hats, but he was well-favored by the King. In 1640, Suckling sat in Parliament for Bramber and took part in an unsuccessful action against the Scots. In May, 1641, Suckling took an active part in the royalist plot to rescue Strafford from the Tower. When Parliament ordered him to account for his movements, Suckling fled through Dieppe to Paris. He died in Paris in 1642, either from suicide by poison, or by the hand of a servant who placed a razor in his boot. Most of Suckling's work first appeared posthumously in Fragmenta Aurea of 1646. Suckling's treated poetry casually, as a pastime, never committing himself to serious study of literature, and as a result, his poetry suffers from irregularity. Suckling never attached himself to any school of poetry in particular. Suckling wrote disparagingly of Jonson both in the Sessions of the Poets and the unfinished drama, The Sad One. He was more inclined in the direction of Donne's style, with its elaborate metaphors and explosive passion. Suckling's poetry lacks the depth of feeling; he seems to have prided himself on its absence. In poems like Ballad upon a Wedding and 'Love, Reason, Hate,' Suckling approaches Herrick.
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9. John Milton (1608-1674). His life and work. Paradise Lost. John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell. He wrote at a time of religious flux and political upheaval, and is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost. Milton's poetry and prose reflect deep personal convictions, a passion for freedom and self-determination, and the urgent issues and political turbulence of his day. Writing in English, Latin, and Italian, he achieved international renown within his lifetime, and his celebrated Areopagitica is among history's most influential and impassioned defenses of free speech and freedom of the press. He also was named "Milton the Divorcer" after he published the Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce. Paradise Lost was published in 1667, in ten books. It is about Adam and Evehow they came to be created and how they came to lose their place in the Garden of Eden, also called Paradise. It's the same story you find in the first pages of Genesis, expanded by Milton into a very long, detailed, narrative poem. It also includes the story of the origin of Satan. Originally, he was called Lucifer, an angel in heaven who led his followers in a war against God, and was ultimately sent with them to hell. Thirst for revenge led him to cause man's downfall by turning into a serpent and tempting Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. The story opens in hell, where Satan and his followers are recovering from defeat in a war they waged against God. They build a palace, called Pandemonium, where they hold council to determine whether or not to return to battle. Instead they decide to explore a new world prophecied to be created, where a safer course of revenge can be planned. Satan undertakes the mission alone. At the gate of hell, he meets his offspring, Sin and Death, who unbar the gates for him. He journeys across chaos till he sees the new universe floating near the larger globe which is heaven. God sees Satan flying towards this world and foretells the fall of man. His Son, who sits at his right hand, offers to sacrifice himself for man's salvation. Meanwhile, Satan enters the new universe. He flies to the sun, where he tricks an angel, Uriel, into showing him the way to man's home. Satan gains entrance into the Garden of Eden, where he finds Adam and Eve and becomes jealous of them. He overhears them speak of God's commandment that they should not eat the forbidden fruit. Uriel warns Gabriel and his angels, who are guarding the gate of Paradise, of Satan's presence. Satan is apprehended by them and banished from Eden. God sends Raphael to warn Adam and Eve about Satan. Raphael recounts to them how jealousy against the Son of God led a once favored angel to wage war against God in heaven, and how the Son, Messiah, cast him and his followers into hell. He relates how the world was created so mankind could one day replace the fallen angels in heaven. Satan returns to earth, and enters a serpent. Finding Eve alone he induces her to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree. Adam, resigned to join in her fate, eats also. Their innocence is lost and they become aware of their nakedness. In shame and despair, they become hostile to each other. The Son of God descends to earth to judge the sinners, mercifully delaying their sentence of death. Sin and Death, sensing Satan's success, build a highway to earth, their new home. Upon his return to hell, instead of a celebration of victory, Satan and his crew are turned into serpents as punishment. Adam reconciles with Eve. God sends Michael to expel the pair from Paradise, but first to reveal to Adam future events resulting from his sin. Adam is saddened by these visions, but ultimately revived by revelations of the future coming of the Savior of mankind. In sadness, mitigated with hope, Adam and Eve are sent away from the Garden of Paradise.

10. The 17th century Prose. John Bunyan (1628-1688). The Pilgrims Progresse.

John Bunyan was an English Christian writer and preacher, who is well known for his book The Pilgrim's Progress. Though he became a non-conformist and member of an Independent church, and although he has been described both as a Baptist and as a Congregationalist, he himself preferred to be described simply as a Christian. He is remembered in the Church of England with a Lesser Festival on August 30, and on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church on August 29. Some other Churches of the Anglican Communion, such as the Anglican Church of Australia, honour him on the day of his death (August 31) together with St Aidan of Lindisfarne. The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come is a Christian allegory which was published in February, 1678. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of religious English literature, has been translated into more than 200 languages, and has never been out of print. The English text comprises 108,260 words and is divided into two parts, each reading as a continuous narrative with no chapter divisions. The first part was completed in 1677. The Second Part appeared in 1684. The Pilgrims Progress" is a religious allegory. It tells, of the spiritual pilgrimage of Christian, who flies from the City of Destruction, meets with the perils and temptations of the Slough of Despond, Vanity Fair, Christian and Hopeful in the Dungeon and Doubting Castle, faces and overcomes the demon Appollyon, and finally comes to the Delectable Mountains and the Celestial City. Though an allegory, its characters impress the reader like real persons. The places that Bunyan paints in words are English scenes, and the conversations which enliven his narratives vividly repeat the language of his time. Bunyan describes, in the peoples homely yet powerful language, the spiritual sufferances of the poor People at a time of great changes, and their aspiration for " the land that floweth with milk and honey, where "they have no want of corn and wine." In reality, the Celestial City in "The Pilgrims Progress" is the vision of an ideal happy society dreamed by a poor tinker in the 17th century, through a veil of religious mist. Christian and Faithful come to Vanity Fair. As they refuse to buy anything but Truth, they are beaten and put in a cage, and then taken out and led in chains up and down the fair and at length brought before a court. Judge Hate-good summons three witnesses: Envy, Superstition and Pick-thank (i.e. tale-bearer), who testify against him. The case is given to the jury, composed of Mr. Badman, Mr. No-good, Mr. Malice, etc. Each gives a verdict against Faithful, who is presently condemned. " Pilgrims Progress" had won immediate success among the bakers, weavers, cobblers, tailors, tinkers, shepherds, ploughmen, dairy--maids, seamstresses and servant-girls of his time, and has become one of the most popular works in the English language. Bunyans prose is admirable. It is popular speech ennobled by the solemn dignity and simplicity of the language of the English Bible.
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11. Enlightenment. Historical Background.

