Puritan Literature

Puritanism was a very powerful religious as well as literary movement. It was a reaction against
royal despotism, religious intolerance, and lack of personal righteousness. The Puritan literature
whether it is prose or poetry reveals the passion and the principles, the feelings and sentiments of
the age in which Puritanism was a dominant movement. The period witnessed the brilliants poets
and prose writers like John Milton, John Bunyan, and John Donne. Their writings show a
marked difference from that of the preceding age. The Puritan literature exhibits the political
upheavals, the quarrel between the crown and the Parliament, the religious diversity, and the
conflicts between the Anglican Church, and the non -conformist. Elizabethan literature as a
whole sings the glories of the age and further it is as a whole romantic, hopeful, and filled with
vitality, there is no note of sadness or gloom wheres as Puritan literature is distinct for its critical
intellectual spirit and lack of romantic ardour.
John Milton: He was a staunch puritan and had been one of Cromwell’s secretaries. Though a
puritan, it is wrong to conclude that he hated the pleasures of life. His early poems are ‘L’
Allegro, Il Renseroso Comus, and Lycidas. , His prose is 'Areopagitica', his later poems are the
world-famous epics paradise Lost', 'Paradise Regained' and 'Samson Agonistes'. 'L' Allegro'
expresses one of the moods of his mind which is a happy one. state poem is like an excursion
into an English village at sunrise, the air sweet; birds sing, the sights and sounds fill the poet's
heart. "Il Renseroso expresses another mood of the mind. He becomes thoughtful and sad. It
again deals with the rustic description at sunset; the gay mood is gone; the poet becomes
thoughtful and is almost sad.

Comus (1634) is Milton's pastoral drama. It lacks a dramatic sense and feeling for the stage.
Milton's didactic tendency is very obvious in the play. It is also a masque. Its theme is that virtue
and innocence can walk through any peril of this world without permanent Tarm. The Triumph
of Virtue' would be a better name for this masque.

Lycidas' (1637) is a pastoral elegy mourning the death of one of his college friends. He and his
friends are represented as shepherds leading the pastoral life. The poem also strongly denounces
the religious persecution of the Puritans.

*Areopagitica' (1644) is Milton's vehement plea for the freedom of the press. In Milton's time,
the books could be published only with the approval of an official censor who was only an
instrument in the hands of the ruling classes and church officials. So he banned books that were
displeasing to the authorities. Paradise Lost (1667) com of twelve books and is one of the
world-famous epics. Its main theme is the Fall of Man and in the treatment of the Fall, he meant
to conde the mental levity of man who forgets the importance of his action Adam and Eve are
punished for what they consider to be a trifling m Milton's treatment of the fall yields the
obvious meaning that it is the first business of man to understand the issues of life and to be an of
the importance of every trivial act. Milton is the mouthpiece of God and his place is that of a
good teacher and moralist.

Paradise lost" is a colossal epic, not of a man but of the whole race of man. With a superhuman
imagination, he portrays the splendor of heaven, the horrors of hell, the serene beauty of
Paradise. It is written in blank verse.

"Paradise Regained' is the second part of a great epic that he wrote at the suggestion of his friend.
The first tells how mankind in the person of Adam fell at the first temptation by Satan and
became an outcast from Paradise and divine grace. The second shows how mankind in the person
of Christian withstands the temper and is established once more in the divine favour.

