John Dryden   (1631 – 1700)

Dryden might not be a great writer but there is something interesting about him. Through his works we can get a perfect image of his period and all aspects of social life. The son of a gentleman, he was born in a village. His family had strong Puritan tendencies. He had an acceptable education in Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge. He went to London to raise his position, secretary to Sir Gilbert Peckering, chamberlain to Cromwell and married the daughter of Earl of              , Lady Elizabeth Howard. He inherited a state from his father and a salary from his office also a dowry of the lady.

The first important piece of writing composed by him was a poetic praise:        "Heroique Stanza", written on commemoration of Cromwell. After one year he wrote another poem which welcomed Charles II to the throne: "Astraea Redux",      a welcome poem.

Dryden changed in ideas when Charles II came to the throne but remained unchanged when William and Mary came to the throne. He was not a political turn coat i.e. the person who takes side wherever his interests are. About Dryden            Dr. Johnson said: "If he changed he changed by nation." His works are divided in different categories and genres:

1. Occasional Poems

 They depend on certain occasions. For instance: "Heroique Stanzas" and          

 "Astaea Redux".

2. Plays

They were performed in the reopened theaters. He was not a great playwright but

 became a model for his contemporaries. His plays are as follows:

A. Heroic Plays

    "Indian Queen"

         "Indian Emperor"

     B. Comedies

         "The Wild Gallant"

     C. Tragicomedies

          "Marriage a-la-Mode"

          "The Secret Love"

     D. Great Tragedy

           "All for Love",  a glimpse of his plays.

3. Critical Essays

    "Of Dramatic Poesie"

It is an argument among four writers, each of whom defends certain kind of drama:

classical, French, Elizabethan and Restoration drama. The writer discusses the

theoretical principles in all of them, gives his opinion about drama and defends

Shakespeare's and Johnson's drama.

4. Formal Verse Satires

The best-known of which is his masterpiece:

 A. "Absalom and Achitophel", an allegory about the Popish Plot.

 B. "The Medal", a final attack on Earl of Shaftsbury.

A year after Charles II's coming to the throne, Dryden confirmed to Catholicism up to the end of his life. He was appointed as Poet Laureate for 15 years by Charles. After his conversion to Catholicism, Dryden lost all his offices and became poor but he defended his ideas and wrote a book in defense of them:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   "The Hind and the Panther", an allegory in which he chooses different animals to represent different religious sects. He discusses a philosophical and political subject matter in this work. "Hind" is a milky-white female deer, and here it stands for the Catholic Church of Rome and "Panther" represents the Anglican Church.

Alexander Pope   (1688 – 1744)

He was born in 1688, the same year in which the Glorious or Bloodless Revolution took place and William and Mary came to the throne. William was a Dutch prince, an ardent Protestant. They were childless, so again there was the problem of a successor coming to the throne. When the time was ripe for another royal successor, (Queen Anne was Anglican) none of them were alive. Thus the powerful officials of England had to find a king; meanwhile James II and his son sought of a second Restoration to come to the throne but they were unsuccessful.

Pope was born exactly at the time of the settlement of Protestants i.e. William and Mary. He had many disabilities; he was born into a Catholic family while Catholicism was the worst kind of faith a person may have in that period of Protestantism. When he was born Catholics were not allowed to go to university or to have any official posts and had to pay taxes. He was born a sickly child with a dwarfed-like stature and ugly appearance. At 12, he suffered a terrible headache and needed another one to come over his disabilities and to do his activities. He took refuge in books which was the best to support him from all his disabilities. He covered all sorts of them, modern, classical, in origin and in translation. At 16, he wrote his best poems titled: "Pastorals". They are nature and especially gardening poems. Pope was a painter and had sympathy toward nature. He had a versified critical essay titled: "Essay on Criticism" in which he advocated a kind of criticism which is free from pride and based upon reason.

