The 17th and 18th(Neoclassical) Century 1625-1798

1. The 17th and 18th(Neoclassical) Century1625-1798 Mrs. Cumberland

2. A Turbulent Time: Historical Background • In 1649, the English shocked the world by beheading their king and abolishing the monarchy. • In the decades before the civil wars tore England apart, revolutions in science and religion had already unsettled people’s worldview.

3. Changes • The new astronomy had exiled the Earth from the center of the universe to the vastness of infinite space. • New religious creeds had altered or abolished the traditions of centuries. • John Donne wrote, with his newfound insecurity, “Tis all in pieces, all coherence gone.”

4. Monarch is Back • By the 1700s, though, a monarch was back on the throne, and a new, competitive society had sprung up, with a looser social structure and greater freedom in religion and politics.

5. Charles I and Parliament • Crowned in 1625 • Clashed with Parliament over money • King Charles needed money for his wars, and Parliament refused to fund them.

6. Loans? No Loans? • The king then extorted loans from his wealthy subjects and pressed the poor into service as soldiers and sailors. • Parliament tried to prevent such abuses of power, so Charles eventually dissolved Parliament and would not call it into session for 11yrs.

7. Religious Controversy • He insisted the clergymen “conform,” or observe all the ceremonies of the Anglican Church. • Puritans- Calvanists who wished to purify the Church of its Catholic traditions- were enraged by some of these requirements.

8. Torture • Puritans believed that each group of worshipers, moved by the members’ divinely granted consciences, had the right to choose its own minister- an idea dangerously close to democracy. For these and other ideas, “dissenters” were persecuted and tortured as criminals.

9. The Civil War • Charles’s problem grew worse after he was forced to fight Scottish rebels outraged by his insistence on religious conformity. • Desperate for money, he summoned a hostile Parliament • Parliament condemned Charles I as a tyrant in 1642 • Civil war broke out • In 1645, Parliament’s forces, led by Oliver Cromwell, defeated the royalist army and captured Charles

10. Cromwell Rules • Radical Puritans: dominated Parliament • Tried and convicted the king for treason • Charles I was beheaded on January 30, 1649 • Cromwell led the new government, called the English Commonwealth • He dissolved Parliament in 1653 and named himself Lord Protector • He ruled as a dictator until 1658 when he died

11. Outlawing • Civil war had not led to the free society that many who had fought against the king expected. • Hopes, economic hardship = unrest • The Commonwealth fueled discontent by outlawing • Gambling • Horse racing • Newspapers • Fancy clothes • Public dancing • The theater

12. The Restoration • By Cromwell’s death, England had had enough taxation, violence, and disorder. • In 1658, Parliament offered the crown to the exiled son of Charles I, who became Charles II in 1660. • The monarch was restored

13. In sharp contrast to the drab Puritan leaders, Charles II and his court copied the plush fashions of Paris • Charles • Avid patron of the arts and science • Invited Italian composers and Dutch painters to live and work in London.

14. European Political Thinkers

15. European Political Thinkers

16. European Political Thinkers

17. A Glorious Revolution • Charles II’s successor: James II • Devout Catholic. • Parliament invited Mary, the Protestant daughter of James II, to rule England jointly with her husband, William of Orange. • Rather than fight, James escaped to France • The people of England hailed the event as the “Glorious Revolution of 1688” because not a drop of blood had been shed.

18. 1689 Bill of Rights • William and Mary agreed to Parliaments Bill of Rights • This bill guaranteed Parliament the right to approve all taxes and forbade the monarch to suspend the law. • England thus attained a limited, or constitutional, monarchy.

19. Tories and Whigs • In ensuing decades, two political factions crystallized in Parliament: the conservative, aristocratic Tories and the Whigs, drawn largely from Britain’s growing merchant class. • A cabinet of ministers drawn from Parliament, and eventually unified under the leadership of a prime minister, began to rule the country.

20. An Agricultural Revolution • By the late 1600s, new farm tools made it possible for farms to produce much more food. • Population surged upward • Many people left the countryside • Growing towns • Became factory hands who ran the machines of the early Industrial Revolution

21. The Industrial Age • British inventions after 1750 made the spinning and weaving of cloth much more efficient. • The steam engine was perfected and adapted to run a power loom • Factories were built to produce vast quantities of cotton cloth • Merchants sold goods all over the world • As late as 1790s: most were still earning a living as farmers

22. The Enlightenment • The scientific revolution that made industry possible stemmed from a larger development in thought known as the Enlightenment. • Through reason and observation of nature, human beings could discover the order underlying all things

23. The Enlightenment • Sir Isaac Newton: study of gravity

24. The Enlightenment • Men, women, and children toiled at machines for 12-14 hr/day • Poor people crowded the towns and cities • By the late 1700s “progress”= misery • Writers and intellectuals began to lose faith in the ability of human reason to solve every problem

25. Efficiency and agriculture and industry had deep social consequences Rich landowners pushed ahead with enclosure, by which they took over and fenced off the common land formerly shared by peasant villagers. Farm output rose Profits rose because large fields needed fewer people to work them Small farmers were forced off their land because they could not compete with large landholders The jobless or landless farm workers migrate to the cities. Technology and Society Connections

