3. STUART DYNASTY
1603-1625: Reign of James I
1625-1649: Reign of Charles I
1642-1649: Civil Wars between the three
kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
4. INTERREGNUM
1649-1660
1649 Trial and Execution of Charles I
Begins period of parliamentary and
military rule under what is referred to
as the Commonwealth of England.
5. Commonwealth of England
1649-1653
The Protectorate under Oliver Cromwell
1653-1658
The Protectorate under Richard
Cromwell from 1658-1659
Second Period of Commonwealth of
England 1659-1660
7. Restoration of the House of Stuart
1660-1685 Reign of Charles II
• 1660 Theatres reopen (had been closed in 1642).
Literature and the arts flourish again.
• Passage of restrictive Acts of Uniformity (1662) and
other legislation known collectively as the Clarendon
Code were passed. They were designed to punish the
Puritans by excluding them from public office and
other institutions.
• 1679 Habeas Corpus Act Passed—designed to protect
individuals from unlawful detention and arbitrary state
action.
11. THE GLORIOUS
REVOLUTION 1688-1689
Or “The Bloodless Revolution”
Dutch Protestant William of Orange
marries King James’ daughter Mary. James
is convinced to relinquish the throne.
William III and Mary II reign 1689-1694
William III 1694-1702 following Mary II’s
death.
12. LITERATURE
RISE OF THE MIDDLE CLASS
results in Rise of the
Reading Public
•Satire
•Wit
•Fancy
13. GENRES
NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS
Addison and Steele
•Samuel Johnson
THE RISE OF THE NOVEL
Daniel Defoe (Moll Flanders, Robinson Crusoe)
Jonathan Swift (Gulliver’s Travels)
Samuel Richardson (Pamela, Clarissa)
Henry Fielding (Joseph Andrews, Tom Jones)
17. What do we know about Dryden that might
be important to consider when reading his
work?
• First important poem: “Heroic Stanzas”
commemorated the death of Oliver
Cromwell; however celebrated restoration
of Charles II in “Astraea Redux”
• Loyal to Charles II and successor James II
• A citizen of the world: His writing responds
to events, historical shifts, national as well
as global conditions.
18. John Dryden cont
• 1664-1681 predominantly a playwright
• Late in life discovers satire (i.e.
“MacFlecknoe”
• Defender of the Anglican church
• Against rationalism of Deism and
authoritarianism of Roman and Catholic
Church
• Brought the pleasures of reading to the
British Public. Dryden was very much a
“man of the people.”
20. Annus Mirabilis
• Acknowledges London’s reemergence from
the ashes of the Great Fire of London
• And the restoration of Charles II to the throne
• The poem resonates with strains of
nationalism, pride and anticipates British
Imperialism and arrogance: “deified from her
fires does rise.
What is the tone of this poem? How is London
characterized? What is Great Britain’s future
going to be like according to the speaker of
this poem?
22. GLANCING BACK: 16TH
CENTURY
• Unthinkable a woman could earn her living
writing. Money, education, class status, and
genre determined whether women were able
to write much less publish.
• Exception: 1578 Margaret Tyler was able to
publish her translation of a Spanish secular
tale of masculine chivalry. How do you think
she justified this publication?
23. Men on the other hand:
• Were able to profit from an “economy of
favor” and patronage as a way of furthering
their careers.
• Political, educational, material by men
published widely.
• Women, to the contrary, were discouraged
from writing anything beyond religious tracts
(prayers, meditations), conduct manuals
and/or domestic advice, letters. Women
limited to activities associated with domestic
roles.
24. Women’s Literacy
• Female literacy highest in the aristocratic
classes. (Aristocratic benefactors)
• During the 17th
century there is an increase in
the number of women learning to read and
write.
• Previous 14th
& 15th
centuries there had been a
“humanist” emphasis on the education of
women. Women were taught classical and
pious texts; however, they generally were not
encouraged to learn classical languages or
25. Women’s Literacy cont’
to study classical texts as these were not
deemed relevant to religious teachings to
which women’s education was most often
limited.
