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2. Literature in the Restoration
This period extends from
1660, the year Charles II was restored to the throne, until about 1789. The
prevailing characteristic of the literature of the Renaissance had been its
reliance on poetic imagination. The inspired conceptions of Marlowe,
Shakespeare, and Milton, the true originality of Spenser, and the daring
poetic style of Donne all support this generalization. Furthermore, although
nearly all these poets had been far more bound by formal and stylistic
conventions than modern poets are, they had developed a large variety of
forms and of rich or exuberant styles into which individual poetic
expression might fit. In the succeeding period, however, writers reacted
against both the imaginative flights and the ornate or startling styles and
forms of the previous era. The quality of the later age is suggested by its
writers’ admiration for Ben Jonson and his disciples; the transparent and
apparently effortless poetic medium of the “school of Ben,” along with its
emphasis on good taste, moderation, and the Greek and Latin classics as
models, appealed profoundly to the new generation
Thus, the restoration of Charles II ushered in a literature characterized by
reason, moderation, good taste, deft management, and simplicity. The
historical parallel between the early imperialism of Rome and the restored
English monarchy, both of which had replaced republican institutions, was
not lost on the ruling and learned classes. Their appreciation of the
literature of the time of the Roman emperor Augustus led to a widespread
acceptance of the new English literature and encouraged a grandeur tone in
the poetry of the period, the later phase of which is often referred to as
Augustan. In addition, the ideals of impartial investigation and scientific
experimentation promoted by the newly founded Royal Society of London for
Improving Natural Knowledge (1662) were influential in the development of
clear and simple prose as an instrument of rational communication
Finally, the great philosophical and political treatises of
the time emphasize rationalism. Even in the earlier 17th century, Francis
Bacon had moved in this direction by advocating reasoning and scientific
investigation in Advancement of Learning (1605) and The New
Atlantis (1627). Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), by
John
Locke, is the product of a belief in experience as the sole basis of
knowledge, a view pushed to its logical extreme in An Enquiry Concerning
Human Understanding (1748) by David Hume. Locke himself continued to
profess faith in divine revelation, but this belief was weakened among the
similarly rationalist Deists, who tended to base religion on what reason
could find in the world God had created around humans
The successive stages of literary taste during the period of
the Restoration and the 18th century are conveniently referred to as the
ages of Dryden, Pope, and Johnson, after the three great literary figures
that, one after another, carried on the so called classical tradition in
literature. The age as a whole is sometimes called the Augustan age, or the
classical or neoclassical period.
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