The Enlightenment or The Age of Reason is the period in the history of western thought and culture. This period was from the second half of 17 c/y and whole 18 c/y, it was characterized by dramatic revolutions in science, philosophy, society and politics. Enlightenment thought culminates historically in the political upheaval of the French Revolution, in which the traditional hierarchical political and social orders were violently destroyed and replaced by a political and social order informed by the Enlightenment ideals of freedom and equality for all, founded, ostensibly, upon principles of human reason. The Enlightenment begins with the scientific revolution of the 16th and 17th c/ies, that had provided a new model for how problems could be solved through rational thought and experimentation, rather than on the authority of religion or the ancients. The rise of the new science progressively undermines not only the ancient geocentric conception of the cosmos. The dramatic success of the new science in explaining the natural world, in accounting for a wide variety of phenomena by appeal to a relatively small number of elegant mathematical formulae, promotes philosophy from a handmaiden of theology, constrained by its purposes and methods, to an independent force with the power and authority to challenge the old and construct the new, in the realms both of theory and practice, on the basis of its own principles. The writers and philosophers started a public movement for enlightening the people. In England, the contact between writer and democratic reader was established by Addison and Steele, the famous English essayists who started and directed several magazines such as The Tattler, The Guardian and The Englishman. Periodical newspapers helped to spread information among the general public. The copies of current newspapers were kept in the coffee-houses. These coffee-houses become centers of political and literary discussion. Each rank and profession, shade of religious and political opinion had its own coffee-house. The features of the enlightenment are: 1. the rise of the political pamphlet and essay, the leading genre of the enlightenment became the novel. 2. the hero of the novel was a representative of the middle class 3.literature became very instructive, problems of good and evil were set forth. The periods of the enlightenment: 1. from the Glorious Revolution till 1730. Is characterized by classicism in poetry. The greatest follower of the classic style was Alexander Pope. Here also appeared new prose literature: the essays of Steele and Addison and the first realistic novels written by Defoe and Swift. Most of writers wrote political pamphlets. 2. from 1740-1760. It was the most mature period. The development of the realistic social novel represented by Richardson, Fielding and Smollett. 3. the last decades of the 18 c/y is marked by the appearance of Sentimentalism. This period also saw the rise of the realistic drama and the revival of poetry.
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12. Daniel Defoe (1661-1731). Robinson Crusoe.

Daniel Defoe (ca. 1660 24 April 1731), born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, pamphleteer and spy, who gained fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularize the form in Britain, and, along with others such as Samuel Richardson, is among the founders of the English novel. A prolific and versatile writer, he wrote more than 500 books, pamphlets and journals on various topics (including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology and the supernatural). He was also a pioneer of economic journalism. Daniel Foe (his original name) was probably born in the parish of St. Giles Cripplegate, London. Defoe later added the aristocratic-sounding "De" to his name and on occasion claimed descent from the family of De Beau Faux. His parents were Presbyterian dissenters; he was educated in a dissenting academy at Newington Green run by Charles Morton and is believed to have attended the church there. During this period, England was not tolerant of all forms of religious belief. Roman Catholics were feared and hated. Dissenters refused to conform to the services of the Church of England; they were despised and oppressed. Robinson Crusoe is a very long book, but the novel can, more or less, be broken down into three major movements. Part I: Before the Island: Before landing on the island, Crusoe's father wants him to be a good, middle-class guy. Crusoe, who wants nothing more than to travel around in a ship, is definitely not into this idea. He struggles against the authority of both his father and God and decides to thumb his nose at both by going adventuring on the sea instead. After sailing around for a while, he makes a bit of money in trade, but then is captured and made into a slave off the coast of Africa. Here he befriends a young man named Xury, with whom he escapes from captivity. Picked up by a Portuguese sailing captain, Crusoe makes it to Brazil where he buys a sugar plantation. He does fairly well financially, but soon becomes involved in a venture to procure slaves from Africa. On the voyage there he gets shipwrecked and is left as the only survivor on a deserted island. Part II: Life on the Island: This portion of the novel is dedicated to Crusoe's time alone on the island. He builds three main structures: his initial shelter, his country home on the opposite side of the island, and his guns and ammo fort in the woods. He spends his time planting corn, barley, and rice. He learns to make bread. He builds furniture, weaves baskets, and makes pots. Crusoe also raises goats and tends to his little animal family of cats, dogs, and a parrot. Most importantly, though, Crusoe becomes stronger in his religious faith, eventually submitting to the authority of God. He devotes himself to much religious reflection and prayer. Part III: Escape from the Island: In final section of the book, Crusoe sees a footprint on the shore one day and learns that he's actually not alone on the island. There are also (gasp!) cannibals. Crusoe struggles with the question of whether or not he should take revenge on them. Eventually, he meets with Friday, a native man whom he is able to rescue from the cannibals. Crusoe teaches Friday English and converts him to Christianity. The two become like father and son (more or less). Friday and Crusoe also rescue a Spaniard and Friday's father from a different group of cannibals. Eventually, an English longboat full of sailors lands on the island. Crusoe learns that the men have mutinied against their captain. After Crusoe helps restore order to the ship, the men and captain pledge allegiance to Crusoe and agree to take him home. Crusoe then returns to Europe with Friday, where he comes into a great deal of money from his sugar plantations. Crusoe gets married and eventually revisits the island in his late years. The novel ends with promise of more adventures for him in the sequel.

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13. Jonathan Swift (1667-1745). Gullivers Travels.

Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet and cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. He is remembered for works such as Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella, Drapier's Letters, The Battle of the Books, An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity, and A Tale of a Tub. Swift is probably the foremost prose satirist in the English language, and is less well known for his poetry. Swift originally published all of his works under pseudonyms such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, MB Drapier or anonymously. He is also known for being a master of two styles of satire: the Horatian and Juvenalian styles. Gulliver's Travels, a large portion of which Swift wrote at Woodbrook House in County Laois, was published in 1726. It is regarded as his masterpiece. Gulliver goes on four separate voyages in Gulliver's Travels. Each journey is preceded by a storm. All four voyages bring new perspectives to Gulliver's life and new opportunities for satirizing the ways of England. The first voyage is to Lilliput, where Gulliver is huge and the Lilliputians are small. At first the Lilliputians seem amiable, but the reader soon sees them for the ridiculous and petty creatures they are. Gulliver is convicted of treason for "making water" in the capital - among other "crimes." The second voyage is to Brobdingnag, a land of Giants where Gulliver seems as small as the Lilliputians were to him. Gulliver is afraid, but his keepers are surprisingly gentle. He is humiliated by the King when he is made to see the difference between how England is and how it ought to be. Gulliver realizes how revolting he must have seemed to the Lilliputians. Gulliver's third voyage is to Laputa. In a visit to the island of Glubdugdribb, Gulliver is able to call up the dead and discovers the deceptions of history. In Laputa, the people are over-thinkers and are ridiculous in other ways. Also, he meets the Stuldbrugs, a race endowed with immortality. Gulliver discovers that they are miserable. His fourth voyage is to the land of the Houyhnhnms, who are horses endowed with reason. Their rational, clean, and simple society is contrasted with the filthiness and brutality of the Yahoos, beasts in human shape. Gulliver reluctantly comes to recognize their human vices. Gulliver stays with the Houyhnhnms for several years, becoming completely enamored with them to the point that he never wants to leave. When he is told that the time has come for him to leave the island, Gulliver faints from grief. Upon returning to England, Gulliver feels disgusted about other humans, including his own family. Gulliver's Travels is an anatomy of human nature, a sardonic looking-glass, often criticized for its apparent misanthropy. It asks its readers to refute it, to deny that it has adequately characterized human nature and society. Each of the four booksrecounting four voyages to mostly-fictional exotic landshas a different theme, but all are attempts to deflate human pride. Critics hail the work as a satiric reflection on the shortcomings of Enlightenment thought.

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14. The Development of the English Realistic Novel.

The foundations of early bourgeois realism were laid by Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift, but their novels, though of a new type and with a new hero, were based on imaginary voyages and adventures supposed to take place far from England. Gradually the readers tastes changed. They wanted to find more and more of their own life reflected in literature, their everyday life of a bourgeois family with its joys and sorrows. These demands were satisfied when the great novels of Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, Tobias Smollet appeared one after another. The greatest merit of these novelists lies in their deep sympathy for the common man, the man in the street, who had become the central figure of the new bourgeois world. The common man is shown in his actual surroundings, which makes him so convincing, believable, and true to life. The optimism felt in literature during the first half of the 18th century' gave way to a certain depression as years went by. Towards the middle of the century a new trend, that of Sentimentalism, appeared. The first representative of the sentimental school in English literature was Samuel Richardson. His novels "Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded" (1740), "Clarissa" (1748), and "The History of Sir Charles Grandison" (1754) are works in which the inner world of the characters is shown. Richardson glorifies middle-class virtues as opposed to the immorality of the aristocracy. He makes his readers sympathize with his heroes. These novels were very much admired in the 18th and 19th centuries. They were well-known in Russia Much in the works of the novelists of the time does not appeal to readers today; but the novels of these writers are full of humour and truthful descriptions of men and things, and will always be read. Sentimentalists were influenced by the French writer Rousseau, they thought that civilization was harmful to humanity. They believed that man should live close to nature and be free from the corrupting influence of town life. In Oliver Goldsmith's novel "The Vicar of Wakefield" (1766) and Laurence Sterne's "Sentimental Journey", as well as in other novels of the time, the corruption of town life is contrasted to the happy patriarchal life in the country. Oliver Goldsmith was also a poet His famous poem "The Deserted Village" shows England at the time of the expropriation of the peasants.
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15. Henry Fielding (1707-1754). His life and work. Tom Jones.
Henry Fielding, the greatest representative of bourgeois realism in the 18th century, was a descendant of an ancient, aristocratic family. He studied at the old-established boys' school of Eton. At the age of twenty he started writing for the stage, and his first play "Love in Several Masques" was a great success with the public. The same year he entered the philological faculty of the University at Leyden, but in less than two years he had to drop his studies because he was unable to pay his fees. From 1728 till 1738, twenty-five plays were written by Fielding. In his best comedies: "A Judge Caught in His Own Trap"(173O), "Don Quixote in England" (1734), and 'Pasquin" (1736). He mercilessly exposed the English court of law, the parliamentary system, the corruption of state officials. As a result of the popular success of Fielding's comedies, strict censorship was introduced, which put an end to Fielding's career as a dramatist. He was obliged to think how to earn his living. He tried his pen as a novelist; besides, at the age of thirty he became a student of a University law faculty. On graduating, he became a barrister and in 1748 accepted the post of magistrate. This work enlarged his experience, helped him to acquire a better understanding of human nature and greatly increased his hatred of social injustice. Being unable to do away with social evils, he exposed them in his books. In the period from 1742 to 1752 Fielding wrote his best novels: "Joseph Andrews" (1742) "The Life of Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great" (1743), "The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749), "Amelia" (1752). All these novels, excellent as they were, didn't make him rich: only his publishers prospered Fielding continued to act as a judge till the year 1754, when he had to leave England for Portugal to restore his health, which had begun to fail. But the warm climate of the country did not help him, he died in Lisbon in October, 1754 and was buried there. Fielding possessed qualities rarely found together: a rich imaginations great critical power, a keen knowledge of the human heart. He used to say that the three essential qualities in a novelist are genius, learning and experience of human nature. The qualities of candour and sincerity are especially apparent in Fielding's works. His characters are living beings of flesh and blood, a combination of contradictions of good and bad He appreciates such virtues as courage, frankness and generosity. The most detestable vices for him are selfishness and hypocrisy He can forgive frivolity and lightmindedness, but he has no pity for actions which arise from calculating or conventional motives. All this found the expression in Fielding's masterpiece "Tom Jones". The novel consists of 18 books, each beginning with an introductory chapter where the author discourses with the reader, m a free and easy manner, on certain-moral and psychological themes. The plot of the novel is very complicated, its construction is carefully worked out every detail is significant. Depicting England of the 18th century, Fielding touches upon all spheres of life. We are shown the courts of law, the prison, the church, the homes of people of all classes, inns and highways, even the theatre. Many people of different social ranks and professions are introduced. The charm of the book lies in the depiction of Tom's character. He is human in the everyday sense of the word, neither idealized nor ridiculed and at the same time full-blooded. His open, generous and passionate nature leads him into a lone series of adventures. Tom acts on impulse, sometimes well and sometimes ill, but never from interested motives. He is light- minded and naive, but kind, honest and unselfish, always ready to help anyone who needs his assistance. Heaps of misfortunes happen to him, he makes fault after fault, because he falls a victim of prejudice. His intentions are noble and good, he is simple-hearted, and it is often coupled with bad luck, he is accused of vices he is not guilty of.
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16. Samuel Richardson (1689-1796). Clarissa Harlowe.