He also wrote a Mock Epic called "Rape of the Lock". In an epic we usually have a very grand and serious subject matter with an elevated style, but in a mock epic the subject matter is very trivial while the style remains elevated. Pope's mock epic is based upon a quarrel between two Catholic families; the son of one Lord Petre is engaged to the daughter of the other, Arabella Fermor. Lord Petre cuts a lock of Arabella's hair and this trivial incident results in a catastrophe. Pope talks about this in the form of an epic. The poem brought him success and during this period he was acquainted with a group of writers such as Joseph Addison, Richard Steele and William Congreve who were all Whigs but Pope had no political tendencies at that time.

The friendship continued for a little while, until he announced that he was going to translate Homer's "Illiad". His decision brought him an army of enemies and they started all kinds of attacks including making fun of his appearance but Pope attacked back even more savagely and took revenge of many of these writers and critics. Meanwhile, he started friendship with another group of writers who were Tories: Jonhnathan Swift, John Gay and some more who remained his constant and life-long friends. After "Illiad", he translated "Odissay" and earned a lot of money as a result. Pope was the first English writer and poet who proved that even without any official positions and patronages, a poet is able to afford his living.

He also published a collection of Shakespeare's works and made some errors in this task and was rightly attacked by Shakespearean critics.

He wrote "Dunciad", a Mock Heroic as an answer to his enemies, especially to  Lewis Theobald who had published a pamphlet titled "Shakespeare Restored" in which he pointed out Pope's errors.

Pope's philosophical work is "An Essay on Man". In this book he explains the relationship between the universe and man, man and his society and all sorts of virtues and orders: cosmic, political and social orders. What is important about him as a poet is his being a craftsman. He is a master of Heroic Couplet. In this form of verse each couplet should contain one unit of idea in Iambic Pentameter, with a full stop or semicolon at the end of the second line. Heroic couplet is a very rigid way of composing but Pope did it very smoothly. He is a master of versification.

The Condition of the Country during the Reign of William and the Problem of Succession

Actually, William was a tough clear- headed and perfect brave man. He was 34 years when he came to the throne, but had military experiences of a perfect politician. He was an ardent Protestant defending Protestantism against Catholic attacks. He came to the throne while having certain problems with the very people who brought him to the throne i.e. Whig leaders. He should not have been grateful to them for some reasons:

1. At the beginning of his reign all the Whigs who gathered in the first parliament imposed upon the monarch a Bill of Right in which they declared their rights to free speech, free election, free acceptation and free taxation – which limited the power of the crown and reaffirmed the supremacy of the parliament.

2. William needed a great army to defend Protestantism but the Whig leaders, instead of helping him kept the army budget low and increased the navy budget because they were tradesmen, the new wealthy merchant class and navy protected England's trade. 

3. Another reason for William's being in disagreement with Whigs was his insufficient salary. William III had a very little income compared to other monarchs (half of Charles's III) which was the result of Whigs activities in the parliament.

In 1702 a very trivial incident put an end to all William's hope. He was preparing himself and reviewing his troops to participate in a war with Spain but accidentally he fell off the horse and died. During his reign he mistrusted both Whigs and Tories, so he chose his ministers among theses two groups equally to make a balance and took advantage of their disagreements.

Anne came to the throne after William. She too mistrusted and disliked Whigs because she believed that William was victimized by them. In that time Anne was deeply attached to the Anglican Church and Whigs supported the Dissenters. She did not like the attitude i.e. Toleration of Dissenters, and considered it as a danger to the Anglican Church so, she trusted Tories and for a long period of time, Tories were dominant over the political situation of England.

Since 1688 there was the problem of the royal succession, for William and Mary were childless. In 1700 while William was on the throne, the son of Anne, William died and again there was no heir. Sophia, Electress of Hanover, was the granddaughter of James I. She had male children, three died in continental wars and three survived (daughter of James I was in that time the wife of an Electer i.e. a German prince; there were originally seven of them. Hanover is a place in northwest Germany, between modern Holland and Modern Denmark). Sophia was very old when she was announced the next successor but she died before Anne. Consequently, her eldest son, George I became the king of Britain.

