Learners, Refer to the following presentation to briefly understand the political and literary sphere of the Neo-Classical age.

1. The Neo-Classical Age
Introduction to
Prepared by-
Kavisha Alagiya

2. Neoclassical Age is typically divided into three
periods:
the Restoration Age (1660-1700),
the Augustan Age (1700-1750), and
the Age of Johnson (1750-1798).

3. Neo-Classical Age
 The Augustan Period
 The 18th Century
 The Age of Enlightenment
 The Age of Prose
 The Age of Reason
 The Transition Period
 Age of Satire

4. Neo-Classical Age
 Some writers modelled their writing on
classical especially, Greek and Roman
Literature.
 Revival of classical values and insistence
on English values
 Strict adherence to the decorum of human
nature
 The general laws governing man and the
world that are true source of knowledge-
that is “Nature”
 Appropriateness in plot, characterization,
meter, language.
Neo-Classical
New
a new or revived
form of
Classic
Ancient, great
Outstanding
“Class”
Refined and
elegant
art produced in
antiquity
Idealism

5. “Learn hence for ancient rules a
just esteem;
To copy nature is to copy them”
-Alexander Pope
(An Essay on Criticism)

6. Augustan Age
 Time of Literary excellence
 Reminisces of the Augustus Caesar in Rome
 The term ‘Augustan Age’ comes from the self-conscious imitation
of the original Augustan writers Virgil (Aeneid), Horace (The
Iliad, The Odyssey). Ovid (Metamorphoses)
 The poets who translated and imitated Greek and Latin verses in
measured rationalized elegant verses. Pope produced versions of
two Homeric epics: The Iliad and the Odyssey

7. The Age of Enlightenment
 Enlightenment – philosophical movement
 Age reflected the influence of the Enlightenment philosophers and writers like
Voltaire, Jean Jacques Rousseau or Denis Diderot in giving more importance to
reason, order, liberty and science.
 Enlightenment is the project to make the world more of a home for human beings –
through the use of reason
“Enlightenment is man’s release from his self-incurred tutelage”
- Immanuel Kant
 The Enlightenment is characterized by the belief of natural goodness of man: man
is perfectible, it is the idea of progress obtained through the use of reason.
 The Enlightenment included a range of ideas centered on the value of human
happiness, the pursuit of knowledge obtained by means of reason and the evidence
of senses, and ideals such as liberty, progress.

8. The Age of Enlightenment
 Thomas Hobbes wrote “Leviathan”
 In England, an English philosopher and physician John Locke,
commonly known as the “Father of Liberalism” wrote
“Essay concerning Human Understanding”
describing the mind of birth as a blank slate filled later through
experience.
 The later Enlightenment period is characterized by the
appearance of romantic sentiments in art and literature ans is
labeled the Age of Sensibility.

9. The Age of Enlightenment
 The enlightenment writers denounced the supernatural ideas,
they were progressive from the writers of previous periods.
 Exploration, individualism, scientific endeavor were forced which
turned into the development in industries, witnessing the
emergence of modern world.
 Skepticism in Church or King led to the questioning of all
traditional and rooted views and beliefs.
 Scientific revolution took place (Sir Isaac Newton, Kepler,
Galileo) [from geocentric theory to heliocentric theory]

10. The Age of Prose and Reason
 Matthew Arnold, the great poet and critic of Victorian Age, in his essay “The
study of Poetry” sums up the 18th century in English Literature as
“The Age of Prose and Reason, our excellent and indispensable 18th
century”
 Classicists consider literature as a tool to teach and reform the society rather
than to delight. They insist on teaching moral lessons to readers.
 The writers emphasized on Divine power – harmony, order, correctness and
application of reason.
 Formalist period – (importance to form over content) Dryden, Pope used
heroic couplet
 Importance to Poetic diction

11. The Age of Satire
 Satire is a literary technique in which behaviours or institutions are ridiculed
for the purpose of improving society. What sets satire apart from other
forms of social and political protest is humour. Satirists use irony and
exaggeration to poke fun at human faults and foolishness in order to correct
human behaviour.
 “The eighteenth century was dominated by satiric poetry, prose, and drama.
Satirists, as guardians of the culture, sought to protect their highly
developed civilization from corruption by attacking hypocrisy, arrogance,
greed, vanity, and stupidity”
 “In England, ‘this golden age’ of satire included Alexander Pope and
Jonathan Swift.

