ERA OF ABSOLUTISM AND REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND
Christopher
Marlowe
1-Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593) was an
English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era.
2-He is known for his magnificent blank
verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his own mysterious and untimely
death.
3-The most gifted playwright in the “university wits”(Group of writers)
is Christopher Marlowe.
4-They wrote for the stage of the time, they
were all of humble birth and struggled for a livelihood through writing.
5-Famous play of Marlow is “The
Tragical History of Doctor Faustus
“.
6-It is based on a German legend. The hero of
the play is Doctor Faustus, a young and brilliant scholar. The chief feature of
his character is a thirst for knowledge
.
William
Shakespeare
1-William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was an
English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the
English language and the world's preeminent dramatist.
2-He is often called England's national poet
and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard").
3-His surviving works
consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other
poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are
performed more often than those of any other playwright.
4-Historical plays:a-Henry Ⅳ..b-Richard III ..c- Henry Ⅴ..d-Henry VIII.
5-Great comedies:a-The Merchant of
Venice..b-As You Like It..c-Twelfth Night..d-A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
6-Great tragedies:a-Hamlet..b-Othello..c-King
Lear..d-Macbeth .
Francis Bacon
1-He is the founder of
English materialist philosophy, founder of modern science in England and the
first English essayist.
2-His works:a-Essays (Of Study,
Of Truth)..b- New Instrument..c-Advancement of Learning.
3-His Studies serve for delight, for
ornament, and for ability.
4-To
him”Reading makes a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact
man”.
5-He said”Histories make
men wise’
6-Bacon has been called the creator of empiricism.
7-His works established and popularised inductive methodologies for scientific inquiry, often called the Baconian method, or simply the
scientific method.
John
Milton
1- John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a
scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England
under Oliver Cromwell.
2- He wrote at a
time of religious flux and political upheaval, and is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost.
3- Milton's poetry and prose reflect deep personal
convictions, a passion for freedom and self-determination, and the urgent
issues and political turbulence of his day.
4- Writing in English, Latin, and Italian, he
achieved international renown within his lifetime, and his celebrated Areopagitica,(written in
condemnation of pre-publication censorship) is among history's most influential
and impassioned defenses of free speech and freedom of the press .
5-With the Restoration of Charles II, Milton was arrested and imprisoned.
His book were burnt. But he was saved, he probably owed his escape from death
to his blindness. A fire in London destroyed his house. He moved from place to
place until he settled down on the outskirts of London.
6-His blindness forced him to depend on his
daughters for an assistance with his reading and writing. Everyday he dictated
his epic Paradise Lost 10 or 20 lines at a time.
7-It is a long epic of 12 books. The story
was taken from the Bible,The Old Testament ,The New Testament.
8-Content of paradise Lost are:1. the rebellion of Satan and his
fellow-angles in Heaven.2. the Creation of the earth and of Adam and Eve by
God.3. Satan’s temptation of Eve and the departure of Adam and Eve from the
Garden of Eden.
9-His
masterpiece:1-Paradise Lost
2-Paradise Regained 3-Samson
Agonist.
Edmund
Spenser
1-Edmund Spenser (1552 –1599) was
an English poet best known for The
Faerie Queene.
2-It
is an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth
I.
3-He
is recognised as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its
infancy, and is considered one of the greatest poets in the English
language.
4-Spenser
used a distinctive verse form, called the Spenserian stanza, in several
works, including The Faerie
Queene.
5-
Spenser was called a Poets' Poet and was admired by William
Wordsworth, John
Keats, Lord
Byron, and Alfred
Lord Tennyson, among others
BenJonson
1-Ben Jonson (1572 –1637) was an English
Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor.
2-A
contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best
known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are
considered his best,[and his lyric poems.
3-A
man of vast reading and a seemingly insatiable appetite for controversy, Jonson
had an unparalleled breadth of influence on Jacobean and Caroline playwrights and poets.
4-
Apart from two tragedies, Sejanus and Catiline,
that largely failed to impress Renaissance audiences, Jonson's work for the
public theatres was in comedy.
5-
Jonson's poetry, like his drama, is informed by his classical learning.
6-Some
of his better-known poems are close translations of Greek or Roman models; all
display the careful attention to form and style that often came naturally to
those trained in classics in the humanist manner.
Isaac Newton
1-Sir Isaac Newton was an English physicist and mathematician who is
widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists of all time and as a
key figure in the scientific revolution.
2-His book”Mathematical Principles of Natural
Philosophy" first published in 1687, laid the foundations for most of classical
mechanics.
3- Newton also
made seminal contributions to optics and, as
mathematician, he shares credit with Gottfried
Leibniz for the invention of the infinitesimal calculus.
4- Newton's Principia formulated the laws of motion and universal
gravitation that dominated scientists' view of the physical universe.
5-
It also demonstrated that the motion of objects on the Earth and that of celestial bodies could be described by the same principles.
6-
Newton built the first practical reflecting telescope and developed
a theory of colour based on the observation that a prism decomposes white light into the many colours of the visible spectrum.
7-
Newton became president of the Royal Society. He also served the
British government as Warden and Master of the Royal Mint.
Jonathan Swift
1-Jonathan
Swift (1667–1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer
(first for Whigs then for the Tories) and poet.