Samson Agonistes (1671) is a tragedy after the model of Greek tragedies. It is Milton's own
story. Samson, the mighty champion of Israel is now blind and working as a slave among the
Philistines. His sorrow and affliction are Milton's own sorrow and affliction. Like Samson, he
had struggled mightily against the enemies of his race; he had taken a wife from the Philistines
and had paid the penalty: he was. blind, alone, and scorned by his own men. It is convincingly
true because of personal touches. Milton is in his old age, blind, and contempt for the woman as
deceitful and untrustworthy. As Samson was betrayed by his wife Dalila so Milton is betrayed by
his wife.
John Bunyan
He was an extreme Puritan and was sentenced to jail for twelve years for preaching the Puritanic
creed. He began his great puritanic epic Pilgrim’s Progress when he was in jail. The book is a
classical example of allegory in the English language and it is completely based on Bible.
Spencer’s The Fairy Queen, Dante’s Divine Comedy, and Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress are the
three world-famous allegories. Pilgrim’s Progress has been translated into more than seventy-five
languages and dialects. The Pilgrim represented is a Puritan whose spiritual conflicts is well
depicted in the book. He makes a pilgrimage from the City of Destruction to the Holy city which
stands for heaven. The Puritan revolution is justified on the ground that people obtained political
independence from the despotic monarchy. The poor pilgrim seeking salvation depending on the
Bible alone and asking 'what shall I do' is representative of the Puritan feeling of despair and
disappointment in the horrible political and religious conditions of 17th century England. The
pilgrim passes through dangerous paths in his search for salvation, the dangers are the dangers of
17th century England. The book is famous for its burning sincerity, vivid description, beautiful
prose, and style similar to that of the Bible.
Metaphysical Poets

The term 'metaphysical' is used to denote the most distinguished being characteristic of the
poetry of Donne and those who were influenced by him namely George Herbert (1593-1633),
and Henry Vaughan (1622-1695). Thomas Carew (1598-1639) Richard Crashaw 1613-1649),
Andrew Marvell (1621-1678), and Abraham Cowley 1618-1667). The term was applied to them
by Dr. Johnson at the suggestion of Dryden. The term metaphysical does not mean philosophical
when it is applied to this school of poetry. It means that their poetry is more intellectual and they
use learned imagery and there is a peculiar blend of passion and thoughts in them. According to
Joan Bennet, the term metaphysical refers more to style than to subject matter. Their style is
characterised by their ability to find a connection between their emotional and mental concepts
and the connections they perceive are more logical than sensuous. They connect the abstract with
the concrete, the remote with the near, and the sublime with the commonplace. Metaphysical
poems are brief, lightly organised, and fully concentrated on an idea. It is often an expanded
epigram. The most striking feature of metaphysical poetry is its fondness for conceits. A conceit
is a comparison. In metaphysical poetry, a conceit is always purposeful and not decorative. It is a
farfetched comparison between two seemingly discordant qualities. The most heterogeneous
ideas are joked by violence together, says Dr. Johnson.
Though Dr. Johnson criticised the metaphysical poets as T.S.Eliot praised to the sky the
metaphysical and their poerty. They could use far-fetched comparisons and imageries just
because of their poetic wits and poetic sensibility. The wide learning of the metaphysical poets
had become a part of their poetic sensibility and it was of extreme value to them in discovering
universal analogy in the midst of diverse kinds of experience. What we admire in them is their
ability to communicate a unified experience. In metaphysical poetry, conceits help the poet to
bring together emotion, sense, impressions, and thoughts. The connection between two things is
perceived by the intellect, the metaphysical wits. The wit of the metaphysical poets can be
described in the words of T. S Eliot as a mechanism of sensibility which could devour any kind
of experience, simple, artificial, difficult, or fantastic. The wit of the metaphysical shows their
love for learning and Dr. Johnson’s saying that ‘ to show their learning was their whole
endeavor” cannot be justified. Their wit does not only show itself in far-fetched comparisons and
ingenious connections but also it is very much connected with the day-to-day experience.
Donne is an intellectual realist and he is one of those few poets who have given to be human
intellect a place of honour in poetry, but in his poetry intellect is not divorced from emotions and
feelings and in his best poetry, emotions and intellect are blended together in a poetically
convincing manner. Dryden praised Donne for expressing deep thoughts in a common language.
He is a poetic innovator who rebelled against his age. He broke away from the Elizabethans in
the subject matter and poetic techniques. Most of the Elizabethan low poetry was conventional,
highly idealized, and sentimentalized; but Donne's love poetry is realistic, sometimes cynical, or
brutal. He preferred a line of eight syllables to a line of ten syllables as among the Elizabethans
and employed lines of varying length in their stanzas. The form of poetry was not an end in itself
or of equal importance with what they had to say. They were more concerned with the meaning
of the poem than its form.

