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American
Literature
American
Literature
Thomas Morton 1579-1647

• New English Canaan

(1637)
Denounces the puritan
Government and their
policies for land enclosure as
well as violence
against natives
John Winthrop(1588-1649)

• Leading figure of the founding of the

Massachusetts Bay Colony
• A Model of Christian Charity (1630 )-
sermon
Encourages the colonists to work
together and
colonise America.
• The History of New England(1790)-
diary
entries
William Bradford (1590-1657)

• Of Plymouth Plantation
I have been the larger in these things, and so shall
crave
leave in some like passages following, (though in
other things I shall labour to be more contract) that
their children may see with what difficulties their
fathers wrestled in going through these things in their
first beginnings, and how God brought them along
notwithstanding all their weaknesses and infirmities.
As also that some use may be made hereof in after
times by others in such like weighty employments;
and herewith I will end this chapter
Roger Williams (1603-1683)

• One of the first abolitionists

• Fled the Massachusetts Bay Colony
and set up a new one. (Providence,
Rhode Island)
• A Key Into the Language of
America(1643) A aid to interact with the
Native Indians
• Blood Tenant of Persecution(1644)
Argues for a separate civil authority
rather than the Church. Liberty is our god
given right
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

• One of the Founding Fathers of the

United
States
• Called “The First American”

• Poor Richard’s Almanac (yearly

publications-
1732-1758
Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

• One of the Founding Fathers of America

• "a corsetmaker by trade, a journalist by
profession, and a propagandist by inclination.
• The Father of the American Revolution.
• Common Sense(1776) Attacks colonial monarchy
(George III)
• The American Revolution(1776) To inspire
americans to battle against the british armies
• Rights of Man (1791)
In response to Edmud Burke’s “Reflections on the
Revolution in France (1790)
• The Age of Reason ; Being an investigation of true
and fabulous theology(1794) Denounces
institutionalised religion as well as christian miracles.
Instead argued for the philosophy of deism Calls
Bible “ "an ordinary piece of literature rather than as
a divinely inspired text". ”

“I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish

Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church,
by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor
by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own
church.All national institutions of churches, whether
Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other
than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave
mankind, and monopolize power and profit.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

• Principal author of Declaration of

Independence
• Also called one of the founding fathers of
America
• Notes of the State of Pennsylvania(1785)
Argues for the existence of good society,
separation of church and state.
Constitutional government Individual liberty ,
didn’t believe that blacks and whites could exist
together peacefully in a free society.
Oloudah Equiano(1745-1797)

• The Interesting Narrative of the Life of

Olaudah Equiano (1789), which depicted
the horrors of slavery. It went through nine
editions and aided passage of the British
Slave Trade Act of 1807, which abolished
the African slave trade. Since 1967, his
memoir has been regarded as the "true
beginning of modern African literature"
American
Literature
1820-1865
Washington Irwing(1783-1859)

• One of the first writers in American to win critical

acclaim
• Literary magazine – Salmagundi (1807)
Calls New York City – Gotham (goat’s town)
• The History of New York from the Beginnings of
the
World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty(1809)
It was by Diedrich Knickerbocker, an identity he
created
• The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon
Gent.(1819)
Two famous stories – Rip Van Winkle and The
Legend of
Sleepy Hollow
•The Legend of the
Sleepy Hollow

Ichabod Crane v/s

Abraham Brom
Bones Van Brunt for
the hand of Katrina
Van Tassal
Rip Van Vinkle

Story of a Dutch
Villager. Who goes one
day on the Catskill
mountains and meets
some dwarf like
creatures. Gets drunk
with them and comes
back to realise 20 years
have passed
• Bracebridge Hall or The
Humorists, a
Medley(1822)
Loosely based on Aston Hall.
Short stories and
essays
• Tales of a Traveller
Short story – “The devil and Tom
Walker”
James Fennimore Cooper (1789-1851)

• The Spy (1821)

• Famous of the Leatherstocking tales – 5 historcal novels
• About the Natty Bumpoo (europian/american settler) with his
servant Chingachcook
• Famously called by americans as – leatherstocking/the
pathfinder/the trapper
• Famously called by native americans as hawkeye and
deerslayer
• Works:
1. The Pioneers; The sources of Sasquehanna;A Descriptive
Tale(1823)-4
2. The Last of the Mohican; A Narrative of 1757(1826)- part 2
3. The Prairie ; A Tale (1827)-5
4. The Pathfinder; The Inland Sea(1840)- 3
5. The Deerslayer; The First War Path (1841)- part 1
William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878)

• Thanatopsis – most Famous poem

Mathew Arnold called it the best short
poem in
the language
Also called by many as america’s first
flawless
poem
• To a Waterfowl
• Edgar Allen Praised Bryant’s poem –
June
• A Forest Hymn
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

• Champion of individualism
• Leader of the transcendentalists
• Nature (1836)
“To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as
much from his chamber as from society. I
am
not solitary whilst I read and write, though
nobody is with me. But if a man would be
alone, let him look at the stars.”
Everything in nature works for the profit of
man.
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)

• Fanshawe(1828)
• Twice-Told Tales (1837)
Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale, / Vexing the dull ear of
a drowsy
man.- Shakespeare – King John
• The Scarlett Letter (1850)
Arthur Dimmsdale, Hester Prynne and Roger Chillingsworth
and Pearl
• The House of the Seven Gables(1851)
• The Blithedale Romance (1852)
Based on his stay on the Brook Farm
Henry James - "the lightest, the brightest, the liveliest" of
Hawthorne's "unhumorous fictions.“
Character of Zenobia based on Margaret Fuller
Henry Wadsworth Laongfellow (1807- 1882)
• One of the 5 fireside poets
• First American to translate Dante’s Divine
Comedy
• Famous poems
Paul Revere’s Ride, The Song of Hiawatha,
Evangeline
Collections – Voices of the Night (1839)
Ballads and Other Poems(1841)
Most of his poems were lyric poems often telling
the stories of mythology and legend
But still was very much influenced by the
Europeans
Edgar Allen Poe (1809-1849)

• Tamerlane and Other poems (1827)

• Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems (1829)
• The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838) – only
complete
novel
His various adventures at sea
• Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque(1839)
• The Black Cat
Name of cat Pluto
• The Tell –Tale Heart
• The Cask of Amontillado
• The Fall of the House of Usher
• The Murders in the Rue Morgue – C.Auguste Dupin
• The Purloined Letter
• The Pit and the Pendulum
Famous poems –
The Raven, Annabel Lee, A Dream Within a Dream, To Helen,
Lenore
• The Philosophy of Composition (1846)
Argued for the unity of effect in the poem
“the death of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most
beautiful thing in the world”
Uses his poem Raven as an example of the correct way to
compose a poem
Length – not too long, short stories better than novels
Method- analytical and methodical
• The Poetic Principle (1848)
Poem should be written for a poem’s sake. Method should be
purely aesthetic and the aim should be to give the readers
pleasure.
Any work with the moral purpose commits the act of heresy
Margarett Fuller (1810-1850)

• Women in the 19th Century- (1845)

First feminist work in America Fuller was an
advocate of women's rights and, in
particular, women's education and the right to
employment. She also encouraged many other
reforms in society, including prison reform and
the emancipation of slaves in the United
States.
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896)

• American abolitionist famous for

• Uncle Tom’s Cabin; Life among the Lowly (1852)
• A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1853)
• Abraham Lincoln - "So this is the little lady who started
this great
war.“
Arthur Shelby – sells his two slaves Uncle Tom and a
boy Harry.
Eliza decide to make an escape with her son to protect
him and Tom
accepts his fate as a mark of honour for his owner.