12. The Neo-Classical Age
Historical Background
Prepared by-
Kavisha Alagiya

13. Rise of Political Parties
 The Stuart dynasty ruled at the beginning of the Augustan period and was followed by the
Hanoverian dynasty. In the reign of Charles l, the terms Whig' and Tory' first became
current: by the year 1700 they were in everybody's mouth.
 About that time domestic politicians became sharply cleft into two groups that were
destined to become established as the basis of the political system. Domestic affairs. while
they never approached the stage of bloodshed and took on new acrimony that was to affect
literature deeply.
 The Whig party stood for the pre-eminence of personal freedom as opposed to the Tory view
of royal divine right.
 Hence the Whigs supported the Hanoverian succession, whereas the Tories were Jacobites.
 The Tories objected to the foreign war upon the score that they had to pay taxes to prolong
it and the Whigs, representing the trading classes generally, were alleged to be anxious to
continue the war, as it brought them increased prosperity. In the matter of religion, the
Whigs were Low Churchmen and the Tories High Churchmen.

14. Licensing Act 1737

15. Agricultural Revolution
 There was the invention of a few implements and gadgets that were used in
agriculture. such as reaping machine, harvesting machine and sowing
machine, etc. And this machinery made it necessary for landlords to
cultivate large expenses of land.
 Lands were evacuated and farms were collected and were enclosed into big
areas to cultivate with the help of machinery.
 The homeless people had to settle down in the outskirts and these places
eventually developed into towns.
 The Agricultural Revolution during this period paved the way for the
industrial revolution in the nineteenth century.

16. Periodicals
 The avalanche of political writing whetted the contemporary appetite for reading matter
generally and, in the increasing sophistication of its ironic and fictional manoeuvres,
assisted in preparing the way for the astonishing growth in popularity of narrative fiction
during the subsequent decades. It also helped fuel the other great new genre of the 18th
century: periodical journalism.
 After Defoe’s Review the great innovation in this field came with the achievements of
Richard Steele and Joseph Addison in The Tatler (1709–11) and then The Spectator (1711–
12).
 The first daily in England was the Daily Courant, published in 1701.
 There are other periodicals like Richard Steele's own Guardian, Daniel Defoe’s Review, then
Dr Johnson's Rambler and Gentleman's Magazine, etc.
 The periodicals were the vehicles for the periodical essays. The periodical essays was short,
prose pieces which provided some mild social criticism.

17. Periodicals
 There was a nominal proprietor in the fictitious club behind the periodical essays, such as the
Spectator had Spectator Club and the Tatler had the Trumpet Club.
 Periodical essays played an important role in bringing the novel to the fore front. The periodical
essayist like Defoe, Swift, Steele and Addison introduced characters and systematic
prose style which prepared ground for fictional writing
 Furthermore, as a result of the Licensing Act, the Restoration comedy ended. As
Restoration comedies were censored so people avoid watching the censored comedies.
 Sentimental comedies developed - full of crying situations pathetic heroines, very great
morality. The sentimental comedies were written by Richard Steele, Colley Cibber.
 The important writers were Kelly, Coleman, Cumberland. Eventually people lost interest.
 Keeping in mind people's interest, anti-sentimental comedies were written by
Goldsmith and Sheridan. There was a cult in the 18th century called the cult of
sentimentality or sensibility. Literature of Sensibility was written at this time. Even though they
gave a lot of importance to reason, sentiments and sensibility, in a negative way, was also
important.
 Pamela is an example of a novel of sensibility. (sentimental tragedies, sentimental comedies)

18. Refinement and Artificiality
“Outwardly men sought to refine their manners according to
prevailing standards; and to be elegant, to have "good form," was
a man's first duty, whether he entered society or wrote literature.
One can hardly read a book or poem of the age without feeling this
superficial elegance”
- observes W. J. Long.
 The literature of the age was concerned with the follies and foibles of the
times. Literature became an interpretation of life, the kind of life that was
led in the social and political circles of the times. Poetry became the poetry
of the town, the coffee – house and artificial society ; Pope’s The Rape of the
Lock is a classic example. The literature of the age lost all touch with the
country life and became the literature of the town.

19. The Neo-Classical Age
Literary Characteristics
Prepared by-
Kavisha Alagiya

20. “We are to regard Dryden as the puissant and
glorious founder, Pope as the splendid high
priest, of our age of prose and reason, of our
excellent and indispensable eighteenth century”
- Matthew Arnold (The Study of Poetry)

21. Introduction
 As the conflicts and enthusiasms of the mid-seventeenth century
receded into the past and English society and culture settled
down into a period of relative stability, London became more
and more the center of literary and intellectual life of country.
 Aristocracy in the old sense has been transmuted into gentility
and wealth becomes the main motivating power in society.
 In London, the coffeehouse replaces the Court as the meeting
place of men of culture.
 The old idealisms by which men had lived and over which they
had fought and died, appeared to be gone forever; men were more
civilized, more calculating, more complacent, more rational and
more respectable which became the subject of literature of the
period.
 Poetry in such a period worked within relatively narrow limits.
Gossip and tittle-tattle made their way into print.
Reason
Rationality
Artificiality
Formality
Accuracy
Correctness
Aristocracy

22. The Predominance of Prose
 In every preceding age we have noted especially the great forms of works,
which constitute according to Matthew Arnold, the glory of English
literature. Now for the first time we must chronicle the triumph of English
Prose.
 A multitude of practical interests arising from the new social and
political conditions demanded expression, not simply in books, but
more especially in pamphlets, magazines, and newspapers.
 There was a graceful elegance of Addison's essays, the terse vigour of
Swift's satires, the artistic finish of Fielding's novels, the sonorous
eloquence of Gibbon's history and of Burke's orations.