Modern poetry owes much to the poetry of Donne and his school. One of the features of
modern poetry is its revival of interest in the poetry of Donne and his school. Modern poets like
T.S.Eliot, W.H. Auden, Dylan Thomas, and W.B. Yeats have adopted their poetic technique and
style. It is the quality of intellectuality in the poetry of Donne that attracts modern poets.
His poetry appeals to the modern because it reveals our own hopes and fears and
frustrations created by our sense of insecurity in a world in which private and public morality has
failed to keep pace with scientific progress.

Restoration England (1660 to 1688):

The Restoration of 1660 was a return to the ancient form of government by the king, Lords, and
Commons. The English, fed up with the constitutional experiments of the Puritans, welcomed
Charles II back to the throne. He was extremely popular because of his good looks, wit, and good
humour.
The term 'Restoration' refers not only to the restoration of the monarchy but also to the
restoration of the Church of England and of the old social hierarchy and customs. An extreme
reaction was witnessed against the strict morality of the Puritans. The Restoration period, coming
as it did after eleven years of enforced morality, became synonymous with licentiousness and
loose living. The court of Charles II was the center of gaiety and colour, where wit and
cleverness were valued more than wisdom and integrity.
There was evidence of the Restoration in three areas: politically, it restored the king, the
Parliament, and its laws in place of a military dictatorship; ecclesiastically, it restored the
position of the bishop. the Prayer Book and the Anglican Church in place of Puritanism; socially,
it restored the nobles and the gentry their hereditary place as the acknowledged leaders of local
and national life.

With the Restoration in 1660, the monarchy was restored, but it was a very different kind of
monarchy. The Restoration brought about many changes in the powers of the Crown and the
Parliament. The
monarch's powers were limited greatly, and those of the Parliament increased. The king was
entirely dependent on the parliament’s money. He granted a general pardon to all the old
Roundheads, except those who had actually taken part in the execution of Charles I. The
Ironside army (Cromwell's cavalry) was paid off and dismissed. It was decided that no king
could keep a standing army during peacetime.

Restoration Theatre

The great period of Shakespearean drama came to a close with the civil war due to the bigotry of
the Puritans. As all the theatres were closed down by them there was little new development in
drama: When Charles ll came back with the Restoration of 1660, the theatres were opened. The
Restoration drama and theatres were very much different from Shakespearean drama and theatre.
The Shakespearean theatre was open to the sky and had no artificial lighting whereas the
Restoration theatre was a roofed one and the stage was artificially lighted with candles. The stage
was a roofed platform and the audience witnessed the play from three sides. The wealth paid to
sit and the ordinary spectator witnessed the play standing on the ground or pit. The Restoration
period made use of painted scene virtue curtains to indicate the change of scenery: women
characters were permitted on the stage.

Restoration Drama:

Restoration is an age of drama and it is suited to the taste of the people of the time. It was
definitely inferior to the depth and range of Elizabethan drama because the individual talent was
dependent on the external forces of the environment and tradition. The Elizabethan drama was
not appealing to the Restoration people who were very self-conscious. It was Samuel Pepy who
remarked in his 'Diary after seeing Shakespeare's 'Mid-summer Night's Dream that it is the most
insipid ridiculous play that I ever saw in my life. Restoration drama represents the age in which it
is written. The most important dramatists of this period were John Dryden, Wycherley,
Congreve, Vanbrugh, and so on and almost all of them wrote comedies. Restoration comedy is
called' Comedy of Manners' as Lamb called it because it paid attention to the life and manners,
love intrigues, and sexual attraction of the upper and aristocratic classes of the society.

