Cavalier and Puritan Literature 1600–1660

The seventeenth century upto 1660 was dominated by Puritanism and it may be
called puritan Age or the Age of Milton, who was the noblest representative of the
puritan spirit. The puritan movement in literature may be considered as the second
and greater Renaissance marked by the rebirth of the moral nature of man. However
in the Age of Renaissance despotism was still the order of the day and there was
fanaticism in politics and religion.
The puritan movement stood for liberty of the people from the shakless of the
desposite ruler as well as the introduction of morality and high ideals in politics .Thus
it had two objects personal righteousness ,civil and religious liberty .In other words it
aimed of making men honest and free.
" Puritan Literature"
In the literature of the puritan Age we fined the same confusion as we find in religion
and politics.As there were no fixed literary standards, imitations of older poets and
exaggeration of the poets replaced the original, dignified and highly imaginative
compositions of the Elizabethan writers. The literature produced during this period so
called gloomy age ,as not of a higher order , however this age has the honour of
producing one great master of verse whose work would shed lustre on any age or
people. Jhon Milton, who was the noblest and indomitable representative of the
puritan spirit to which he gave a most lofty and enduring expression...
Puritan poetry:
The puritan poetry can be divided into three parts (1) poetry of School of Spancer
(2)poetry of the Metaphysical school, (3) poetry of the Cavalier poet.
1) School of Spencer:
The spenserians were the follower of Spencer. Inspite of the changing conditions and
revoult against Italian poetry which Spencer and Sidney had made fashionable during
the sixteenth century the preferred to follow the spenserians were the follower of
Spencer. Inspite of the changing conditions and revoult against Italian poetry which
Spencer and Sidney had made fashionable during the sixteenth century the preferred
to follow Spencer and considered him as their master.
Phines Fletcher(1582-1648) and Giles Fletcher (1583-1623). are the most important
poets of this school.They were both priests and fellows of Cambridge university.
Phineas Fletcher wrote a number of Spencerian pastorals and allegories. His most
important work is the poem " The purple Island".It is an allegorical poem and follows
the allegorical pattern of the Faerie Queen.
Giles Fletcher was more lyrical and super natural than his brother. He also choosed
his subjects for his poetry from Spencer subjects. His Christ's Victorie and Triumph
in Heaven and Earth over and after Death (1610), which is an allegorical poem is a
link between the religious poetry of spancer and Milton. Other writers who wrote
under the influence of Spencer were William Browne, George Wither and William
Drummond.
The cavalier poets sympathized the king. Some of them went into exile with the
king and the other stayed home in England. Some of them wrote elegant verse, more
light than serious, so that the term ‘cavalier poetry’ came to refer to a kind of light
lyric, often advocating a Carpe diem (seize the day) attitude. To “seize the day”
means to disregard the future so that one might expect the poets of this theme to
ignore religion. But life is not so simple. Some cavalier poets were also men of strong
religious faith, who neither wrote religious epics nor holy sonnets. The most
important poets of this school are Herrik, Carew, Lovelace, Suckling and Walter
Denham. The 17th century poet, Andrew Marvell managed a blend of metaphysical
and cavalier attitudes and techniques so neat and elegant that he has been classified
under both headings.
The Caroline lyric is the result of conscious effort. It is artificial. It is a work of art
characterized by finish, polish and elegance of language, but lacking the spontaneity
and absence of effort which characterized the Elizabethan lyric. It has a formal finish
and perfection, but is wanting in natural care and warmth of emotion.
It mirrors the mood and temper of the age. It is often coarse, licentious and indecent,
thus reflecting the coarseness and indecency of the courtly circles to which most of
the poets of this school belonged. The poets of this school again and again find the
various beauties of nature united in their beauty of their respective beloved. The
cavalier pets are great lovers of nature. They observe nature minutely and describe it
with feelings. Concrete, visual images drawn from the homelier and simpler objects
and forces of nature abound in their lyrics. The lyric is charming, but there is
something trivial and unsubstantial about it. In this respect again, it reflects the
triviality and frivolity of the life of the times.

J. Milton’s life and works.

John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was

an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem Paradise Lost, written in blank
verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux
and political upheaval. It addressed the fall of man, including the temptation of Adam
and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and God's expulsion of them from the Garden of
Eden. Paradise Lost is widely considered one of the greatest works of literature ever
written, and it elevated Milton's widely-held reputation as one of history's greatest
poets. He also served as a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under its
Council of State and later under Oliver Cromwell.
Writing in English, Latin, and Italian, Milton achieved global fame and recognition
during his lifetime; his celebrated Areopagitica (1644), written in condemnation
of pre-publication censorship, is among history's most influential and impassioned
defences of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. His desire for freedom
extended beyond his philosophy and was reflected in his style, which included his
introduction of new words (coined from Latin and Ancient Greek) to the English
language. He was the first modern writer to employ unrhymed verse outside of the
theatre or translations.
Milton is described as the "greatest English author" by biographer William
Hayley, and he remains generally regarded "as one of the preeminent writers in the
English language", though critical reception has oscillated in the centuries since his
death often on account of his republicanism. Samuel Johnson praised Paradise
Lost as "a poem which...with respect to design may claim the first place, and with
respect to performance, the second, among the productions of the human mind",
though he (a Tory) described Milton's politics as those of an "acrimonious and surly
republican". Milton was revered by poets such as William Blake, William
Wordsworth, and Thomas Hardy.
Phases of Milton's life parallel the major historical and political divisions in Stuart
Britain at the time. In his early years, Milton studied at Christ's College at
the University of Cambridge, one of the world's most prestigious universities, and
then travelled, wrote poetry mostly for private circulation, and launched a career
as pamphleteer and publicist under Charles I's increasingly autocratic rule and
Britain's breakdown into constitutional confusion and ultimately civil war. While
once considered dangerously radical and heretical, Milton contributed to a seismic
shift in accepted public opinions during his life that ultimately elevated him to public
office in England. The Restoration of 1660 and his loss of vision later deprived
Milton much of his public platform, but he used the period to develop many of his
major works.
Milton's views developed from extensive reading, travel, and experience that began
with his days as a student at Cambridge in the 1620s and continued through
the English Civil War, which started in 1642 and continued through 1651. By the
time of his death in 1674, Milton was impoverished and on the margins of English
intellectual life but famous throughout Europe and unrepentant for political choices
that placed him at odds with governing authorities.

