ENGLISH MAJOR: COURSE 5

TITLE: BRITISH LITERATURE UP TO 1800

PAPER: 1
FROM CHAUCER TO THE AGE OF TRANSITION
UNIT: 1
HISTORY OF LITERATURE UP TO 1800
SOCIAL CONTEXT OF MEDIEVAL ENGLISH LITERATURE

ENGLISH MAJOR: COURSE 5

TITLE: BRITISH LITERATURE UP TO 1800
PAPER: 1
FROM CHAUCER TO THE AGE OF TRANSITION
UNIT: 1
HISTORY OF LITERATURE UP TO 1800
SOCIAL CONTEXT OF MEDIEVAL ENGLISH LITERATURE

RENAISSANCE
Origin of Renaissance: Renaissance is derived from the Italian Renescentia means rebirth. The French
historian Jules Michelet used Renaissance for the first time. Italy was the cradle of Renaissance. It began in
Italy in the 14th century, spread to England by 16th century, and ended in the mid – seventeenth century.
And also, the term Humanism sprang from it.
Meaning of Renaissance: The Renaissance means rebirth. The French historian Jules Michelet used the
word for the first time. Renaissance means the discovery of the world and the discovery of man, by man. In
other words, it was a psychological revolution which took place in European society. Renaissance is
sometimes known as the revival of learning. The 18th-century ENLIGHTENMENT is a direct continuation
of the Renaissance's intellectual tendencies.
The Effect of Renaissance on English Literature: The impact of the Renaissance on English Literature is
an increased willingness of writers to satirize existing works. The most significant impact of the Renaissance
on English literature was seen in the changes of perception of human beings. The Renaissance brought about
a new spirit in English literature in all its aspects. The thirst for classical learning also gave a new impetus to
literature. All the forms of literature were developed during this period:
1) Impact on Drama: The Renaissance scored its first clear impact on English drama in the middle of the
sixteenth century. During the Renaissance, drama become more secularized and reached crowning glory in
the hands of University Wits such as Marlowe, Shakespeare and Ben Jonson. Among the University Wits,
Marlowe has been called – “The true child of the Renaissance.” The heroes in his plays show an infinite
desire for knowledge, wealth and power. Shakespeare introduced all the forms of drama. He wrote historical
and romantic plays. His greatest achievement was in the field of tragedy. Ben Jonson introduced a new kind
of drama known as comedy of humour. In his plays, the social evils and lust for money are shown that found
in the English society. The tragic plays of blood and revenge were introduced by John Webster in this age.
Examples Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, Tamburlaine, Jew of Malta and Edward II. Shakespeare’s Macbeth,
Othello, Hamlet, King Lear and A Mid Summer Night’s Dream. Ben Jonson’s Alchemist, Everyman in His
Humour and Volpone.

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2) Impact on Poetry: The spirit of Renaissance can be seen in the works of Wyatt, Surrey, Spenser, Sidney,
Shakespeare and etc. this form became a fashionable and handy tool for the great poets of this age. Sir
Thomas Wyatt and the Earl of Surrey were the pioneers of the new poetry in England. They both gave
English poetry a new sense of grace, dignity and harmony. They did their best to imitate Italian Renaissance.
Wyatt has introduced the sonnet in English literature. Though in his sonnets Wyatt did not employ regular
iambic pentameters, yet he created a sense of discipline among the poets of the era. According to David
Daiches, “Wyatt’s sonnets represent one of the most interesting movements toward metrical discipline, found
in English literary history.” Surrey’s works are characterized by exquisite grace and tenderness. He was a
better craftsman and gives greater harmony to his poetry. Surrey employed blank verse in English literature
with the translation of the fourth book of The Aeneid. With the poetry of Renaissance era, England becomes
a nest of singing birds. For example, Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets Sidney’s Astrophel and Stella, Spenser’s
Amoretti, Milton’s Paradise Lost.
3) Impact on Prose: Italian wind brought the seeds of the novel in English literature. The most important
prose writers who exhibit well the influence of the Renaissance on English prose are Erasmus, Sir Thomas
More, Lyly, and Sidney. In the 15th century, the prose writings of Bacon are true spirit of the Renaissance.
He is called the father of English essays. His essays provided the best worldly wisdom in the era of
Renaissance. - Examples Sir Thomas More’s Utopia Malory’s Morte – de – Arthur, Erasmus’ Praise and
Folly Browne’s Religio Medici.
The Renaissance makes a great effect on the development of English literature. In 1564, the Italian
Renaissance was over but the English Renaissance had hardly begun. The age of Shakespeare was the era of
Renaissance in England. It was an important movement that illuminated the whole English literature.
Classical language and learning were popularized. Paradise Lost is the last great triumph of the Renaissance.

ELIZABEHAN POETRY

After the death of Geoffrey Chaucer in 1400, a century has gone without great literary outputs. This period is
known as Barren Age of literature.
Even though there are many differences in their work, Sir Thomas Wyatt and the Earl of Surrey are often
mentioned together. Sir Thomas Wyatt introduced the Sonnet in England whereas Surrey wrote the first
blank verse in English.
Thomas Wyatt followed the Italian poet Petrarch to compose sonnets. In this form, the 14 lines rhyme
abbaabba (8) + 2 or 3 rhymes in the last six lines.
The Earl of Surrey’s blank verse is remarkable. Christopher Marlow, Shakespeare, Milton and many other
writers made use of it.
Tottel’s Songs and Sonnets (1557) is the first printed anthology of English poetry. It contained 40 poems by
Surrey and 96 by Wyatt. There were 135 by other authors. Some of these poems were fine, some childish.
In 1609, a collection of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets was printed. These sonnets were addressed to one
“Mr. W.H.”. The most probable explanation of the identity of “W.H.” is that he was William Herbert, Earl of
Pembroke.
Other people mentioned in the sonnets are a girl, a rival poet, and a dark-eyed beauty.  Shakespeare’s two
long poems, Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece are notable.
One of the most important poets of Elizabethan period is Edmund Spenser (1552-1599). He has been
addressed “the poets’ poet”. His pastoral poem, The Shepeard’s Calendar (1579) is in 12 books, one for each

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month of the year. Spenser’s Amoretti, 88 Petrarchan sonnets celebrate his progress of love. The joy of his
marriage with Elizabeth Boyle is expressed in his ode Epithalamion. His Prothalamion is written in honour
of the double marriage of the daughters of the Earl of Worester. Spenser’s allegorical poem, The Faerie
Queene is his greatest achievement.  Spenser invented a special metre for The Faerie Queene. The verse has
nine lines and the rhyme plan is ababbcbcc. This verse is known as the ‘Spenserian Stanza’.
Sir Philip Sidney is remembered for his prose romance, Arcadia. His critical essay Apology for Poetry,
sonnet collection Astrophel and Stella are elegant.
Michael Drayton and Sir Walter Raleigh are other important poets of Elizabethan England. Famous
Elizabethan dramatist Ben Jonson produced fine poems also.
The University Wits John Lyly, Thomas Kyd, George Peele, Thomas Lodge, Robert Green, Christopher
Marlow, and Thomas Nash also wrote good number of poems. John Lyly is most widely known as the author
of prose romance entitled Euphues. The style Lyly used in his Euphues  is known as Euphuism. The
sentences are long and complicated. It is filled with tricks and alliteration. Large numbers of similes are
brought in.
John Donne’s works add the beauty of Elizabethan literature. He was the chief figure of Metaphysical Poetry.
Donne’s poems are noted for its originality and striking images and conceits. Satires, Songs and Sonnets,
Elegies, The Flea, A Valediction: forbidding mourning, A Valediction: of weeping etc. are his famous works.

ELIZABETHAN DRAMA
The English dramas have gone through great transformation in Elizabethan period. The chief literary glory of
the Elizabethan age was its drama. The first regular English comedy was Ralph Roister Doister  written by
Nicholas Udall. Another comedy Gammar Gurton’s Needle  is about the loss and the finding of a needle with
which the old woman Gammar Gurton mends clothes.
The first English tragedy was Gorboduc, in blank verse. The first three acts of Gorboduc written by Thomas
Norton and the other two by Thomas Sackville.The University Wits contributed hugely for the growth of
Elizabethan drama. The University Wits were young men associated with Oxford and Cambridge. They were
fond of heroic themes. The most notable figures are Christopher Marlow, Thomas Kyd, Thomas Nash,
Thomas Lodge, Robert Greene, and George Peele.
Christopher Marlow was the greatest of pre-Shakespearean dramatist. Marlow wrote only tragedies. His most
famous works are Edward II, Tamburlaine the Great, The Jew of Malta, The Massacre at Paris, and Doctor
Faustus.  Marlow popularized the blank verse. Ben Jonson called it “the mighty line of Marlow”.
Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy is a Senecan play. It resembles Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Its horrific plot
gave the play a great and lasting popularity.
The greatest literary figure of English, William Shakespeare was born at Stratford-on-Avon on April 26,
1564. He did odd jobs and left to London for a career. In London, he wrote plays for Lord Chamberlain’s
company. Shakespeare’s plays can be classified as the following
1. The Early Comedies: In these immature plays the plots are not original. The characters are less finished
and the style lacks the genius of Shakespeare. They are full of wit and word play. Of this type are  The
Comedy of Errors, Love’s Labour’s Lost, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona.
2. The English Histories: These plays show a rapid maturing of Shakespeare’s technique. His
characterization has improved. The plays in this group are Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V.

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3. The Mature Comedies: The jovial good humour of Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night, the urban worldly-
wise comedy of Touchstone in As You Like It, and the comic scenes in The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado
About Nothing etc. are full of vitality. They contain many comic situations.
4. The Somber Plays: In this group are All’s Well that Ends Well, Measure for Measure, and Trolius and
Cressida. These plays show a cynical attitude to life and are realistic in plot.
5. The Great Tragedies: Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, and King Lear are the climax of Shakespeare’s art.
These plays stand supreme in intensity of emotion, depth of psychological insight, and power of style.
6. The Roman Plays: Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus etc. follow the great tragic period.
Unlike Marlow, Shakespeare is relaxed in the intensity of tragedy.
7. The Last Plays: The notable last plays of Shakespeare are Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale,  and The
Tempest.
The immense power and variety of Shakespeare’s work have led to the idea that one man cannot have written
it all; yet it must be true that one man did. Thus Shakespeare remains as the greatest English dramatist even
after four centuries of his death.
Other dramatist who flourished during the Elizabethan period is Ben Jonson. He introduced the “comedy of
humours’’, which portrays the individual as dominated by one marked characteristic. He is best known for
his Every Man  in his Humour.  Other important plays of Jonson are Every Man out of his Humour, Volpone
or the Fox,  and The Alchemist.
John Webster’s The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi are important Elizabethan dramas. Thomas
Dekker, Thomas Middleton, Thomas Heywood, Beaumont and Fletcher etc. are other noted Elizabethan
playwrights.  

METAPHYSICAL POETRY
The word 'meta' means 'after or beyond,' so the literal translation of 'metaphysical' is 'after the physical or
beyond the physical. The term “metaphysical” was first used by Dr. Johnson, who borrowed it from
Dryden’s phrase for Donne: “He affects the metaphysics”. Metaphysical poets, the name given to a diverse
group of 17thcentury English poets whose work is notable for its ingenious use of intellectual and theological
concepts in surprising conceits, (one of the most famous conceits is John Donne's A Valediction: Forbidding
Mourning, a poem in which Donne compares two souls in love to the points on a geometer's compass.),
strange paradoxes, and far-fetched imagery.
The leading metaphysical poet was John Donne, whose colloquial, argumentative abruptness of rhythm and
tone distinguishes his style from the conventions of Elizabethan love-lyrics. Other poets to whom the label is
applied include Andrew Marvell, Abraham Cowley, John Cleveland, and the predominantly religious poets
George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, and Richard Crashaw.
In the 20th century, T. S. Eliot and others revived their reputation, stressing their quality of wit, in the sense
of intellectual strenuousness and flexibility rather than smart humour. The term metaphysical poetry usually
refers to the works of these poets, but it can sometimes denote any poetry that discusses metaphysics, that is,
the philosophy of knowledge and existence.
Metaphysical poetry may be divided into two types, namely, religious and amorous. Amorous verse was
written by courtly poets like Carew, Suckling etc. while religious verse was written by Herbert Crashaw and
Vaughan.

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 RESTORATION DRAMA
The Restoration of Charles II (1660) brought about a revolution in English literature. With the collapse of the
Puritan Government there sprang up activities that had been so long suppressed. The Restoration encouraged
levity in rules that often resulted in immoral and indecent plays.
John Dryden (1631-1700): Dryden is the greatest literary figure of the Restoration. In his works, we have an
excellent reflection of both the good and the bad tendencies of the age in which he lived. Before the
Restoration, Dryden supported Oliver Cromwell. At the Restoration, Dryden changed his views and became
loyal to Charles II. His poem Astrea Redux (1660) celebrated Charles II’s return.
Dryden’s Annus Mirabilis(Miracle Year) describes the terrors of Great Fire in London in 1666. Dryden
appeared as the chief literary champion of the monarchy in his famous satirical allegory, Abasalom and
Achitophel.  John Dryden is now remembered for his greatest mock-heroic poem, Mac Flecknoe. Mac
Flecknoe  is a personal attack on his rival poet Thomas Shadwell.
Dryden’s other important poems are Religio Laici, and The Hind and the Panther. John Dryden popularized
heroic couplets in his dramas. Aurengaxebe, The Rival Ladies, The Conquest of Granada, Don Sebastian
etc.  are some of his famous plays. His dramatic masterpiece is All for Love. Dryden polished the plot of
Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra  in his All for Love.
As a prose writer, Dryden’s work, An Essay on Dramatic Poesie  is worth mentioning.
John Bunyan’s greatest allegory, The Pilgrim’s Progress, The Holy War. 
Comedy of Manners : Restoration period produced a brilliant group of dramatists who made this age
immortal in the history of English literature. These plays are hard and witty, comic and immoral. It was
George Etheredge who introduced Comedy of Manners. His famous plays are She Would if She Could, The
Man of Mode and Love in a Tub.
William Congreve is the greatest of Restoration comedy writers. His Love for Love, The Old Bachelor, The
Way of the World and The Double Dealer are very popular. William Wycherley is another important
Restoration comedy playwright. His Country Wife, and Love in a Wood are notable plays.
Sir John Vanbrugh’s best three comedies are The Provoked Wife, The Relapse and The Confederacy.

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY PROSE

Daniel Defoe (1659-1731): Daniel Defoe wrote in bulk. His greatest work is the novel Robinson Crusoe. It
is based on an actual event which took place during his time. Robinson Crusoe is considered to be one of the
most popular novels in English language. He started a journal named The Review. His A Journal of the
Plague Year deals with the Plague in London in 1665.
Sir Richard Steele and Joseph Addison worked together for many years. Richard Steele started the
periodicals The Tatler, The Spectator, The Guardian, The English Man, and The Reader. Joseph Addison
contributed in these periodicals and wrote columns. The imaginary character of Sir Roger de Coverley was
very popular during the eighteenth century.
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) is one of the greatest satirists of English literature. His first noteworthy book
was The Battle of the Books. A Tale of a Tub is a religious allegory like Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.  His
longest and most famous work is Gulliver’s Travels. Another important work of Jonathan Swift is A Modest
Proposal.
Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) is very much famous for his Dictionary (1755). The Vanity of Human
Wishes  is a longish poem by him. Johnson started a paper named The Rambler. His The Lives of the

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Poets introduces fifty-two poets including Donne, Dryden, Pope, Milton, and Gray. Most of the information
about Johnson is taken from his friend James Boswell’s biography Life of Samuel Johnson.
Edward Gibbon is famous for the great historical work, The Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire. His Autobiography contains valuable material concerning his life.
Edmund Burke is one of the masters of English prose. He was a great orator also. His speech On American
Taxation is very famous.  Revolution in France and A Letter to a Noble Lord are his notable pamphlets.
The letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Earl of Chesterfield, Thomas Gray and Cowper are good prose
works in Eighteenth century literature.

