The Rise of Classicism

Classicism / Neoclassicism (1660–1800) — Overview

Meaning of “Classicism”

• From “classic” = worthy to serve as a model / used in teaching

• Refers to Greek & Roman art and literature

• Associated values:

  • Proportion

  • Balance

  • Restraint

  • Measure

  • Order

  • Analytical precision

• Neoclassicism = revival of classical ideals in the 17th–18th centuries

Time frame

• 1660 (Restoration of Charles II) → ~1800

• Also called the Augustan Age (parallel drawn to Emperor Augustus in Rome, because people swa in the return of king Charles II Augustus)

Historical Context

European background

• Expansion of nation-states and Global awareness increases → colonial rivalries intensify

• Direct exposure to other cultures strengthened European belief in cultural superiority

• Rise and expansion of capitalism

England: From Revolution to Restoration

The Hate of Oliver Cromwell

• Led first large-scale bourgeois/merchant-class revolution

• Strict Puritan rule (Lord Protector, 1653–1658):

  • Moral restrictions

    • Theatres & pubs closed

    • Horse-racing banned

    • Swearing & travelling on Sundays punished

• Promoted trade & colonization

  • Attempt to seize Hispaniola failed, but Jamaica acquired in 1657

Public grew hostile (feindselig) to Puritan repression.

Restoration of the Monarchy (1660)

Charles II (1630–1685)

• Son of executed Charles I

• Returned under conditions → limited monarchy

• Had lived in France (there at the time classical period) → brought back:

  • French wit, gallantry, court style

  • But cultural stronger influence from Latin classics (Virgil, Horace, Cicero, Juvenal)

Why “Augustan Age”?

• with the comeback of a king parallels were drawn to Roman Augustus after civil wars

  • Emporer acient Rome

• he brought there an era of stability, order, classical revival

Cultural Mood after Puritanism

• Revolt against strict Puritan morality

• Charles II’s court (Hof):

  • Hedonistic, Lively, witty, often licentious (zügellos)

• Country still religious overall, but court culture = pleasure-seeking

Religion & Government

• Test Act of Cavalier government: impose Anglicanism on all citizens

• Dissenters & Catholics excluded and persecuted

Development of Political System

Shift in power

• Charles II’s laziness encouraged growth of Parliamentary power

• Move away from divine-right monarchy → toward constitutional monarchy

Political events & parties

• 1678: false “Popish Plot”

  • Anti-Catholic panic; suspicion of Charles’s Catholic brother James

Two political factions form:

James II (1685–1688)

• Catholic king → unrest & Anglican backlash

Glorious Revolution (1688)

• James II overthrown

• Mary (his daughter) and William III of Orange become monarchs

Major constitutional acts (1689)

• Bill of Rights

• Act of Toleration

  • Religious toleration (but not for Roman Catholics)

Results:

• No more divine-right monarchy

• Parliamental approval required

• England becomes first constitutional monarchy in Europe

• Middle class gains power → shapes religion, morals, artistic taste in 18th century

Trade, Colonialism, and Intellectual Climate

Expansion of Trade & Wealth

• Trade grew enormously from Cromwell’s period onward.

• Wealth depended on: colonial expansion and slave trade

  • Whigs supported trade and science, which depended on slaves and colonization

Religious Landscape

Rationalist Religion

• Anglicans & Catholics: claimed to base faith on reason

• Deists (late 17th century):

  • acknowledge the existence of God based on reason

Paradox: claiming a rational faith, meanwhil faith itself is non-rational

Dissenting Religious Movements

Quakers (Society of Friends)

• believed in personal revelation

• Known for kindness and pacifism

• Early anti-slavery voices (protested slavery in 1688)

Dissenters (general group)

• Opposed Anglican Church

• Discriminated against (from 1660):

  • No Parliament seats

  • No university access

  • No public worship (Gottesdienst) until 1689

Classical Values in Society and Literature

Reaction After Civil War & Puritanism

• Restoration intellectuals feared extremes (after Civil War)