Limitations were placed on what women could
and could not study/read.
26. Women’s Education
• Education and training focused on what
women needed to know so as to fulfill their
social status and function, which was
secondary to men as wives, mothers, and
helpmates.
• Religious and legal texts barred women from
having status as legal subjects within either
society at large or the family
• Women were deemed property/objects
rather than agents able to act in their own
27. SHIFT BEGINS mid to late 17th
century on into 18th
century
• APHRA BEHN: 1640?-1689. Dramatist, poet,
novelist
• Led an unconventional life. Wrote fearlessly
about sexuality and sexual morality.
• Paid for her writing.
• Her counterpart the more chaste Katherine
Phillips (1632-1664) whose poetry was
published as a “suitable model for women”
28. RESTORATION OF CHARLES II 1660:
• Relationship between women and literary
production continues to shift.
• Expansion of print, rise of middle class reading
public, increase in variety of genres all
contributed to this shift.
• Women had also played a role—though not a
publically sanctioned one—in England’s Civil
Wars.
• Women began contributing to periodicals and
corresponding with editors defying social
restrictions.
29. RESTORATION AND MOVING INTO
THE 18TH
CENTURY CONT’
• Women began being addressed directly as
readers
• Literature and access to—as well as available
education—continued to be restrained by
social conventions.
30. RELEVANT WEBSITES:
WEBSITE providing excellent background and
interactive cites addressing what it was like to
be a woman in 18th
century England:
http://www.umich.edu/~ece/showcase/gender.htm
Timeline:
http://mason.gmu.edu/~ayadav/historical%20outlin
33. Key Enlightenment Ideas
• LIBERTY: What were the origins of the term?
– Originated with the Roman Republic
– Originated with the “Gothic” Constitution of Pre-
Norman England (the Norman Conquest was in
1066)
– Liberty believed to be a consequence of the
“modern era.” It came into being as an ideal as a
result of the English Civil Wars, the
Commonwealth, the Glorious Revolution. In
America the colonies assertion of independence.
34. HOW IS LIBERTY TO BE ACHIEVED?
• PRIVATE OWNERSHIP:
INDEPENDENT
LANDOWNERS
• THROUGH COMMERCE
AND A FREE MARKET
ECONOMY – what we
have come to know as
CAPITALISM.
35. NEW SOCIAL ETHOS EMERGES
IN THE 18TH
CENTURY
• UNDER THE AEGIS OF LIBERTY CAME:
–REASON
–CIVILITY
–INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS/THE SANCTITY OF
THE INDIVIDUAL
–THE “COMMON GOOD”– HUMAN
RIGHTS
36. ETHOS MEANS? AN APPEAL TO?
• LOGOS:
• PATHOS:
• ETHOS:
– An Ethic suggests a mode of behavior: “Do unto
others as you would have them do unto you.”
38. 1. HISTORICAL IRONY:
circumstances that conflict with
the abstract ideal or political
ideology as stated or which
violate the social ethic such an
ideal assumes
40. HYPOCRISY IS REVEALED WHEN:
• SOCIAL POLICIES OR ACTIONS
RUN COUNTER TO THE ABSTRACT
IDEALS OR POLITICAL IDEOLOGY
AS IT HAS BEEN STATED.
41. 18th
Century Contradictions
• A Revolutionary Period of ideas: reason, the
art of persuasion, new freedoms associated
with writing, a new social ethos, censorship
rejected, liberty from literary restraints being
encouraged
• Hypocrisy rampant as well: Those who
cavalierly used the words LIBERTY and
REASON also espoused policies that belied
their meanings
42. CONTRADICTIONS BETWEEN
RHETORIC AND ACTION
• SLAVERY/SLAVES
• WOMEN
• NEITHER SLAVES OR WOMEN
HAD RIGHTS AS CITIZENS OR
STATUS AS LEGAL SUBJECTS