Friendship of Tom and Eva d/o St. Clare – gets sold to

an evil owner
Simon Legree. Helps Emmeline Escape but dies at the
cost
Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897)

• Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl(1861)

Another sentimental tale
Pseudonym – Linda Brent
focusing on the detrimental effect of slavery on
women's chastity and sexual virtues. Focussing
on the harrasment of women who were mothers,
daughters and sisters and wives.
• Effects of the fugitive slave act 1850
• Linda and her new master Dr. Flint, marries
white
man Mr. Sands in hopes of protection
Henry David Thoreau (1817 -1862)

• Walden; or, Life in the Woods(1854)

• Some of the major themes that are present within the text are:
• Self-reliance: Thoreau constantly refuses to be in "need" of the companionship of others. Though
he realizes its significance and importance, he thinks it unnecessary to always be in search for it.
Self-reliance, to him, is economic and social and is a principle that in terms of financial and
interpersonal relations is more valuable than anything. To Thoreau, self-reliance can be both
spiritual as well as economic. Connection to transcendentalism and to Emerson's essay.
• Simplicity: Simplicity seems to be Thoreau's model for life. Throughout the book, Thoreau
constantly seeks to simplify his lifestyle: he patches his clothes rather than buy new ones, he
minimizes his consumer activity, and relies on leisure time and on himself for everything.
• Progress: In a world where everyone and everything is eager to advance in terms of progress,
Thoreau finds it stubborn and skeptical to think that any outward improvement of life can bring
inner peace and contentment.
• The need for spiritual awakening
• Man as part of nature
• Nature and its reflection of human emotions
• The state as unjust and corrupt
Robert Frost – In one book he surpasses everything we have in America
He was an inspiration for Mahatma Ganshi as well as Martin Luther King Jr.
Civil Disobedience / Resistance to Civil Government
(1849)
• Critizes democracy and how political systems are
inherently unjust and violent and revolutions and not
the answer to solving problems in the system
• Simply voting and waiting for a just system to take care
of things wont solve the problem
• “That government is best which governs least;” and I
should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and
systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this,
which I also believe,—“That government is best which
governs not at all;” and when men are prepared for it,
that will be the kind of government which they will
have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most
governments are usually, and all governments are
sometimes, inexpedient.
Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)

• Narrative of the Life of Frederick

Douglass, an
American Slave,(1845)
• He is named after a character in Walter
Scott’s
Novel – The Lady of the Lake
• His self reliance as well as his
determination
which worked to help him attain freedom
• Against the treatment of men as property
Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

• Transition between transcendentalism and realism

• The most american poet ever
• Leaves of Grass (1855)
Poems in it – Song of Myself
• “"I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself,
• And what I assume you shall assume,
• For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you."
(Section 1)
• "In all people I see myself, none more and not one a
barleycorn
less/and the good or bad I say of myself I say of them"
(Section 20)
• "It is you talking just as much as myself... I act as the
tongue of you"
(Section 47)
• "I am large, I contain multitudes." (Section 51)
• “I sing the body Electric”
• Out of the cradle endlessly rocking- a
boy’s
encounter with two mocking birds
• "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard
Bloom'd".-
elegy to abraham lincoln

• "Beat! Beat! Drums!" - political rallying for

the north
• Oh Captain, My Captain

Ezra Pound – America’s poet.. He is

america”
Herman Melville (1819-1891)

• Typee; A Peep at Polynesian Life (1846)

This novel made him famous as the “man who moved among the cannibals
Criticizes the attempts of missionaries to civilize the savages
• Omoo; A narrative of Adventures in the south seas(1847) –sequel
• Moby Dick or The Whale (1851)
Dedicated to Hawthorne
His contact with Queequeg
Fedallah –makes the prophesy
Starbuck second in command
Name of ship – Pequod
Meetings with 9 ships
Ship1– Goney/Albatross- unable to ask them about moby dick
Ship2- Town- Ho- prophecy about dick- but when one sailor mutinees he is thrown of the ship and the captain later
killed by moby dick
Ship 3- Jeroboam – epidemic on the ship
Ship 4 –Jungfrau- contest between the two
Ship 5 – Bouton De Rose – unaware of the sick whale aboard their ship
Ship 6 – Samuel Enderby – captain lost arm to moby dick, carries no ill will to the whale
Ship 7 –Bachelor- ship heading home with sperm oil
Ship 8- Rachel –seeking survivors of its ships that had gone after MD
Ship 9 – Delight – A ship with half of the crew killed in an encounter with MD
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

• Known to be eccentric, reluctant to greet

guests,
lead a very solitary life
• A lot of phrases used in her poems – also there
is
an unconventional use of making the words
capitals
• A solemn thing – it was – I said –
A Woman – White – to be –
And wear – if God should count me fit –
Her blameless mystery –
• Emily Dickinson, c. 1861
Because I could not stop for
death
• I tasted a liquor never brewed
• “Hope” is the thing with
feathers
• Success is counted sweetest
• I felt a Funeral in my brain
• I’m Nobody! Who are you?
• My Life had stood – a Loaded
Gun
Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888)

• Little Women or Meg, Jo, Beth and

Amy
(1868)
• Jo’s Boys (1886)
• Little Men (1871)
All three are together called The
March Family
Saga
Unit 4: Non Fictional
Prose
Prose || 17th
Century Non
Lecture 6b: 17th Century
Non Fictional Prose Fictional Prose
Restoration non fiction had diaries
that ranged in content and form
from the personal to the
philosophical

Some genres included prose epistles,

dialogues, pamphlets and periodicals

Advice essays and biographies were

popular

Literary criticism and history

writing had become popular
Scientific investigations were reported as news items in
learned periodicals
The plain, direct style were preferred to rhetoric

The emphasis was on information delivered in an unadorned

style
An interesting development in the restoration
period was the rise of an English prose that
sought to popularise science

