Chapter 4 English Literature of the 17th Century I.A Historical Background
II.The Overview of the Literature （1640-1688）
1. The revolution period
（1） The metaphysical poets;
（2） The Cavalier poets.
（3） Milton: the literary and philosophical heritage of the Renaissance merged with Protestant political and moral conviction
2. The restoration period.
（1） The restoration of Charles II ushered in a literature characterized by reason, moderation, good taste, deft management, and simplicity. （school of Ben Jonson）
（2） The ideals of impartial investigation and scientific experimentation promoted by the newly founded Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge （1662） were influential in the development of clear and simple prose as an instrument of rational communication.
（3） The great philosophical and political treatises of the time emphasize rationalism.
（4） The restoration drama.
（5） The Age of Dryden.
III.John Milton
1. Life: educated at Cambridge—visiting the continent—involved into the revolution—persecuted—writing epics.
2. Literary career.
（1） The 1st period was up to 1641, during which time he is to be seen chiefly as a son of the humanists and Elizabethans, although his Puritanism is not absent. L'Allegre and IL Pens eroso （1632） are his early masterpieces, in which we find Milton a true offspring of the Renaissance, a scholar of exquisite taste and rare culture. Next came Comus, a masque. The greatest of early creations was Lycidas, a pastoral elegy on the death of a college mate, Edward King.
（2） The second period is from 1641 to 1654, when the Puritan was in such complete ascendancy that he wrote almost no poetry. In 1641, he began a long period of pamphleteering for the puritan cause. For some 15 years, the Puritan in him alone ruled his writing. He sacrificed his poetic ambition to the call of the liberty for which Puritans were fighting.
（3） The third period is from 1655 to 1671, when humanist and Puritan have been fused into an exalted entity. This period is the greatest in his literary life, epics and some famous sonnets. The three long poems are the fruit of the long contest within Milton of Renaissance tradition and his Puritan faith. They form the greatest accomplishments of any English poet except Shakespeare. In Milton alone, it would seem, Puritanism could not extinguish the lover of beauty. In these works we find humanism and Puritanism merged in magnificence.
3. Major Works
（1） Paradise Lost
a. the plot.
b. characters.
c. theme: justify the ways of God to man.
（2） Paradise Regained.
（3） Samson Agonistes.
4. Features of Milton's works.
（1） Milton is one of the very few truly great English writers who is also a prominent figure in politics, and who is both a great poet and an important prose writer. The two most essential things to be remembered about him are his Puritanism and his republicanism.
（2） Milton wrote many different types of poetry. He is especially a great master of blank verse. He learned much from Shakespeare and first used blank verse in non-dramatic works.
（3） Milton is a great stylist. He is famous for his grand style noted for its dignity and polish, which is the result of his life-long classical and biblical study.
（4） Milton has always been admired for his sublimity of thought and majesty of expression.
IV.John Bunyan
1. life:
（1） puritan age;
（2） poor family;
（3） parliamentary army;
（4） Baptist society, preacher;
（5） prison, writing the book.
2. The Pilgrim Progress
（1） The allegory in dream form.
（2） the plot.
（3） the theme.

V. Metaphysical Poets and Cavalier Poets.
1. Metaphysical Poets
The term “metaphysical poetry” is commonly used to designate the works of the 17th century writers who wrote under the influence of John Donne. Pressured by the harsh, uncomfortable and curious age, the metaphysical poets sought to shatter myths and replace them with new philosophies, new sciences, new words and new poetry. They tried to break away from the conventional fashion of Elizabethan love poetry, and favoured in poetry for a more colloquial language and tone, a tightness of expression and the single-minded working out of a theme or argument.
2. Cavalier Poets
The other group prevailing in this period was that of Cavalier poets. They were often courtiers who stood on the side of the king, and called themselves “sons” of Ben Jonson. The Cavalier poets wrote light poetry, polished and elegant, amorous and gay, but often superficial. Most of their verses were short songs, pretty madrigals, love fancies characterized by lightness of heart and of morals. Cavalier poems have the limpidity of the Elizabethan lyric without its imaginative flights. They are lighter and neater but less fresh than the Elizabethan's.#p#分页标题#e#
VI.John Dryden.
1. Life:
（1） the representative of classicism in the Restoration.
（2） poet, dramatist, critic, prose writer, satirist.
（3） changeable in attitude.
（4） Literary career—four decades.
（5） Poet Laureate
2. His influences.
（1） He established the heroic couplet as the fashion for satiric, didactic, and descriptive poetry.
（2） He developed a direct and concise prose style.
（3） He developed the art of literary criticism in his essays and in the numerous prefaces to his poems.
Chapter 5 English Literature of the 18th Century I.Introduction
1. The Historical Background.
2. The literary overview.
（1） The Enlightenment.
（2） The rise of English novels.
When the literary historian seeks to assign to each age its favourite form of literature, he finds no difficulty in dealing with our own time. As the Middle Ages delighted in long romantic narrative poems, the Elizabethans in drama, the Englishman of the reigns of Anne and the early Georges in didactic and satirical verse, so the public of our day is enamored of the novel. Almost all types of literary production continue to appear, but whether we judge from the lists of publishers, the statistics of public libraries, or general conversation, we find abundant evidence of the enormous preponderance of this kind of literary entertainment in popular favour.