The Restoration comedy evolved as a reaction to the old ideals of Elizabethan drama and
particularly the Puritan rigidity of life. Puritanism banned the enjoyment of even the legitimate
pleasures of life like singing and painting. For a generation, many natural pleasures were
suppressed. Now the theatres were opened, a wild delight in the pleasures and vanities of this
world replaced that absorption in other worldliness' which characterized the extreme of
Puritanism. The main object of the writer of this period was, therefore, to revive all the pleasures
of life through their writings'. Wycherley's 'Country Wife' is a typical reaction to virtue, for them
it is hypocrisy. Sir George Etherege in The Man of Mode and William Congreve in his The Old
Bachelor' and 'The Way of the World. Portray the life activities of frivolous young men and
women. The scenes of these comedies are generally laid in cafes, chocolate houses, clubs, and
gambling centers where the gay ladies and gentlemen of the time assembled, and sex and love
were carried out in a secret manner. The Restoration dramatists were realist, they tried to present
men exactly as they are; their vices were more projected than their virtues. They wrote without a
moral significance; they saw only the externals of man, his body and appetites, not his soul and
his ideals. The drama was purely a medium of entertainment.

The Restoration dramatists were classicists. Instead of the extravagance of thought and language
in the Elizabethan age, they adopted a formalism of style. In the adoption of this classical style,
they were influenced by French writers like Pascal, Corneille, Racine, and Moliere because of
their long stay in France in the days of the commonwealth. On their return, they renounced the
old ideals and demanded that English poetry and drama should follow new ideas and new styles.
They established certain set rules in writing, short clear-cut sentences without unnecessary
words. They adopted a simple style that could be easily understood by the public. They believed
that a writer is essentially a man from the society and he wrote about politics, war, religion, and
scientific progress that might interest the society in which he lived. The Restoration comedy has
four features viz, a tendency to vulgar realism, a general formalism, simple style, and it is written
heroic couplet.

Writers like Charles Lamb praised Restoration comedy on the ground that Restoration
comedy expressed not licentiousness but deep curiosity and desire to try new ways of living. But
Dr. Johnnson criticized the comedy. However, the Comedy of Manners cannot have a lasting
influence because it only presents one side of life, the object of life is only pleasure-seeking. It
does not deal with a subject matter of high seriousness and universal applicability.

John Dryden (1631-1700)

By far the most outstanding dramatist, poet, and critic Restoration period were John Dryden. He
is the best exponent of heroic drama which like an epic celebrates a great action of a great hero
in a very elaborate and elevated style. Dryden himself defined it." A heroic play ought to be an
imitation little of a heroic poem and consequently, love and valour ought to be the subject of it.
Though it was Sir William Davenant who introduced the heroic play into England, Dryden
popularised it. If the play ends in disaster, called a heroic tragedy. Dryden's 'All For Love' is a
heroic tragedy. is based on Shakespeare’s 'Antony and Cleopatra' where the hero is in a situation
in which his passionate love conflicts with honour and his patriotic duty and finally chose the
former abandoning kingdom for the sake of love. It is written in blank verse. The men and
women of these heroic dramas are supermen and superwomen and their master passions are
super love and super honour. The heroic drama is known for unreal characterisation, the
inconsistency in motivation, extravagance, and sensationalism in a plot that celebrates the
exploits of peat princes and generals. Dryden as a satirist wrote Absalom and Achilophel. In the
poem, Absalom is Duke of Monmouth and Achilophel is Shaftesbury Absalom is the illegitimate
son of David and Achilophel is one of the ministers of David who formed an opposition against
the ministry of David.

Dryden wrote many religious poems. Religio Laici (1682) is a religious poem where he defends
the Anglican Church against all other sects especially the Catholics and Presbyterians. When
James II came to the throne and established the Roman faith, Dryden turned a Catholic and wrote
his famous religious poem. The Hind and the Panther' where the hind is a symbol for the Roman
Church and the Anglican as a panther persecuting the faithful.