The royal society appointed a committee for the

improvement of the English language in 1664
The committee included DRYDEN, John Evelyn,
Edmund Waller and Bishop Thomas Sprat

Literature and science came together here for

many of these figures had interest in both areas
Enlightenment prose sought clarity of style and
directness of manner

Logical argument and sound common sense was

preferred over florid and erudite prose
Francis Bacon with his voluminous works in the
last decade of the 16th century was already seeking
the style that was to become popular with the
essayists and polemicists of the Age of
Enlightenment
Thomas Sprat (1635-1713)
- Prescribed methods of writing and speech
recommending positive expressions , clear senses,
native senses and mathematical plainness
- Sprat’s under recognized THE HISTORY OF
THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON FOR
THE IMPROVEMENT OF NATURAL
KNOWLEDGE (1667)- was an account of the rise
and flourishing activities of the Royal society (an
influential tract with over 450 pages)
- It was a detailed and erudite account of the
history of European philosophy
Thomas Sprat
He is famous mainly for THIS eulogy of England’s
premier science organization

He interestingly argues that all European learning

and civility came to them from the EASTERN
nations

Sprat’s reworkings of Baconian ideas of knowledge,

empiricism and natural philosophy was a
remarkable study of intellectual climate of the age
Jeremy Taylor (1613-67)
Chaplain to Charles I during the civil war

A prolific writer

THE RULE AND EXERCISES OF HOLY DYING

(1651)

‘....... then to die is easy, ready and quitted from its

troublesome circumstances, it is the same harmless
thing that a poor shepherd suffered yesterday or a maid
servant today and at the same time in which you die in
that very night a thousand creatures die with you, some
wise men and many fools ….”
Jeremy Taylor
- His sermons combined imagery from everyday life with
Christian themes and poetic metaphors
He inaugurated Gilbert Burnet (1643-1715)
the trend of
accumulated The heavily documented historical work of
factual research Gilbert Burnet dealt with the political events
and religious dilemmas of the time and was a
new form of history writing

Burnet’s MEMOIRS OF THE LIVES and

ACTIONS of JAMES and WILLIAM, Duke of
Hamilton (1677)

Burnet published History of the Reformation of

the Church in England (1679)
Historical Background

1. Civil War
2. Execution of Charles I in 1649
3. Establishment of the
Commonwealth
4. Rise and disappearance of
Cromwell 1653-1658
5. Restoration of Monarchy 1660
In order flush out and purify the Church in
England a religious reform movement took
place in the late 16th and 17th century. This
movement is termed as Puritan Revolution.
Not satisfied with the change that King Henry
VIII, Edward II, and Queen Elizabeth made
after Reformation, some extreme Protestants
exhibited their contempt and discontentment.
It laid the foundation stone for religious,
intellectual and social order of New England.
The Puritans coloured their lives
on the preaching of religious
reformers, John Wycliffe and
John Calvin. They had their own
sets of beliefs and idealisms.
 1. They believed that The Bible represented the true
law of God. So they always wish to reshape people and
church on the ideology of Bible.

2. They were up against the episcopacy or the rule of

Bishop. Instead they wanted church to be managed by a
group of ‘presbyters’ or elders.

3. They believed the voice of God in each man’s

conscience and hence no priest or bishop could rightfully
come.
4. They insisted on extreme austerity
of worship, believing that images,
ornaments, alter, rituals, embroidered
surplices owned by the priests.

5. The puritans were strict

disciplinarians who stressed on grace,
devotions, prayers, and introspection.
Charles I of England made efforts to purge
all Puritan influences in England, which
resulted in the Great Migration to Europe
and American colonies. Those who
remained in England responded to this
persecution with the English Civil War
(1641-1651) which led to the execution of
Charles I, the Exile of his son Charles II
and the rise of Oliver Cromwell.
Charles I (r. 1625-49)
● Ruled England, Scotland and Ireland
● Believed in Divine Right
● Had French Catholic queen Henrietta
Maria
● Was a High Anglican, whose ideals
and practices closely resembled those
of the Roman Catholics
● Associated himself with controversial
ecclesiastics like William Laud, whom
he appointed Archbishop of
Canterbury
Events leading to the Civil War
● Introduced unpopular taxes, including the
one known as ship money (1634)
● Parliament opposed Charles
● Charles refused to accept the Parliament’s
demands for constitutional monarchy
● Ruled without Parliament for 11 yrs
(1629-40), called eleven years’ tyranny
● Bishops’ Wars broke out in Scotland
The Civil War
● Civil War in two phases 1642-46, 1648-54
● Charles was held in captivity from 1647
● Put under trial from 20 January 1649
● Charles still believed in his divine authority
to rule
● Over a period of a week, when Charles was
asked to plead three times, he refused
● Condemned to death in his absence on 26
January
● Beheaded on 30 January 1649
Socio-Political Conditions

● Theatres closed 1642

● Puritan attacks on professional theatre and female
actresses— like William Prynne’s Histriomastix
1632
● At that time the queen Henrietta Maria herself
was rehearsing a play and Prynne was sentenced
to cruel punishment, which was later revoked
● King beheaded in January 1649
● 1649-1653, The first period of the Commonwealth of
England
● 1653-1658, The Protectorate under Oliver Cromwell
Eikon Basilike (1649)
● Published in February 1649, ten days
after the king was beheaded
● Means “the Royal Portrait”
● Spiritual autobiography attributed to
King Charles I
● Written in the simple, straightforward
style of a diary
The Eikon Basilike, The
Pourtrature of His Sacred
Majestie in His Solitudes
and Sufferings, is a
purported spiritual
autobiography attributed to
King Charles I of England.
It was published on 9
February 1649, ten days
after the King was
beheaded by Parliament in
the aftermath of the
English Civil War in 1649.
Cavalier Poets

● Herrick, Carew, Waller, Suckling, Lovelace

● Celebrated the idealized relationship between
Charles I and his queen, Henrietta Maria
● Upheld Platonism (spiritual love as more important
than the physical) which is evident in Caroline
masques & visual arts
● In Herrick’s Hesperides (1648) and Lovelace’s
Lucasta (1649), the speaker’s Platonic
relationship with his mistress mirrors the
speaker’s idealized political subjection to the
king
● Yet, they (especially Suckling) sometimes
questioned the idealized depictions of Platonic love
The Puritan period was too short for a man to be born
into it and reach manhood while the influence was
strongest and too stormy. Poets like Andrew Marvell,
Abraham Cowley and John Milton led their
tremendous impact on Puritan poetry. Milton’s Paradise
Lost is a dream for the Puritans. In the field of prose
literature Robert Burton and John Bunyan are worth
mentioning. Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress had kissed the
zenith of success and is well regarded “Next to Bible”
(Taine). Undeniably, this book is the greatest product of
Puritan literature. There was a steep decline of drama in
the puritan period. After The Tempest in 1611, the
productive energy of English renaissance seemed to dry
up.
While the Puritan literature speaks of
age of sadness, gloom and
pessimism, the Elizabethan
literature throbbed with youth,
vitality and hope. The Elizabeth
literature was intensely romantic; in
Puritan literature critical, intellectual
takes the place or romantic ardour.
The large victory in the Civil War
supplied oxygen to the Puritans
to set up the Commonwealth.
Oliver Cromwell built his military
dictatorship during Protectorate,
but in 1660, monarchy was
restored. Though failed, the
Puritans left their shoes to put on
for the Whig Party into the Political
affair of England.
John Milton- 1608-1674

