3. Literary life in England flourishes so
impressively in the early years of the 18th
century that contemporaries draw parallels with
the heyday of Virgil, Horace and Ovid at the time
of the emperor Augustus.
The new Augustan Age becomes identified with
the reign of Queen Anne (1702-14), though the
spirit of the age extends well beyond her death.
Augustan Age was characterized by the spirit of
the Enlightenment,
4. The Enlightenment contrasts with the darkness of irrationality
of the Middle Age. The reason, man’s central capacity, is the
foot of this movement. For the Enlightenment thinkers all men
are equal in respect of their rationality and the tolerance and
individual liberty must be granted by the law. Enlightenment
thinking that tended to atheism was the bases of French
Revolution.
During the Augustan Age the wealth of the State, based on
trade with the colonies, increased dramatically and Britain’s
position as a world power was confirmed by the victory in the
seven years’ war against France, for the supremacy in the
colonies.
5. THE OLDEST OF THE AUGUSTAN AUTHORS
Jonathan Swift- first makes his mark in 1704.
The Battle of the Books
A Tale of a Tub
These two tracts, respectively about
literary theory and religious discord,
reveal that there is a new prose writer on
the scene with lethal satirical powers.
6. Alexander Pope
devotes himself almost exclusively to poetry,
becoming a master in the use of rhymed
heroic couplets for the purposes of it.
In 1711 he shows his paces with the brilliant
Essay on Criticism (the source of many
frequently quoted phrases, such as 'Fools rush
in where angels fear to tread').
Masterpiece
The Rape of the Lock.
7. Richard Steele
Tatler
Richard Steele with frequent contributions from
his friend Joseph Addison, turns the relaxed
and informal essay into a new journalistic art
form. In 1711 Steele and Addison replace
the Tatler with the daily Spectator.
8. HIS WRITINGS:
In Windsor Forest(1713)
Odyssey(1725-6)
The Dunciad(1728)
Modest Proposal(1729)
9. REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE
Anne was the second daughter of James, Duke
of York, who became James II, and his first wife,
Anne Hyde, daughter of Edward Hyde, Earl of
Clarendon. Anne and her elder sister Mary
received a Protestant upbringing although their
father James converted to Catholicism and
remarried. In 1683 Anne married Prince George
of Denmark (1653–1708). She had between 16
and 18 pregnancies but only one child survived
- William, Duke of Gloucester who died aged 11
of smallpox in 1700.
10. Anne succeeded to the throne as Queen Anne.
When she was crowned in April 1702 Anne was 37
years old and after her many pregnancies had poor
health and no longer her youthful figure.
Towards the end of her life, Anne suffered from gout
and she could hardly walk. On her death in 1714 her
body had swollen so large that she was buried in an
almost square coffin. On the question of
succession, Anne's family loyalty had convinced her
that this should fall to her father's son by his
second wife (Mary of Modena), James Edward
Stuart, known as the Old Pretender. However, the
Act of Settlement in 1701 ensured Protestant
succession to the throne, and Anne was succeeded
by George I, great-grandson of James