23. The Predominance of Prose
 Poetry itself became prosaic in nature. The poetry of the first
half of the century, as typified in the work of Pope, is polished and
witty enough and artificial.
 Swift, Addison, Steele, Defoe-- are those of prose-writers primarily of a
very high quality.
 Johnson made a significant contribution to the growth and refinement
of English prose by compiling the first Dictionary of the language and
by leaving in his ‘Lives of the Poets’ – “a monument of strong,
masculine, and dignified prose”
 The variety and excellence of prose works and the development of
prose style served to express clearly every human interest and
emotion. These are the chief literary glories of the 18th century.

24. Political Writing
 We have already noticed the rise of the two political parties, accompanied by an increased
acerbity of political passion. This development gave a fresh importance to men of literary
ability, for both parties competed for the assistance of their pens, bribed the authors with
places and pensions (or promises of them), and admitted them more or less deeply into
their counsels.
 In previous ages authors had had to depend on their patrons, often capricious beings, or
upon the length of their subscription lists; they now acquired an independence and an
importance that turned die heads of some of them.
 Hardly a writer of the time is free from the political bias. After being a Whig, Swift became a
virulent Tory; Addison was a tepid Whig; Steele was Whig and Tory in turn.
 Due to this union of politics with literature, there emerged a prevalent form ‘Satire’
 It was indeed the Golden Age of political pamphleteering, and the writers made the
most of it.

25. Satire
 Neo-classical age was an age of political unrest, sharp wit and personal
contention. For this reason, satire got a new importance.
 A satirist is like a labourer who clears away the ruins and rubbish
of an old house before the architect and builders begin on a new
and beautiful structure. The work may sometimes be necessary,
but it rarely arouses our enthusiasm.
 Nearly every writer of the first half of the century was used and rewarded
by Whigs or Tories for satirizing their enemies and for advancing their
special political interests.
 Dryden’s Mac Flecknoe which was written in heroic couplet is considered
as the best satire respectively.

26. Concept of Man
 Man had found himself in the long struggle for personal liberty; now he turned to the task
of discovering his neighbour, of finding in Whig and Tory, in Catholic and Protestant, in
Anglican and Dissenter, the same general human characteristics that he found in himself.
 The general and representative characteristics of mankind were reflected in literary works.
 Neo-classical poets constantly stress the need for man to recognize his limitations, not to
aspire beyond his reach or entertain exaggerated ambitions.
 As Pope puts it:
“Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of Mankind is Man.”
- Alexander Pope (Essay on Man)

27. The New Publishing Houses
 The interest in politics, and probably the decline in the drama, caused a great increase in
the size of the reading public. In its turn this aroused the activities of a number of men who
became the forerunners of the modern publishing houses.
 Such were Edmund Curll (1675-1747), Jacob Tonson (1656 (?)-1736), and John
Dunton (1659-1733). These men employed numbers of needy writers, who
produced the translations, adaptations, and other popular works of the time.
 It is unwise to judge a publisher by what authors say of him, but the universal
condemnation levelled against Curll and his kind compels the belief that they were a breed
of scoundrels who preyed upon authors and public, and (what is more remarkable) upon
one another.
 The miserable race of hack-writers--venomously attacked by Pope in The Dunciad--who
existed on the scanty bounty of such men lived largely in a thoroughfare near Moorfields
called Grub Street, the name of which has become synonymous with literary drudgery.

28. The New Morality
 The immorality of the Restoration, which had been almost entirely a
Court phenomenon and was largely the reaction against extreme
Puritanism, soon spent itself.
 The natural process of time was hastened by opinion in high quarters.
William III was a severe moralist, and Anne, his successor, was of
the same character. Thus we soon see a new tone in the writing of the
time and a new attitude to life and morals. Addison, in an early number of
The Spectator, puts the new fashion in his own admirable way: "I shall
endeavour to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with
morality." Another development of the same spirit is seen in the revised
opinion of women, who are treated with new respect and dignity.

29. Summing Up
 Artificial poetic diction, oratorical pomp and classical correctness
govern poetry in the Neo-classical period.
 Literature of this period differs from Elizabethan romanticism in
three respects: versification, diction, and subject matter.
Literature appeared like a well-bred, elderly gentleman
in ruffles and peruke, of polished but somewhat chilling
manners, who met all warmth of feeling with the frost of
etiquette.