• Sought moderation, reason, common sense

• Humans seen as limited, should pursue modest, rational goals

Core Classical Ideals

• Balance

• Correctness

• Decorum (for literature: proper style for each genre; respect conventions)

• Measure & moderation in life and art

Rise of Science & the Royal Society (1662)

• Founded under Charles II

• Inspired by Francis Bacon’s empiricism

• Aim: empirical & experimental study of nature

• Rejected scholastic a-priori argumentation

• Supported by poets & intellectuals:

  • Cowley, Dryden, Waller

  • Evelyn, Pepys

• Produced scientific age

  • Isaac Newton (1642–1727) & law of gravitation

Influence on Prose

• Promoted clear, plain English

• Rejected:

  • Hyperbole

  • Digression

• Language reform linked to scientific precision

John Locke & Reason

John Locke (1632–1704)

• Rationalist philosopher

• Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690)

  • Knowledge comes from sensory experience

  • Don't persecute people for beliefs before knowing limits of human knowledge

• Paradox:

  • Defended natural human freedom

  • Declared slavery “unnatural”

  • Yet helped draft laws defending slavery (Carolina, 1669)

  • Invested in the slave trade

• Assumed African people lacked same “natural rights” as Europeans → hypocritical Enlightenment racism

Berkeley’s Opposition

• George Berkeley (1685–1753):

  • Opposed Locke

  • Emphasized mind/spirit over material perception

Restoration Literary Culture

Core Motto

“From the head, not the heart.”

• Emotion distrusted (emotion → civil war)

• Imagination linked to fanaticism and disorder

• Ideal life = calm, rational, civilized, urban

  • Town (London) = cultural center

  • Countryside = backward, impoverished

Literary Themes

• Urban, social, political, intellectual

• No more idealized shepherds or pastoral romance

• Good manners > passion

• Wit > eloquence

• Literature does not appeal to the heart → appeals to reason & taste

✅ Literary Criticism in the Neo-Classical (Restoration) Period

Emergence of Literary Criticism as a Genre

• In the Restoration, literary criticism becomes an independent field.

• Knowledge of literary theory comes from:

  • Actual poems

  • Critical writings, particularly by John Dryden and Thomas Rymer

• Translation theory also develops

  • Denham & Cowley: translation = adaptation to the culture’s taste

✅ Core Neo-Classical Doctrines

Influence & Models

• Follow the Ancients:

  • Aristotle (rules of drama, imitation of nature)

  • Cicero (rhetoric)

  • Horace & Juvenal (satire & balance of delight and instruction)

Traditionalism + rational “common sense” dominate.

Purpose of Poetry

• Horace: Poetry should provide delight and instruction

  • Delight = immediate goal

  • Instruction = ultimate goal

• Dryden modifies: Delight is primary

• Many minor poets write didactic, moralizing verse

Imitation Over Inspiration

• Imitation = essential method

• Original genius or personal inspiration mistrusted

✅ Nature, Universality & Rules

Imitating “Nature”

• “Nature” = universal truth, not individual personality

• Poetry focuses on general types (Man in general) not individual characters

• Rules derived from Ancient practice → timeless excellence

• Follow Aristotle’s hierarchy & rules

Hierarchy of Genres

Major genres:

• Epic

• Tragedy

• Grand lyric (Pindaric ode)

Minor genres:

• Comedy

• Satire

• Short odes

• Elegy

• Pastoral

No great epic in this period — instead mock-epic forms → Classical epic devices used satirically to comment on current society

✅ Satire — Key Genre of the Age

• Aim: correct vice by ridicule

• Reality: usually used to attack personal or political enemies

• Poets valued:

  • Simplicity

  • Good sense

  • Propriety / decorum

✅ Decorum & Style

Decorum = most important rule

• Style, form, tone must fit the genre

  • e.g. epic tone for grand subjects; plain tone for satire

• Avoid fantasy, eccentric imagination

Style Priorities

• Clarity

• Simplicity

• Elegance

• Balance

• Measure

• Everything guided by reason and judgment

→ Originality discouraged; control & refinement valued.