Dryden was a critic also. The best-known criticisms are The preface to the Fables, Of Heroic
Plays' 'Discourse on Satire' and Essay of Dramatic Poesy'. He was a classicist and the classical
of the 18th century looked to Dryden as their leader and to him, they owe the tendency to the
exactness of expression.
Joseph Addison and Richard Steele:

These two men were responsible for popularising the periodical essays in the 18th century.
Essays began to appear in renowned periodicals like The Tatler and The spectator'. Steele started
The Tatler, in 1709 with the purpose of exposing false arts of life and recommending a general
simplicity in dress, discourse, and behaviour. It came to an end in 1711. Addison who was a
frequent contributor to the Tatler began The Spectator' in 1711. Its objective was to enliven
morality with wit and temper wit with morality and to bring philosophy out of closets, libraries,
schools, and colleges to dwell in clubs and assemblies, at tea tables and coffee houses. He wrote
with a deliberate social purpose to teach the 18th century, how it should and how should not
behave in public places from the churches to the theatres, what books it should like and how it
should like them; how it should treat its lovers, mistresses, husbands, wives, parents, and friends.
The essays dealt with literary subjects too. It was Sir Roger de Coverley who spoke on behalf of
them. He is the best spokesman of the time. It is a very fictitious humorous character, the
creation of both Addison and Steele, and appears in both The Tatler and the Spectator. The critics
do believe that Steele was the original genius of Sir Roger and a constant provider of thoughts to
Addison who perfected and published the essays by incorporating the thoughts supplied by
Steele. He wrote in a simple style, middle style, between the classic and the free easy speech of
every day. Dr. Johnson comments on his style "Whoever wishes to attain an English style,
familiar but not coarse, elegant but not ostentatious must give his days and nights to the volumes
of Addison".

These two magazines within a period of four years in which Addison and Steele worked together
were established as one of the most important forms of literature and won their place as the
expression of the social life of London.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)

He was born in Dublin to English parents. His father died before he was born. His mother was
poor. He was educated at Dublin University. For some years he worked as a clergyman, as no
other living was open to him.
His first book of satire was The Battle of the Books' which he wrote in support of his patron Sir
Temple who had aroused criticism on the publication of his book 'Essay on Ancient and Modern
learning in which he asserted the superiority of the ancient over the modern.

'A Tale of a Tub' is a satire on various churches of the day Roman Catholicism and Puritanism
and he defends the Anglican Church as representing true religion;

Gulliver's Travels, published in 1726 is considered to be Swift's greatest work. It is a

comprehensive satire on man portraying him as an essentially selfish, corrupt, and irrational
creature comprised of four sections, each describing a fanciful voyage undertaken by Lemuel
Gulliver, a native of Nottinghamshire. First Gulliver goes to Lilliput, the land of dwarfs. Their
acts and motives are also dwarfish. What we see here is the littleness and selfishness of
humanity. So too is the vanities of Gulliver who thinks about himself as more civilized rational
and noble than the people of Lilliput. Gulliver then goes to the land of giants, Brobdingnag
where everything is done on an enormous scale. By transporting the readers from a land of
dwarfs to a land of giants swift arrives at the philosophical principle that nothing is great or little
otherwise by comparison. Swift looks at a man from a lower and higher position. What we see
here again is the meanness of humanity in view of the greatness of these superior beings. Swift
has shown that mankind for all their boasted civilization is uncivilized, uncultured, and selfish.
Gulliver who thought of himself as more civilized, rational, and noble than Lilliputs is
disillusioned.

Gulliver then goes to Laputa and this is a satire on all the impractical mathematicians, scientists,
and intellectuals. The scientists are busy extracting sunshine from cucumbers, an architect trying
a new method of constructing homes by beginning at the roof and working downwards to the
foundation, and the mathematics teacher trying out an ingenious method of teaching the students
by writing mathematical propositions on a wafer and asking the students to swallow it up are all
fine examples of impractical intellectuals.

In the fourth voyage Gulliver goes to the land of two creatures - the Houyhnhnms and Yahoos,
the former are horses that are beautiful and graceful in appearance untouched by evils like greed,
selfishness, malice, hatred, and lust and endowed with reason, benevolence, and other virtues.
The Yahoos are ugly creatures who have a physical resemblance to man. He is the incarnation of
all evils. He is a man himself. He hated the yahoos, but by hating the yahoos he was detesting
himself.