By coming to the throne of George I, the Stuart reign ended and a new family,   House of Hanover came to the throne. As a matter of fact, we can trace the idea of George's becoming the king in Whig leaders' policy. So, naturally, when George I came to England as the king he trusted Whigs and chose his ministers among them.

George I and George II were born in Germany, spoke English with a very strong German accent, tried to spend most of their time in Hanover and had German officers as their companions. (George I was neither brave nor intelligent). Under such circumstances, they were puppets in the hands of intelligent Whig ministers; as a result, Whigs dominated all aspects of social and political situations of England for half a century i.e. since the succession of George I). These years were the years of economical prosperity and at the same time corruption.

In that time, East India Company was occupied with serious money-making businessmen and wool was the main source of England's industry. It was delivered to villagers' cottages by horsemen; the villagers, by the help of their families spun thread and wove clothes and the horsemen again came and carried the clothes away. The entire job was done by hand since there was no factory. Gradually, this form of production changed; workers went to modern factories in north and the condition of life and work became terrible since the job became harder. The literature of this period is the literature of aristocracy and the wealthy with no trace of the poor in it.

In the Georgian period we come across a figure who was the most significant one; the most powerful man of England and the prime minister to both George I and     George II: Sir Robert Walpole, a very intelligent Whig leader. During this period England was enjoying stability and there was no critical situation. For half a century this state of stability remained unchanged. The price the English paid for the peace was the political corruption due to this man. The first thing he did was to make            The House of Commons (a parliamentary term) more powerful. The seats in           The House of Commons were bought and sold; military officers, judges, commissioners were bought and sold and were given even more powerful positions. Thus, beneath the stability was corruption.

This way, Walpole ruled over the country for half a century. He did not like literature and was the target of many literary men who kept mocking him. John Gay pictured him as the general receiver of goods in his "Beggars Opera". Johnathan Swift in "Guliver's Travels" pictured him as the greedy minister of Lilliput and Pope in his "Dunciad" made fun of him.

George I trusted Walpole whole-heartedly. George II mistrusted him first but later on he took the same attitude as his father's. During his reign Walpole had two weapons:

1. Parliament; all the seats were sold to the people he liked.

2. Queen Caroline, wife to George II whom he trusted very much. Through the queen, Walpole was able to handle the king.

King James II, had a last minute child, a son named James Edward Stuart (Old Pretender). Pretender is the person whose claim on the throne is being disputed and his right to become the king is argued. - After James II fled to France, instead of living a life of political intrigues he chose a life of religious seclusion. But his son was more ambitious and decided to take the chance. During George I's accession, instead of taking the opportunity, gathering army and attacking England,           James Edward proclaimed his Catholicism. That was very thoughtless of him since this way he lost the continuous Protestant Scottish supporters of Stuarts's reign. He was not lucky, either, for at the same time he lost his main supporter, king of France Louis XIV (the 14^th) and he did not have any hope in his five-year-old heir. It took him a year to get prepared to attack England but finally he was defeated and fled to France.

His son, Charles Edward (The New Pretender) was what his father and grandfather should have been; a gallant handsome and brave young man. In 1745 he was 25; he gathered an army and landed in Scotland but there he faced a well-acquainted army of England, was defeated and fled to France. For the rest of his life he lived in different countries of Europe, involved in political intrigues. The New Pretender was a popular romantic character and mostly appeared in ballads and folklores; with his failure the Stuart reign finished.

Jonathan Swift   (1667 – 1745)

Swift was born in Dublin, Ireland, of English parents. He was born posthumously but had a kind uncle who managed quite an acceptable education for him. Swift received his degree at Trinity College in Dublin. After the death of his uncle, he had to rely on his exertion; though it was a good time for him to stay in Ireland, he went to England. In that time the majority of Irish were Catholics and after the abdication of James II (a Catholic king) and coming to the throne of a Protestant king, it was not a good time especially for an Anglican to stay in Ireland. In England, Swift was immediately accepted in the household of Sir William Temple whose wife was a relative of Swift's mother. Sir Temple was a very civilized man, a retired politician and a friend of   King William. His house had a large library, just a perfect place for Swift who was his secretary.  He had ambition to get a better career in Temple's household but nothing happened; he remained a secretary. As a result, he became disappointed and returned to Ireland and there he was ordained but after a while, again he became restless and remained in Temple's household. Meanwhile, he met Esther Johnson (Swift's Stella), the daughter of Temple's steward who was jus a child when he first met her. He tutored her and actually formed her character and later on, this child growing to a woman fell in love with him.