Upon receiving his M.A. in 1632, Milton retired to Hammersmith, his father's new
home since the previous year. He also lived at Horton, Berkshire, from 1635 and
undertook six years of self-directed private study. Hill argues that this was not retreat
into a rural idyll; Hammersmith was then a "suburban village" falling into the orbit of
London, and even Horton was becoming deforested and suffered from the plague. He
read both ancient and modern works of theology, philosophy, history, politics,
literature, and science in preparation for a prospective poetical career. Milton's
intellectual development can be charted via entries in his commonplace book (like a
scrapbook), now in the British Library. As a result of such intensive study, Milton is
considered to be among the most learned of all English poets. In addition to his years
of private study, Milton had command of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, Spanish, and
Italian from his school and undergraduate days; he also added Old English to his
linguistic repertoire in the 1650s while researching his History of Britain, and
probably acquired proficiency in Dutch soon after. Milton continued to write poetry
during this period of study; his Arcades and Comus were both commissioned
for masques composed for noble patrons, connections of the Egerton family, and
performed in 1632 and 1634 respectively. Comus argues for the virtuousness
of temperance and chastity. He contributed his pastoral elegy Lycidas to a memorial
collection for one of his fellow-students at Cambridge. Drafts of these poems are
preserved in Milton's poetry notebook, known as the Trinity Manuscript because it is
now kept at Trinity College, Cambridge.
In May 1638, accompanied by a manservant, Milton embarked upon a tour of France
and Italy for 15 months that lasted until July or August 1639. His travels
supplemented his study with new and direct experience of artistic and religious
traditions, especially Roman Catholicism. He met famous theorists and intellectuals
of the time, and was able to display his poetic skills. For specific details of what
happened within Milton's "grand tour", there appears to be just one primary source:
Milton's own Defensio Secunda. There are other records, including some letters and
some references in his other prose tracts, but the bulk of the information about the
tour comes from a work that, according to Barbara Lewalski, "was not intended as
autobiography but as rhetoric, designed to emphasise his sterling reputation with the
learned of Europe."
He first went to Calais and then on to Paris, riding horseback, with a letter from
diplomat Henry Wotton to ambassador John Scudamore. Through Scudamore, Milton
met Hugo Grotius, a Dutch law philosopher, playwright, and poet. Milton left France
soon after this meeting. He travelled south from Nice to Genoa, and then
to Livorno and Pisa. He reached Florence in July 1638. While there, Milton enjoyed
many of the sites and structures of the city. His candour of manner and erudite neo-
Latin poetry earned him friends in Florentine intellectual circles, and he met the
astronomer Galileo who was under house arrest at Arcetri, as well as others. Milton
probably visited the Florentine Academy and the Accademia della Crusca along with
smaller academies in the area, including the Apatisti and the Svogliati. He left
Florence in September to continue to Rome. With the connections from Florence,
Milton was able to have easy access to Rome's intellectual society. His poetic
abilities impressed those like Giovanni Salzilli, who praised Milton within an
epigram. In late October, Milton attended a dinner given by the English College,
Rome, despite his dislike for the Society of Jesus, meeting English Catholics who
were also guests—theologian Henry Holden and the poet Patrick Cary. He also
attended musical events, including oratorios, operas, and melodramas. Milton left
for Naples toward the end of November, where he stayed only for a month because of
the Spanish control. During that time, he was introduced to Giovanni Battista Manso,
patron to both Torquato Tasso and to Giambattista Marino. Originally, Milton wanted
to leave Naples in order to travel to Sicily and then on to Greece, but he returned to
England during the summer of 1639 because of what he claimed in Defensio
Secunda were "sad tidings of civil war in England." Matters became more
complicated when Milton received word that his childhood friend Diodati had died.
Milton in fact stayed another seven months on the continent, and spent time
at Geneva with Diodati's uncle after he returned to Rome. In Defensio Secunda,
Milton proclaimed that he was warned against a return to Rome because of his
frankness about religion, but he stayed in the city for two months and was able to
experience Carnival and meet Lukas Holste, a Vatican librarian who guided Milton
through its collection. He was introduced to Cardinal Francesco Barberini who
invited Milton to an opera hosted by the Cardinal. Around March, Milton travelled
once again to Florence, staying there for two months, attending further meetings of
the academies, and spending time with friends. After leaving Florence, he travelled
through Lucca, Bologna, and Ferrara before coming to Venice. In Venice, Milton was
exposed to a model of Republicanism, later important in his political writings, but he
soon found another model when he travelled to Geneva. From Switzerland, Milton
travelled to Paris and then to Calais before finally arriving back in England in either
July or August 1639.

Milton died on 8 November 1674 and was buried in the church of St Giles-without-
Cripplegate, Fore Street, London. However, sources differ as to whether the cause of
death was consumption or gout. According to an early biographer, his funeral was
attended by "his learned and great Friends in London, not without a friendly
concourse of the Vulgar." A monument was added in 1793, sculpted by John Bacon
the Elder.