NEO CLASSICAL POETRY

Neoclassical Poetry is a type of poetry, which follows the pattern of poetry authored by the poets
of ancient time i.e., Greek and Rome. Pope and Dryden were the leading writers, who deviated from the
traditional schools of poetry and sought guidance in the works of ancient Greek and Roman writers.
Neoclassical literature was written between 1660 A.D. 1798 A.D. It was a time of both formality and
artificiality. This time period is broken down into three parts: the Restoration period, the Augustan period,
and the Age of Johnson. They tires to follow the writers of the antiquity in letters in spirit of Augustan age. .
The writers of the neoclassical period tried to imitate the style of the Romans and Greeks.
Writers of the neoclassical period tried to imitate the style of the Romans and Greeks. Thus the
combination of the terms 'neo,' which means 'new,' and 'classical,' as in the day of the Roman and Greek
classics. This was also the era of The Enlightenment, which emphasized logic and reason. It was preceded by
The Renaissance and followed by the Romantic era
Characteristics of Neoclassical Poetry
1. Rationalism: Rationalism is an essential feature of neoclassical poetry. Neoclassical poetry is a
reaction to the Renaissance style of poetry. The reason and intellect are dominant elements.
2. Scholarly Allusions: The Neoclassical poets always loved to make use of scholarly allusions in their
poetry. As they were all highly educated and well-versed in various fields of studies, they all knew a lot
about religions, Biblical and Classical literature. Allusions helped them to convey their message to their
readers in a better way. They desired to write in the manners of their classical masters like Virgil, Horace, and
Homer.
2. Morality: Neoclassical poets rebelled against the romantic nature of poetry of the Renaissance Period.
The poets of the Renaissance period loved to express their feelings. On the other hand, the neoclassical poets
laid stress on morality.
3. Realism: Realism is the hallmark of Neoclassical poetry. The Neoclassical poets, unlike those
Renaissance poets, were not living in their own world of imaginations. They were hard realists and presented
the true picture of their society. They avoided abstract ideas, imaginations, thoughts, and idealism in their
poetry. Works of Dryden’s and Pope’s poetries are excellent examples of realism.
4. Adherence to Classical Rules: The Neoclassical poets were great adherents of classical rules. They
revived the classicism in their poetry by following each and every rule of classicism. Therefore neoclassical
poetry is also called as ‘Pseudo-classical poetry’.
5. Heroic Couplet: The heroic couplet is another hallmark of neoclassical poetry. Neoclassical poets
were the champions of the heroic couplet. E.g.: ‘To err is human, to forgive divine’

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6. Mock Epic: Mock epic is the product of Neoclassical age. Pope’s The Rape of Lock is a good example
of the Mock-epic poem. Tassoni’s Rape of the Bucket is also a great Mock-Epic.
7. No Passionate Lyricism: Neoclassical poetry lacks lyrical features due to lack of interest of the Neo-
classical poets for passion, feelings, and emotions. In fact, they hated such feelings. They didn’t give free
play to their imaginations; rather they dwelt upon the intellectual aspects of poetry.
8. Objectivity: Objectivity is another important feature of Neoclassical poetry. As the Neoclassical poets
were completely against subjectivity in poetry, they laid interest in writing objective poetry. They didn’t give
way to their feelings, rather concentrated upon the miseries, hardships, and problems of the people. This is
why we find very little information about the lives of Neoclassical poets in their poetry.
9. Poetic Diction: The poetic diction in Renaissance poetry is is flexible and easy to use, where as the
Neo-classical poetry is it is restrained, concrete and rigid. The Neoclassical poets were fond of using
different language for poetry. They laid emphasis on a specific style for poetry that would be different from
that of prose. Pope is very conscious about the language of his poetry.

TRADITIONAL POETRY

Traditional poetry refers to poetry forms that have been around for a long time and typically follow a
specific structure. They include a specific number of lines or syllables, address a certain type of subject
matter, or follow a particular rhythm or meter. Traditional poetry must strictly adhere to a particular form.
Traditional poetry developed towards the end of 18 th century to mark the end of 18 th century neoclassicism
and the beginning of 19th century romanticism. Traditional poetry was a revolt against the rational
intellectual, formal, artificial and unromantic poetry of early 18 century. The poetic movement began with
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the publication of James Thomson’s poem The Seasons in 1726. The Seasons is a poem which differs from
other neoclassical poems of the time in both style and theme. Thomas Gray, James Thomson, William Blake,
Robert Burns, William Collins, William Cowper and George Crabbe are regarded as traditional poets.
Traditional poetry helps us understand and appreciate the world around us.

Features of Traditional poetry

 Traditional poetry was a reaction against intellectual poetry of 18th century and it appeals more to the
imagination and emotion of readers. They employed a simple style of poetry writing.
 Traditional poetry was a Return to Nature moment. While neoclassical poetry dealt with town life, clubs
and coffeehouses, Traditional poetry dealt with nature, countryside and simple human life. So humanism was
yet another feature of Traditional poetry.
 Traditional poetry was a reaction against conventional poetic rules. While neoclassical poets used heroic
couplet and classical style, traditional poets preferred blank verse, Spenserian stanza and the lyric.
 Fresh treatment of old themes such as legends, history of Middle Ages, supernatural stories etc were the
other features of Traditional poetry.
 The basic elements of poetry include meter, rhyme, scheme, verse, and stanza. There are many types of
traditional poetry from cultures around the world. A few of the most popular types include ballads, sonnets,
blank verse poetry, haikus, and sestinas.

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James Thomson: He brought a new turn in English poetry eith his poem, The Seasons and The Cattle of
Indolence. The Seasons is a poem in blank verse, consisting of long stories of descriptive passages dealing
natural scenes.
Thomas Gray: He was a traditional poet best known for his Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751).
This elegy is his masterpiece. It was partly inspired by the death of a poet, Richard West in 1742. This poem
meditates on the theme of death, about the inevitability of mortality in human life and about humble aspects
of human life. He also wrote two Pindaric odes titled The Progress of Poesy and The Bard. Thomas Gray is
also grouped as Graveyard or Churchyard Poet because he wrote poems meditating on the themes of
mortality and his poems are set in graveyards. To this group belonged John Keats, and Thomas Chatterton.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

UNIT II
MAJOR AUTHORS AND WORKS
1. GEOFFREY CHAUCER
Geoffrey Chaucer was born to a wealthy family of merchants in London sometime around 1343-45. For the
purpose of convenience, his works have been divided into three periods, the French, the Italian and the
English.
During the French period (until 1372), Chaucer first translated the famous 13th century encyclopedia – Le
Roman de La Rose. The next work which belongs to this period is The Book of the Duchess or The Death of
Blanche (1369).
The next is the Italian period (1372-85), during which his works were basically, modeled on Dante and
Boccaccio. To this period belong The Parliament of Fowles, The House of Fame, Troilus and Crisyde and
The Legend of Good Women.
It was during the English period (1358-1400) that he wrote The Canterbury Tales, which turned out to be one
of the greatest poems of all of English literature. Chaucer is generally considered as the ‘father of English
poetry’ and Edward Albert called him ―the earliest of the great modernist. He has also been called ‘The
Morning Star of Renaissance’ as he stands during the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the
modern age. Chaucer was the first poet who employed heroic couplet in his poetry. Chaucer wrote English at
a time when this language was in a poor state of development. This was a time when French was the
language used in courts and by the upper classes. The church used Latin and English was spoken mostly by
uneducated or illiterate common people. When contemporaries like Gower preferred to write in Latin,
Chaucer chose the dialect of his native land. He also enriched his language by adopting words from French.

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 2. FRANCIS BACON (1561 – 1626)

Francis Bacon was an English philosopher and statesman Lord Chancellor, politician and philosopher. His
works are credited with developing the scientific method. Bacon's most valuable work surrounded
philosophical and Aristotelian concepts that supported the scientific method.. He carried the true spirit of
Renaissance in his philosophical thoughts. Bacon had a close affinity with Plato like that of the humanists.
He shared with them the conviction that the human mind is fitted for knowledge of nature and must derive it
from observation, not from abstract reasoning.
Bacon has been called the father of empiricism. Francis Bacon's works might be divided into three great
branches:
Scientific works: Becon’s ideas for a universal reform of knowledge into scientific methodology and the
improvement of mankind's state using the Scientific method are presented.
Religious and literary works: in these works he presents his moral philosophy and theological meditations.
Juridical works: In these works Bacon proposes his reforms in English Law.
Bacon wrote the treatise De Sapientia Veterum, or Of the Wisdom of the Ancientsin 1609, which he describes
in the preface as a recreation from several studies. It is a collection of thirty-one classical myths. One of his
works titled "The Proficience and Advancement of Learning" published in 1605 dealt with Bacon's famous
distempers of learning, wherein he describes three types of unproductive and baseless enquiry: fantastical,
contentious and delicate learning (alternatively known as vain imaginations, vain altercations and vain
affectations).
In 1612, the second edition of the Essays, now enlarged from ten to thirty-eight, was published. In 1623, he
published the Latin version of the Advancement of Learning, now issued in nine books with the title De
Augmentis Scientiarum. The poet George Herbert is said to have helped him with the translation. His
Apophthegmes New and Old, 1624, can only be said to have been the occupation of a morning in the sense
that he may have arranged the order of the stories in one morning. The last three years of Bacon's life were
spent in writing his Sylva Sylvarum: or A Natural History, and in editing the third and final edition of the
Essays. This edition, published in March, 1625, contains the fifty-eight essays of all subsequent editions, and
was entitled Essayes or Counsels, Civil and Moral. The book was dedicated to the Duke of Buckingham.
Bacon's seminal work Novum Organum was influential in the 1630s and 1650s among scholars. This book
involves the basis of the Scientific Method as a means of observation and induction.

3. BEN JONSON (1572-1637)

Ben Jonson was born in London of Border descent. He was educated at Westminster School under Camden.
During the early 1590s he worked as a bricklayer in his stepfather's employ, and saw military service in
Flanders. In 1597 he began to work for Henslowe's companies. His first important play, Every Man in his
Humour, with Shakespeare in the cast, was performed by the Lord Chamberlain's company in 1598
and Every Man out of his Humour at the Globe in 1599. Cynthia's Revels (1600) and Poetaster (1600–1,
attacking Dekker and Marston), were performed by the Children of the Queen's Chapel. His first extant
tragedy, Sejanus, was given at the Globe by Shakespeare's company, 1603; his first court masque, The
Masque of Blacknesse, written to accommodate Queen Anne's desire to appear as a Negress, was given on
Twelfth Night, 1605. In that year he was imprisoned for his share in Eastward Hoe, and gave evidence to the
Privy Council concerning the Gunpowder Plot. Then followed the period of his major plays: Volpone, acted
at both the Globe and the two universities, 1605–6; Epicene, or The Silent Woman, 1609–10; The Alchemist,
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1610; and Bartholomew Fair, 1614. In 1612–13 he was in France as tutor to Ralegh's son, and in 1618–19
journeyed on foot to Scotland, where he stayed with Drummond of Hawthornden, who recorded their
conversation.

Though not formally appointed the first poet laureate, the essentials of the position were conferred on Jonson
in 1616, when a pension was granted to him by James I. In the same year he published a folio edition of his
Works, which raised the drama to a new level of literary respectability, and received an honorary MA from
the University of Oxford. After The Devil is an Ass (1616), he abandoned the public stage for ten years, and
his later plays. The Staple of News (1626), The New Inn (1629), The Magnetic Lady (1631), and A Tale of a
Tub (1633), show a relatively unsuccessful reliance on allegory and symbolism. From 1605 onwards Jonson
was constantly producing masques for the court, with scenery by I. Jones. This form of entertainment
reached its highest elaboration in Jonson's hands. He introduced into it the ‘antimasque’, an antithetical,
usually disorderly, prelude to the main action which served to highlight by contrast the central theme of
political and social harmony. There are examples of this in The Masque of Queens (1609), Love Restored
(1612), Mercury Vindicated from the Alchemists in Court (1616), Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue (1618,
which gave Milton his idea for Comus), and Neptune's Triumph for the Return of Albion (1624). After
Chloridia (1631), his collaboration with Jones ended with a famous quarrel, which Jonson treated in several
vituperative poems, concerning the relative priority of verbal and thematic content and spectacle. His non‐
dramatic verse includes Epigrammes and The Forest, printed in the folio of 1616, and The Underwood and a
translation of Horace's Ars Poetica, printed in 1640. His chief prose works are The English Grammar and
Timber, or Discoveries, printed in 1640.

4. JOHN MILTON (1608-1674)

John Milton was born in Breadstreet, London. He was a Puritan poet and a civil servant who had served the
British Commonwealth. Milton is considered as one of the greatest English writers after Shakespeare. he was
the son of John Milton the elder, a scrivener and composer of music. He was educated at St Paul's School and
Christ's College, Cambridge, where he wrote poetry in Latin, Italian, and English, on both sacred and secular
themes. His first known attempts at English verse, ‘On the Death of a Fair Infant’ and ‘At a Vacation
Exercise’, were probably written in 1628. His first distinctively Miltonic work, ‘On the Morning of Christs
Nativity’, written in 1629, shows a growing mastery of stanza and structure, an exuberant and at times
baroque use of imagery, and the love of resounding proper names so marked in his later work. His
fragmentary ‘The Passion’ was probably written in 1630, and the ‘Arcades’ probably in 1632. ‘On
Shakespeare’, his two epitaphs for Hobson, the university carrier, and ‘An Epitaph on the Marchioness of
Winchester’ belong to 1631. His twin poems, ‘L'Allegro’ and ‘Il Penseroso’, may also have been written at
Cambridge. On leaving Cambridge he embarked on an ambitious course of private study at his father's home
in preparation for a future as poet or clergyman; his Latin poem ‘Ad Patrem’ (?1634) appears to be an
attempt to persuade his father that the two pursuits were reconcilable. His ‘masque’ Comus was published
anonymously in 1637, in which year he wrote Lycidas, a pastoral elegy. During the 20 years that elapsed
between this and his composition of Paradise Lost, Milton wrote no poetry, apart from some Latin and Italian
pieces, and some sonnets, of which the most notable are those ‘On the late Massacre in Piedmont’, on his
blindness, on his deceased wife, his addresses to Cromwell, Fairfax, and Vane, and those to Lawes (with
whom he had collaborated on the ‘Arcades’ and Comus) and to his young friends and students Edward

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Lawrence and Cyriack Skinner. From 1638 to 1639 Milton travelled abroad, chiefly in Italy; he met Grotius
in Paris and Galileo. His Latin epitaph on his friend Diodati, Epitaphium Damonis, written in 1639, is his
finest Latin poem.
His attentions were now diverted by historical events to many years of pamphleteering and political activity,
and to a tireless defence of religious, civil, and domestic liberties. In 1641 he published a series of five
pamphlets against episcopacy, engaging in controversy with bishops Hall and Ussher, and displaying from
the first (Of Reformation in England and the Causes that Hitherto Have Hindered It) a vigorous, colourful
Ciceronian prose, and a keenly polemic spirit which could yet rise to visions of apocalyptic grandeur. The
Reason of Church Government (1642) was followed by An Apology against a Pamphlet…against
Smectymnuus (1642), which contains interesting autobiographical details. In July 1642 Milton married Mary
Powell, daughter of Royalist parents; he was 33, she 17. Within six weeks he consented to her going home to
her parents near Oxford on condition that she returned by Michaelmas. She did not do so, for reasons perhaps
connected with the outbreak of the Civil War. The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce (1643) argues among
other points that a true marriage was of mind as well as of body. This pamphlet made him notorious, but he
pursued his arguments in three more on the subject of divorce in 1644–5, including Tetrachordon. of
Education, and Areopagitica, his great defence of the liberty of the press, both appeared in 1644. At this time
he became aware of his growing blindness; by 1652 he was to be totally blind.