Samuel Richardson was an 18th-century English writer and printer. He is best known for his three epistolary novels: Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded (1740), Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady (1748) and The History of Sir Charles Grandison (1753). Richardson was an established printer and publisher for most of his life and printed almost 500 different works, with journals and magazines. Richardson lost his first wife along with their five sons, and eventually remarried. Although with his second wife he had four daughters who lived to become adults, they had no male heir to continue running the printing business. While his print shop slowly ran down, at the age of 51 he wrote his first novel and immediately became one of the most popular and admired writers of his time. He knew leading figures in 18th century England, including Samuel Johnson and Sarah Fielding. In the London literary world, he was a rival of Henry Fielding, and the two responded to each other's literary styles in their own novels. His name was on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, a list established by the pope containing the names of books that Catholics were not allowed to read. Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady is an epistolary novel by Samuel Richardson, published in 1748. It tells the tragic story of a heroine whose quest for virtue is continually thwarted by her family, and is one of the longest novels in the English language. Clarissa Harlowe tells the story of a virtuous, beautiful eighteen-year-old woman who is brought to tragedy by the wickedness of her world. Her family possesses great wealth but little status. The trouble starts when Richard Lovelace comes to pay court to Clarissas sister, but is attracted by Clarissa instead. The family forbids Clarissa from corresponding with Lovelace and commands her to marry a horrible rich man, Roger Solmes. Clarissa refuses and when she is able to run away, she is in Lovelaces power. Roger is a manipulator who is in love with her, but hates the idea of marriage. His intention is to force Clarissa to compromise her strict morals, sully her reputation, and gain full control over her. Clarissas virtue has a powerful effect on Lovelace and sometimes sways him away from his bad intentions. . Finally suspecting Lovelaces vileness, Clarissa escapes, but Lovelace finds her and he rapes her. The rape has failed to put Clarissa fully in his power because she has never compromised her virtue, and she runs away again, this time successfully. But once Clarissa has been raped, she stops eating and no longer worries about worldly problems like reputation. Her health steadily worsens, and she begins to prepare for death. She finally dies, expressing forgiveness for everyone in her life and joyful anticipation of heaven.
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17. The Early Romanticism. Robert Burns (1759-1796). Tom OShanter.

The early Romantic period thus coincides with what is often called the "age of revolutions"-including, of course, the American (1776) and the French (1789) revolutions--an age of upheavals in political, economic, and social traditions, the age which witnessed the initial transformations of the Industrial Revolution. Defining the nature of Romanticism may be approached from the starting point of the primary importance of the free expression of the feelings of the artist. The imagination was elevated to a position as the supreme faculty of the mind. This contrasted distinctly with the traditional arguments for the supremacy of reason. The Romantics tended to define and to present the imagination as our ultimate "shaping" or creative power, the approximate human equivalent of the creative powers of nature or even deity. "Nature" meant a work of art, constructed by a divine imagination, in emblematic language. Symbolism and myth were given great prominence in the Romantic conception of art. The concept of the genius, or artist who was able to produce his own original work through this process of "creation from nothingness", is key to Romanticism, and to be derivative was the worst sin. This idea is often called "romantic originality." Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is also in English and a light Scots dialect, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland. He also wrote in standard English, and in these his political or civil commentary is often at its bluntest. He is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic movement, and after his death he became a great source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalismand socialism, and a cultural icon in Scotland and among the Scottish Diaspora around the world. As well as making original compositions, Burns also collected folk songs from across Scotland, often revising or adapting them. His poem (and song) "Auld Lang Syne" is often sung at Hogmanay (the last day of the year), and "Scots Wha Hae" served for a long time as an unofficial national anthemof the country. Other poems and songs of Burns that remain well known across the world today include "A Red, Red Rose"; "A Man's A Man for A' That"; "To a Louse"; "To a Mouse"; "The Battle of Sherramuir"; "Tam o' Shanter"; and "Ae Fond Kiss" Tam o' Shanter is a wonderful, epic poem in which Burns paints a vivid picture of the drinking classes in the old Scotch town of Ayr in the late 18th century. It is populated by several unforgettable characters including of course Tam himself, his bosom pal, Souter (Cobbler) Johnnie and his own long suffering wife Kate, "Gathering her brows like gathering storm, nursing her wrath to keep it warm". We are also introduced to Kirkton Jean, the ghostly, "winsome wench", Cutty Sark and let's not forget his gallant horse, Maggie. The tale includes humour, pathos, horror, social comment and in my opinion some of the most beautiful lines that Burns ever penned. For example, "But pleasures are like poppies spread, You sieze the flower, its bloom is shed; Or like the snow falls in the river, A moment white--then melts for ever". It tells the story of Tam, a farmer who gets drunk with his friends in a public house and then rides home on his horse Meg. On the way he sees the local haunted church lit up with witches and warlocks dancing and the devil playing the bagpipes. He creeps in to the churchyard to watch and on seeing a pretty witch in a short dress he shouts,`Weel done, cuttysark!'. Having drawn attention to himself the dancing stops abruptly and the witches chase him and Meg to the River Doon. The witches cannot cross the water but they come so close to catching Tam and Meg that they pull Meg's tail off just as she reaches the bridge over the Doon.

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18. The Lakists. William Wordsworth (1770-1850). A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal.