The directness of vigour and simplicity are the two hallmarks of his prose. His marvelous power
to observe things and present them realistically in the most convincing manner has never been
surpassed in English languages.
Daniel Defoe (1661-1731)

He was born in England as the son of a London butcher. Four things can be said about him and
his works. First, he was a man who continued to work for the common people. Hence his works
are very popular. Secondly, he was a radical non-conformist in religion. His The Shortest Way
with the Dissenters is a plea to defend the dissenters against the Anglicans. Thirdly Defoe was a
journalist and pamphleteer, he wrote many pamphlets, poems, and magazine articles. His The
Review marks the turning point in the history of our journalism and periodical literature.
Fourthly Defoe knew prison life. His knowledge about prison life and the criminals accounted
for the numerous stories of thieves and pirates like Jonathan Wild and Captain Avery'. With the
publication of 'Robinson Crusoe' (1719) his fame spread far and wide and it was followed by
other fictions like Captain Singleton’s (1720) Moll Flanders' (1722) Colonel Jacque (1722) and
'Roxana' (1724). Defoe's outlook on the novel is best illustrated through 'A Journal of the Plague
year'; he regarded the novel as a true relation' and even when the element of fact decreases, he
maintains the close realism of pseudo fact. He writes with a knowledge of his audience mainly
the Puritan middle classes and selects themes that will have an immediate appeal to them. These
two conditions are satisfied in his fiction and always he has an eye for the detail and writes in a
direct narrative, and simple style. The combination of these qualities has given Robinson Crusoe'
its immediate and continuous appeal. The story had its basis in fact in the adventures of
Alexander Selkirk, the sailor who lived alone for years on the island of Juan Fernandez and this
initial circumstance is supported by Defoe's wide reading in works of travel and by his own
multifarious experience. The skill of the novel lies in its detail, in the semblance of the
authenticity. Defoe's 'Robinson Crusoe' and 'Moll Flanders' are picaresque in type in the sense
that they are a sequence of episodes held together largely because they happened to one person:
and Moll is herself a colourful female version of the old Picaro. Picaro is Spanish for 'rogue' and
the typical story has for its subject the escapades of an insouciant rascal who lives by his wits
and shows little of any alteration of character through the long succession of his adventures;
Picaresque fiction is realistic in manner, episodic in structure and usually satiric in aim.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): He was born in England, in the year of the Glorious Revolution
parents were Catholics. Due to his prejudice against the Catholics received very little school
education. As he did not get any desirable employment, he began to live by writing poetry. The
works of the Pope can be divided into three groups correspond ng to the early, middle, and later
periods of his life. In the first period wrote his "Pastorals', Windson Forest, Essay on Criticism
and Rape of the Lock. In the second period there are his translations of Homer and in the third
period 'Dunciad and the Epistles, the latter containing the famous Essay on Man' and the 'Epistle
to Dr.Arbuthnot.
The 'Pastorals' were written at the age of sixteen and were blished in 1709. They were written in
the style of Virgil and meant the seasons of the year. It is a poem dealing with the life of mm the
shepherds or with country life in a conventional manner. "Windsor mystery forest is an attempt
to combine a description of the countryside and eld-sports with the historical and literary
association of the area. But nature description is conventional; he looked at Nature through the
on, the spectacles of books, and hence the descriptions he gave in Windsor s and Forest were
more artificial than real.

Essay on Criticism' is a fine criticism of poetry; it just sums up the art of poetry as taught by
Horace and then Boileau. It is a written heroic couplet and is generally considered as a
storehouse of critical maxims like To err is human, to forgive divine. "A little ng in knowledge is
a dangerous thing' and 'for fools rush in where angels were ear to tread' and so on.

The Duncan is again a revengeful satire upon all the literary men of the age who aroused Pope's
anger by their criticism. Essay more on Man' is a philosophical poem divided into four epistles
concerning man's relation to the universe, to himself, to society, and to happiness. The purpose of
the essay in Pope's own words is to vindicate the ways of God to Man'. His 'Epistle to Dr.
Arbuthnot' is the Pope's estimate of himself.