5. JOHN DRYDEN (1631-1700)

John Dryden was educated at Westminster School under Busby and at Trinity College, Cambridge. His
first major poem was the Heroique Stanza's (1658) on the death of Cromwell; he later celebrated the king's
return with Astraea Redux and To His Sacred Majesty. Other poems were addressed to Sir Robert Howard
(whose sister, Lady Elizabeth, Dryden married in 1663), the earl of Clarendon, Charleton, and Lady
Castlemaine. He also published a long poem in quatrains, Annus Mirabilis (1667), but most of his early
writing was for the theatre and included several rhymed heroic plays: The Indian Queen (1664, in
collaboration with Sir Robert Howard), The Indian Emperour (1665), Tyrannick Love (1669), and The
Conquest of Granada (1670, in two parts). He also wrote comedies, including The Wild Gallant (1663), The
Rival Ladies (1664), and An Evening's Love (1668). He was most original with his tragi‐comedies, Secret
Love (1667), Marriage‐à‐la‐Mode (1672), and The Assignation (1672). All these plays, together with
adaptations of Paradise Lost (The State of Innocence, and the Fall of Man, 1667), The Tempest (1667, with
D'Avenant), and Troilus and Cressida (1679), reveal Dryden's considerable interest in philosophical and
political questions. He became poet laureate in 1668, and historiographer royal in 1670.
Dryden constantly defended his own literary practice. His first major critical work was Of
Dramatick Poesie (1668). However Aureng‐Zebe (1675), his best heroic play, has a prologue denouncing
rhyme in serious drama, and his next play, All for Love (1678), was in blank verse. At the same time he
reverted to an earlier high evaluation of Jonson. This flexibility as critic and dramatist left him vulnerable to
attack. He was represented as Bayes in The Rehearsal (1671) by Buckingham, and physically assaulted in
1679, possibly at the instigation of Rochester. But his principal opponent was Shadwell, whom Dryden
ridiculed in Mac Flecknoe (1682). He develops his critical principles in many notably fluent prologues and
epilogues, and poems about, or addressed to, fellow‐writers and artists.

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 The constitutional crisis of the late 1670s troubled Dryden greatly. Three plays, The Duke of Guise
(1679, written with N. Lee), Mr Limberham (1679), and The Spanish Fryar (1681), and his prologues and
epilogues, testify to this.
His interest in religion was also heightened at this time. He produced his most celebrated satires in the
early 1680s, Absalom and Achitophel (1681), The Medall (1682), and 200 lines for N. Tate's The Second
Part of Absalom and Achitophel (1682), as well as Religio Laici (1682), a defence of the Anglican via media.
However, following the accession of James II Dryden became a Catholic and wrote The Hind and the
Panther (1687) in support of his new co‐religionists. At the death of Charles II he attempted a Pindaric ode,
Threnodia Augustalis (1685), the first of several poems in this form, notably To the Pious Memory…of
Mrs Anne Killigrew (1686), and Alexander's Feast (1697), which was later incorporated into Fables Ancient
and Modern (1700).
In 1689 he lost both his court offices and returned to the theatre. Two of his late plays, Don Sebastian
(1689) and Amphitryon (1690), are excellent, but Dryden was tired of the theatre and turned to translating.
His immense and splendid achievements in this field include translations of small pieces from Theocritus and
Horace, and more substantial passages from Homer, Lucretius, Persius, Juvenal, Ovid, Boccaccio, and
Chaucer, as well as the whole of Virgil. His version of the Georgics is especially magnificent. He also
returned to criticism, notably in ‘A Discourse concerning the Original and Progress of Satire’ (1693). His
culminating and most impressive achievement both as critic and translator was Fables Ancient and Modern
(1700), with its famous coda, ‘The Secular Masque’. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. See also
Restoration.

6. ALEXANDER POPE (1688-1744)

Alexander Pope was born into a Catholic family at the end of the 17th century, only a few short months
after the forced abdication of Britain’s last Catholic monarch, James II. Pope felt the full effects of anti-
Catholic sentiment during his early life, as the Test Acts (a series of laws designed to inhibit the prosperity of
Catholic families at the time) prevented his family from living within 10 miles of London and prevented him
from attending a university. Instead, Pope was largely self-taught, teaching himself French, Italian, Latin, and
Greek, and even reading Homer at an early age.
By 1709, he had published a number of his poems entitled Pastorals in Jacob Tonson’s popular
collection Poetic Miscellanies, and by 1711 he had published “An Essay on Criticism.” This essay was
particularly well received and gained him a number of admirers with considerable literary clout, including
Richard Steele and Joseph Addison, with whom he began collaborating on The Spectator, a landmark daily
publication. Following the success of “The Rape of the Lock,” in 1717 he published a folio of his work with
two new additions, “Verses to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady” and “Eloisa to Abelard.” Pope’s greatest
satirical work, The Dunciad, first appeared in 1728 and the final version was printed in 1743. This mock-
heroic mercilessly pokes fun at his contemporaries, and although it was originally published anonymously,
Pope’s distinctive wit meant it the authorship was no secret, reaffirming his position as one of the foremost
satirists of his day.
It is also worth noting that aside from his own literary creations, Pope was greatly interested in
translation and editing. From 1715 to 1720, Pope published various editions of his translation of
Homer’s Iliad and published his translation of the Odyssey in 1726, shortly after the 1725 publication of his
edition of the complete works of Shakespeare, which made a number of significant editorial changes and was

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heavily critiqued. Towards the end of his life, however, Pope’s literary output began to decline, and he wrote
little after 1738. Having always been a sickly child, Pope’s final years were marked by a severe decline in
health, and he died shortly after his 56th birthday.

7. Dr. SAMUEL JOHNSON (1709-1784)

The ever witty Samuel Johnson was an essayist and literary historian who was a prominent figure in
18th century England. Samuel Johnson is remembered as a leading critic, writer and lexicographer of his
day.
Important Literary Figure: In 1737, Johnson moved to London. He began contributing to The Gentleman's
Magazine in 1738. That same year, he anonymously published the poem "London," a well-received political
satire.
In 1746, Johnson agreed to tackle one of the major projects of his career: A Dictionary of the English
Language. The book took nearly a decade to complete was published in 1755. It had a far-reaching effect on
Modern English and has been acclaimed as "one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship”. This
work brought Johnson popularity and success. Until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary 150
years later, Johnson's was the pre-eminent British dictionary.
His later works included essays, an influential annotated edition of The Plays of William Shakespeare, and
the widely read tale The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia.
The Plays of William Shakespeare was an 18th-century edition of the dramatic works of William
Shakespeare, edited by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens. In the "Preface" to his edition, Johnson
justifies trying to determine the original language of the Shakespearean plays.
The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia, originally titled The Prince of Abissinia: A Tale, though often
abbreviated to Rasselas, is an apologue about happiness by Samuel Johnson. The book's original working
title was "The Choice of Life".
In 1763, he befriended James Boswell, with whom he later travelled to Scotland; Johnson described their
travels in A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland. Towards the end of his life, he produced the
massive and influential Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, a collection of biographies and evaluations
of 17th- and 18th-century poets.
Johnson fulfilled an overdue contract and published his own collection of William Shakespeare's plays in
1765. Beginning in the late 1770s, Johnson began work on a series of critical examinations of poets. These
analytical and biographical sketches were published in several volumes and are usually known as The Lives
of the Poets. Boswell's famous biography on Ben Johson was published in 1791, providing a lasting tribute to
Johnson's life and work.

8. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616)

William Shakespeare was a renowned English poet, playwright, and actor born in 1564 in Stratford-
upon-Avon. He was a prolific writer during the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages of British theatre and
sometimes called the English Renaissance or the Early Modern Period.   He became a founding member of
The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, a company of actors. Shakespeare was the company's regular dramatist,
producing on average two plays a year, for almost twenty years. He remained with the company for the rest
of his career, during which time it evolved into The King’s Men under the patronage of King James I (from

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1603). During his time in the company, Shakespeare wrote many of his most famous tragedies, such as King
Lear and Macbeth, as well as great romances, like The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest. 
William Shakespeare wrote during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and her successor, James I. How his
career as a playwright began is not clear, but from around 1594 onwards he was a prominent member of
Richard Burbage‘s acting company and became its main playwright for the coming two decades. He strongly
influenced literature, theater, poetry and even the English language itself. He is often called
England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" or “the Bard". He has written two narrative poems, Venus
and Adonis dedicated to Henry Wriothesley and The Rape of Lucrece, dedicated to III Earl of Southampton,
34 plays and 154 sonnets. The first group of 126 sonnets is addressed to his friend and patron Mr. W.H. The
second group of 28 sonnets is addressed to, ‘Dark Lady’.
Categories of Shakespeare’s plays
The three types of plays Shakespeare wrote are tragedies, comedies, and histories. Tragedies are often
marked by death and sadness, while comedies include happy endings (and often a wedding). Histories reflect
a dramatization of historical monarchs and periods of time from Shakespeare’s perspective. The first
collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays was published in 1623 as the First Folio.
Tragedies: Following the Greek tragedy tradition, characters in Shakespearean tragedies often have tragic
flaws that lead to their ultimate downfall. Here are the tragedies penned by Shakespeare:
 Titus Andronicus (1591 - 1592)
 Romeo and Juliet  (1595 - 1596)
 Julius Caesar (1599)
 Hamlet (1600)
 Othello  (1604)
 Timon of Athens  (1604 - 1606)
 Macbeth  (1606)
 King Lear (1605 - 1606)
 Antony and Cleopatra (1606 - 1607)
 Coriolanus (1608)
Comedies: In the context of Shakespearean plays, "comedy" doesn't necessarily mean it's funny (though it
often is). It can just mean there is a happy ending, usually involving a wedding. Shakespeare filled theaters
with some of these comedies:
 The Taming of the Shrew (1580 - 1590)
 The Two Gentlemen of Verona  (1590s)
 The Comedy of Errors (1594)
 A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595 - 1596)
 Love's Labour's Lost (1595 - 1596)
 The Merchant of Venice  (1596 - 1597)
 The Merry Wives of Windsor(1597 - 1601)
 Much Ado About Nothing  (1598)
 As You Like It (1599)
 Twelfth Night (1601)
 Troilus and Cressida (1601 - 1602)

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 All's Well That Ends Well (1603 - 1606)
 Measure for Measure(1604)
 Pericles, Prince of Tyre (1608)
 Cymbeline (1610)
 The Winter's Tale  (1611)
 The Tempest(1611)
Histories: There's no doubt Shakespeare found the royal court to be something of an enigma. He crafted
tales of betrayal, love, and murder, all within the king's court. We can learn a lot about this period in time
through these plays:
 King John (1595 - 1597)
 Richard II (1595 - 1596)
 Richard III (1592 - 1594)
 Henry IV, Part 1 (1596 - 1597)
 Henry IV, Part 2 (1597 - 1598)
 Henry VI, Part 1 (1592)
 Henry VI, Part 2 (1591)
 Henry VI, Part 3 (1595)
 Henry V (1599)
 Henry VIII (1613)
Most of his early plays were performed at the building that would eventually turn into the Globe
Theatre in 1958. Shakespeare used a mix of prose and poetry in his plays according to the social standing of
the characters. Usually, common, lowly characters used prose while high, noble characters used poetry (in
iambic pentameter) in their dialogues. Shakespeare‘s language is often too descriptive owing to the lack of
sets or lighting and such theater aids in those times. The plays were performed in daylight, in the open air
with no set.

9. JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688)

John Bunyan was born in Elstow, near Bedford, in 1628, the son of Thomas Bunyan and Margaret
Bentley. As a teenager, he joined Cromwell’s New Model Army. He was baptised by immersion in the River
Ouse in 1653. Appointed a deacon of Gifford’s church, Bunyan’s testimony was used to lead several people
to conversion. By 1655 Bunyan was himself preaching to various congregations in Bedford, and hundreds
came to hear him. John Owen said of him that he would gladly exchange all his learning for Bunyan’s power
of touching men’s hearts.
In the following years, Bunyan began publishing books and became established as a reputable Puritan writer.
Bunyan was arrested in 1660 for preaching without official permission from King Charles II; he was to spend
the next 12½ years in Bedford County Gaol.
Although a time of much suffering, Bunyan’s years in prison were productive, for he wrote extensively,
with only the Bible and Foxe’s Book of Martyrs beside him, publishing such titles as Christian Behaviour,
The Holy City and A Defence of the Doctrine of Justification. Of particular significance for his life-story
was Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, which chronicled his life up to the time of his imprisonment.
He was eventually released in 1672, and took up his pastorate in Bedford, having been appointed by the
congregation the preceding January. After some fruitful years of ministry, in March of 1675 Bunyan was

15
again imprisoned for preaching publicly without a license. It was during this imprisonment that he began the
first part of his most famous book, The Pilgrim’s Progress, which was to sell more than 100,000 copies in its
first ten years in print.
Released in 1677, Bunyan spent the last ten years of his life ministering to his congregation and
writing, including – Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ (1678), The Life and Death of Mr
Badman (1680),  The Holy War (1682), and the second part of The Pilgrim’s Progress (1685). He published
ten more books in the last three years of his life, amongst them The Jerusalem Sinner Saved and The
Acceptable Sacrifice.
He died in 1688, at the house of his friend John Strudwick, a grocer and chandler on Snow Hill in Holborn.

OLIVER GOLDSMITH (1730—1774)

Oliver Goldsmith the second son of an Anglo‐Irish clergyman, educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He
presented himself for ordination, was rejected, and went to Edinburgh, where he studied medicine. He
studied in Leyden, and during 1755–6 wandered about France, Switzerland, and Italy, reaching London
destitute in 1756, where he supported himself with difficulty as a physician, an usher, reviewer and hack‐
writer for Griffith's Monthly Review. In 1758 he published, under the pseudonym ‘James Willington’, his
translation of The Memoirs of a Protestant condemned to the Galleys of France for his Religion (by Jean
Marteilhe of Bergerac, a victim of the Edict of Nantes), and in 1759 An Enquiry into the Present State of
Polite Learning in Europe. It was at this period he met Percy, who was to become a loyal friend and also his
biographer. During 1759 he published his own periodical, the Bee, in which appeared his ‘Elegy on Mrs
Mary Blaize’ (a pawnbroker) and ‘A City Night‐Piece’. He contributed to Smollett's British Magazine,
started in 1760, and was also employed by Newbery, for whose new Public Ledger he wrote his ‘Chinese
Letters’, subsequently republished as The Citizen of the World in 1762; he is also said to have written the
nursery tale Goody Two‐Shoes. In 1761 he met Dr Johnson and became one of the original members of
Johnson's Club. Goldsmith wrote lives of Voltaire (1761) and Beau Nash (1762), an abridgement of Plutarch
(1762), a History of England in a Series of Letters from a Nobleman to his Son (1764), a Roman History
(1769), a Grecian History (1774), lives of T. Parnell and Bolingbroke (1770), etc.—in all more than 40
volumes. But he first achieved literary distinction with his poem The Traveller (1764) which also introduced
him to his only patron, Lord Clare. His The Vicar of Wakefield (1766) became one of the most popular
works of fiction in the language.
Goldsmith's first comedy, The Good‐Natur'd Man was produced at Covent Garden in 1768; She Stoops
to Conquer followed in 1773. His best‐known poem, The Deserted Village, was published in 1770; his
lighter verses include Retaliation (1774) and The Haunch of Venison (1776). His An History of the Earth and
Animated Nature (8 vols, 1774), inventively portrays ‘tygers’ in Canada, and squirrels migrating on bark
boats in Lapland, fanning themselves along with their tails.
There are many anecdotes about Goldsmith in Boswell's Life of Johnson. He never married, and his
relationship with Mary Horneck, his ‘Jessamy bride’, remains mysterious. He was introduced to the Horneck
family by Sir Joshua Reynolds in 1766, when Mary was 14, and accompanied Mrs Horneck, Mary, and her
other daughter Catherine (‘Little Comedy’) to Paris in 1770.