✅ Heroic Couplet

• Favoured poetic form: heroic couplet

  • Two rhymed iambic pentameter lines

• Ideal for:

  • General truths

  • Moral statements

  • Satire

• Alexander Pope perfected it

✅ Limits & Flexibility

• Good critics did not totally reject imagination and passion

  • But insisted they be controlled by judgment

• Still, rationality sometimes became excessive and restrictive

✅ John Dryden — Central Figure

• Greatest critic of the period

• Writings include prefaces and Of Dramatic Poesy

• Key views:

  • Admired Ancients

  • Believed in progress in art → praised English drama over French

  • Valued:

    • Naturalness

    • Wit

    • Clear structure

    • Variety & boldness

• Praised Elizabethans (esp. Shakespeare) for power & invention

• Advocated spirited imitation of nature, not rigid copying

• Famous statement (on French vs English style):

  French regularity; English strength and elevation

Dryden vs strict Neo-Classical critics

✅ John Dryden (1631–1700)

Role & Poetic Philosophy

• Central literary figure of the Restoration; perfected neo-classical ideals.

• Poetry = intellectual expression infused with emotion/imagination to persuade.

• Occasional poet → poems tied to public events (not personal confession like Romantics).

• Upholds control in art and distrusts spontaneity (“unpremeditated art” rejected).

• Imitation of the Ancients and Reason guide imagination and form.

Form & Style

• Master of the closed heroic couplet (two rhyming iambic pentameter lines) → became dominant 18th-century form.

• Combines prosaic subject matter with elevated Augustan style (“journalistic material in epic manner”).

Political Shifts & Major Works

• Began praising Commonwealth (less passionately than Milton).

• Supported Charles II on Restoration → Astrea Redux.

• Celebrated London’s disasters and naval victory in Annus Mirabilis (1666) → appointed Poet Laureate.

Satires (most important works)

Dryden = greatest satirist of the age, inspired by politics & religion.

Religion & Court Politics

• Initially Anglican.

• Converted to Catholicism under James II.

• Lost Poet Laureate title after Glorious Revolution (1688) → Loyal to James’s son, had to live by his pen.

Other Contributions

• Revived Pindaric ode:

  • Song for St Cecilia’s Day (1687)

  • Alexander’s Feast (1697)

• Major translator:

  • Homer, Virgil, Ovid, and Boileau

Dryden dominates Restoration poetry; he shapes satire, odes, translation, and the heroic couplet.

✅ Samuel Butler (1612–1680)

Hudibras (1663)

• Mock-heroic poem in 8-syllable couplets

• Parody of Spenser’s epic The Faerie Queene

• Attacks Puritan hypocrisy and moral pretension

• Style = comic, “intelligent buffoonery”

• Sharp contrast to Milton’s grand seriousness

✅ John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (1648–1680)

Personality & Themes

• Court poet, extreme hedonist, satirist

• Reaction to Puritan severity → skepticism and cynicism

• Poems are:

  • Witty and sharp

  • Emotionally sincere yet disillusioned

• Famous work: “A Satire Against Reason and Mankind” (1675)

  • Bitter critique of human rational pretension & moral corruption

Pursued pleasure seriously and accepted resulting disillusionment.

✅ Aphra Behn (1640–1689)

Significance & Life

• First professional woman writer in English literature

• Adventurous life:

  • Lived in Surinam

  • Married merchant Behn

  • Served as spy in Antwerp

  • Imprisoned; lived by her writing

• Wrote poetry, drama, early novels

Style & Themes

• Outspoken eroticism, bold reversal of clichés

• Celebrates physical desire, challenges male dominance

Example: The Disappointment

• Inverts typical seduction plot:

  • Lysander = would-be rapist → frustrated

  • Cloris = willing yet disappointed

  • Male impotence becomes the comic “punishment”

• Humor exposes gender expectations & sexual hypocrisy

Behn = bold voice of female sexuality & professional independence.