（3） Neo-classicism: a revival in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries of classical standards of order, balance, and harmony in literature. John Dryden and Alexander Pope were major exponents of the neo-classical school.
（4） Satiric literature.
（5） Sentimentalism
II.Neo-classicism. （a general description）
1. Alexander Pope
（1）Life:
a.Catholic family;
b.ill health;
c.taught himself by reading and translating;
d.friend of Addison, Steele and Swift.
（2）three groups of poems:
e.An Essay on Criticism （manifesto of neo-classicism）;
f. The Rape of Lock;
g.Translation of two epics.
（3）His contribution:
h.the heroic couplet—finish, elegance, wit, pointedness;
i.satire.
（4） weakness: lack of imagination.
2. Addison and Steele
（1） Richard Steele: poet, playwright, essayist, publisher of newspaper.
（2） Joseph Addison: studies at Oxford, secretary of state, created a literary periodical “Spectator” （with Steele, 1711）
（3） Spectator Club.
（4） The significance of their essays.
a. Their writings in “The Tatler”, and “The Spectator” provide a new code of social morality for the rising bourgeoisie.
b. They give a true picture of the social life of England in the 18th century.
c. In their hands, the English essay completely established itself as a literary genre. Using it as a form of character sketching and story telling, they ushered in the dawn of the modern novel.
3. Samuel Johnson—poet, critic, essayist, lexicographer, editor.
（1）Life:
a.studies at Oxford;
b.made a living by writing and translating;
c.the great cham of literature.
（2） works: poem （The Vanity of Human Wishes, London）; criticism （The Lives of great Poets）; preface.
（3） The champion of neoclassical ideas.

III.Literature of Satire: Jonathan Swift.
1.Life:
（1）born in Ireland;
（2）studies at Trinity College;
（3）worked as a secretary;
（4）the chief editor of The Examiner;
（5）the Dean of St. Patrick's in Dublin.
2. Works: The Battle of Books, A Tale of a Tub, A Modest Proposal, Gulliver's Travels.
3. Gulliver's Travels.
Part I. Satire—the Whig and the Tories, Anglican Church and Catholic Church.
Part II. Satire—the legal system; condemnation of war.
Part III. Satire—ridiculous scientific experiment.
Part IV. Satire—mankind.
IV.English Novels of Realistic tradition.
1. The Rise of novels.
（1）Early forms: folk tale – fables – myths – epic – poetry – romances – fabliaux – novelle - imaginative nature of their material. （imaginative narrative）
（2）The rise of the novel
a.picaresque novel in Spain and England （16th century）: Of or relating to a genre of prose fiction that originated in Spain and depicts in realistic detail the adventures of a roguish hero, often with satiric or humorous effects.
b.Sidney: Arcadia.
c. Addison and Steele: The Spectator.
（plot and characterization and realism）
（3） novel and drama （17the century）
2. Daniel Defoe—novelist, poet, pamphleteer, publisher, merchant, journalist.）#p#分页标题#e#
（1）Life:
a.business career;
b.writing career;
c.interested in politics.
（2） Robinson Cusoe.
a. the story.
b. the significance of the character.
c. the features of his novels.
d. the style of language.
3. Henry Fielding—novelist.
（1）Life:
a.unsuccessful dramatic career;
b.legal career; writing career.
（2） works.
（3） Tom Jones.
a.the plot;
b.characters: Tom, Blifil, Sophia;
c.significance.
（4） the theory of realism.
（5） the style of language.
V. Writers of Sentimentalism.
1. Introduction
2. Samuel Richardson—novelist, moralist （One who is unduly concerned with the morals of others.）
（1）Life:
a.printer book seller;
b.letter writer.
（2） Pamela, Virtue Rewarded.
a.the story
b.the significance
Pamela was a new thing in these ways:
a） It discarded the “improbable and marvelous” accomplishments of the former heroic romances, and pictured the life and love of ordinary people.
b） Its intension was to afford not merely entertainment but also moral instruction.
c） It described not only the sayings and doings of characters but their also their secret thoughts and feelings. It was, in fact, the first English psycho-analytical novel.
3. Oliver Goldsmith—poet and novelist.
A. Life:
a.born in Ireland;
b.a singer and tale-teller, a life of vagabondage;
c.bookseller;
d.the Literary Club;
e.a miserable life;
f. the most lovable character in English literature.
B. The Vicar of Wakefield.
a.story;
b.the signicance.
VI.English Drama of the 18th century
1. The decline of the drama
2. Richard Brinsley Sheriden
A. life.
B. works: Rivals, The School for Scandals.
C. significance of his plays.
a. The Rivals and The School for Scandal are generally regarded as important links between the masterpieces of Shakespeare and those of Bernard Shaw, and as true classics in English comedy.
b. In his plays, morality is the constant theme. He is much concerned with the current moral issues and lashes harshly at the social vices of the day.
c. Sheridan's greatness also lies in his theatrical art. He seems to have inherited from his parents a natural ability and inborn knowledge about the theatre. His plays are the product of a dramatic genius as well as of a well-versed theatrical man.
d. His plots are well-organized, his characters, either major or minor, are all sharply drawn, and his manipulation of such devices as disguise, mistaken identity and dramatic irony is masterly. Witty dialogues and neat and decent language also make a characteristic of his plays.