APHRA BEHN (1640-1689)

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 Aphra Behn an English dramatist, fiction writer, and poet who was the first Englishwoman known to
earn her living by writing. Behn’s early works were tragicomedies in verse. In 1670 her first play, The
Forc’d Marriage, was produced, and The Amorous Prince followed a year later. Her sole tragedy, Abdelazer,
was staged in 1676. However, she turned increasingly to light comedy and farce over the course of the 1670s.
Many of these witty and vivacious comedies, notably The Rover (two parts, produced 1677 and 1681), were
commercially successful. The Rover depicts the adventures of a small group of English Cavaliers in Madrid
and Naples during the exile of the future Charles II. The Emperor of the Moon, first performed in 1687,
presaged the harlequinade, a form of comic theatre that evolved into the English pantomime.
Though Behn wrote many plays, her fiction today draws more interest. Her
short novel Oroonoko (1688) tells the story of an enslaved African prince whom Behn claimed to have
known in South America. Its engagement with the themes of slavery, race, and gender, as well as its
influence on the development of the English novel, helped to make it, by the turn of the 21st century, her
best-known work. Behn’s other fiction included the multipart epistolary novel Love-Letters Between a
Nobleman and His Sister (1684–87) and The Fair Jilt (1688).
Behn’s versatility, like her output, was immense; she wrote other popular works of fiction, and she
often adapted works by older dramatists. She also wrote poetry, the bulk of which was collected in Poems
upon Several Occasions, with A Voyage to the Island of Love (1684) and Lycidus; or, The Lover in
Fashion (1688) reflect Behn's customary use of classical, pastoral, courtly, and traditionally English lyric
modes.
Forty-five poems appeared in Poems upon Several Occasions; ten poems were appended to Lycidus. Ten
more works appeared in the 1685 Miscellany. Posthumous publications include poems in Charles
Gildon's Miscellany Poems Upon Several Occasions (1692) and in The Muses Mercury (1707-1708).

MARGARET CAVENDISH (1623-1673)

Margaret Cavendish was born Margaret Lucas in 1623 to an aristocratic, royalist family in Colchester,
Essex. She was privately, albeit relatively basically, educated in childhood, but appears to have read widely
on a range of topics more usually reserved for male scholars. She became a remarkably prolific writer in a
variety of genres, and was unusual for publishing under her own name when most women authors only wrote
anonymously.
As a young woman Cavendish travelled with Charles I’s wife, Henrietta Maria, into exile in France. In
1645 she married William Cavendish, Marquess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who was more than 30 years her
senior. Although denying he had secretly authored her works, as some detractors insisted, Cavendish openly
acknowledged her husband as an important influence on her work.

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First publication: Cavendish’s first book, Poems and Fancies, was published in 1653; it was a collection of
poems, epistles and prose pieces which explores her philosophical, scientific and aesthetic ideas.
Writings on philosophy: Cavendish was a serious natural philosopher. She published her Observations
upon Experimental Philosophy in 1666. Across her philosophical works Cavendish moves from atomism –
the theory that there are ‘Many Worlds in This World’, as the title of one of her poems has it (‘millions of
those atoms may be in / The head of one small, little, single pin’) – through vitalism, the conviction that
there is a fundamental difference between animate and inanimate beings, to panpsychism, the belief that
everything in nature has a soul. Soon after publication of the Observations, Cavendish became the first
woman to be invited to attend meetings at the Royal Society.
Science fiction: Alongside the Observations, Cavendish published probably her most famous work, The
Description of a New World, Called the Blazing World. This is essentially a work of science fiction set in
another world that can be reached by way of the North Pole, where a young woman is shipwrecked and
becomes Empress over the Blazing World’s inhabitants, who are mostly anthropomorphised animals. The
novel is fantastical, satirical and utopian – and importantly it is woman-centric.
Cavendish’s autobiography and other writings: Cavendish published her autobiography, A True Relation
of my Birth, Breeding, and Life, in 1656 at the age of only 33. Her other works
include Orations (1662), Sociable Letters (1664), which is a collection of letters on contemporary subjects
written by Cavendish in the guise of various characters and Philosophical Letters (1664). She also wrote a
large number of plays, which were collected in two volumes (1662 and 1668) though never performed during
her lifetime.

ELIZABETH CARY AGASSIZ (1882-1907)

Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, an American naturalist, was born Dec. 5, 1822. When she was a young
woman, Elizabeth met the Swiss naturalist and author of the glacial theory, Louis Agassiz, who had recently
moved to the United States and taken up a position at Harvard. Elizabeth and Louis were married in 1850.
Elizabeth assisted Louis in his collecting and went on several expeditions with him, including one to Brazil.
She published several popular books on natural history in the 1860s, but generally she remained in Louis's
shadow until his death in 1873. Once a widow, Elizabeth became very interested in helping other young
women acquire an education in science, and she was one of the seven founders of the "Harvard Annex,"
where women could unofficially take college classes, sometimes from willing Harvard professors, otherwise
from educated women like Elizabeth. In 1894, the Harvard Annex became Radcliffe College, and Elizabeth
Agassiz became Radcliffe’s first president, a position she held until 1899.
There are 3 cartons of Agassiz’s papers, containing her diaries and 39 folders, in the archives of the
Schlesinger Library at Harvard. One can wonder.
Elizabeth’s popular natural history books have been generally overlooked. Her famous works are,
but Seaside Studies in Natural History (1865) which she wrote with her son Alexander, A Journey in
Brazil (1868).

ANNE FINCH (1661-1720)

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 Anne Finch, the Countess of Winchilsea, was an English poet and courtier in the late 17th and early
18th centuries. She was a friend of Pope, Swift, Gay, and Rowe. Her best‐known poem is her ode, ‘The
Spleen: A Pindaric Poem’; her couplet about the jonquil and ‘aromatic pain’ was echoed by Pope in
his Essay on Man. V. Woolf in A Room of One's Own (1928) concluded that she ‘suffered terribly from
melancholy’. Many of her poems have appeared in anthologies and selections.Wordsworth admired her
poetry: his comments in the 'Essay Supplementary' to the Preface of the Lyrical Ballads (1815) on the 'new
image[s] of external nature' in her 'Nocturnal Reverie' are well known, he included sixteen of her poems in a
collection of women's poetry compiled for Lady Mary. Lowther in 1819, and, in a letter to Alexander Dyce
of May 1830, described her style as 'often admirable, chaste, tender and vigorous'.
Anne Finch and Her Poetry is the first major critical examination of the life and works of the foremost
English woman poet of the eighteenth century by Barbara McGovern. This biography places Anne Finch
(1661-1720) in her social and literary milieu and includes discussion of such topics as love and marriage,
female friendships, melancholy, and nature as they relate both to Finch's life and to her poetry.
Barbara McGovern gives considerable attention to the methods by which Finch developed her artistry and
molded a largely masculine literary tradition to her own designs through a variety of rhetorical and stylistic
devices. She examines the entire body of Finch's work, including two verse plays and a number of previously
unpublished poems and letters, and corrects numerous misconceptions about the poet and her work.
Though recognized in her lifetime as a talented poet, for nearly two hundred years Finch has been
overlooked or, when anthologized, misrepresented. McGovern focuses on the historical place and
displacement of Finch in Restoration and early eighteenth-century England in terms of her involvement with
Britain's most critical religious and political controversies. An Anglican and Royalist who along with her
husband was attached to the Stuart court at the time of the Glorious Revolution, Finch was an outsider
because of her politics and religion as well as her gender. Despite her marginal status in society, Anne Finch
was able to develop her poetic identity in part by defining her relationships with other early women writers,
including Katherine Philips and Aphra Behn. Her female friendships, as well as aristocratic family ties and
titled position, gave her access to a number of the most famous literary figures of her age, including
Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift.

AMELIA LANYER (1569–1645)

Aemilia Lanyer was the first woman in English literary history to publish a full-length poetry
collection, as well as the first to receive artistic patronage. Her only book, Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum (1611),
is arguably the first literary publication in English with a distinctly feminist argument.
The poet was born Aemilia Bassano in 1569, to a family of Italian court musicians who migrated to
England during the reign of Henry VIII, possibly as Christianized Jews or Protestants fleeing religious
persecution.
In Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum (“Hail God, King of the Jews”), Lanyer writes devotional verse with a
feminist edge. The book includes a title poem, which narrates the story of Christ from a woman’s perspective;
several dedicatory epistles, in verse and prose, praising the achievements of women aristocrats and writers; and
“The Description of Cooke-ham,” a poem which celebrates community and fellowship at the country estate of
Lanyer’s patron (Margaret Clifford, Countess of Cumberland) and her daughter (Lady Anne Clifford). “Cooke-
ham” made Lanyer the first English poet to publish in the genre of country-house poetry.

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 Lanyer died in 1645, at the age of seventy-six, having seen the reigns of three different English
monarchs (Elizabeth I, Charles I, and James I) during her lifetime. Contemporary scholarship on Lanyer
highlights her legacy as an important early-modern poet and pioneer of English feminist writing.

FANNY BURNEY (1752–1840)

Fanny Burney is the daughter of Dr. Burney, lived in her youth in the midst of that London society which
included Dr. Johnson, burke, Reynolds, Garrick, and the blue stocking circle. She published anonymously
Evelina, or a young lady's entrance into the world, an epistolary novel in 1778. She published Cecilia or

 
Memoirs of an Heiress, in 1782, and in 1786 was appointed second keeper of the robes to Queen
Charlotte. In 1793 she married General d'Arblay, a French refugee in England. Camilla or A Picture of
Youth was published in 1796. It relates the stories of a group of young people.
She and her husband were interned by Napoleon and lived in France from 1802 to 1812. In 1832 she edited
the Memoirs of her father. She was a prodigious writer of lively letters and journals: her Early Diary 1768–
1778 (1889) includes sketches of Johnson, Garrick, and others; her later Diary and Letters 778–1840 (1842–
6) has a vivid account of her life at court.

ELIZABETH CARTER (1717–1806)

Elizabeth Carter is English poet, scholar, linguist, translator, and member of a famous group of literary
“bluestockings” who gathered around Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu. Carter's earliest attempts at literary
composition were in verse. Her father was friendly with Edward Cave, a publisher, in whose fourth volume
of The Gentleman's Magazine she published several pieces under the pseudonym Eliza, when she was only
16 years old. In 1738, she published an anonymous collection of her poems, including those previously
printed in The Gentleman's Magazine. Carter rendered into English De Crousaz's Examen de l'essai de
Monsieur Pope sur l'homme (Examination of Mr Pope's “An Essay on Man”, two volumes, 1739)
and Algarotti's Newtonianismo per le dame (Newtonianism for women).
It was her translations, however, that ensured her reputation. In 1749 she undertook her most
considerable work, a translation, All the Works of Epictetus, a Greek Stoic philosopher Which Are Now
Extant, published in 1758. She finished the Discourses (a series of informal lectures by
the Stoic philosopher Epictetus written down by his pupil Arrian around 108 AD) in December 1752, but at
his suggestion added the Enchiridion and Fragments, with an introduction and notes. Her position in the
pantheon of 18th-century women writers was ensured by her translation of Epictetus, the first English
translation of the known works by the Greek Stoic philosopher, which brought her a clear profit of £1,000.
The translation passed through three editions and retained a high reputation in standard literature. While
occupied with bringing the first edition for the press, she was also preparing her youngest brother for the
University of Cambridge.
Carter befriended Samuel Johnson and contributed two essays to Johnson’s periodical The Rambler. It
was known and admired by the author Samuel Richardson, who included her “Ode to Wisdom” in his
novel Clarissa (1747–48). He wrote, “My old friend Mrs. Carter could make a pudding as well as translate
Epictetus from the Greek”. Her Poems upon Particular Occasions were published in 1738 and Poems on
Several Occasions in 1762.

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 UNIT: II
IMPORTANT WORKS
KING LEAR BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

King Lear divides his kingdom among the two daughters who flatter him and banishes the third one who
loves him. His eldest daughters both then reject him at their homes, so Lear goes mad and wanders through a
storm. His banished daughter returns with an army, but they lose the battle and Lear, all his daughters and
more, die.
Act I
King Lear begins as the Earl of Gloucester introduces his illegitimate son, Edmund, to the Earl of Kent. Lear,
King of Britain, enters with his court. Now that he is an old man, Lear has decided to divide his kingdom
between his three daughters. The division will depend on the quality of each princess' declarations of love for
her father before the court. Goneril, Duchess of Albany, and Regan, Duchess of Cornwall, both speak
enthusiastically and earn their father's praise. But Cordelia, the youngest, says nothing because she cannot
voice her deep love for Lear. Misunderstanding his daughter, Lear disowns and banishes her from the
kingdom. He also banishes the Earl of Kent, who had taken Cordelia's side against the King. This action by
the king divides the kingdom, both figuratively and literally. Cordelia's suitor, the Duke of Burgundy, rejects
her once she is dowerless, but the King of France values her honesty and takes her as his wife. Lear's
kingdom is shared between Goneril and Regan and their suitors (the Dukes of Albany and Cornwall,
respectively). Lear plans to alternate living with each of them.
Act II
Meanwhile, Edmund is determined to be recognised as a rightful son of Gloucester. By a trick, he persuades
his father that his legitimate brother, Edgar, is plotting against Gloucester's life. Warned by Edmund that his
life is in danger, Edgar flees and takes the disguise of a Bedlam beggar. Edmund becomes a courtier to
Goneril. Goneril meanwhile grows increasingly exasperated by the behaviour of Lear's hundred companions
who are upsetting her life at Albany's castle, and she criticises her father. 
Kent has returned from exile in disguise and wins a place as a servant to Lear. Kent accompanies Lear when,
in a rage against her criticisms, he curses Goneril and leaves. Lear goes, unannounced, to live with Regan
and Cornwall who, it turns out, have gone out to visit Gloucester. When Lear arrives at Gloucester's house to
find Regan, she spurns him and his followers, namely his devoted companion, the Fool.
Act III
Despairing for his daughters, and deeply regretting rejecting Cordelia, Lear goes mad at the height of a great
storm. He and the Fool run wild on the heath until Gloucester takes them into a hut for shelter. He then seeks
the aid of Kent to get them away to the coast, where Cordelia has landed with a French army to fight for her
father against her sisters and their husbands. Gloucester then leaves and returns home. 

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Meanwhile, Edmund is employed as a messenger between the sisters and is courted by each in turn. He
persuades Cornwall that Gloucester (his father) is an enemy because he has been in touch with France and
helped Lear and when they are turned away by Regan. As punishment for Gloucester's seeming betrayal,
Cornwall and Regan pluck out his eyes and abandon him. During the act of blinding Gloucester, a servant
stabs Cornwall, who dies. But Regan continues to rule with Edmund's help. 
Act IV
Out in the storm, Lear finds shelter where Edgar has also taken refuge, still disguised as the beggar. The
Fool, the mad king, and the disguised "insane" beggar become unlikely companions before they are
separated. Edgar finds Gloucester wandering the heath alone and in agony. Since his father is blind, Edgar
leads the despairing man to the coast and helps him along the journey to come to an acceptance of his life.
Gloucester later meets the mad Lear on Dover beach, near Cordelia's camp. With Kent's aid, Lear is rescued
and re-united with Cordelia. Gloucester, now reunited with Edgar, dies quietly alone.
Act V
The French forces are overcome by Albany's army led by Edmund, and Lear and Cordelia are captured.
Goneril has already poisoned Regan in their jealous rivalry over Edmund's attention. Edgar, disguised now as
a loyal knight, challenges Edmund to a duel and wounds him mortally. Seeing no way out, Goneril kills
herself, and the dying Edmund confesses his misdeeds and releases Cordelia. However, it is too late to save
Cordelia from the hangman. Lear's heart breaks as he carries the body of his beloved youngest daughter in
his arms, and he dies. Albany and Edgar are left to re-organise the kingdom and resolve the civil wars.