🎭 RESTORATION DRAMA (1660–1700)

Context: Theatres Reopened

• Theatres closed (1642–1660) under the Puritans → stage activity banned.

• After the Restoration of Charles II, theatres reopened but changed in tone and audience.

• Puritan moralism + Jacobean sensationalism meant theatre lost its broad popularity.

• It became an aristocratic entertainment:

  • Dominated by Court wits—clever, cynical, often immoral.

  • Middle class (merchants) stayed away → considered theatre immoral.

  • Citizens and wives mocked on stage as comic targets.

a. HEROIC PLAYS & TRAGEDIES

General Traits

• Reflected artificial heroism—inflated and rhetorical.

• The unheroic age overcompensated by exaggerating heroism on stage.

• Upper-class drama → same elite audience that watched comedies.

• Influences:

  • Corneille → conflict between love and honour/duty.

  • Rhetorical speeches in heroic couplets (regular, sometimes monotonous).

• Purpose: show grand passion and moral conflict, not realism.

💬 John Dryden (major playwright)

• Brought theory and refinement to the genre.

• Main works:

  • The Conquest of Granada (1670)

  • Aureng-Zebe (1675)

  • The Indian Queen – musical setting by Henry Purcell, exotic theme (La Malinche story).

• All for Love (1677):

  • Rewriting of Antony and Cleopatra → focuses on love vs honour.

  • Compresses plot within Aristotelian unities.

  • Blends Elizabethan emotion with French classical form.

  • Simplifies psychology → emphasis on events and passions, not deep character.

Thomas Southerne (1660–1746)

• Irish dramatist, friend of Dryden.

• Transitional figure → foreshadows sentimental/domestic tragedy.

• Major plays (both from Aphra Behn novels):

  • The Fatal Marriage (1694)

  • Oroonoko (1696)

Evaluation

• Best Restoration tragedies revived Elizabethan spirit but lacked Shakespeare’s verbal richness.

• Combined freedom of emotion with classical elegance and structure.

b. RESTORATION COMEDY (Comedy of Manners)

Social & Artistic Background

• Mirrors the courtly world of wit after 1660.

• Not comedies of morals, but comedies of manners → satire of social behavior, not ethics.

• Aims: wit, brilliance, sex, and cynicism—entertainment, not moral lesson.

• Women actors appeared on stage for the first time.

Influences

Tone & Technique

• Written in prose.

• Depended on graceful, witty dialogue.

• Created by Court wits (aristocratic men and some women).

• Themes: social deception, adultery, witty flirtation, and ridicule of middle-class pretensions.

Typical Comic Targets

• Middle class: jealous, foolish husbands; wives seduced by gallants.

• Country squires/people: mocked for rustic ignorance.

• Women: shown as witty, manipulative, or “on the manhunt,” pretending coyness.

• Pretenders to gentility ridiculed—every social rank expected to keep its proper decorum.

Tone

• Cynical yet dazzlingly witty.

• Cuckolding (sexual intrigue) = central comic device.

Key Playwrights

Reaction & Decline

• Church & middle-class moralists (esp. Jeremy Collier, A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage, 1698) attacked indecency.

• Criticism had little immediate effect, but changing bourgeois taste gradually ended the form.

• 18th century comedy turned sentimental and domestic (→ George Farquhar, etc.).

RESTORATION OPERA

• Italian influence + native court masque tradition.

• Lavish spectacle and machinery.

• Central composer: Henry Purcell (1659–1695).

• Examples overlap with Dryden’s musical plays (The Indian Queen).