Following Temple's death Esther went to Ireland accepting Swift's suggestion. She was accompanied by her lifelong friend, Rebecca Dingley. In Ireland they constantly met but they were not surely married. There were also other women in Swift's life; one of whom he met in 1708 was a very accomplished and intellectual one and madly in love with him. She was named Hester Vanhomrigh (pronounced Van-um-mer-y) and was much younger than him. But their love became tragic because she wrote a letter to Esther and this enraged Swift and made him put an end to the relationship. Hester died from grief and left a direction in her will to publish all the letters and poems by Swift for her. The poems were published and entitled: "Cadenus and Vanessa" (the love of Cadenus for Vanessa).

Due to his age and his being a priest, Swift had political tendencies. Just as Pope, at the beginning he was acquainted with a group of Whig writers like Joseph Addison, Richard Steele and William Congreve. His only ambition was the establishment of Anglican Church but considering Whig's attitude i.e. Toleration of Dissenters, soon he found out that Whigs' policy was endangering the Anglican Church so he left them and went to Tories  who were supporters of the Anglican Church and the crown. During four years of Anne's reign, the government was Torian, so Swift remained in London and became a great propagandist of Tory policies. Because of his love for the Anglican Church and all his support, he became bishop and was elected Dean of St. Patrick Cathedral in Dublin. It was around this period that Anne died and Tory ministers left the stage and George I came with his Whig leaders who remained for half a century. Consequently, Swift returned to his Irish exile.

Ireland was more than a colony to England; the Irish were frightened and oppressed in those days. There, Swift encouraged the poor and was admired by them; people adored him and he defended them in every critical situation and was completely believed in by them. He gave one-third of his salary to build St. Patrick Hospital.

All throughout his life, he suffered from a disease, some sort of imbalance and dizziness, and for years people thought he was insane but actually he was not. The final years of his life were gloomy since he was not able to manage his life without guardians. He died in 1745 and was buried in St. Patrick Cathedral beside Stella.

Swift published all his books anonymously. The predominant genres of his age were Satire and Mock Epic.

 The Neo- Classical Period contains:

 1. Restoration or the age of Dryden with Comic Drama i.e. Comedy of Manners

        2. Augustine Age or the age of Pope and Swift with Satire and Mock Epic and 

                                                                                                           Mock Heroic.

 3. The age of Johnson.

 Satire

In satire, the writer ridicules somebody or someone, but the purpose is not just fun. The writer tries to diminish the thing or the person indirectly. Swift, Pope, Addison, Steele and Defoe were all satirists.

Swift published his two first books in one volume:

"The Battle of the Books": It is a satire but in form of a Mock Heroic/Epic. It is about a battle between books which takes place in a royal library. Actually, the subject matter is about a debate held among people but in form of ancient and modern books. One part of the book concerns an argument between a spider, symbolizing a modern writer and a bee, symbolizing an ancient one. The spider is very ill-tempered, pompous and proud. He objects to the bee for his invasion of his cobweb and introduces himself as a great architecture; but the bee responds that he is not a great architecture or mathematician, he goes to flowers and takes something from them without damaging them and in return he makes honey i.e. works of art.