Nickname: “the Lady of Christ's”

“God-gifted organ voice of England”

and the “mighty mouthed inventor of
harmonies.” –Lord Tennyson
● Milton’s “taste was as severe, his verse as polished,
his method and language as strict as those of the
school of Dryden and Pope that grew up when he
was old. A literary past and present just met in
him, nor did he fail, like all the greatest men, to
make a cast into the future.” – Stopford A Brooke

● The last of the Elizabethans – summed up in

himself the learned and artistic influences of the
English Renaissance, and handed them on us.

● Poetry as “the art of uniting pleasure with truth,

by calling imagination to the help of reason.” –
LIFE OF MILTON
● “Thy soul was like star, and dwelt
apart.” – Wordsworth

● “Milton, thou shouldst be living at this

hour!” - Wordsworth

● His first known attempt at English

verse: On the Death of a Fair Infant-
Written in 1628- On the death of his
niece Anne Phillips
Mary Powell
• Catherine Woodcock
• Elizabeth Minshull
Periods of Milton’s poetical career

1. The Cambridge College Period

2. The Horton Period
3. The Period Of Political and
Religious Controversies (The Period of
his prose-writings)
4. The Period Of Great Epics (The
Later Poetic Period)
THE COLLEGE ODE ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST’S
PERIOD NATIVITY (1629)
• Celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ
Poems • Written at Christmas 1629
Latin and English
ON SHAKESPEARE (1630)

THE PASSION
• Fragmentary
• Written at Easter 1630

ON ARRIVING AT THE AGE OF

TWENTY THREE (1631)
THE HORTON In rhymed octosyllabic with a
PERIOD ten line prelude
Four minor poems
L’ALLEGRO (probably • An invocation to the
goddess Mirth to allow the
in 1632) poet to live with her, first
• Italian word amid the delights of pastoral
• The cheerful man scenes, then amid those of
'towered cities' and the 'busy
hum of men'.
IL PENSEROSO (probably in 1632)

• Italian word
• The pensive or thoughtful man or contemplative man
• In rhymed octosyllabic
• The poem is an invocation to the goddess Melancholy,
bidding her bring Peace,
Quiet, Leisure, and Contemplation
• It describes the pleasures of the studious, meditative
life, of tragedy, epic poetry,
and music. It had a considerable influence on the
meditative graveyard poems of
the 18th cent., and there are echoes in Pope's 'Eloisa to
Abelard', and later Gothic
works.
COMUS (1634)
• Masque / pastoral drama
• Performed at Ludlow Castle
• Before the Earl of Bridgewater
• Blank verse
• Written at the suggestion of Milton's
friend Lawes
• Its purpose was to celebrate the earl
of Bridgewater's entry on the
presidency of
Wales and the Marches
LYCIDAS (1637)
• Elegy Digression : in the voice
• On Edward King who was drowned on a voyage
to Ireland - crossing from
of St Peter, he violently
Chester Bay to Dublin attacks the unworthy
• Form of a pastoral elegy adopting classical clergy
conventions
• one of the finest elegies in the English language whose “'hungry Sheep
• a work of great originality look up, and are not fed”
THE PERIOD OF
POLITICAL AND
RELIGIOUS
CONTROVERSIES
Active prose writer
25 pamphlets
• 21 in English and 4 in
Latin
Anti-Prelatical Tracts

● Having returned from abroad, Milton turned to prose

● He embraced republican iconoclasm, which was admired
by later writers like William Blake
● He began to write prose tracts against episcopacy in the
Puritan and Parliamentary cause
● Wrote five anti-prelatical tracts on the reformation of
church government
● The main idea of these pamphlets is that the English
reformation had not been completed in the Tudor
times, and that it should be completed in Milton’s
time
● Vigorously attacked the High Church Anglicans under the
leadership of William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury
On Education

● Became a private schoolmaster and wrote in 1644 a

short tract On Education
● In the form of a letter to Samuel Hartlib, a
scholar and educational reformer
● Here he urged the reform of universities
● Outlined an ideal curriculum, emphasizing
Greek & Latin languages as a means to learn
directly classical wisdom
● Christian Humanist ideal of education: “to repair
the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know
God aright, and out of that knowledge to love him,
to imitate him, to be like him”
Turbulent Marriage

● In 1643, at the age of 35, he

married 16-year-old Mary
Powell
● A month later, she returned to
her parents, and did not come
back until 1645
● The emotional shock
following her desertion
provoked Milton to publish
four pamphlets arguing for the
legality and morality of
divorce, starting with The
Doctrine and Discipline of
Divorce (1643)
Concept of Women

● 16th and 17th centuries were characterized by misogyny

● Witch hunts (trial and execution of women accused
of witchcraft) were rampant
● Marriages were done solely for procreation
● Divorces were rare and illegal, and expensive
● There was no concept of love or sharing in marriage
● Women were considered potential temptresses or
adulteresses, and morally and intellectually inferior
to men
● Milton believed that woman is certainly subordinate to
man, but he was distanced from popular misogyny of the
time
Divorce Tracts

● Milton argued that divorce should be granted to

mismatched couples
● He praised the bliss of wedded love
● He argued that the main objective of marriage is not
procreation, but to bring two people together in
completion
● Role of conversation, companionship in marriage
● Milton argued that the chief end God intended in
marriage ‘was the cheerful conversation of man with
woman’
● Milton’s views on marriage are relevant in the
analysis of Adam and Eve
Licensing Order of 1643
● Milton’s controversial views on marriage and
divorce naturally provoked opposition from the
authorities (mostly of the Parliament, who were
now predominantly Presbyterians, and whom
Milton had earlier defended)
● In order to silence all opposition, the Parliament
passed the Licensing Order of 1643 which
instituted pre-publishing censorship
● Against this, in 1644, Milton wrote Areopagitica, a
classic defence of the freedom of the press
Areopagitica (1644)

● Titled after a speech written by the Athenian orator

Isocrates in the 5th century BC.
● Areopagus is a hill in Athens, the site of real and legendary
tribunals
● Areopagitica is a noble and eloquent plea, optimistic in
tone
● The entire truth is inaccessible to men after the Fall
● A forceful argument against the Licensing Order of 1643
● Such censorship had never been a part of classical Greek
and Roman society
● Freedom of press is God’s will
● Biblical & classical references to strengthen his argument
Areopagitica: Famous Quotes