AS YOU LIKE IT BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Rosalind and her cousin escape into the forest and find Orlando, Rosalind's love. Disguised as a boy
shepherd, Rosalind has Orlando woo her under the guise of "curing" him of his love for Rosalind. Rosalind
reveals she is a girl and marries Orlando during a group wedding at the end of the play.  
Act I
Orlando, the youngest son of the recently-deceased Sir Roland de Boys, is treated harshly by his eldest
brother, Oliver. Bitter and angry, Orlando challenges the court wrestler, Charles, to a fight. When Oliver
learns of the fight, Oliver tells Charles to injure Orlando if possible.
Duke Frederick has recently deposed his brother, Duke Senior, as head of the court. But he allowed Senior's
daughter, Rosalind, to remain, and she and Celia, the new Duke's daughter, watch the wrestling competition.
During the match, Rosalind falls in love with Orlando, who beats Charles. Rosalind gives Orlando a chain to
wear; in turn, he is overcome with love.
Act II
Shortly after, Orlando is warned of his brother's plot against him and seeks refuge in the Forest of Arden. At
the same time, and seemingly without cause, Duke Frederick banishes Rosalind. She decides to seek shelter
in the Forest of Arden with Celia. They both disguise themselves: Rosalind as the young man Ganymede and
Celia as his shepherdess sister Aliena. Touchstone, the court fool, also goes with them. 
Act III
In the Forest of Arden, the weary cousins happen upon Silvius, a lovesick shepherd. Silvius was in the act of
declaring his feelings for Phoebe, a scornful shepherdess. Ganymede buys the lease to the property of an old
shepherd who needs someone to manage his estate. Ganymede and Aliena set up home in the forest. Not far
away, and unaware of the newcomers, Duke Senior is living a simple outdoor life with his fellow exiled

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 courtiers and huntsmen. Their merriment is interrupted by the arrival of Orlando, who seeks nourishment for
himself and his servant. The two men are welcomed by the outlaw courtiers.
Ganymede and Aliena find verses addressed to Rosalind hung on the forest branches by Orlando. Ganymede
finds Orlando and proposes to cure Orlando of his love. To do this, Orlando will woo Ganymede as if he
were Rosalind (even though "he" really is . . . Rosalind). Orlando consents and visits Ganymede/Rosalind
every day for his lessons. In the meantime, the shepherdess Phoebe has fallen for Ganymede while the
shepherd Silvius still pursues her.  Furthermore, Touchstone, the court fool, has dazzled a country girl,
Audrey, with his courtly manners. Audrey deserts her young suitor, William, for him.
Act IV
When Duke Frederick hears Orlando disappeared at the same time as Rosalind and Celia, he orders Oliver to
the forest to seek his brother. In the forest, Orlando saves Oliver's life, injuring his arm in the process. Oliver
runs into Ganymede and Aliena in the forest and relates this news. Rosalind (disguised as Ganymede) is
overcome with her feelings for Orlando. Celia (disguised as Aliena) and Oliver quickly fall in love with one
another. Rosalind decides that it is time to end her game with Orlando and devises a plan in which everyone
will get married. 
Act V
As Ganymede, Rosalind promises Phoebe that they will marry, Celia will marry Oliver, Touchstone will
marry Audrey, and Orlando will marry Rosalind. She makes Phoebe promise that if they, for some reason,
don't get married, Phoebe will marry Silvius instead. 
On the day of the wedding, and with the help of the god Hymen, Rosalind reappears in her female clothes.
Duke Senior gives her away to Orlando, while Phoebe accepts Silvius. Orlando's other older brother returns
from college with the news that Celia's father, Duke Frederick, has left court to become a hermit. Thus,
everyone is happy (except maybe Phoebe, who marries someone she doesn't love and Silvius, who marries
someone who doesn't love him). The play ends with a joyful dance to celebrate the four marriages.

VOLPONE BY BEN JONSON

No work is more firmly bound to Jonson’s name than his great satirical verse comedy Volpone. It
achieves the mastery of purpose claimed by the playwright and reflects his devotion to classical theories, but it
remains a distressing comedy that defies easy interpretation. Volpone and his servant Mosca pretend that
Volpone is dying and encourage Venetian fortune hunters to vie for Volpone’s favor in hopes of being named
his heir. All visit Volpone, prompted by Mosca to bring gifts to convince Volpone of their kind concern for his
health. Volpone is, of course, perfectly well, but he and Mosca put on such a good act that the legacy hunters
are completely fooled. The greedy victims include Corbaccio, an old, deaf miser; Voltore, a conniving lawyer;
Corvino, a rich merchant who jealously guards his young, attractive wife, Celia; and Lady Would-be, the wife
of a ridiculous English knight.
Complications arise when Mosca convinces Corbaccio to claim that he is drawing up a new will
disinheriting his son, Bonario, and naming Volpone his heir. After Corbaccio agrees, Mosca taunts Bonario
and challenges him to go to Volpone’s house to overhear Corbaccio confirm the fact. Meanwhile, Volpone,
who has been scheming to seduce Corvino’s wife, has Mosca talk the foolish merchant into leaving Celia alone
with Volpone, who then attempts to force himself on her. Bonario catches him in the act, rescues Celia, and
denounces Volpone and Mosca.

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 Fearful that the game is ended, Volpone throws himself down in despair, but Mosca devises a new
scheme to escape trouble. He convinces Corbaccio that his son is out to kill him, tells the suspicious Voltore
that Bonario has made Celia swear that Volpone had raped her, and gets Corvino to denounce Celia as a lewd
woman. Celia and Bonario, totally innocent, are brought to court, and through the testimony of the legacy
hunters and Voltore’s cunning, are found guilty in an obvious travesty of justice.
The pair of tricksters then go too far. Determined to vex the fools further, they spread the news that
Volpone has died. Each would-be heir then comes to Volpone’s house to claim the magnifico’s legacy, only to
be told that Mosca is the heir. Mosca knows that Volpone himself is now vulnerable and quickly makes plans
to cheat him.
Seeking revenge on Mosca, the would-be heirs return to the court to claim that Bonario and Celia have
been falsely charged and that Mosca has practiced criminal deceptions. Mosca is called to court, and when he
refuses to confirm that Volpone is actually alive, he impels Volpone, disguised as an officer of the court, to
reveal himself rather than be tricked. At last discovering the truth, the judges sentence both the tricksters and
the fools to appropriate but very harsh, uncomic punishments. Mosca is to be whipped and sent to the galleys.
Volpone, his wealth confiscated and given to a hospital for incurables, is to be imprisoned until he does in fact
become sick and lame.
Jonson’s work is based on a popular beast fable of the fox that feigned death, but its complexity can be
fully explained only by reference to the Roman institution of legacy hunting and such diverse works
as Aesop’s Fables, the Bible, and Desiderius Erasmus’s Mori encomium (1511; The Praise of Folly, 1549). The
comedy can also be seen as a morality play within its beast-fable guise. Volpone, like the fox pretending to be
dead, traps unwary birds of prey, who are, of course, greedy men hoping to benefit from his death. Jonson’s
theme and real concern is the unnaturalness of sin. His strong moral intent is driven home by a constant
reference to the beast fable in the speeches of Volpone and Mosca.

“PARADISE LOST” JOHN MILTON

Paradise Lost‖ is an epic in twelve books. In the first edition that came out in 1667, the poem had only ten
books; however the second edition published in 1675 came out with a total of 12 books. This was made so
with the division of 7th and 10th books into two each. ―Paradise Lost‖ is written in blank verse. It was
composed by Milton after the Restoration, while he was blind and in poverty too. It was from such difficult
circumstances that Milton penned one of the immortal classics of the world. Milton was a very learned poet
and his the previous paragraph, the characters are God and his creations.
Milton’s speaker begins Paradise Lost by stating that his subject will be Adam and Eve’s disobedience
and fall from grace. He invokes a heavenly muse and asks for help in relating his ambitious story and God’s
plan for humankind. The action begins with Satan and his fellow rebel angels who are found chained to a
lake of fire in Hell. They quickly free themselves and fly to land, where they discover minerals and construct
Pandemonium, which will be their meeting place. Inside Pandemonium, the rebel angels, who are now
devils, debate whether they should begin another war with God. Beezelbub suggests that they attempt to
corrupt God’s beloved new creation, humankind. Satan agrees, and volunteers to go himself. As he prepares
to leave Hell, he is met at the gates by his children, Sin and Death, who follow him and build a bridge
between Hell and Earth.
When the story begins, we find the fallen angels struggling in a burning lake and then they go on to
hold a great debate in ‘Pandemonium’ (A vast hall built by Satan‘s followers). It was Satan himself who first
thought of the plan; he is obviously the hero in charge right from the beginning of Book I of Paradise Lost.

24
He then journeys to the gates of Hell, encounters Sin and Death there and also gets the first glimpse of
Heaven which is described as a fresh world suspended in a golden chain. Satan gets a glimpse of Adam and
Eve in Heaven and is stunned by their beauty. He overhears them discussing God's commandment that
forbade them from eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. That night when Adam and Eve are sleeping,
Satan appears in the form of a toad and whispers to Eve. Satan is found out by the Archangel, Gabriel and
seeing God hang down Golden Scales in the sky, Satan flees back. God sends the angel Raphael to warn
Adam and Eve about Satan. Raphael eats with Adam and Eve and informs them about Satan and how he was
expelled from Heaven. It is here that Milton reveals how Satan was jealous of God‘s son and also convinced
a third of the angels to rebel against God along with him.
Only one angel named Abdiel left Satan‘s cause and returned back to God. All the angels fought each
other with Michael leading the Heaven‘s army. Raphael narrated the story of creation, but warns Adam about
seeking too much knowledge and about Satan‘s attempt to corrupt them. After seven days, Satan returns to
Heaven as a serpent this time. Eve convinces Adam that they must work separately and although Adam
relents at first, he finally gives in. Satan finds Eve and flatters her. When asked how the serpent learnt to talk,
Satan says that he ate the fruit from the Forbidden Tree of Knowledge and tempts Eve to eat it too. He
succeeds in seducing her to taste the fruit of the forbidden tree and Eve makes Adam also eat it. Adam
realizes that Eve has fallen and eats it only so that they won't be separated from each other. Thus Adam and
Eve commit the Sin of Disobedience and the result is divine punishment. As a consequence of this act of
disobedience, God sends Son to punish the couple.
Meanwhile Satan returns to Hell and also sends Death and Sin to infect Earth. After the Fall, the angels
reorganize Earth and make it less hospitable for man to live in by turning some animals into carnivorous and
unfriendly ones. Adam suggests Eve that they both take revenge on Satan by obeying God and they both
weep and repent. Before they both are expelled from Heaven, Michael, the angel, shows them a vision of the
future including the many sinful generations to come as well as the flood which kills everyone but Noah‘s
family.
Michael also explains the Son‘s sacrifice in order to make up for the Fall and save humanity as well. Adam
finds consolation in this and he and Eve leave Paradise in tears.

ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL BY JOHN DRYDEN

Historical Context of Absalom and Achitophel

In the preface to “Absalom and Achitophel,” John Dryden claims he is merely a historian, but
had he originally created the biblical story he recounts in his poem, he would have included the
reconciliation of Absalom and his father, King David. Absalom and David are thinly veiled metaphors for
Charles II of England and his illegitimate son, James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth. In the poem, Dryden
implies that the real-life story of Charles and Monmouth is not yet over, and there is plenty of time for
wisdom and mercy. Sadly, this did not prove to be the case, and after the death of Charles II in 1685,
Monmouth and an army of followers attempted to seize the crown from Charles’s brother, James II, the next
heir in the line of succession. James was a Roman Catholic, and Monmouth and his Protestant followers
opposed a Roman Catholic on the throne. During the summer of 1685, the Monmouth Rebellion fought a
sequence of battles against the English military led by John Churchill. Monmouth’s army was ultimately

25
defeated at the Battle of Sedgemoor on July 6, and on July 15, the 1st Duke of Monmouth was executed for
treason. Monmouth’s uncle, James II, ignored the people and Monmouth’s pleas for mercy, even after
Monmouth vowed to convert to Catholicism. James II remained on the throne until 1688, at which time he
was overthrown by William of Orange during the Glorious Revolution. In 1701, the Act of Settlement was
passed by Parliament, which officially excluded Roman Catholics from royal succession and mandated that
the throne be occupied by Protestants only.
In holy times, before religion made polygamy a sin, one man was not confined to one woman. Law did
not forbid a man from taking both a mistress and a wife, and Israel’s monarch, David, spread his royal seed
across the land. Michal is his queen, but several women have “godlike David’s” sons. Theses sons, however,
are not of royal birth and thus cannot legally ascend the throne. Of all David’s illegitimate sons, Absalom is
the most loved and admired, by both the Jews and his father. Absalom is handsome and full of grace, and he
has proven himself a hero fighting in foreign wars. David is filled with “secret joy” as he watches Absalom
grow into a respected man, and in his son, David sees his own “youthful image.” David’s reign is peaceful
and quiet, but the Jews, “a headstrong, moody, murmuring race,” begin to desire more liberty. It is not long
before the Jews revive the Good Old Cause to “raise up commonwealths and ruin kings.”
The Jebusites, who are native to Israel, begin to lose their rights. Their taxes are increased, their land is
seized, and their gods and religion are discredited. Their priests are incensed, and soon the plot, the “nation’s
curse,” begins to circulate. The Jebusites, in a clandestine plan, infiltrate all areas of Israel, including the
courts and brothels, looking for converts. The plot ultimately fails because it is lacking “common sense,” but
it also has a “deep and dangerous consequence.” The Jebusite plot makes major waves within the
government, and the people begin to rise up and rebel against David. Some even oppose David from within
the government, and the most influential of these men is “false Achitophel.” Achitophel is smart and
accomplished, ambitious of power, and has flexible morals. He wants to either completely take over the
government or destroy it, and he pretends to befriend David to accomplish just that. Absalom stokes Israel’s
discontent and tells everyone that David is a Jebusite. The Jews have a history of announcing a new king
every 20 years or so, and Achitophel decides it is time to do just that. He knows that he can never be king,
but if he must have one, he wants it to be Absalom.
Achitophel begins by publicly hailing Absalom’s birth as royal. He claims Absalom will be the Jews’
“savior,” and that he is the answer to their prayers. Absalom’s popularity soars, and even babies learn to say
his name. Achitophel flatters Absalom with compliments of his superior virtue and reminds him that David,
too, had to answer a call to the throne when he was in exile in Gath. The people are restless and crying for a
new king, and Achitophel is sure if Absalom joins their cries with his royal blood, the people will choose him
as their king. Absalom is flattered by Achitophel’s words, but David’s right to the crown is “unquestioned.”
David is a good king, Absalom says, he is kind and merciful, and he rarely draws blood. Absalom is certain
that if the people are turning against David, he should not fan the flames of dissention. Besides, David gives
Absalom everything, except his crown, and he has already told Absalom that he would give it to him if he
could. The crown is, however, “justly destined for a worthier head.”
After David, the crown moves down a “collateral line” to David’s brother, who, regardless of his
“vulgar spite,” has a legitimate claim to the throne. Still, Absalom does wish he had been born into royalty,
so he could rightfully assert his own claim to the crown. But to desire power that rightfully belongs to
another, Absalom says, is a “godlike sin.” Achitophel can see that Absalom is not yet convinced, so he steps
up his game. He tells the young prince that God has made him virtuous for a reason—because he is meant to

26
be king. David is “weak,” Achitophel says, and now is the perfect time to challenge his power. Achitophel
plans to wait until David has foolishly given the last of his money to the people, and then he will incite more
public discord or bury David with expensive foreign wars. Achitophel admits that he despises David’s
brother, and most of the Jews hate him, too. The people have a right to choose their own king, Achitophel
says, and they do not want David’s brother. The time to claim the crown is now, if they wait until after
David’s brother is on the throne, they might not be able to ensure that Absalom is king.
To realize his plan, Achitophel joins the various “malcontents” of Israel to one final end—to strip
David of his power and give it to Absalom. Many men assist Achitophel in his quest,
including Zimri, Balaam, and Caleb, but none are as powerful as Shimei. Shimei robs and cheats the Jews
every chance he gets, so they decide to make him their magistrate. Under his tenure as magistrate, treason is
legal and he stacks juries with “dissenting Jews” to guarantee that the king’s enemies are free and his
supporters are imprisoned. Worse yet is Corah, who engineered the plot. He is a priest, and his memory is
impeccable. Thus, the people fail to see his deceit. Surrounded by such men, Absalom addresses the people.
He claims he is outraged by their troubles, and he wishes he could suffer on their behalf. Absalom tells the
people that he loves his father, but their liberty is at stake. Then he wipes a tear from his eye and tells the
people his tears are all he has to give. As the people raise their arms to Absalom in praise, he departs with
Achitophel and his men in a royal procession, visiting the people of Israel. Everywhere they go, Absalom is
received with love and admiration, and Achitophel is easily able to identify any possible enemies to their
cause.
“O foolish Israel!” the speaker of the poem cries. Absalom’s procession is a charade, and is merely
“war in masquerade.” No one is safe if kings can be “dissolved by might.” Plus, the speaker says, people are
often wrong and a “faultless king” could be ruined. No sensible man would disrupt the government and
dethrone their king, which will surely make their grievances worse. Despite this public opposition, however,
there are still loyal men who stand by David, including Barzillani, who was in exile with David, as well
as Zadock and Sagan of Jerusalem. Perhaps most loyal is Amiel, a government official who tirelessly
subdues David’s opposition from inside the ranks. These loyal men inform David of Absalom’s ambition and
Achitophel’s deceit, and finally, having grown impatient, David addresses the people of Israel.
David tells the people that he has allowed his role as a father to cloud his judgement as a king, but he
will now show them that he is “not good by force.” Absalom’s attempt to “shake” up the kingdom and seize
the crown is not a threat to David, and if Absalom wants to continue his efforts, he must be prepared to
“fall.” David is the king, he says, and God will not allow such treason to come to pass. David is not afraid to
draw his sword if he must, and he reminds the Jews to “beware the fury of a patient man.” If the Jews want a
fight, David is ready, and while they are “breathless” and exhausted, he will strike them down. As David
speaks, thunder rocks the sky, and every Jew knows their rightful king.