"Tale of a Tub": It is a satire and an attack upon: 1. learning and 2. religious learning. It is an interesting story about a man who summons his sons Peter, Martin and John to his deathbed and leaves each of them an extraordinary coat which fits them in every condition and they can put it on all throughout their lives. He gives direction not to change it for ever and not to add any ornaments on it. But Peter who is a follower of fashion convinces the others to have ornaments on the coats after the death of their father and thus they forget about his directions. In this allegory, the father represents God, Peter represents The Roman Catholic Church, Martin represents Martin Luther, Protestant and moderate church and John represents John Calvin, Calvinism and Puritanism. The ornaments also suggest the church and religion. John is so furious and directed by passion, he tries to take the ornaments away and tears the coat into shreds, (Puritanism). Martin tries to recover his coat's initial shape but is not able to turn it to that purity. (He is closer to real Christianity compared to the others).

During the time that Esther was in Ireland because of Swift's suggestion, he wrote letters to her and later, those letters were published to a book titled:               "Journals to Stella". The letters include his everyday activities and some sort of baby language for endearment.

"Gulliver's Travels" is Swift's allegorical satire. According to Pope, "it was read both in nursery and Cabin Council" i.e. it is considered appealing to children's and actually everyone's imagination and at the same time, regarded deeply, it contains political and social aspects. The characteristics of the story are as following: 1. its clarity, 2. its lack of ornaments and 3. its being straight to the point. The central character and the narrator is a sergeant named Lemuel Gulliver who works on a merchant's ship. He describes his four trips to different shores. The story begins with a shipwreck and then he finds himself on a shore, Lilliput, whose inhabitants are in form of human beings but very diminutive. Everything in this island is in a miniature form. At first Gulliver is delighted to see such tiny kingdom and its people but then he finds them mischievous, ambitious and even cruel. Lilliputians try to attack the kingdom of the other side of the river and ask Gulliver to help them since he is a giant compared to them. Their vices are gigantic compared to the people themselves. Once, they accused Gulliver of having relationship with the wife of a minister and Gulliver defends himself as if such a thing is possible. Through this story mankind is portrayed. Swift compares our limited existence to our unlimited ambitions. Human beings have cruelty and mischief. That is why he becomes a misanthrope, a hater of mankind. Gulliver's four voyages emphasize the theme of the discrepancy between the appearance and the reality.

The second voyage is to an island the inhabitants of which are giants. The land was called by the writer, Brodingnag. The appearance of the giants first frightened and then bewildered Gulliver, but gradually the land proved to be a utopia, the land of moral and political wisdom. Gulliver finds himself more of a Lilliputian compared to these giants. They have an intelligent king who can be considered as an example of virtuous and just kings.

In the third voyage, the one to Laputa, we are concerned with a number of islands. Swift is mainly dealing with the extremes of reasoning and his satire is directed toward philosophy. Extremism not rationalism is conveyed through the story. By and large, this voyage is an allegory of political life under the administration of the Whig minister Sir. Robert Walpole.

In the last voyage, Gulliver finds himself on the shore of a land in which two quite different beings exist: the first one is a race called Houyhnhnms (pronounce      Hwin- ims) who are very similar to horses but are very civilized, intelligent and reasonable, and live a peaceful life. They are not that perfect, nor have that spiritual aspect human beings do; but reason is the predominant factor in their life and they have a clean and polished society. The Houyhnhnms have slaves from the second race, Yahoos who have a little bit deformed shape of human beings, monkey-like, living a life of beasts and brutality. Gulliver is received by the horse-like creatures who keep the Yahoos in their stables. He finds them interesting and learned their language. They accept him as one of them but he cannot tolerate the attitude. After a while, he leaves the island, finds his family and also himself as Yahoos and is filled with hatred. (The island represents England). Thereafter, the only thing which makes life tolerable to him is his buying a couple of horses and keeping them in his stable. He never rides them and keeps them as his friends because they remind him of the Houyhnhnms.

Gulliver is a kind, cheerful and patriotic individual at the beginning but transforms into a misanthrope, hating the human race.

Swift has been criticized severely by a lot of people for his harsh satire. He was neglected at the end of the 18^th century and early 19^th century; but in the 20^th century his works were reviewed and Gulliver's Travels proved to be his admirable masterpiece, especially for the last piece.