● For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul whose
progeny they are.
● This means that, like the author, books are also alive.
● As good almost kill a man as kill a good book: who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image; but he who
destroys a good book, kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were, in the eye.
● This means that it is worse to kill the book than kill the man. Killing a man is like killing God’s image
(representation), but killing a book is like killing God, since God is Reason.
● For who knows not that Truth is strong, next to the Almighty. She needs no policies, nor stratagems, nor licensings to
make her victorious – those are the shifts and defences that error uses against her power. Give her but room, and do
not bind her when she sleeps, for then she speaks not true. . . Yet it is not impossible that she may have more shapes
than one.
● This means that Truth is all powerful and multiple.
● When a man writes to the world, he summons up all his reason and deliberation to assist him; he searches, meditates,
is industrious, and likely consults and confers with his judicious friends, after all which he has done he takes himself
to be informed in what he writes, as well as any writ before him.
● This means that writing cannot be done easily and carelessly. When a writer takes so much pains to write,
which authority has the power to censor him?
Anti-monarchical Pamphlets

● After the execution of Charles I, Milton became the official

apologist for the Parliamentary regime
● At this time he wrote anti-monarchical pamphlets
● His first pamphlet justifying the trial and execution, The
Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649), was issued in a
fortnight of the regicide
■ Argued that a people free by nature have the right to
depose and punish tyrants
● Shortly after, he was appointed Secretary of Foreign
Tongues (also called Latin Secretary)
Eikonoklastes (1649)

● In another anti-monarchical tract, Eikonoklastes (1649,

meaning “Image Breaker”), Milton shatters the image
of Charles I, as described in Eikon Basilike, as pious,
contemplative and caring
● Milton accuses Charles of hypocrisy; using the example
of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, in Richard III, he
shows how treachery is disguised by the pretense of
piety
● Exiled Prince Charles (Charles II)’s party replied with a
defense written by Claudius Salamasius, leading to a
pamphlet war
● In this war, the anonymous Latin polemic The Cry of
the King’s Blood appeared in 1654
The Cry of the King’s Blood and Milton’s Reply

● The Cry of the King’s Blood asserts that Milton’s blindness is

God’s punishment
● In Second Defence, Milton replied that his blindness is a trial
he has to endure for having received special inner
illumination, which distinguishes him from others. Here he
also compares himself with blind heroes & sages from the
past
● This dignity and fortitude with which he accepted his
affliction is evident in the sonnet “On His Blindness” also
● Similarly, in Paradise Regained, Jesus meditates on his
father’s purpose for him, and concludes that he must
trustfully await its manifestation.
Other Prose Works

● Three extraordinary prose works were written later in his career

● History of Britain (1670)
■ Reflects extensive reading
■ Incomplete; ends with the Norman Conquest
● Artis Logicae (1672; “Art of Logic”)
■ Composed in Latin
■ Inspired by 16th century French scholar Petrus Ramus
■ Examines the impact of Renaissance Humanism on
medieval trivium
● De Doctrina Christiana (“On Christian Doctrine”)
■ Unfinished Latin work
■ Comprehensive and systematic treatment of theology
Milton’s “Left Hand”

● Milton thought of himself primarily as a poet

● Said that his prose was written with his “left
hand”
● Reserving the “right hand” for poetry
● His prose was primarily of two types: religious
and political
● In the 17th century, these two spheres of activity
were intertwined
● Milton’s prose identifies him very much as a man
of his time
● But Milton was ahead of his time, insisting on the
separation of the church and the state
OF EDUCATION (1644)
• A poor tract
• Addressed to his friend
Hartlib
ON DIVORCE
• 2 pamphlets (1643 and
1644)
AREOPAGITICA (1644)

• AREOPAGITICA: A SPEECH OF MR JOHN MILTON

FOR THE LIBERTY
OF THE UNLICENC'D PRINTING, TO THE
PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND
• The title imitates the AREOPAGITICUS of the Athenian
orator Isocrates, which
was addressed to the Council that met on the Areopagus in
Athens.
• Greatest of all tracts
• A speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing
• In the form of a speech addressing both Houses of British
Parliament
• Directed against the order of Parliament which established a
censorship of books.
HISTORY OF BRITAIN
• Partly completed
Sonnets seem to belong
this period
ON HIS BLINDNESS

ON THE LATE MASSACRE IN PIEDMONT

• Best of Milton’s sonnet

TO CYRIACK SKINNER

TO THE NIGHTINGALE
• The most romantic

ON HIS DECEASED WIFE

To cromwell
THE PERIOD OF THE GREAT EPICS
3 great poems

PARADISE LOST
• Greatest work of this period
• Begun as early as 1658 and issued in 1667
• First divided into 10 books.
• 2nd edition: divided into twelve books
• In form it follows the strict unity of the classical epic
• Theme: Fall of man
• Milton’s Purpose: To justify the ways of God to man
• Action moves from heaven to hell and hell to heaven
• Blank verse
Book I
• Invoking the “Heav'nly Muse”
• States his theme, the Fall of Man through
disobedience
• His aim - 'justifie the ways of God to men'
• Presents the defeated archangel Satan,
with Beelzebub and his rebellious angels
• Satan - summons a council.
• The palace of Satan: Pandemonium
Book II
• The council debates whether another battle for
the recovery of Heaven be hazarded
• Moloc - one of the chief of the fallen angels -
recommends open war
• Belial and Mammon - recommend peace in
order to avoid worse torments
• Beelzebub announces the creation of “another
World”
• Satan undertakes - visit - passes through
hell-gates, guarded by Sin and Death, and
passes
upward through the realm of Chaos.
Justifying the
use of Blank
Verse
PARADISE REGAINED
1671
an epic poem in four books
• Completely dominated b Puritanism
• Christ’s temptation and victory
• Complementary to Paradise Lost - a
sequel to Paradise Lost
• Composed at the suggestion of
Thomas Edward
Narrates the baptism of Jesus by John
• The proclamation from heaven that he is the
Son of God
• Satan, alarmed, summons a council and
undertakes his temptation
• Jesus is led into the wilderness
• After 40 days, Satan in the guise of 'an aged
man in rural weeds' approaches him and
suggests that he, being now hungry, should
prove his divine character by turning the
stones around him into bread.
• Jesus sternly replies
• Night falls on the desert
Books II and III
• Andrew and Simon seek Jesus
• Mary is troubled at his absence
• Satan talks again with his council
• Once more tries the hunger temptation, placing before the eyes of
Jesus a 'table richly spread', which is contemptuously rejected
• He then appeals to the higher appetites for wealth and power, and a
disputation follows as to the real value of earthly glory
• Satan - refuted
• Reminds Jesus that the kingdom of David is now under the Roman
yoke, and suggests that he should free it.
• Takes Jesus to a high mountain and shows him the kingdoms of the
earth
• A description follows of the contemporary state of the eastern world,
divided between the powers of Rome and of the Parthians
• Satan offers an alliance with, or conquest of, the Parthians, and the
liberation of the Jews then in captivity
Book IV
• Jesus remaining unmoved by Satan's
'politic maxims'
• The tempter, turning to the western
side, draws his attention to Rome and
proposes the
expulsion of the wicked emperor
Tiberius; and finally, pointing out
Athens, urges the
attractions of her poets, orators, and
philosophers.
• Satan brings Jesus back to the
wilderness, and the second night falls
• On the third morning Satan carries
him to the highest pinnacle of the
temple and bids him
cast himself down
• 'Tempt not the Lord thy God'.
• Satan falls dismayed, and angels bear
Jesus away
SAMSON AGONISTES- 1671
a tragedy
• Main source is the story of Samson as found in the Book of Judges
contained in the Old
Testament of the Bible
• Adopting the model of Greek tragedy
• A closet drama
• Compared to Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus or Oedipus at Colonus
by Sophocles
• Blank verse
• Agonistes - the Wrestler, or Champion
• Deals with the last phase of the life of the Samson when he is a prisoner
of the Philistines
and blind
• compared to the assumed circumstances of the blind poet himself, after
the collapse of
the Commonwealth and his political hopes
• 'calm of mind all passion spent' – catharsis
• The whole piece conforms to the neo-classical doctrine of unities.
AN ERA OF
POLITICAL
UNREST AND
INSTABILITY
The Metaphysical School of Poets