‘PRAMEELA’ BY SAMUEL RICHARDSON

Pamela is an epistolary novel (told through letters), written by Samuel Richardson and first published in
1740. It is considered one of the first novels written in English, and significantly contributed to the
development of this genre. Richardson, a 51-year-old printer when the novel was published, began the
project to provide moral instruction to young women who might find themselves vulnerable to seduction

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while employed by wealthy men. The novel advocates for the importance of maintaining virtuous and
honorable conduct in the face of temptation, and explores themes of class, gender, and inequality. The
novel was incredibly popular on publication, leading to the famous parody Shamela (1741) by renowned
satirist Henry Fielding. This novel includes references to attempted rape, sexual harassment, and thoughts
of death by suicide.

PLOT SUMMARY
Pamela Andrews is a 15-year-old maidservant in Bedfordshire, England. The novel is narrated
primarily through the letters she writes to her parents and a journal she keeps. Pamela has been employed
by the kind Lady B, an elderly woman who dies at the start of the novel. After the death of Lady B, her son
Mr. B takes over the household and shows a keen interest in Pamela. While Pamela at first believes that
Mr. B would never pursue a servant, he soon makes sexual advances towards her, which she rejects.
Pamela is determined to remain chaste and virtuous, even when Mr. B repeatedly tries to seduce her and
offers her money in exchange for becoming his mistress.
One night, Mr. B attacks Pamela; she faints in terror, which saves her from being raped. Pamela is
now determined to go home to her parents; however, Mr. B arranges a plan to have Pamela taken to his
estate in Lincolnshire without her knowledge or consent. In Lincolnshire, Pamela is isolated and at the
mercy of Mrs. Jewkes, the housekeeper, who is cruel and unsympathetic to Pamela. A kindly clergyman
named Mr. Williams tries in vain to help Pamela. As Pamela grows increasingly desperate, she tries
unsuccessfully to escape, injuring herself in the process.
Mr. B comes to Lincolnshire, and again asks Pamela to become his mistress. She refuses again, so he
hatches a plan with Mrs. Jewkes. Mr. B disguises himself as a maidservant and sneaks into Pamela’s bed;
when she realizes what is happening, she has a fit, so he leaves her alone. Afterwards, Mr. B’s behavior
changes, and he eventually confides to Pamela that he is in love with her. He is hesitant, however, to marry
her because he does not like the idea of marriage and is worried about the difference in their respective
social positions. Pamela is touched by the idea that Mr. B might genuinely love her, rather than just regard
her as a sexual conquest.
Mr. B leaves the estate, and Pamela begins to worry that he might be trying to further deceive her
with his talk of marriage. When Mr. B returns, he reads through the many journal entries and writings that
Pamela has composed. Moved by what he reads, he apologizes to her for the way he has treated her. Still
unsure of whether or not to trust him, Pamela insists on going home to her parents. While she is en route,
she receives a letter from Mr. B imploring her to return and to marry him. Pamela decides to trust him and
returns willingly to Lincolnshire.
Pamela and Mr. B both know that their impending marriage will be controversial. However, Mr. B’s
wealthy and well-born friends are charmed by Pamela’s beauty and kindness. Pamela’s father arrives at the
estate, having finally tracked down his missing daughter, and is delighted to see that she is now safe and
happy. However, Mr. B’s sister, Lady Davers, is very angry that her brother has married a former servant.
Lady Davers forces Mr. B to confess to Pamela that, when he was younger, he had an affair with a young
woman named Sally Godfrey, and that they had a child together. Eventually, however, Lady Davers
accepts her new sister-in-law.
Pamela and Mr. B return to Bedfordshire, where everyone celebrates their marriage. Pamela’s father
is given a new job and a good income, while Pamela is given lavish gifts. Pamela also meets Miss Godwin,

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Mr. B’s illegitimate daughter with Sally Godfrey, and shows kindness to the young girl. Pamela and Mr. B
go on to have a very happy life together, in which Pamela continues to be unfailingly kind and generous to
everyone around her. 

THE RAPE OF THE LOCK BY ALEXANDER POPE

SUMMARY
At the opening of the poem, Belinda, a beautiful and wealthy young woman is asleep. Ariel, her
guardian sylph, watches over her and sends her a dream which highlights what the role of the sylph is—
namely to protect virtuous young women, though at times he makes the whole thing sound a tad sinister by
suggesting that sylphs might control the action of mortals or get them into trouble. He is worried that some
disaster is close at hand, though he is not sure what form it will take. He instead warns her through the dream
to “beware of man.” Belinda then awakes and begins dressing herself for a day of social engagements. With
the help of her maid Betty and that of her attendant sylphs, Belinda then completes the elaborate process of
beautifying herself.
Looking exceptionally beautiful, Belinda then sails from London to Hampton court, and dazzles the
crowd as she sails along. The two locks in which she has styled her hair look especially attractive, and
the Baron eyes them in admiration—he has resolved to take one for himself, either by force or by theft.
Before sunrise that morning, he had prayed for success to the God of love. As a kind of sacrifice burned a
pyre made up of “French romances” (i.e., love stories), garters, gloves, and all the tokens of his romantic
past, including love letters. Meanwhile, back in the present Belinda’s boat is still gliding along and Ariel is
still troubled by the feeling that something horrible is going to happen. He summons a huge army of sylphs
out of the air, and explains that he feels disaster is going to strike at any moment, though his idea of disaster
is actually quite silly—that at worst Belinda might lose her virginity, but that it might also be something as
trivial as a new dress getting stained, losing a piece of jewelry, or her lapdog dying. He instructs a number of
sylphs to man different stations, including her fan, her lock, her watch, and her dog.
The boat arrives at Hampton Court and the lords and ladies disembark, ready to enjoy the pleasures of a
day at court, in particular, gossip. Belinda soon sits down with two men to play a game of ombre. With a
little help from her band of sylphs, Belinda begins the game well, declaring that spades are to be trumps, and
quickly gaining the upper hand. The Baron, however, is quick to fire back and begins to dominate the game,
and Belinda is close to being beaten. At the very last second, though, Belinda is able to win the final play,
and reacts triumphantly.
Coffee is then served, which the smell of which revives the Baron and reminds him of his plan to steal
the lock. Clarissa draws out a pair of scissors, like a lady equipping a knight for battle, and the Baron seizes
them and prepares to snip off the lock. A whole host of sylphs descend on the lock, trying to twitch the hair
and Belinda’s earring to gain her attention and alert her to the danger. And, although she looks around three
times, the Baron simply evades her glance each time and then moves closer again. At this moment, Ariel
accesses Belinda’s inner thoughts and sees that she has feelings for an “earthly lover.” He feels that this ill
befits the “close recesses of the virgin’s thoughts.” Resigned to the fact that she is not as pure as he had
hoped, Ariel gives up on stopping the Baron from snipping off the lock. The Baron crows with delight and
Belinda screams in horror at what has happened.
While Belinda is sadly considering the wrong done to her, Umbriel, a gnome, flies down to another
realm, the Cave of Spleen. Here, he encounters a number of unpleasant things, including the East wind which

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was thought to cause migraines, the figures of Ill Nature and Affectation, all kinds of horrible phantoms and
contorted bodies (women turned into objects, men who are pregnant), and the Queen of Spleen herself, a kind
of magical being who touches women with melancholy and hysterics. He asks her to affect Belinda with
“chagrin” and she obliges, presenting him with a bag of “the force of female lungs, / Sighs, sobs and
passions, and the war of tongues” and a vial containing “fainting fears, / Soft sorrows, melting griefs, and
flowing tears.”
When he returns, he finds Belinda in the arms of Thalestris, and promptly tips the bag over them.
Thalestris is accordingly hugely distressed at the lock’s loss and Belinda’s now tarnished reputation. She
goes to her own suitor, Sir Plume, and demands he confront the Baron, which he does to no avail, with the
Baron declaring that he will not give up the lock while his nostrils still breathe air (i.e., while he is alive). But
Umbriel, not content with having stirred up enough trouble already, then opens the vial over Belinda, who
appears to give a long lamenting speech about the loss of the lock, wishing she had stayed at home or at least
headed Ariel’s warning.
Still, the Baron is unmoved. At last, Clarissa quiets the group and makes her own speech, which
essentially argues that this whole debate is silly—that everyone, including women themselves, places too
much value on transient female beauty, and that women should instead invest their time and energy in being
the best moral beings they can be. But her good sense is lost on the assembled company, and Belinda calls
the women to arms.
A kind of mock courtly battle ensues, with fans, silks, and the ladies’ scowls for weapons, much to
Umbriel’s delight. Belinda rushes at the Baron and blows snuff into his nose, with the help of the gnomes,
fulfilling his earlier comment that the lock could only be taken from him if air stopped filling his nostrils.
She then draws out a bodkin, threatening him with it. He tells her that he fears nothing in death but being
separated from her and begs to live, burning with passion instead. She shouts at him to return the stolen lock,
but miraculously the lock is gone. The narrator assures readers, however, that it ascended into the heavens,
like Berenice’s locks, where it shall be viewed by the common people of London and astronomers alike.
Unlike every other lock, however, this one will never grow gray, but will burn brightly in the sky as an
eternal testament to Belinda’s spectacular beauty.

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 UNIT III
REPRESENTAIVE TEXTS
SONNET

SONNET 18: “SHALL I COMPARE THEE TO A SUMMER’S DAY”

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616)

“Shall I Compare Thee” is a sonnet written by William Shakespeare. A sonnet is a poem of 14 lines.
Shakespeare has written 154 sonnets. The first group of 126 sonnets is addressed to his friend and patron Mr.
W.H. The second group of 28 sonnets is addressed to his lady love ‘Dark Lady’. The identity of these two
persons is still unknown. The sonnet “Shall I compare Thee” is addressed to his friend and patron Mr. W.H.
It is about the immortality of art and his friend’s beauty.
Sonnet 18 is one of the best known sonnets from among the 154 sonnets written by Shakespeare. It is
also one of the most straightforward poems both in language and intent. The speaker in the poem wonders
aloud whether he should compare the young man to a summer‘s day. The most prominent figure of speech in
this sonnet is the extended metaphor comparing the young man with a summer‘s day. Then he decides that
the young man’s attributes surpass that of a summer‘s day as it is more ―’lovely’ and more ― ‘temperate’.
The speaker also comes to a realization that even summer is subject to change and will eventually lose its
vibrancy. The speaker personifies nature here. The strong summer winds are a threat to the new flower buds
of May, and at the same time summer doesn't last very long. Summer is thus destined to end. The summer
sun is too hot and at other times it's not visible to our eyes. Here, ― ‘eye of heaven’ and ― ‘gold
complexion’ are used as metaphors to describe the sun. The word ― ‘untrimmed’ could signify two things:
one it could refer to unadorned (not decorated) or can be taken as a metaphor for untrimmed sails on a ship.
Here, nature is a ship with untrimmed sails which is meant to provide it stability and decoration. So, the
speaker is referring to nature as a ship with sails that have not been adjusted to deal with changes in the wind
in order to course through the sea correctly. The speaker here indicates that summer loses its beauty when
nature is not paying attention to her sailing and allows weather changes to happen. The speaker declares that
everything beautiful must eventually fade away losing its charm.
But as long as the poem is read, the young man in the poem will live forever in the lines of the poem.
The beloved‘s summer is ‘eternal’ and it does not fade as it is captured in the words and lines of this poem.
For ordinary people, usually summer passes by quickly and they age along with the passage of time but here
both summer and the young man are turned eternal because they live in the poem. In the final lines of the
poem the poet personifies death. Here, death won‘t get a chance to claim the young man as his immortal
now. The speaker predicts that this poem will continue to be read and the fair youth (or young man) will
continue to be analyzed forever. As long as men live, see and read, this poem will continue to exist. Here the
poet is emphasizing the immortality of both the poem and the young man in it. Here the word ―thee‖ could
refer to either the fair youth or us readers, or both.

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 ON HIS BLINDNESS
JOHN MILTON (1608-1674)
Milton is one of the greatest poets in English. The poem On His Blindness is an autobiographical
sonnet in which he expresses his sorrowful feelings as a blind person. “On His Blindness” centers on Milton's
faith in God as he is losing his sight. The poem is a sonnet that uses figurative language to express Milton's
fear, frustration, and acceptance. The poem signals a turn when Milton shifts from fear of punishment to
realization. It was written in 1655 three years after Milton became blind.
In the first eight lines (octave) of the sonnet, he raises the issue, the problem of his blindness. The
sonnet opens with the complaint that he has become blind even before his half of his life is passed. He
became blind at the age of 44. The world has become dark to him so early in his life. He feels deep anguish
when he thinks of his poetic talent lying useless with him.
In this poem Milton is very unhappy and feels sad because he became completely blind when he was in
his forty-fourth year. He is left alone in this dark and vast world and this condition intensifies a blind man’s
feeling of helplessness. Since the poet is a Puritan, he realises that he has God-given talent to write great
poems to justify the ways of God to men. But this gift is lying useless with him as God has made him blind.
He feels that it is like soul killing for him to hide his talent of writing poetry. He is ready to serve God with
his talent and present his true account. But he feels unable to do so due to his blindness. He fears that God
will rebuke him for not using this gift. His impatience with his blindness and inability to serve God force him
to ask, ‘Doth God exact day-labour, light deny’d?’
In the last six lines (sestet) of the sonnet, Milton resolves the problem peacefully by a total surrendering
to the will of god. Though Milton at the beginning is very sad at the loss of his eye-sight and grumbles and in
helpless anguish asks foolishly whether God could be so unjust as to expect active service even from a blind
man, at the end he concludes that one becomes worthy of serving Him only when one accepts whatever
happens in life without any complaint or protest. He realises that complaining against the will of God is
foolish because God does not require man’s work and nor will He get back the gifts He has given to him.
Milton’s patience calms him and tells him that God is the benign creator of the universe. He does not need
man’s work. Therefore he must bear patiently his mild yoke of blindness and submit completely to the will of
God without murmuring. This is the best service one can render to Him. God is like a great king. Thousands
of angels are at his service. They rush over land and ocean without rest in order to carry out his commands.
But some angels do not work. They stand and only wait for his orders. They are also his best servant. He is
consoled by the realisation that God is best served not through worldly attainments but through sincere
devotion. At the end of the poem the poet signifies patience, devotion and submission to God by mentioning
the phrase ‘stand and wait’. One becomes worthy of serving him only when one accepts whatever happens in
life without any complaint or protest. This is the best service one can render to Him.