The Lake Poets (Lakists) are a group of English poets who all lived in the Lake District of England at the turn of the 19th century. As a group, they followed no single "school" of thought or literary practice then known, their works were uniformly disparaged by the Edinburgh Review. They are considered part of the Romantic Movement. The three main figures of what has become known as the Lakes School are William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey. They were associated with several other poets and writers, including Dorothy Wordsworth, Charles Lloyd, Hartley Coleridge, John Wilson, and Thomas De Quincey. The beauty of the Lake District has also inspired many other poets over the years, beyond the core Lake Poets. These include James Payn, Bryan Procter, Felicia Hemans, Walter Scott and Norman Nicholson. William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads. Wordsworth's magnum opus is generally considered to be The Prelude, a semiautobiographical poem of his early years which he revised and expanded a number of times. It was posthumously titled and published, prior to which it was generally known as the poem "To Coleridge". Wordsworth was Britain's Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death in 1850. "A slumber did my spirit seal" is one of Wordsworth's "Lucy Poems," which focus primarily on the death of a young woman named Lucy (though she remains unnamed in this poem). Lucy, the fairy child of the green earth, is Wordsworths only true love. Untouched by the unfriendly factors of ageing, she grew up in an Eden like environment, and does not feel the effects of her all round growth. There is no place for worries in the poets mind for any change in her physical and heartfelt appearance. His mind can easily rest at peace and each night he is able to enjoy the sleep of his body and spirit into a deep slumber. His intense love for her has conquered all his human fears. Her sudden death in the prime of her youth, has heavily burdened his heart with immeasurable sorrow. It would be a life-long lasting experience that would drag his heart in the long course of his life, to his grave, in his last days. She would not move, speak, hear or see. When her coffin was lowered into the grave and buried for ever, gradually her corpse was united with the components of the earth six feet under. She became one with the earth and the only movement she could make then was the united movement with the earth in rotation on its own axis and the revolution round the sun, along with the trees, flowers and plants that grow upon the earth.
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19. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834). Lyrical Ballads. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (21 October 1772 25 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, as well as for his major prose work Biographia Literaria. His critical work, especially on Shakespeare, was highly influential, and he helped introduce German idealist philosophy to Englishspeaking culture. He coined many familiar words and phrases, including the celebrated suspension of disbelief. He was a major influence on Emerson, and American transcendentalism. Throughout his adult life, Coleridge suffered from crippling bouts of anxiety and depression; it has been speculated by some that he suffered frombipolar disorder, a condition as yet unidentified during his lifetime. Coleridge suffered from poor health that may have stemmed from a bout of rheumatic fever and other childhood illnesses. He was treated for these concerns with laudanum, which fostered a lifelong opium addiction. Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems is a collection of poems by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, first published in 1798 and generally considered to have marked the beginning of the English Romantic movement in literature. The immediate effect on critics was modest, but it became and remains a landmark, changing the course of English literature and poetry. In the Advertisement to the 1798 edition of Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth and Coleridge state that the poems in the collection were intended as a deliberate experiment in style and subject matter. Wordsworth elaborated on this idea in the Preface to the 1800 and 1802 editions which outline his main ideas of a new theory of poetry. Rejecting the classical notion that poetry should be about elevated subjects and should be composed in a formal style, Wordsworth instead championed more democratic themesthe lives of ordinary men and women, farmers, paupers, and the rural poor. In the Preface Wordsworth also emphasizes his commitment to writing in the ordinary language of people, not a highly crafted poetical one. True to traditional ballad form, the poems depict realistic characters in realistic situations, and so contain a strong narrative element. Wordsworth and Coleridge were also interested in presenting the psychology of the various characters in the Lyrical Ballads. The poems, in building sympathy for the disenfranchised characters they describe, also implicitly criticize England's Poor Laws, which made it necessary for people to lose all material possessions before they could receive any kind of financial assistance from the community. Wordsworth also discussed the role of poetry itself, which he viewed as an aid in keeping the individual sensitive in spite of the effects of growing alienation in the new industrial age. The poet, as Wordsworth points out, is not a distant observer or moralist, but rather a man speaking to men, and the production of poetry is the result of the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings, recollected in tranquility, not the sum total of rhetorical art.
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20. The Later Romantics. George Gordon Byron (1788-1824). Good Night.

The poets of the next generation (SHELLEY, KEATS, AND BYRON) shared their predecessors passion for liberty (now set in a new perspective by the Napoleonic Wars) and were in a position to learn from their experiments. Following in the wake of the first writers in Britain who called themselves Romantic, the second wave of British Romantic writing proved both a continuation of and a departure from the influential writings of predecessors such as William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Percy Shelley and Lord Byron, for example, variously pursued the radical or revolutionary initiatives initially embraced but subsequently abandoned by the early Romantics whereas John Keats used the Romantic preoccupation with a poetry of self and mind as a sanction for a more sophisticated and refined poetic idiom, whose influence continues to this day. In addition, then, to the major poetical works of Shelley, Keats and Byron, we will read novels by Austen and Mary Shelley (Frankenstein), which register what broadly speaking is a womans perspective on many of these same developments. We will also read Thomas DeQuincey's Confessions of an English Opium Eater and other prose works by both Charles Lamb and William Hazlitt, which give another perspective, alternately critical, theoretical and at times satiric, on the Romantic movement overall. George Gordon Byron commonly known simply as Lord Byron, was an English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement. Among Byron's best-known works are the lengthy narrative poems Don Juan and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and the short lyric "She Walks in Beauty." He is regarded as one of the greatest British poets and remains widely read and influential. He travelled to fight against the Ottoman Empire in the Greek War of Independence, for which Greeks revere him as a national hero. He died at 36 years of age from a fever contracted while in Missolonghi in Greece. Byron was celebrated in life for aristocratic excesses including huge debts, numerous love affairs, rumours of a scandalous incestuous liaison with his half-sister, and self-imposed exile. It has been speculated that he suffered from bipolar I disorder. Good Night/ "A Farewell to Land": In portraying the expanse between shrinking shore and distant horizons, Charles Ives' setting of Lord Byron's "A Farewell to Land" (1909) leads the singer from one end of her vocal range to the other. As the poem's speaker follows the path of the sun as it sinks into the ocean, so too does the singer's voice slowly slip underneath the surface of the sea. As the line of the horizon disappears, leaving the ship encircled by the uninterrupted border of sky and water, the chordal roar of the breakers and the dissonant "shrieks of the wild sea mew" become the sparser, more static sounds of the sea .
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21. Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822). His life and work.

Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Considered too radical in his poetry and his political and social views to achieve fame during his lifetime, recognition of his significance grew steadily following his death. Percy Shelley was a key member of a close circle of visionary poets and writers that included Lord Byron; Leigh Hunt; Thomas Love Peacock; and his second wife, Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein. His first publication was a Gothic novel, Zastrozzi (1810), in which he vented his early atheistic worldview through the villain Zastrozzi. In the same year, Shelley, together with his sister Elizabeth, published Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire. In 1811, Shelley published his second Gothic novel, St. Irvyne; or, The Rosicrucian, and a pamphlet called The Necessity of Atheism. This latter gained the attention of the university administration and he was called to appear before the College's fellows, including the Dean, George Rowley. His refusal to repudiate the authorship of the pamphlet resulted in his being expelled from Oxford on 25 March 1811, along with Hogg. Shelley is perhaps best known for such classic poems as Ozymandias, Ode to the West Wind, To a Skylark, Music, When Soft Voices Die, The Cloud and The Masque of Anarchy, which are among the most popular and critically acclaimed poems in the English language. His major works, however, are long visionary poems that include Queen Mab (later reworked as The Daemon of the World), Alastor, The Revolt of Islam, Adonas, the unfinished work The Triumph of Life; and the visionary verse dramas The Cenci (1819) and Prometheus Unbound (1820). The latter is widely considered one of Shelley's most fully realised works. Shelley's early profession of atheism (in the tract "The Necessity of Atheism") led to his expulsion from Oxford and branded him as a radical agitator and thinker, setting an early pattern of marginalisation and ostracism from the intellectual and political circles of his time. His close circle of admirers, however, included the most progressive thinkers of the day, including his future father-in-law, philosopher William Godwin. Though Shelley's poetry and prose output remained steady throughout his life, most publishers and journals declined to publish his work for fear of being arrested themselves for blasphemy or sedition. Shelley never lived to see the extent of his success and influence, which would reach down to the present day not only in the literary canon, but in major movements in social and political thought. Shelley became an idol of the next three or four generations of poets, including important Victorian and Pre-Raphaelite poets such as Robert Browning, and Dante Gabriel Rosetti. He was admired by Oscar Wilde, Thomas Hardy, George Bernard Shaw, Bertrand Russell, W. B. Yeats, Karl Marx, Upton Sinclair and Isadora Duncan.Henry David Thoreau's civil disobedience and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi's passive resistance were apparently influenced and inspired by Shelley's non-violence in protest and political action, although Gandhi does not include him in his list of mentors.
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22. John Keats (1795-1821). Ode to a Nightingale.

John Keats, one of the greatest English poets and a major figure in the Romantic movement, he was one of the main figures of the second generation of romantic poets along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, despite his work only having been in publication for four years before his death. He was born in 1795 in Moorfields, London. Keats was well educated at a school in Enfield, where he began a translation of Virgil's Aeneid. In 1810 he was apprenticed to an apothecary-surgeon. His first attempts at writing poetry date from about 1814, and include an `Imitation' of the Elizabethan poet Edmund Spenser. In 1815 he left his apprenticeship and became a student at Guy's Hospital, London; one year later, he abandoned the profession of medicine for poetry. Keats' first volume of poems was published in 1817. It attracted some good reviews, but these were followed by the first of several harsh attacks by the influential Blackwood's Magazine. Undeterred, he pressed on with his poem `Endymion', which was published in the spring of the following year. Keats toured the north of England and Scotland in the summer of 1818, returning home to nurse his brother Tom, who was ill with tuberculosis. After Tom's death in December he moved into a friend's house in Hampstead, now known as Keats House. There he met and fell deeply in love with a young neighbour, Fanny Brawne. During the following year, despite ill health and financial problems, he wrote an astonishing amount of poetry, including `The Eve of St Agnes', 'La Belle Dame sans Merci', `Ode to a Nightingale' and `To Autumn'. His second volume of poems appeared in July 1820; soon afterwards, by now very ill with tuberculosis, he set off with a friend to Italy, where he died the following February. Keats and his friend Joseph Severn arrived in Rome, after an arduous journey, in November 1820. They found lodgings in a house near the Spanish Steps. Keats rallied a little at first, and was able to take gentle walks and rides, but by early December he was confined to bed, extremely ill with a high fever. Severn nursed him devotedly throughout the next few distressing and painful weeks. Keats died peacefully, clasping his friend's hand, on 23 February 1821. "Ode to a Nightingale" is a poem by John Keats written in May 1819. According to Brown, a nightingale had built its nest near his home in the spring of 1819. Inspired by the bird's song, Keats composed the poem in one day. It soon became one of his 1819 odes and was first published in Annals of the Fine Arts the following July. "Ode to a Nightingale" is a personal poem that describes Keats's journey into the state of Negative Capability. The tone of the poem rejects the optimistic pursuit of pleasure found within Keats's earlier poems, and it explores the themes of nature, transience and mortality, the latter being particularly personal to Keats. The nightingale described within the poem experiences a type of death but it does not actually die. Instead, the songbird is capable of living through its song, which is a fate that humans cannot expect. The poem ends with an acceptance that pleasure cannot last and that death is an inevitable part of life. In the poem, Keats imagines the loss of the physical world and sees himself deadas a "sod" over which the nightingale sings. The contrast between the immortal nightingale and mortal man, sitting in his garden, is made all the more acute by an effort of the imagination. The presence of weather is noticeable in the poem, as spring came early in 1819, which brought nightingales all over the heath. Many critics favor "Ode to a Nightingale" for its themes but some believe that it is structurally flawed because the poem sometimes strayed from its main idea.
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23. Historical Novel. Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832). Ivanhoe (1820).