● The term “metaphysical” as applied to poetry, was first used by Dr.

Johnson, who borrowed it from Dryden’s phrase about Donne, “he
affects the metaphysis”.
● It was a term of contempt signifying habitual deviation from naturalness
of thought and style to novelty and quaintness.
● The metaphysical style was established by John Donne, early in the
17th century.
● Its main characteristics are philosophical argument, extravagant and
farfetched imagery and terseness of expressions profusion of conceits,
and harsh metres.
● All these together made their poetry obscure. Most of Jacobean and
Caroline poets like Herbert, Crashaw, Vaughan, Herrick, Carew,
Marvell and Cowley were more or less metaphysical.
● Metaphysical poets have greatly influenced the poetry of 20th century.
The label was first used by Dr Johnson in his 'Life of Cowley' Key
documents in the revival were H. J. C. Grierson's Metaphysical Lyrics
and Poems of the Seventeenth Century (1921) and T. S. Eliot's essay
'Metaphysical Poets'
● Dissociation of sensibility
 Introduction
English literature during the reign of James I
(1603-25) came to be known as Jacobean
literature, the term derived from Jacobus, the
Latin word for James

It was an age in contrast to the optimism and

promise of the Elizabethan era, Jacobean
literature is coloured by darker, doubting
tones
 Elizabethan Age Jacobean Age

Elizabethan literature was Jacobean literature is critical, sombre

experimental, expansive and sometimes and somewhat cynical, the court
ingenuous - in fairly close touch with became the centre of culture
medieval traditions yet energized by the
inspiring spirit of the Renaissance

While the reign of Elizabeth was That of James saw increasing

prosperous at home and triumphant disagreements at home and triumphant
overseas overseas that of James saw increasing
disagreements at home and his image
abroad was a negative one

The reign of Charles I was even more

bitter at home with growing dissension
between the King’s Royalists and
Cromwell’s Roundheads
 Jacobean Prose
The Jacobean period was the first that was really
rich in prose literature with writers like Francis
Bacon, John Donne and Lancelot Andrewes

The monumental achievements in prose writings of

this period include the great King James Version of
the Bible which first appeared in 1611

Learning and theology were the major concerns of

prose writers
 The age saw the emergence of an
unprecedented number of prose genres like:
The travelogue
Biography
Autobiography
Books that defined good character
Conduct
Pamphlets
Books on history and geography and
scientific writings
 17th Century Prose Writers

James Sir Francis Robert Thomas Izaak Sir Thomas

I Bacon Burton Hobbes Walton Thomas Fuller
Browne
 James I - 1566- 1625

● THE TRUE LAWE OF FREE MONARCHIES (1578) and

BASILIKON DORON (1599) were reissued and
acknowledged in London in the year of his accession

● His fascination with witchcraft was the basis of his

DEMONOLOGY (1597)

● A Counterblast to Tobacco- issued anonymously in 1604, he

was always conscious of being a learned monarch

● James I wielded considerable influence on the culture of Stuart

England, his claim to fame however rests mainly in his name
being associated with the Authorised Version of the BIBLE-
1611
 The Development of the English Bible
BEDE The work on the English Bible
began as early as the 8th century
when Bede translated a portion of
the Gospel of St John into Old
English Prose
Anglo Norman period During the Anglo Norman period
owing to the influence of French
and Latin, English translation did
not flourish
Wycliffe Tradition was strongly stimulated
by WYCLIFF (1320-84) under
whose influence two complete
versions were carried through 1384
and 1388
John Purvey To the second of the Wycliffian versions is sometimes
given the name of John Purvey, the lollard leader who
succeeded Wycliff

William Tyndale The greatest of all translators was William Tyndale who
did much to give the Bible its modern shape

A feature of Tyndale’s translation was its direct reliance

upon the Hebrew and Greek originals and not upon the
Latin renderings of them.

Of these Latin texts the stock version was the

VULGATE, upon which Wyclif to a large extent relied

Miles Coverdale Carried on the work of Tyndale

(1488-1568)
An edition of his translation 1535 was the first complete
English Bible to be printed
John Rogers In 1537 appeared the finely printed version of
THOMAS MATTHEW, who was said to be
John Rogers, a friend of Coverdale (though it
may be a pseudonym for Tyndale himself)

The Great Bible - 1539 The Great Bible (1539) was the first of the
authorized versions, was executed by a
commission of translators working under the
command of Henry VIII

It was based on Matthew’s Bible

Calvinistic GENEVA Another notable translation was the

BIBLE Calvinistic GENEVA BIBLE- 1560

This book received the popular name of

BREECHES BIBLE
Bishop’s Bible In the reign of Elizabeth
was issued the Bishop’s
Bible (1568)

It was intended to be a
counterblast to the
growing popularity of
the Breeches Bible
AV Authorized Version -
1611
 Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
Was a philosopher and essayist

He was educated at Cambridge and he practised law

Bacon’s career saw no dramatic advances until the

death of Elizabeth, partly because he had exposed
her tax programme in the Parliament