SUMMARY TABLE

📚 NON-FICTION PROSE IN THE RESTORATION PERIOD

(Travel writings, diaries, history, and essays)

The Restoration period (1660–1700) witnessed a flourishing of prose — not only in philosophy and science but also in personal, historical, and reflective writing. These prose forms reflected the new curiosity, individualism, and rationalism of the age.

✈️ 1. TRAVEL WRITINGS

• The age of exploration and colonial expansion inspired many travel accounts.

• Unlike the fantastical medieval travel tales, Restoration travel writing aimed at realism and moral reflection.

• Travellers often moralized about the “noble” or “depraved” nature of the “savages” they encountered — especially in:

  • The Americas

  • The Levant (the Near East)

• These works reflect the European moral lens and colonial attitudes of the time.

📖 2. DIARIES

Background

• The 17th century fostered a new awareness of the self:

  • Renaissance → encouraged critical reflection.

  • Reformation → emphasized individual conscience.

  • Civil war and political upheaval → inspired personal observation.

• This led to the rise of biography, autobiography, and diary-writing.

• Diaries, though private, often survived to be read by later generations.

🖋️ Samuel Pepys (1644–1703)

• Occupation: Admiralty official; also a man of music, science, and letters.

• Connections: Knew major writers, politicians, and musicians of his time.

• Unique position: Witnessed major historical events close to power — trusted by James, Duke of York (later James II).

• Diary period: 1660–1669.

• Language: Written in shorthand cipher (deciphered only in 1825; full edition 1896).

• Importance:

  • Combines candour, wit, and vivid observation.

  • Written for his eyes only → completely honest portrayal.

  • Reflects Restoration vitality: living “in the present moment, passionately but prudently.”

  • Valuable for both historians and general readers.

  • Records major events:

    • Return and coronation of Charles II (1660)

    • Plague of 1665

    • Great Fire of London (1666)

    • Dutch Wars

• 🧯 Example: Pepys records the Great Fire’s start in the house of Thomas Farynor, baker to Charles II, in Pudding Lane—a detail now famous in history.

🏰 3. HISTORICAL WRITING

Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon (1609–1674)

• Background:

  • Initially an opponent of Charles I, later became a Royalist adviser.

  • Served as Lord Chancellor and chief minister to Charles II.

  • Family ties: His daughter married James (later James II); grandfather of Queens Mary II and Anne.

  • Exiled in France after political downfall (1667).

• Major work: The True Historical Narrative of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England.

  • First major English historical narrative since Alfred’s Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

  • Written by someone directly involved in events → personal insight and authority.

  • Important contribution to the emerging art of biography and autobiography.

🧠 4. ESSAYS

Context

• Restoration essays follow Montaigne and Bacon’s tradition — reflective, moral, intellectual — rather than the lighter 18th-century periodical essays that would come later.

• Connected to the intellectual climate of the Royal Society: clarity, reason, and “prose of utility.”

✍️ Abraham Cowley (1618–1667)

• Poet, essayist, and early member of the Royal Society.

• Wrote in the Montaignean spirit: personal reflection, wit, aphorism, and moral observation.

• Style: Moves from ornate rhetoric toward plain, precise prose, reflecting the Royal Society’s emphasis on clarity and usefulness.

✍️ Sir William Temple (1628–1699)

• Statesman, diplomat, and essayist.

• Patron of Jonathan Swift.

• Embodied the cultivated aristocrat ideal.

• Essays on political and moral subjects, admired for elegance, balance, and correctness.

🗞️ 5. RISE OF JOURNALISM

• Late 17th century → birth of modern journalism.

• Numerous pamphlets and journals appeared:

  • Often party-affiliated: Whig or Tory.

  • Some political, others literary or intellectual.

• Style: conversational, accessible, more “natural” than earlier prose.

  • Dropped ornate imagery and complex syntax.

  • Gained familiarity and simplicity, though sometimes vulgar or shallow.

• This early journalism paved the way for the 18th-century periodical essay (Addison & Steele).

  • Joseph Addison later refined this simplicity into polished elegance.