The historical novel was popularized in the 19th century by writers classified as Romantics. Many regard Sir Walter Scott as the first to write historical novels. Gyrgy Lukcs, in his The Historical Novel, argues that Scott is the first fiction writer who saw history not just as a convenient frame in which to stage a contemporary narrative, but rather as a distinct social and cultural setting. His novels of Scottish history such as Waverley (1814) and Rob Roy (1817) focus upon a middling character who sits at the intersection of various social groups in order to explore the development of society through conflict. His Ivanhoe (1820) gains credit for renewing interest in the Middle Ages. Sir Walter Scott was a poet, novelist, ballad-collector, critic and man of letters, but is probably most renowned as the founder of the genre of the historical novel, involving tales of gallantry, romance and chivalry. Beginning with the publication of Waverley in 1814, one of the most significant books of the nineteenth-century, his anonymously published Waverley novels proved hugely popular in Europe and America, and established his reputation as a major international literary force. Scott spent his childhood years in Edinburgh, with occasional extended visits to his grandfather Robert Scott's farm in Tweeddale in the Borders, where he became versed in his family's history, and in Borders culture in general. He attended the famed Edinburgh High School, and then followed in his father's wake by taking a law degree at Edinburgh University, being called to the Bar in 1792. At 25 he began writing, first translating works from German then moving on to poetry. In 1797 he married the daughter of a French refugee, Charlotte Carpenter, with whom he had four children. Five years later, he published a three-volume set of collected Scottish ballads, The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Borders. This was an early indicator of his interest in Scotland and history from a literary standpoint. By the 1820s, Scott was probably the most famous of living Scotsmen, and was consequently chosen to organise the visit to Edinburgh in 1822 of George IV. He was heavily criticised by his Scottish contemporaries for the resultant tartan pageantry, in which the King appeared in Highland dress complete with salmon-pink leggings. He died on the 21st September 1832 at Abbotsford near Melrose. The Scott monument was raised on Princes Street in Edinburgh. Ivanhoe is the story of one of the remaining Saxon noble families at a time when the English nobility was overwhelmingly Norman. It follows the Saxon protagonist, Wilfred of Ivanhoe, who is out of favour with his father for his allegiance to the Norman king, Richard I of England. Four generations and approximately one hundred years had passed since the decisive Battle of Hastings in 1066. Richard the Lion-Hearted (1157-1199), now King of England, on returning from the Crusades, was made prisoner of the Duke of Austria, abetted by the machinations of Richard's brother, Prince John. Prince John hoped, by the help of his Norman confederates, to seize the throne. Wilfred of Ivanhoe, son of Cedric, had been disinherited by his father for two reasons: because of his allegiance to Richard, the exiled King of England, and because of his romantic interest in Rowena, ward of Cedric, whom Cedric intended as bride to Athelstane, a descendant of Saxon royalty. In the guise of the Disinherited Knight, Ivanhoe wins the tournament at Ashby-de-la-Zouche with the aid of the Black Knight and crowns Rowena his Queen of Beauty and Love. He suffers severe wounds in the contest and is ministered to by Rebecca, daughter of the Jewish moneylender, Isaac of York. On the way home from the tournament the Saxon party, together with the Jews and the wounded Ivanhoe, are captured by De Bracy, who fancies Rowena as his wife. They are taken to the castle of Front-de-Boeuf and imprisoned there. The Black Knight, Locksley and his band, Cedric, and others attack the castle and, with the help of Ulrica, an old Saxon hag, succeed in freeing the prisoners. Brian de Bois-Guilbert, Knight Templar, escapes to Templestowe, taking Rebecca with him. Rebecca, accused of sorcery, is sentenced to die as a witch. Ivanhoe champions her in a trial by combat against the unwilling Bois-Guilbert. Rebecca is set free when the Templar falls dead from his horse. The Black Knight reveals himself as King Richard, Ivanhoe and Rowena are married, and Rebecca and her father leave England for Granada.
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24. Novel of Manner. Jane Austen (1775-1817). Pride and Prejudice.

The novel of manners is a literary genre that deals with aspects of behavior, language, customs and values characteristic of a particular class of people in a specific historical context. The genre emerged during the final decades of the 18th century. The novel of manners often shows a conflict between individual aspirations or desires and the accepted social codes of behaviour. There is a vital relationship between manners, social behaviour and character. Physical appearances are overall less emphasised while manners and social behaviour remain the particular interests in the novel. The idea of manners assumes not only a social significance, as it is applied today, but a moral one as well, which preceded the social context in which it was used. What connects the two is the idea of "pleasing". Characters in the novels are not always morally and socially obliging to each other, however, but there is differentiation between the upstanding hero or heroine and the socially less acceptable characters. The different degrees of how the characters uphold the standard level of social etiquette is what usually dominates the plot of the novel. Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature. Her realism and biting social commentary have gained her historical importance. Austen lived her entire life as part of a close-knit family located on the lower fringes of the English landed gentry. She was educated primarily by her father and older brothers as well as through her own reading. The steadfast support of her family was critical to her development as a professional writer. Her artistic apprenticeship lasted from her teenage years into her thirties. During this period, she experimented with various literary forms, including the epistolary novel which she then abandoned, and wrote and extensively revised three major novels and began a fourth. From 1811 until 1816, with the release of Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816), she achieved success as a published writer. She wrote two additional novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, and began a third, which was eventually titled Sanditon, but died before completing it. Austen's works critique the novels of sensibility of the second half of the 18th century and are part of the transition to 19th-century realism. Her plots, though fundamentally comic, highlight the dependence of women on marriage to secure social standing and economic security. Pride and Prejudice is a novel by Jane Austen, first published in 1813. The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education, and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England. Elizabeth is the second of five daughters of a country gentleman living near the fictional town of Meryton in Hertfordshire, near London. Major themes: Marriage: The opening line of the novel announces: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."This sets the marriage motif of the novel. Marriage becomes an economic rather than social activity. Money: Money plays a key role in the marriage market not just for the young ladies who wish to secure a husband as rich as they can, but also for men who wish to marry a woman of means. Class: Much of the pride and prejudice in the novel exists because of class divisions. Darcy's first impressions on Elizabeth are coloured by his snobbery.
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25. Gothic Novel. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851). Frankenstein.

Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror, is a genre or mode of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. Gothicism's origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, subtitled "A Gothic Story". The effect of Gothic fiction feeds on a pleasing sort of terror, an extension of Romantic literary pleasures that were relatively new at the time of Walpole's novel. Melodrama and parody (including self-parody) were other long-standing features of the Gothic initiated by Walpole. Gothic elements include the following: 1. Setting in a castle. The action takes place in and around an old castle, often containing secret passages, trap doors, secret rooms, dark or hidden staircases, and possibly ruined sections; 2. An atmosphere of mystery and suspense; 3. An ancient prophecy is connected with the castle or its inhabitants; 4. Omens, portents, visions; 5. Supernatural or otherwise inexplicable events; 6. High, even overwrought emotion; 7. Women in distress; 8. Women threatened by a powerful, impulsive, tyrannical male; 9. The metonymy of gloom and horror. Mary Shelley was an English novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus (1818). She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her father was the political philosopher William Godwin, and her mother was the philosopher and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. By the time she was nineteen, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley had written one of the most famous novels ever published. Embodying one of the central myths of Western culture, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, first published in 1818, tells the story of an overreacher who brings to life the monster who inhabits one's dreams, a tale which still stands as a powerful and enduring example of the creative imagination. Nearly two hundred years later, the story of his creation still inspires stage, film, video, and television productions. In addition to Frankenstein, Mary Shelley wrote six other novels, a novella, mythological dramas, stories and articles, various travel books, and biographical studies. By 1851, the year of her death, she had established a reputation as a prominent author independent of her famous husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley.
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26. Samuel Johnson. His Dictionary of the English Language.

Samuel Johnson was an English writer who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. Johnson was a devout Anglican and committed Tory, and has been described as "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history". He is also the subject of "the most famous single work of biographical art in the whole of literature": James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson. Born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, Johnson attended Pembroke College, Oxford for just over a year, before his lack of funds forced him to leave. After working as a teacher he moved to London, where he began to write for The Gentleman's Magazine. His early works include the biography The Life of Richard Savage, the poems "London" and "The Vanity of Human Wishes", and the play Irene. After nine years of work, Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language was published in 1755, described as "one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship." This work brought Johnson popularity and success; until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary 150 years later, Johnson's was viewed as the pre-eminent British dictionary. His later works included essays, an influential annotated edition of William Shakespeare's plays, and the widely read tale Rasselas. After a series of illnesses he died on the evening of 13 December 1784, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. In the years following his death, Johnson began to be recognised as having had a lasting effect on literary criticism, and even as the only great critic of English literature. Published on 15 April 1755 and written by Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language, sometimes published as Johnson's Dictionary, is among the most influential dictionaries in the history of the English language. There was dissatisfaction with the dictionaries of the period, so in June 1746 a group of London booksellers contracted Johnson to write a dictionary for the sum of 1,500 guineas (1,575), equivalent to about 230,000 as of 2013.Johnson took nearly nine years to complete the work, although he had claimed he could finish it in three. Remarkably, he did so single-handedly, with only clerical assistance to copy out the illustrative quotations that he had marked in books. Johnson produced several revised editions during his life. Until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary, 173 years later, Johnson's was viewed as the pre-eminent English dictionary. According to Walter Jackson Bate, the Dictionary "easily ranks as one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship, and probably the greatest ever performed by one individual who labored under anything like the disadvantages in a comparable length of time".
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27. Alexander Pope. The Rape of the Lock.

Alexander Pope was born in 1688, in London. Pope's early education was affected by his Catholicism: Catholic schools, although illegal, were allowed to survive in some places. Prior to the move to Binfield Pope spent a year at Twyford, where he wrote "A Satire on some Faults of his Master," From Twyford Alexander went to study with Thomas Deane, a convert to Catholicism. After the Pope family moved to Binfield Alexander became self-taught. Pope's disease--apparently tuberculosis of the bone--became evident when he was about twelve. Later in Pope's life, Sir Joshua Reynolds described him as "about four feet six high; very humpbacked and deformed." (A sketch of Pope) A more recent biographer has written that Pope was "afflicted with constant headaches, sometimes so severe that he could barely see the paper he wrote upon, frequent violent pain at bone and muscle joints...shortness of breath, increasing inability to ride horseback or even walk for exercise...." William Wycherley, impressed by some of Pope's early poetry, introduced him into fashionable London literary circles (in 1704). Public attention came with the publication of Pastorals in 1709. The Rape of the Lock helped secure Pope's reputation as a leading poet of the age. Pope moved to his villa in Twickenham in 1717. While there he received visitors, attacked his literary contemporaries and continued to publish poetry. Pope developed a taste for the art of Ancient Greece and Rome. He published part of his translations of the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer which brought him fame. He deals with the favourite subject of vice and virtue in his famous poem An essay on Man in which he analyses the power and the weaknesses of man. He organized a society of literary man who themselves the Martin Scribblers Club . He died on 30 May, 1744, at Twickenham. The Rape of the Lock is a humorous indictment of the vanities and idleness of 18th-century high society. Basing his poem on a real incident among families of his acquaintance, Pope intended his verses to cool hot tempers and to encourage his friends to laugh at their own folly. The poem is perhaps the most outstanding example in the English language of the genre of mock-epic. The epic had long been considered one of the most serious of literary forms; it had been applied, in the classical period, to the lofty subject matter of love and war, and, more recently, by Milton, to the intricacies of the Christian faith. The strategy of Popes mock-epic is not to mock the form itself, but to mock his society in its very failure to rise to epic standards, exposing its pettiness by casting it against the grandeur of the traditional epic subjects and the bravery and fortitude of epic heroes: Popes mock-heroic treatment in The Rape of the Lock underscores the ridiculousness of a society in which values have lost all proportion, and the trivial is handled with the gravity and solemnity that ought to be accorded to truly important issues. The society on display in this poem is one that fails to distinguish between things that matter and things that do not. The poem mocks the men it portrays by showing them as unworthy of a form that suited a more heroic culture. Thus the mock-epic resembles the epic in that its central concerns are serious and often moral, but the fact that the approach must now be satirical rather than earnest is symptomatic of how far the culture has fallen.
Popes use of the mock-epic genre is intricate and exhaustive. The Rape of the Lock is a poem in which every element of the contemporary scene conjures up some image from epic tradition or the classical world view, and the pieces are wrought together with a cleverness and expertise that makes the poem surprising and delightful. Popes transformations are numerous, striking, and loaded with moral implications. The great battles of epic become bouts of gambling and flirtatious tiffs. The great, if capricious, Greek and Roman gods are converted into a relatively undifferentiated army of basically ineffectual sprites. Cosmetics, clothing, and jewelry substitute for armor and weapons, and the rituals of religious sacrifice are transplanted to the dressing room and the altar of love. 27