With the accession of James I Bacon was appointed

LORD CHANCELLOR and in 1620-21 he was
created Viscount St Albans
 Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
Between 1608 and 1620, Bacon prepared at least
twelve drafts of his most celebrated work,
NOVUM ORGANUM in which he presented his
scientific method

He fell from political power in 1621 on charges of

corruption, he was dismissed from office,
debarred from Parliament, fined and sent briefly
to the Tower of London, the prison, thence
retiring into private life, disgraced. Bacon devoted
his subsequent life to writing
 Bacon’s ESSAYS (1597)
Bacon’s Essays, Published in 1597 was a book of 10 essays

It was reprinted in 1625 with 58 essays

The essays: are the best picture of Bacon’s mind

The term ESSAY was borrowed from Montaigne whose

ESSAIS had appeared in France in 1580

Bacon adhered to Montaigne’s conception of the essay as an

economical, informal and malleable piece of writing but he
differed from Montaigne’s expression of his egoism and
individual opinion in his work
 Of Studies:
Read not to contradict nor to believe but to weigh and
consider

Studies serve for delight, for ornament and for ability

Reading maketh a full man…. Writing an exact man

Crafty men condemn studies, simple men admire them

and wise men use them

Men in great place are thrice servants, servants of the

sovereign or state, servants of fame and servants of
business
 Of studies:

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed and some few to be chewed and digested

Histories make man wise, poets witty, the Mathematics subtle natural philosophy deep, moral
grave, logic and rhetoric able to contend
 Of marriage and single life

Unmarried men are best friend, best masters, best servants but not always best subjects

Wives are young men’s mistresses, companions for middle aged and old men’s nurses
 The Advancement of Learning - 1605, Bacon’s Latin work DE SAPIENTIA VETERUM in
1609, this was translated as THE WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS in 1619

He returned to English history in THE HISTORY OF THE REIGN OF HENRY VII (1622)

SYLVA SYLVARUM or A NATURAL HISTORY and an unfinished Utopian fiction THE NEW
ATLANTIS , were both published in 1627, a year after his death
 Known for epigrammatic style

His greatest achievement probably is the programme for intellectual and scientific reform
proposed under the title INSTAURATIO MAGNA (Great Instauration)
 Conclusion:

Although Bacon’s personal life was tarnished by many charges of corruption and ingratitude, his
writing possessed a remarkable intellectual integrity thus leading Pope to comment on him as
THE WISEST, BRIGHTEST, MEANEST of mankind

Indeed a Renaissance man

 Robert Burton (1577-1640)

A scholar, writer and Anglican clergyman whose ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY (1621) was a
masterpiece of style

His silent, sedentary, solitary life

In ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY Burton weds his awareness of contemporary life with his
knowledge of the ancients

Burton often lowered his style into a serio comic monologue in order to make it reader friendly
and this set a pattern for both Sterne and Lamb
● This is one of the first treatises on
Melancholy—in contemporary
language called emotional depression.
Melancholy is a condition that can be
less severe than clinical depression or
as bad. Melancholy has diverse causes
and a variety of treatments and cures
are available. The author writes about
these.

● Robert Burton is more a scholar and

librarian than either a scientist or
physician.
● The author Robert Burton assures
readers that he is not pursuing this
work for the purposes of fame. He
also does not advertise himself as the
author of the work, but explains that
this is the further development of the
work of Democritus. He gives some
explanation of Democritus and of
Democritus Junior, who are unrelated.
Burton vouches for Democritus as
having provided one of the better
viewpoints on melancholy that anyone
has been able to come up with for the
medieval period. Democritus is known
to have had a melancholic
temperament himself.

● The book is a treatise on what

melancholy is, what causes it and how
to treat and cure it. Readers of today
should see this as addressing two
things that differ only in their
magnitude: unhappiness and clinical
depression. Melancholy, in its least
severe form, is the tendency towards
● This work is a massive treatise on the
malaise of melancholy. At least of the
authors preceding Robert Burton had
all too much experience with
melancholy. Melancholy is the old
name for an ailment contemporary
psychologists call depression. There
are diverse forms of this. There is a
sense in which this work is simply an
old medical document. As such it is
about the history of medicine and
psychology.
● There are general types of
melancholy. The author goes into
these in each of three major Partitions
of the book. The First Partition
contains a description of melancholy
in general terms. This is in part to
make it easier to recognize. He also
covers most probable causes of the
illness or condition. This analysis is
followed by basic treatment plans. The
Second Partition is primarily
concerned with curing the ailment.
Treatment regimens are explained in
 Sir Philip Sidney (1554-86)
Sidney- courtier, poet, critic and author of
prose romances

Wrote Arcadia, a pastoral romance which

appeared in 1590, including at the end of
each book a pastoral eclogue

The work was begin in 1580 for the

amusement of his sister, Countess of
Pembroke
 Sir Philip Sidney (1554-86)
Sidney had no high opinion of his
extravagant prose and is said to have asked
when dying that it should be destroyed

However it became enormously popular in its

age as a courtesy book, a moral treatise, a
discussion of love and philosophy and even as
a rhetorical handbook
 The work exists in two distinct versions

1st version: the old Arcadia was planned as a

tragicomedy in five acts with eclogues
scattered all over

2nd version known as the NEW Arcadia was

published posthumously in 1590

It is a longer and more serious work than

first and the note of moral earnestness is
more intense
 In 1593, The Countess of Pembroke’s
Arcadia was published bringing together the
unrevised last two books of the NEW
ARCADIA

The work thus became a curious hybrid

Sidney’s contemporaries regarded it as a
profound meditation on morals and politics

To Milton however the work was no more

than an exercise in escapist fantasy
In its original version the work was a mixture
of love and intrigue but in its REVISED
FORM Sidney broadened the scope of his
undertaking, adding instruction to
entertainment