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 LYRIC

LYRIC: 1
LOVER’S INFINITENESS
JOHN DONNE (1572-1631)

The first stanza depicts the lyrical voice’s need to possess all his/her beloved’s love. The lyrical voice says
that he/she will not be satisfied until he/she gets all of his/her love (“If yet I have not all thy love,/Dear I shall
never have it all”). Moreover, the lyrical voice assures that he/she has spent all that he/she had in order to
obtain this love (“And all my treasure, which should purchase thee-/Sights, tears, and oaths, and letters-I
have spent”) and that he/she has nothing left to give. At the end of the stanza, the lyrical voice emphasizes,
again, his/her demand for his/her beloved’s complete love (“If then thy gift of love were partial,/That some to
me, some should to others fall,/ Dear, I shall never have thee all”). The tone of the first stanza seems gentle
but jealous at the same time, as the lyrical voice expresses possession over the beloved one. Love in this
poem is not viewed as a simple marriage, but a more complex and abstract notion that the lyrical voice wants
and struggles to have.
The second stanza of ‘Lovers’ Infiniteness’ gives the word “all” a new meaning. As the lyrical voice
continues talking about his/her beloved one, he/she states that, even if the lover gave his/her “all” that
wouldn’t be enough. The lyrical voice expresses the need of a continuous stream of love because, even if
his/her beloved one gave him/her “all”, the lyrical voice would still worry that this love could be taken away
by others who could give more than he/she to the lover (“But if in thy heart, since, there be or shall/New love
created be, by other men,/Which have their stocks entire, and can in tears,/In sighs, in oaths, and letters,
outbid me,/This new love may beget new fears,/For this love was not vow’d by thee.”). At the end of the
stanza, the lyrical voice says that he/she deserves his/her lover’s “all” because he/she already gave the lover
his/her “all”. Notice how the meaning of “all” slightly shifts from the end of the previous stanza, and creates
a sort of conclusion from the previous lines. The lyrical voice accentuates the love rather than the beloved
one and believes that he/she should possess all that love even though it “was not vow’d by thee”. The theme
of possession is recurrent, but in this stanza appears to be linked more to transactions than to emotions.
The final stanza of ‘Lovers’ Infiniteness’ reflects on the possibilities of having “all”. Love continues to be
described as complex and mysterious. If the desire is infinite, love can’t be satisfied on a finite world (“Thou
canst not every day give me thy heart,/If thou canst give it, then thou never gavest it”). The paradox of love
remains at a theological level as “Love’s riddles are, that though thy heart depart,/It stays at home, and thou
with losing savest it;” refers to Matthew 16. With this, the lyrical voice suggests that “all” love must remain
to divinity rather than lovers. At the end of the stanza, the lyrical voice appears to solve this complexity of
love (“But we will have a way more liberal”). The lyrical voice suggests marriage, as the physical and
mystical bond where lovers can achieve to “Be one, and one another’s all”. Notice how in this last line the
lyrical voice uses “all” again, but with a different meaning from the previous uses. This satisfies the lyrical
voice’s need for infinite love, but, at the same time, the lyrical voice also suggests a similar growth in
spiritual devotion.
On the spiritual level, beyond the roles of lover and beloved, Donne, a devout Protestant and the Dean of St
Paul's Cathedral, suggests a similar growth in the spiritual devotion of a person for the divine. Since we are
creatures of God, we may participate in the love of God even if we do not understand it. Donne was fond of

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expounding in his sermons not only on the nature of God, but also the impossibility of understanding certain
divine mysteries. It is a common tenet of faith that the divine is in key ways unknowable, being infinite and
eternal (outside of time) and ineffable. Donne’s poems, such as this one, even though they may not at first
appear to be religious, often express such spiritual themes.

LYRIC: 2
A POISON TREE

WILLIAM BLAKE (1757 – 1827)

William Blake wrote A Poison Tree in 1794 and it first appeared in his book Songs of Experience.
Society at that time was encouraged to bottle up emotion and present a polite and unruffled persona to the
world. Blake was against this prevailing attitude of the society and therefore he advocates a more expressive
mode of being. The original title of the poem was ‘Christian Forbearance’.
A Poison Tree is a short and deceptively simple poem about a psychological examination of the evil
effects suppressed anger and its consequences. The speaker in the poem says when he became angry with his
friend, he went up to him and spoke out his feeling. Since it was given an out let, it vanished. But things took
a different turn when he became angry with his enemy. He did not speak out his anger out his anger, but
instead concealed it. The result was that he nursed his anger and it developed into hatred. His anger would
have subsided if he had expressed it to his enemy. Blake belied that it was wrong to suppress or thwart one’s
natural impulse be it love, anger or hate.
The speaker cherished and nursed his anger. His anger grew with his fear and tears – fears that at some
unguarded moment his enemy might get the better of him; and tears as he thought of his pathetic condition of
his enemy outwitted him. This fear further whetted his anger against his enemy. He imagined that his enemy
was planning to do damage to him. This brooding continued without stopping. Day and night his anger went
on swelling. Instead of giving vent to his resentment, he cherished and nursed it. While harbouring hatred in
his heart, he smiled smiles of friendship and practiced all kinds of deceitful tricks to win his enemy’s
confidence.
The way the speaker let his anger grow was like the way he grew a tree planting it, watering it,
exposing it to sunlight and in general tending it with care, for he had a particular purpose in his mind. The
speaker’s anger went of growing but outwardly he kept up his pose of friendship. His anger eventually bore a
fruit it the form of a bright, shiny apple as attractive as he Apple of the Forbidden Tree in the Garden of
Eden, on eating which woe came to Adam and Eve. His enemy saw the fruit and knew it was his, and so, at
dead of night, his enemy stole into his garden, plucked the attractive fruit and ate it. Since it was poison
apple, as soon as he ate it, he fell down dead. In the morning the speaker felt glad to see his enemy lying
dead beneath the apple tree. The speaker’s purpose had been served. The speaker’s affection or pose of
friendship had deceived his enemy. His enemy thought that he was safe but failed to note the speaker’s
poison in his heart. Feeling himself safe, the enemy tried to do damage to the speaker by stealing the apple.
It shows that the enemy’s hostility too had remained unabated. But the enemy fell into the speaker’s trap and
met his doom.
The poison tree is a symbol of evil which grows with in the heart of man because of the suppressed
anger. Blake’s clear understanding of the growth of evil of suppression of anger is seen in this poem. He
also talks about the need to have open and friendly relations with other human beings, the lack of such good

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relationship leads to evil thoughts and actions. The poem does not credit neither the speaker nor to his
victim. Both are malicious and vindictive. The poem successfully exposes the seamy side of human nature.

ESSAY
OF LOVE
FRANCIS BACON (1561 – 1626)

SUMMARY
Bacon opens the essay by claiming that the love or romance shown on the stage, plays, and theatres is
highly unrealistic, far from reality. On stage, love is portrayed as a noble trait leading to joy and excitement.
It often brings tragedy and sorrow. However, in the real life, love does the real disasters by bringing dark and
foreboding. History has a record that all the great, noble, and worthier man who has done something great in
the life have refused this week passion and keep themselves and their business away from such things.
Bacon illustrates the example of Marcus Antonius, a member of Roman royalty who was given a chance to
rule over 1/3rd of the empire, and Appius Claudius, the second member of royalty who was given the other
1/3rd of empire, to explain the destructing effects of love. The former was the man of ambition and power,
however, amorous, impulsive, and restrained. He had little or no control over his heart and wandered in
pursuit of love and lust. While Claudius was a sober, sage and wise man of great wisdom. He never brought
himself disgrace while rushing towards quixotic desire.
Bacon quotes the Greek philosopher Epicurus who promoted self-control, self-discipline, and restraint
in one’s life. He warned his followers against chasing the worldly desires and says that “we are sufficient for
one another”. By this, he conveys a message that one must live his life fully, without indulging into conflicts
with others. One should not avenge other and must restrain himself from other such misdeeds. He expresses
his disproval for a man of great worth who bowed in front of a woman he loves and makes themselves small
and miserable.
Bacon, furthermore, talks about the unfettered love that destroys the man. He says that such love
devalues the man and make them insignificant in front of others. Moreover, Bacon argues about romantic
poetry in which the writer exaggerates the beauty of his beloved unnecessary. To him, such exaggeration is
only suitable for romance and writing; they are not applicable in practical life. A paramour who detriments
his discriminating influence to transfer flattering words to his woman evidently negotiates with his intellect,
and judging power. A proud man will never make his beloved to rule over him by pouring sugarcoated words
on her. For Bacon, a wise man must not love as it is impossible to be wise and to love at the same time.
In an unrequited love, the praises and compliment of a man for his beloved woman appear to be a weakness
of his character. Moreover, when her woman doesn’t feel responding the paramour, she treats his love as a
pitiable weakness of his character. The love of man can result in two things: either the woman will respond to
him in the same way or will create an inward feeling of insignificant in a woman for the man. So, Bacon
warns, the man before falling in love should understand one thing that it doesn’t harm anything but man’s
self-esteem.
Those who see the world as nothing but a place to fulfill their carnal desires destroy themselves. They
losses both affluence and wisdom in search or sexual pleasures in the world. Bacon argues that such passions
are overwhelmed in the period of prosperity than of adversity. Carnal pleasures get accentuated in the time of

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both happiness and distress and can be called as “child of folly”. However, these sensual pleasure when are
uncontrolled can lead to the destruction of business, wealth, and health.
The army men seem to have a special attraction for love as they have for the wine. Bacon discusses the
men’s nature and argues that men have a special inclination towards love for other. He makes his love
universal by expanding it towards everyone, no matter such love gentle and kind and people who have some
spiritual and religious belonging have this kind of love. In the end, Bacon says that the love that arises from
marriage is the root cause of mankind’s creation, while love in friendship makes it perfect but lust corrupts it
and embarrass it.

THE MAN IN BLACK

OLIVER GOLDSMITH (1730-1774)
SUMMARY
The essay The Man in Black is taken from the book ―The citizen of the World written by Oliver
Goldsmith. Altangi is an imaginary Chinese traveller visiting England. Goldsmith invents this character to
describe through him English life and culture. The eccentricities of the people are minutely observed and
gently satirised.
The Man in Black has a heart of gold. But he wishes to appear stern and hard-hearted. In this he is a
‘humorist’. In his encounter with beggers, his mask drops off and the genial kind man is revealed. The man
in Black is described as an autobiographical character. In real life Goldsmith was always kind to the poor and
gave away everything he had.
Altangi, a Chinese traveller visits England. He has great respect for the Man in Black who is an
interesting character. By nature the Man in Black is kind and sympathetic to the poor. But he seems to be
ashamed of his natural benevolence. So, he puts on a stern appearance. But he cannot maintain this assumed
harshness for long. The mask soon drops. Any superficial observer can see the real man behind it.
The Man in Black and Altangi go out on a tour of the country. They discuss beggars and poverty. The Man in
Black lashes at the poor calling them lazy hypocrites. Everyone of them is an impostor, and they ―rather
merit a prison than relief‖. The Government has taken steps to relieve their suffering but they roam about
everywhere pestering travelers. While the man in Black is talking in this manner an old man appeals for help.
He speaks about his dying wife and five hungry children, Obviously it is an invented story but the Man in
Black is moved by it. Seeing it Altangi pretends to look another way. The Man in Black stealthily slips in a
piece of silver into the beggar‘s hands while loudly warning the old man against troubling people like him.
They next see a sailor with a wooden leg, carrying a bundle of chips. He looks miserable. Pretending to
expose the impostor, the Man in Black angrily questions the silor. But soon he buys the bundle of chips for
one shilling to the great surprise and joy of the sailor. He pretends that he has made a cheap purchase. The
inconsistency in his character is interesting.
Now they see a poor woman in rags with one child in her arms and another on her back Without
minding the presence of Altangi the Man in Black searches in his pocket for a piece of money. There is none.
The man in Black looks more miserable than the woman because he cannot relieve her. The he remembers
the bundle of chips. He puts it into her hand and walks away.

36
 PLAY
‘DOCTOR FAUSTUS’
CHRISTOPHER MARLOW (1564 -1593)
THE CHARACTER OF DOCTOR FAUSTUS
Doctor Faustus is a great tragedy, and for the first time in the history of English Drama, the tragic
effect depends upon the inner conflict in the mind of the towering personality, who is the hero.
Faustus is an ordinary German; he obtains a Doctor’s in Divinity and attains mastery over various branches
of study. Though he not great on account of royalty or noble parentage, he is great all the same because of his
scholarship. He has the genuine passion for knowledge infinite. He aspires to earn great honour and fame, to
acquire limitless pelf and power. His dream is to gain super-human power so that:
“All things that move between the quiet poles,
Shall be at my command: emperors and kings”.
To attain this he makes the tragic decision of his life:
“A sound magician is a mighty god;
Here, Faustus, tire thy brains to gain a deity”.
He desires to become as powerful:

“……… as Jove is in the sky,

Lord and commander of the elements”
Then he proceeds to study Necromancy. Thus to Faustus:
“Nothing so sweet as magic is to him,
Which he prefers before his chiefest bliss”.
Like some other great tragic heroes, Faustus also suffers from inner conflict. Like Hamlet, his conflict
is also inner. The appearance of the Good and the Bad Angels are the personifications of his good and evil
impulses. Since Faustus is in no mood to listen to the advice of the Good Angel, very easily he yields to the
temptation of the Bad Angel. So he denounces God, blasphemies the Trinity and Christian doctrines and sells
his soul to the Devil to gain super human power and to live voluptuousness for twenty four years. His fate is
settled when signs the contrast.
With the mastery over the black art and with help of Mephistophilis he gains immense super power and
moves across the earth and sky to well known cities, had the spirit of Helen, the matchless beauty as his
paramour and demonstrates miraculous feats before kings and courtiers. He seeks knowledge because
knowledge is power. Faustus employs his magical power not only to acquire knowledge but also for his
sensual-gratification. The Good Angel appears three times to remind him to return to God with true
repentance. He fails to rend his ears. Faustus lives his twenty four years as the first tragic man, part believer,
part unbeliever, wavering between independence, and dependence upon God, now arrogant and confident,
now anxious and worried, justified and yet horribly unjustified.
As the time rolls on, Faustus becomes more and more disillusioned about the profits he expected form
Magic. The growing sense of loss and the wages of damnation begin to sting him like a scorpion:
“When I behold the heaven, then I repent,
And curse thee, wicked Mephistophilis,
Because thou hast deprived me of these joys”.
But it is he himself, and not Mephistophilis to blame. Finally his tragic flaw-thirst for unlimited power
and pleasure-brings about his doom and disaster. He is possessed of extraordinary will power, he has
37
freedom to act. Therefore he is responsible for his own decisions and thus blaming the stars, his parents or
blaming the devil can never reduce his responsibility.
In final act, Faustus deserves pity and fear. Faustus’ universal appeal for life touches the heart of the
audience.
He says:
“My God, my God, look not so fierce on me!
Adders and serpents, let me breathe a while!
Ugly hall gape nit! Come not Lucifer!
I’ll burn my book! Ah, Mephistophilis”.
In the final hour Faustus cries:
“See, see, where Christ’s blood streams in the firmament,
One drop would save my soul, half a drop…..”
At last Faustus discovers that intellectual pride and insolence of man are responsible for dragging him
away from God and true religion. O.P. Brockbent says, “Faustus’s passion for knowledge and power is in
itself a virtue, but diverted from the service of God it threatens to become totally negative and self
destroying”.
DISCUSS DOCTOR FAUSTUS AS A TRAGIC HERO

According to Aristotle the ideal tragic hero should be a man of eminence, of high fame and flourishing
prosperity, and be basically a good man though not absolutely virtuous. He has heroic traits that earn the
sympathy of the audience. His error of judgment should inevitably lead to his tragic downfall. His fall should
also generate the feeling of pity and fear, the distinctive mark of a tragic hero.
Doctor Faustus does not abide by all these conditions. They agree partially. Faustus is an ordinary
German; he obtains a Doctor’s in Divinity and attains mastery over various branches of study. Though he not
great on account of royalty or noble parentage, he is great all the same because of his scholarship. He has the
genuine passion for knowledge infinite. He aspires to earn great honour and fame, to acquire limitless pelf
and power. His dream is to gain super-human power so that:
“All things that move between the quiet poles,
Shall be at my command: emperors and kings,
To attain this he makes the tragic decision of his life:
“A sound magician is a mighty god;
Here, Faustus, tire thy brains to gain a deity”.
He desires to become as powerful:
“……… as Jove is in the sky,
Lord and commander of the elements”
Then he proceeds to study Necromancy. Thus to Faustus:
“Nothing so sweet as magic is to him,
Which he prefers before his chiefest bliss”.
Like some other great tragic heroes, Faustus also suffers from inner conflict. Like Hamlet, his conflict
is also inner. The appearance of the Good and the Bad Angels are the personifications of his good and evil
impulses. Since Faustus is in no mood to listen to the advice of the Good Angel, very easily he yields to the
temptation of the Bad Angel. So he denounces God, blasphemies the Trinity and Christian doctrines and sells

38
his soul to the Devil to gain super human power and to live voluptuousness for twenty four years. His fate is
settled when signs the contrast.
With the mastery over the black art and with help of Mephistophilis he gains immense super power and
moves across the earth and sky to well known cities, had the spirit of Helen, the matchless beauty as his
paramour and demonstrates miraculous feats before kings and courtiers. He seeks knowledge because
knowledge is power. Faustus employs his magical power not only to acquire knowledge but also for his
sensual-gratification. The Good Angel appears three times to remind him to return to God with true
repentance. He fails to rend his ears. Faustus lives his twenty four years as the first tragic man, part believer,
part unbeliever, wavering between independence, and dependence upon God, now arrogant and confident,
now anxious and worried, justified and yet horribly unjustified.
As the time rolls on, Faustus becomes more and more disillusioned about the profits he expected form
Magic. The growing sense of loss and the wages of damnation begin to sting him like a scorpion:
“When I behold the heaven, then I repent,
And curse thee, wicked Mephistophilis,
Because thou hast deprived me of these joys”.
But it is he himself, and not Mephistophilis to blame. Finally his tragic flaw-thirst for unlimited power
and pleasure- brings about his doom and disaster. He is possessed of extraordinary will power, he has
freedom to act. Therefore he is responsible for his own decisions and thus blaming the stars, his parents or
blaming the devil can never reduce his responsibility.
In final act, Faustus deserves pity and fear. Faustus’ universal appeal for life touches the heart of the
audience.
He says:
“My God, my God, look not so fierce on me!
Adders and serpents let me breathe a while!
Ugly hall gape nit! Come not Lucifer!
I’ll burn my book! Ah, Mephistophilis”.
In the final hour Faustus cries:
“See, see, where Christ’s blood streams in the firmament,
One drop would save my soul, half a drop…..”
At last Faustus discovers that intellectual pride and insolence of man are responsible for dragging him
away from God and true religion. O.P.Brockbent says, “Faustus’s passion for knowledge and power is in
itself a virtue, but diverted from the service of God it threatens to become totally negative and self
destroying”.