🧭 OVERVIEW TABLE

📖 FICTIONAL PROSE IN THE RESTORATION PERIOD

The Restoration age (late 17th century) saw a major expansion of prose fiction, marking the early evolution of the English novel. This fiction reflected courtly tastes, social realism, and moral or religious reflection, setting the stage for 18th-century developments.

💌 1. TYPES OF PROSE FICTION

• Romances – courtly, aristocratic love stories, mostly imported from France, admired for their elegance and refinement.

• Epistolary narratives – stories told through letters (another French influence); introduced a new sense of intimacy and realism.

• Crime and adventure stories – descended from Renaissance prose tales, more popular among middle-class readers seeking excitement rather than decorum or style.

➡️ These short narratives began to be called “novels”, following Continental (European) fashion.

👑 2. APHRA BEHN (1640–1689)

Background

• A pioneering female writer of the Restoration period.

• Known for her plays, poetry, and prose romances.

• One of the first professional women writers in English literature.

✨ Major Work: Oroonoko, or The Royal Slave (1688)

• Often considered her best story or early novel.

• A blend of adventure, passion, and tragedy.

• Represents a meeting point between:

  • Romantic tradition (emotionalism, love intrigue)

  • Realistic tradition (observation of real events, colonial life)

⚖️ Themes and Significance

• Tells the story of an African prince enslaved and taken to Surinam.

• Shows moral contradictions:

  • The narrator, a white colonial woman, does not condemn slavery as a system, yet portrays the enslaved hero, Oroonoko, as noble, courageous, and dignified.

  • The Middle Passage and cruelty of slavery are described with horror.

• Long regarded as an early anti-slavery narrative, later recognized as ambivalent—sympathetic to Oroonoko but still rooted in colonial attitudes.

• Behn’s fiction combines romantic intrigue, realistic observation, and moral questioning → a precursor to the 18th-century English novel.

⛪️ 3. MORALITY TALES – JOHN BUNYAN (1628–1688)

Background

• Social origin: humble tinker with little formal education.

• Civil War service: soldier in the Parliamentary army.

• Religious life: a Puritan and later Baptist preacher.

• Experienced deep spiritual crisis after his wife’s death → conversion experience.

• Imprisoned after the Restoration (1660) for preaching without license.

📘 The Pilgrim’s Progress (Part I – 1678, Part II – 1684)

Content and Structure

• Written in prison.

• An allegory of human life and salvation — life as a pilgrimage from the City of Destruction (sinful world) to the Celestial City (Heaven).

• Part I: journey of Christian, representing the believer’s conversion and spiritual trials until death and salvation.

• Part II: journey of Christiana (Christian’s wife) and their children, symbolizing family faith and community salvation.

Style and Influences

• Deeply influenced by the English Bible (his only major model of prose).

• Language: simple, direct, vivid, full of biblical rhythm and imagery.

• Reflects Puritan guilt and moral intensity.

• Draws on medieval traditions:

  • Everyman (moral allegory)

  • Le Morte d’Arthur (romance elements)

  • Piers Plowman (religious allegory)

Themes and Importance

• Represents both continuity with medieval allegory and anticipation of the modern novel:

  • Characters (e.g., Christian, Hopeful, Faithful) are symbolic, yet also psychologically individual.

  • Explores how human nature and personal destiny are shaped by moral struggle.

• Became one of the most widely read books in English households, second only to the Bible.

• Complemented by Bunyan’s spiritual autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666), describing his own religious experiences.

🧭 OVERVIEW TABLE

🧠 KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The late 17th century marks the transition from romance to the modern novel.

• Aphra Behn brings realism, colonial themes, and emotional depth into prose fiction.

• John Bunyan turns religious experience into narrative art, giving prose fiction moral seriousness and psychological insight.

• Both writers show that early English fiction was not yet purely secular—it combined romantic emotion, religious purpose, and moral exploration.