26. Literature of the PeriodThe Schools of Jonson and Donne 17th and 18th Century

27. Ben Jonson ( 1572-1637) • Strove for the perfection and harmony he found in his beloved classical authors, turning away from the ornate style of Elizabethan times to create his own modern, strong voice. • He wrote poems, plays, and masques (court entertainments)

29. Ben Jonson • Took seriously the role of the poet • He believed, in fact, that no other profession could compare to it. • Poets, he wrote, encourage “young men to all good disciplines, inflame grown men to all great virtues and keep old men in their best and supreme state • “A person could not be a good poet without being a good man,” he asserted

30. Jonson Influences • His critical opinion exercised a powerful influence on other poets of the time. • Robert Herrick ( 1591-1674) • Sir John Suckling (1609-1642) • Richard Lovelace (1618-1657)

31. The Products of Jonson Robert Herrick Sir John Suckling Richard Lovelace

32. John Donne ( 1572-1631)

33. John Donne • Pioneered a new, witty, cerebral style later known as Metaphysical Poetry • Characterized by: • Unusual degree of intellectualism • Subtle arguments that raid the worlds of science, law, and philosophy for surprising but strangely accurate comparisons.

34. Examples of such… • “A Valediction of Weeping” • Compares his tears, which reflect his lover’s face, to coins that are stamped with her image • “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” • Compares parted lovers to the two legs of a drawing compass

35. Followers of Donne: • George Herbert ( 1593-1633) • Andrew Marvell ( 1621-1678)

36. George Herbert His mother was a friend of Donne’s His life parallels Donne’s Felt tension between worldly ambition and religious devotion Became an Anglican deacon Best poems are religious lyrics collected in “The Temple” Andrew Marvell Best lyrics blend the brilliance of Donne and the classical finish of Jonson Offer observations on nature, love, and God that, at first, seem urbane and perhaps conventional, but on closer inspection prove profound. His best known poem, “To His Coy Mistress” is one of the best lyrics in English literature. The Followers

37. The Puritan Writers • Perhaps the greatest poet of the 17th century was a Puritan, not a Cavalier: John Milton • The Puritan movement also produced the best-selling prose writer of the century, John Bunyan • Only the Bible sold more copies than Bunyan’s religious narrative, “The Pilgrim’s Progress.”

38. John Milton ( 1608-1674) • Learned disciple of Greek and Latin authors • Studied the Old Testament in Hebrew

39. Born to a prosperous middle-class family Studied at Cambridge Wrote political pamphlets for the Puritan cause when the battle between Charles I and Parliament was in the midst. Areopagitica ( Milton’s pamphlet): a ringing call for freedom of the press Supported the Commonewealth and Protectorate and defended the execution of Charles I. Milton lost hope of forming a just society on earth when Cromwell’s rule turned to dictatorship Milton

40. Timeline 1625- 1798 British Events/ World Events

41. 1627 Sir Francis Bacon publishes The New Atlantis 1628 Willam Harvey explains blood circulation 1633 John Donne’s Songs and Sonnets published 1635 Public mail service established 1637 John Milton publishes Lycidas 1600 Japan: Kabuki theater developed 1614 North America: Dutch found New Amsterdam British Events/ World Events

42. Events

43. 1640 Charles I summons Long Parliament 1642 English Civil War begins 1646 John Suckling publishes Fragmenta Aurea 1647 George Fox founds Society of Friends ( Quakers) 1649 Charles I beheaded; Puritans close theaters; Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector 1650 Early newspaper ads appear; Full-blown wigs come into fashion 1640 India: English settlement established in Madras 1640 North America: Bay Psalm Book published in Massachusetts 1643 France: Louis XIV becomes king 1650 North America: Anne Bradstreet’s collection of poems is published 1651 North America: William Bradford finishes Of Plymouth Plantation British Events/World Events

44. Events

45. 1658 Oliver Cromwell dies; Puritan government collapses 1660 Monarchy restored; theaters reopen 1666 Great Fire of London 1667 John Milton’s Paradise Lost published 1668 John Dryden publishes An Essay of Dramatic Poesy 1662 France: Louis XIV begins building palace of Versailles 1664 North America: Britain seizes New Netherlands 1666 Italy: Stradivari labels first violin British Events/World Events

46. Events

47. 1685 James II becomes king 1688 Glorious Revolution 1688 Bill of Rights becomes law 1702 First daily newspaper begins publication 1680 China: All ports open to foreign trade 1685 France: Louis XIV revokes Edict of Nantes, provoking persecution of Protestants 1690 India: Calcutta founded by British 1703 Russia: Peter the Great begins building St. Petersburg British Events/World Events

48. Events

49. 1712 Alexander Pope published The Rape of Lock 1714 George I becomes king 1719 Daniel Defoe publishes Robinson Crusoe 1726 Jonathan Swift publishes Gulliver’s Travels 1751 Thomas Gray publishes “Elegy in a Country Churchyard” 1715 France: Louis XV succeeds to throne 1721 Germany: Bach composes Brandenburg Concertos 1727 Brazil: First coffee planted 1752 North America: Benjamin Franklin invents lighting rod British Events/World Events

50. Events