39
 GOOD AND BAD ANGELSIN ‘DOCTOR FAUSTUS’

The Good Angel and the Bad Angel in Doctor Faustus reflect the conflict in Faustus’ mind. They are
symbolic of his inner conflict and at the same time, they are a literary device called allegory. They tell us a
tale of a conflict between law and desire, religion or skepticism, or conscious and curiosity which are the
characters of Faustus.
First they appear in Act 1 Scene 1 when Doctor Faustus starts contemplating to study Necromancy.

The Good Angel advises Faustus:

“O Faustus, lay that damned book aside,
And gaze not on it lest it tempt thy soul,
And heap God’s heavy wrath upon thy head,
Read, read the scriptures: that is blasphemy”.
The Bad Angel temps Faustus saying:
“Go forward, Faustus, in that famous art
Wherein all nature’s treasury is contained,
Be on earth as Jove is in the sky,
Lord and commander of these elements”.
In Act 2 Scene 1, Faustus ultimately feels there is no use of thinking of heaven and god as nothing can
save him from eternal damnation. The Good Angel and the Bad Angel appear to Faustus again. The Good
Angel urges Faustus to give up that nefarious art to gain God’s mercy, but the Bad Angel tempts him to
seek only wealth and power. If he does not do it so, he will prove himself a fool by believing in false and
fanciful ideas about hell, heaven or God’s mercy. Good Angel represents the principle of goodness and his
conscious and the Bad Angel his indomitable ambition and desires of his soul.
In the Scene 2 of the Act 2, the Good Angel and the Bad Angel appear again when Faustus is asking
Mephistophilis about the creator of this universe.
The Good Angel tells Faustus:
“Faustus, repent; yet God will pity thee”.
But the Bad Angel tells Faustus:
“Thou art a spirit; God cannot pity thee”.
Finally in the Act 5, Scene1, the Good Angel appears in the form of the old man urges him to turn to
the right path and to repent and pray to Christ for divine mercy that still he has to have God’s mercy to save
his soul. Faustus is still a prey to diffidence and vacillation. The old man i.e., the Good Angel leaves with
heavy heart.
Each Angel tries to persuade Faustus, but he is no mood to listen to the Good Angel. The Good Angel’s aim
is to convince Faustus to abandon his sins and return to God, where as the Bad Angel’s aim is to pursue him
to continue in his pursuit of magic and so remain loyal to the devil. At the same time, the two Angels are
parts of Faustus’ nature. Only by loyalty to the good nature Faustus can attain his own perfection and peace;
if disloyal he will be tormented by regret for the perfection and peace he has missed.
Since Faustus is in no mood to listen to the Good Angel, very easily he yields to the temptation of the Bad
Angel. One can notice it when he feel exulted over the prospects of forthcoming adventures such as getting
gold from India, pearls from the oceans, tasty delicacies from faraway places. He would read strange

40
philosophies, cull from foreign kings their secrets, control Germany with his power, reform the public
school, and do many fabulous deeds.
For twenty four years he pursues his earthly pleasures which are transitory. He gains nothing
permanent. Finally loses his soul and he is permanently doomed.

THE CHARACTER OF MEPHISTOPHILIS

Mephistophilis is neither a mythical nor a biblical character. It is derived by Marlow from Folklore and
introduced in to English literature. German folklore considers him as a demon while Marlow present him as
an assistant to Satan Lucifer.
In Doctor Faustus Mephistophilis is the only character other than Faustus deserves some consideration.
He is with Faustus from the beginning till his downfall. He is one of the seven spirits of second rank. He is
called Lucifer’s vice – regent. Part of his work seems to be to ‘win souls for hell by the allurement of
despair, playing with open cards and holding no iota of the dreadfulness of damnation’.
Mephistophilis may seem to lure away Faustus to the path of hell. But Faustus’ extreme pride and
inordinate ambition are also the root cause of his own damnation. It is made clear in III Scene of Act 1 where
Mephistophilis tells Faustus in response to a query:
“For, when we hear one rack the name of God,
Abjure the scriptures and his saviour Christ,
We fly in hope to get his soul;
Nor will we come, unless he uses such means
Whereby he is in danger to be damned”.
But he is the one who paves the way for his tragic doom and eternal damnation by encashing his tragic flaw.
Satan tempts and destroys.
Mephistophilis first appears to Faustus in the ugly shape. Faustus asks him to appear in the shape of a
Franciscan friar. He appears in the shape of Franciscan friar and tells him that he has appeared to him of his
own accord and that the easiest way to call up the spirits of hell is to renounce scriptures and to pray only to
Lucifer the Prince of Devils as well as his master. He also informs him that Lucifer was once arch – angel,
but he was thrown out of the Paradise because of his impertinence and inordinate ambition. He along with
others rebels are now doomed to hell for ever. Mephistophilis then tells him with remorse that to heavenly
joys and bliss means living in Hell perpetually. Through this description of Lucifer, Mephistophilis gives a
timely warning of acute suffering of hell or mental agonies to Faustus. But Faustus turns a dead ear.
With the permission of his master, Mephistophilis becomes Faustus’ servant since Faustus agrees to
surrender his soul to the Devil and denounce the Trinity and writes the deed of his gift with his own blood.
When the blood congeals, Mephistophilis with his ‘chafer of coals’ makes blood flow and smoothens the
path to hell for Faustus. And form now, begins the very close relationship between Faustus and
Mephistophilis As per the contract Faustus is permitted to live for twenty four years leading a life full of
unbridled sensuous pleasures of the world with Mephistophilis as his constant companion to fulfill all his
desires.
Mephistophilis is cunning and artful. He plays a double role in his relationship with Faustus. When
Faustus is normal and sticks to the conditions of his contract with the devil, Mephistophilis is his obliging
slave Mephistophilis helps him to gain immense super power and moves across the earth and sky to well
known cities, had the spirit of Helen, the matchless beauty as his paramour and demonstrates miraculous
41
feats before kings and courtiers, and fulfill his sensual-gratification. But he does not help when Faustus asks
him anything related to God. When Faustus is thinking of prayer, and repentance to gain God’s mercy, he
threatens him like a cruel master:
“Thou traitor Faustus, I arrest thy soul,
For disobedience to my sovereign lord:
Revolt, or I’ll peace – meal tear thy flesh”.
That is why Faustus blames Mephistophilis at the end:
“When I behold the heaven, then I repent,
And curse thee, wicked Mephistophilis,
Because thou hast deprived me of these joys”.
As the clock strikes twelve, Faustus appears along with other devils in the final scene to snatch away
Faustus’ soul to hell for eternal damnation. The last word wrung out from the depth of Faustus’ terror –
stricken soul is Mephistophilis.
THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS

The pageant of Seven Deadly Sins takes place in the scene 11 of the Act 11 of Doctor Faustus. Marlow
is original in his treatment of the scene. In the Faustbuch – the source book – it is a masque of the seven
animal forms representing the seven principal Devils. Faustus feels upset when Mephistophilis flatly refuses
to answer Faustus’ question about the creation of the universe. Mephistophilis tries to get him think of hell
and other things instead of heavier philosophical matters. Prior to this, the soul of Faustus was wavering
between vice and virtue feels that God may still pity him if he could pray and repent. Disgusted with the
impudence of Mephistophilis and after listening to the Good Angel Faustus makes frantic appeal to Christ:
“Ah Christ, My Saviour,
Seek to save distressed Faustus’ soul”.
And then dramatically appear Lucifer, Belzebub and Mephistophilis on the stage to exert their very
great influence on Faustus to lead his vacillating soul away from the path of virtue. Lucifer reminds Faustus
that he is breaking his promise by thinking on Christ. He tells Faustus that he has no right to pray to Christ
because Christ cannot and will not save him now as he is the master of his soul according to the contract.
Faustus realises his position with terror and promises ‘never to look to heaven, never to name God or to pray
to him’. Lucifer, who is highly pleased now, decides to entertain him the enhancing dance of Seven Deadly
Sins. The main purpose is to tone up the dejected mood of Faustus and to divert his mind away from God and
Christ.
The Seven Deadly Sins – Pride, Covetousness, Wrath, Envy, Gluttony, Sloth and Lechery – appear before
him in their true colour. In response to his questions they tell Faustus about their parentage and real
characteristics. The splendid show cheers up his soul. In his delight, Faustus tells Lucifer:
“O, this feeds my soul!”
In this scene there is a definite change in Faustus as well as Mephistophilis. Faustus begins to repent
of his pact with the Devil; Mephistophilis chides Faustus for his lack of resolution. This scene has
considerable significance. The pageant of Deadly Sins in fact symbolises the vices in the soul of Faustus
himself. All these vices are ingrained in human nature and man’s duty is to fight and conquer them with the
grace of God.

42
Some critics opine that the show of seven deadly sins has very little significance for the development of the
drama. Such scenes are meant to delight the groundlings of that age. They point out Marlow’s indebtedness
to the Morality plays in which these sins played important and colourful roles.
DOCTOR FAUSTUS AS AN ALLEGORY

An allegory is an abstract concept that appears in a concrete form like an actual person. It presents a
second meaning beneath the surface meaning. Very often allegories are simple stories conveying
metaphorically some spiritual or ethical ideas with a didactic purpose. In allegories meanings are implied and
not expressly stated.
Doctor Faustus is a moral allegory of universal significance which is shown through the characters
such as the Good Angel, the Bad Angel, the Seven Deadly Sins, the Old man, and even Helen,
Mephistophilis. They are pictured as human beings. The Good Angel and the Bad Angel tell us a tale of a
conflict between law and desire, religion or skepticism, or conscious and curiosity which are the characters of
Faustus. The Angels show the deeper feelings and controversy brewing inside Faustus, making them an
allegory. They personify Faustus’ freedom either to escape to spiritual freedom or become a prey to demonic
temptation. The Good Angel represents order, virtue and goodness while the Bad Angel stands for Faustus’
underlying wants and desires: one conscious, one curiosity. They are externalisation of the two aspects of
Faustus’ own character: on the one hand, conscience, on the other, that aspiration that lead his downfall and
damnation.
The Seven Deadly Sins – Pride, Covetousness, Wrath, Envy, Gluttony, Sloth and Lechery – which
appear before him in their true colour are already in the soul of Faustus. They just externalise them. The
whole procession is led by Pride. Pride is the worst vice that bring about his downfall.
The Good Angel finally appears in the form of an old man to remind him of the blessings of repentance.
Allegorically, it represents Faustus’ conscious. He reminds Faustus how he has forfeited not only spiritual
but also physical integrity.
Even Helen is allegorically represents sensual pleasures of life which are but transitory, which also lead
to despair and damnation. She is the last gift of the Evil Angel. She is the lust of the eyes and of the flesh,
and they are Faustus’ own passions and part of his living. The happiness offered by her is just momentary.
Although Doctor Faustus is an allegory, it does not altogether exclude realism. in the play allegory employs
realism as an instrument. Marlow chooses certain characters that are capable of serving a double purpose:
these characters are significant as symbols, by virtue of what they symbolise; but they are significant also as
themselves, by virtue of what they are.

DOCTOR FAUSTUS AS A RENAISSANCE PLAY OR MAN OF RENAISSANCE

The word Renaissance denotes rebirth or reawakening. It was a cultural and educational movement that
began in the fourteenth century Italy. The revival of learning, new geographical discoveries and rebellion
against religious dogmas and Christian theology were main sources of stimulation. During Renaissance old
conventions were dissolved by liberation in all areas of life and culture. The main ingredients of Renaissance
were quest for power, learning, knowledge, worldliness, materialism, love for sensual pleasure and beauty,
individualism, spirit of adventure, sky – high ambition and lust for power and pelf and power.

43
Faustus’ inexhaustible thirst for knowledge, his intellectual curiosity, his worship of beauty, his passion for
classics, his skepticism, his interest in sorcery and magic, his admiration for Machiavelli and for super
human ambition and will in the pursuit of beauty and power prove the him to be a man of Renaissance.
Faustus appears as a man of Renaissance in the very opening scene. He is not satisfied with the classical
knowledge which included Logic, Metaphysics, Medicine, law and Theology because cannot give him
knowledge but no power. He remarks, ‘Yet art thou still but Faustus and a man’. Therefore he declares
without the least hesitation:
“Philosophy is odious and obscure,
Both law and physic are for petty wits;
Divinity is the beast of the three,
Unpleasant, harsh, contemptible and vile;
‘Tis magic, magic, that hath ravished me.”
He rejects the traditional subjects of study and turns to magic which he can use it for various uses. As a
magician he hopes to enjoy the ‘world of profit and delight, of power, of honour, of omnipotence’. These
were precisely the qualities of Renaissance.
Faustus’ enlarged outlook is a trait of Renaissance. The Renaissance man desired wealth and worldly
pleasures. After pledging his soul with the Devil he could do whatever he liked with the help of spirits at his
command. He could bring gold from the East Indies, pearl form the depth of sea, pleasant fruits and princely
delicacies from America. He wanted travel across the world. So with the help of Mephistophilis he traveled
to distant countries. He
“… views clouds, the planets and the stars,
The tropes, zones, and quarters of the sky,
From east to west his dragons swiftly glide”.
Faustus’ thirst for ‘knowledge infinite’, his insatiable intellectual curiosity and supreme lust for power
and pelf very clearly reflect the spirit of Renaissance. The black art of magic fascinates him because it will
fetch him super – human powers and will help him to perform miraculous deeds with the help of spirits
raised:
“I’ll have them read me strange philosophy,
And tell the secrets of all foreign kings;
…………………………………………
I’ll levy soldiers with the coin they bring,
And chase the prince of Parma from our land,
And reign sole king of all the provinces.”
In Renaissance age nothing was impossible. It opened a new world of imagination. In Doctor Faustus,
Marlow has expressed such ideas, when Faustus says:
“O what a world of profit and delight,
Of power, of honour, or omnipotence,
Is promised to the studious artisan!
All things that move between the quiet poles
Shall be at my command”.
To Faustus knowledge means power. This power will enable him to gratify the sensual pleasures of life.
Faustus’ request to Mephistophilis to get him the most beautiful German maid, his keen longing to have

44
Helen, ‘peerless dame of Greece’ to be his paramour reveal his love of beauty and yearning sensuous
pleasure. He expressed his feelings of great joy when he saw her:
“Was this face that launched a thousand ships
That burnt the topless tower of Ilium?”
Since Marlow himself was a child of Renaissance he invariably projected his personality through his
heroes. The play shows Marlow’s own passion for Renaissance values.

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