The story is a maze of different romantic

adventures told in a flowery, repetitive style
His The Defence of Poesie
introduced the critical
ideas of Renaissance
theorists to England.
Philip Sidney's "The Defence of Poesy" written arguably in reply to Stephen
Gossen's " School of Abuse. Stephen Gossen in his essay pit forth the
viewpoint of the Puritans, namely that poetry gives vent to ones emotions and
is regressive to the society. Sidney's deftly crafted essay " The Defence of
Poesy refutes Gossen's arguments and points out the virtue of poetry. Sidney
starts the essay by stating that poetry is the "first light-giver to ignorance" and
thus poetry paves the path for further sophisticated knowledge. Sidney points
out that the great Greek literary figures like Homer were all poets. All
historians used the help of poetry to present their works. This usage of poetry
helped the historians to bridge together dry and monotonous pieces of
information and weave them into narratives.
The Defence of Poesie, literary criticism
by Sir Philip Sidney, written about 1582
and published posthumously in 1595.
Another edition of the work, published the
same year, is titled An Apologie for
Poetrie. Considered the finest work of
Elizabethan literary criticism, Sidney’s
elegant essay suggests that literature is a
better teacher than history or philosophy,
and it masterfully refutes Plato’s infamous
decision to ban poets from the state in his
Republic.
Sidney composed his eloquent defense of
imaginative literature against charges of
time-wasting, prevarication, and allurement to
vice. Writing before England’s great age of
poetry and drama—too early to include William
Shakespeare, for example, in his criticism—he
therefore finds English literature sadly wanting.
He does, however, praise such works as Geoffrey
Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde, the anthology
The Mirror for Magistrates, and Edmund
Spenser’s The Shepheardes Calender. While
Sidney’s ideas are not considered particularly
original, the work did introduce the critical
thought of continental Renaissance theorists to
England.
Nature never set forth the earth
in so rich tapestry as divers
poets have done; neither with so
pleasant rivers, fruitful trees,
sweet-smelling flowers, not
whatsoever else may make the
too-much-loved earth more
lovely; her world is brazen, the
poets only deliver a golden.
In “An Apology for Poetry,” Sir Philip Sidney sets out to
restore poetry to its rightful place among the arts. Poetry
has gotten a bad name in Elizabethan England,
disrespected by many of Sidney’s contemporaries. But,
Sidney contends, critics of poetry do not understand what
poetry really is: they have been misled by modern poetry,
which is frequently bad. If one understands the true nature
of poetry, one will see, as Sidney shows in his essay, that
poetry is in fact the “monarch” of the arts. Sidney does so
by articulating a theory of poetry, largely drawn from
classical sources, as a tool for teaching virtue and the poet
as a semi-divine figure capable of imagining a more
perfect version of nature. Armed with this definition,
Sidney proceeds to address the major criticisms made of
the art of poetry and of the poets who practice it, refuting
them with brilliant rhetorical skill.
George Puttenham, (born c.
1520—died autumn 1590,
London, England), English
courtier, generally acknowledged
as the author of the anonymously
published The Arte of English
Poesie (1589), one of the most
important critical works of the
Elizabethan age.
The Arte is divided into three books: I, “Of Poets and
Poesy,” defending and defining poetry; II, “Of
Proportion,” dealing mainly with prosody as an
indispensable formal element of the art of poesy; and
III, “Of Ornament,” defined as all that renders poetic
utterance attractive to eye and ear. The work’s
importance lies in its treatment of English poetry as an
art, at a period when this was still disputed; in its
appeal to “right reason” as the best judge of poetry and
the poetic technique; and in its emphasis on the
creative, imitative, and “image-forming” faculties of
the poet and on poetry’s primary purpose as giving
pleasure rather than instruction. In its treatment of
English prosody and of poetic kinds and in its critical
estimate of a broad range of English poetry, it is a
pioneer work.
George Puttenham’s The Arte of English Poesie (1589) was the first
English literary-critical treatise fully to articulate the relationship between
poetry and feeling. The Arte is at once an appraisal of the present state of
English versification, an encyclopaedia of literary techniques, and a
defence of poetry written in English. It is also a conduct book, for
Puttenham was committed to the idea that good habits of reading fostered
self-mastery among aristocratic gentlemen and believed firmly in the
transformative power of literature, especially its facility to stimulate the
minds and bodies of those who produced and encountered it. Like other
Renaissance literary theorists, Puttenham drew from classical writers,
including Plutarch, a belief that poetry could change people for the better.
But whereas Thomas Wright and Henry Crosse followed Plutarch in
deploring the pleasure (hēdonē, volputas) associated with reading poetry,
Puttenham explored the possibility that the sensations involved in reading
and writing, including delight, could contribute in important ways to a
distinctively English poetics. Puttenham formulated a new aesthetic
vocabulary in The Arte in order to describe the experience of being moved,
stirred or enraptured by poetry; and that such experience was linked to the
integrity, honour and self-government of English gentlemen.
Sir Thomas North,
(born May 28, 1535,
London, Eng.—died
1601?), English
translator whose version
of Plutarch’s Bioi
parallēloi (Parallel
Lives) was the source for
many of William
Shakespeare’s plays.
North published his translation of
Plutarch in 1580, basing it on the
French version by Jacques Amyot. The
first edition was dedicated to Queen
Elizabeth, and was followed by
another edition in 1595, containing
fresh Lives. A third edition of his
Plutarch was published, in 1603, with
more translated Parallel Lives, and a
supplement of other translated
biographies.
The Lives translation formed the
source from which Shakespeare
drew the materials for his Julius
Caesar, Coriolanus, Timon of
Athens, and Antony and
Cleopatra. It is in the
last-named play that he follows
the Lives most closely, whole
speeches being taken directly
from North
George Gascoigne, (born
c. 1539, Cardington,
Bedfordshire, Eng.—died
Oct. 7, 1577, Barnack,
near Stamford,
Lincolnshire), English poet
and a major literary
innovator.
 George Gascoigne (1539-77)
A poet, playwright and translator

Prose works are limited to THE ADVENTURES OF

MASTER FJ- a very early example of an original
English prose narrative which can be regarded as a
remote ancestor of the novels of Richardson and
Meredith

The Spoil of Antwerp- 1576 is a piece of war

journalism
The Drum of Doomsday- 1576- treating the frailties
and miseries of life, is a translation of a treatise by
Pope Innocent III
 William Painter 1540-94
Painter was translator

His PALACE OF PLEASURE (1566) is a collection of

tales based on originals from classical writers such as
Herodotus and Livy and the novella of Boccaccio and
Bandello

The first volume contained about 60 tales and a second

volume (1567) contained another 34 stories

It was a source for plots of English dramatists like

Webster, Beaumont, Fletcher, Shirley, it also provided a
version of the story of Giletta of Narbonne that
Shakespeare used in All’s Well that ends well
 Richard Hakluyt - 1552- 1616

Historian and travel writer

He was ordained a priest and held various ecclesiastical

posts

His interest in travel was kindled early in his boyhood

when he was shown certain books of cosmography with
a universal map

He decided to dedicate himself to collecting, publishing

and translating accounts of voyages

Hakluyt is regarded as the first professor of modern

geography in Oxford
 His DIVERS VOYAGES TOUCHING THE DISCOVERY OF
AMERICA- was published in 1582 and it opened up the New
World to the English reader

In support of Raleigh’s plan for colonising Virginia in America

Hakluyt wrote A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE WESTERN

PLANTING in 1584

His major work THE PRINCIPAL NAVIGATIONS, VOYAGES

and DISCOVERIES of the English Nation (1589) was enlarged
and published in three volumes in 1598-1600

After his death Samuel Purchas continued his work with the aid of
Hakluyt’s manuscripts