PURITAN PERIOD

The Seventeenth Century up to 1660 was dominated by Puritanism and it may be

called the Puritan Age or the Age of Milton who was the noblest representative of the

Puritan spirit. Broadly speaking, the Puritan movement in literature may be considered

as the second and greater Renaissance, marked by the rebirth of the moral nature of

man which followed the intellectual awakening of Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth

centuries. Though the Renaissance brought with it culture, it was mostly sensuous and

pagan, and it needed some sort of moral sobriety and profundity which were contributed

by the Puritan movement. Moreover, during the Renaissance period despotism was still

the order of the day, and in politics and religion unscrupulousness and fanaticism were

rampant. The Puritan movement stood for liberty of the people from the shackles of the

despotic ruler as well as the introduction of morality and high ideals in politics. Thus it

had two objects—personal righteousness and civil and religious liberty. In other words,

it aimed at making men honest and free.

Though during the Restoration period the Puritans began to be looked down upon

as narrow-minded, gloomy dogmatists, who were against all sorts of recreations and

amusements, in fact they were not so. Moreover, though they were profoundly religious,

they did not form a separate religious sect. It would be a grave travesty of facts if we call

Milton and Cromwell, who fought for liberty of the people against the tyrannical rule of
Charles I, as narrow-minded fanatics. They were the real champions of liberty and stood

for toleration.

The name Puritan was at first given to those who advocated certain changes in the

form of worship of the reformed English Church under Elizabeth. As King Charles I and

his councillors, as well as some of the clergymen with Bishop Laud as their leader, were

opposed to this movement, Puritanism in course of time became a national movement

against the tyrannical rule of the King, and stood for the liberty of the people. Of course

the extremists among Puritans were fanatics and stern, and the long, protracted struggle

against despotism made even the milder ones hard and narrow. So when Charles I was

defeated and beheaded in 1649 and Puritanism came out triumphant with the

establishment of the Commonwealth under Cromwell, severe laws passed. Many simple

modes of recreation and amusement were banned, and an austere standard of living was

imposed on an unwilling people. But when we criticize the Puritan for his restrictions on

simple and innocent pleasures of life, we should not forget that it was the same very

Puritan who fought for liberty and justice, and who through self-discipline and austere

way of living overthrew despotism and made the life and property of the people of

England safe from the tyranny of rulers.

In literature of the Puritan Age we find the same confusion as we find in religion and

politics. The medieval standards of chivalry, the impossible loves and romances which

we find in Spenser and Sidney, have completely disappeared. As there were no fixed

literary standards, imitations of older poets and exaggeration of the ‘metaphysical’ poets

replaced the original, dignified and highly imaginative compositions of the Elizabethan

writers. The literary achievements of this so-called gloomy age are not of a high order,
but it had the honour of producing one solitary master of verse whose work would shed

lustre on any age or people—John Milton, who was the noblest and indomitable

representative of the Puritan spirit to which he gave a most lofty and enduring

expression.