2-Swift is probably the foremost prose satirist in the English language,
and is less well known for his poetry. Swift originally published all of his
works under pseudonyms or anonymously.
3-He is also known for being a master of satire.
4-His major works:1-A Tale of a Tub ..2-Gulliver’s
Travels ..3-A Modest Proposal.
5-Swifts
satire becomes an attack on Christianity itself.
6-In
the first part Gulliver describes his shipwreck in Lilliput where the tallest
people were 6 inches high. The two parties in this country were distinguished
by the use of high and low heels, Swift satirizes the Tories and the Whigs in
England.
7-This
work gives an satirical depiction of the vices of his age.
John
Dryden
1-John Dryden (1631 –1700) was an influential English poet,
literary critic, translator, and playwright .
2-Dryden’s
works dominated the literary life of Restoration
England.
3-Walter Scott called him
"Glorious John." and was made Poet Laureate in 1668.
4-
After the Restoration, Dryden quickly established himself as the leading poet
and literary critic of his day and he transferred his allegiances to the new
government.
5-With
the reopening of the theatres after the Puritan ban, Dryden busied himself with
the composition of plays like The Wild Gallant , Marriage
à la Mode ,and Annus Mirabilis,.
6-
Dryden's greatest achievements were in satiric verse: the mock-heroic MacFlecknoe.
7-He
established the heroic couplet as a standard
form of English poetry by writing successful satires, religious pieces, fables,
epigrams, compliments, prologues, and plays with it.
8-
Dryden is also believed to be the first person to posit that English sentences
should not end in prepositions because it was against the rules of Latin
grammar.
Alexander Pope
1-Pope was an
18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his
translation of Homer.
2-He is the
third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations,
after Shakespeare and Tennyson. Pope's use of the heroic couplet is famous.
3- Around 1711, Pope made friends with Tory writers John Gay,
Jonathan Swift, Thomas Parnell and John Arbuthnot, who together formed the
satirical Scriblerus Club.
4- Pope's well known poem was” The Rape of the Lock”; first
published in 1712,.
5- This is
sometimes considered Pope's most popular poem because it was a mock-heroic
epic, written to make fun of a high society quarrel between Arabella Fermor and
Lord Petre, who had snipped a lock of hair from her head without her
permission.
6-In his poem he treats his characters in an epic style; when
the Baron steals her hair and she tries to get it back, it flies into the air
and turns into a star.
7- Pop’s An Essay on Criticism was first published
anonymously on 15 May 1711.
8- The poem was said to be a response to
an ongoing debate on the question of whether poetry should be natural, or
written according to predetermined artificial rules inherited from the
classical past.
9- In 1731, Pope
published his "Epistle to Burlington", on the subject of architecture,
the first of four poems which would later be grouped under the title Moral
Essays .
Bill of Rights
1-Bill
of Rights, formally An Act Declaring the Rights and
Liberties of the Subject and Settling the Succession of the Crown (1689),
one of the basic instruments of the British constitution, the result of
the long 17th-century struggle between the Stuart kings and the English people
and Parliament.
2-It
incorporated the provisions of the Declaration of Rights, acceptance of which
had been the condition upon which the throne, held to have been vacated
by James II, was offered to the prince and princess of Orange,
afterward William III and Mary II. With the Toleration
Act (1689), granting religious toleration to all Protestants,
the Triennial Act (1694), ordering general elections to be held every three
years, and the Act of Settlement (1701), providing for the Hanoverian
succession, the Bill of Rights provided the foundation on which the government
rested after the Glorious Revolution (1688–89).
3- It
purported to introduce no new principles but merely to declare explicitly the
existing law. 4-The revolution settlement, however,
made monarchy clearly conditional on the will of Parliament and
provided a freedom from arbitrary government of which most Englishmen were
notably proud during the 18th century.
5-The
main purpose of the act was unequivocally to declare illegal various practices
of James II. Among such practices proscribed were the royal prerogative of
dispensing with the law in certain cases, the complete suspension of laws
without the consent of Parliament, and the levying of taxes and the maintenance
of astanding army in peacetime without specific parliamentary
authorization.
6-A
number of clauses sought to eliminate royal interference in parliamentary
matters, stressing that elections must be free and that members must have
complete freedom of speech. Certain forms of interference in the course of
justice were also proscribed. The act also dealt with the proximate succession
to the throne, settling it on Mary’s heirs, then on those of her sister,
afterward Queen Anne, and then on those of William, provided they were
Protestants.
Bank
of England
1-Bank
of England, the central bank of the United Kingdom. Its
headquarters are in the central financial district of the City of London.
2-The
Bank of England was incorporated by act of Parliament in 1694 with the
immediate purpose of raising funds to allow the Englishgovernment to
wage war against France in the Low Countries .
3- A
royal charter allowed the bank to operate as a joint-stock bank
with limited liability. No other joint-stock banks were permitted
in England and Wales until 1826.
4-This
special status and its position as the government’s banker gave the bank
considerable competitive advantages.
5-The
bank was located first in Mercers’ Hall and then in Grocers’ Hall, but it was
moved to its permanent location on Threadneedle Street in the 1730s. By that
time it had become the largest and most prestigious financial
institution in England, and its banknotes were widely circulated.
6-As a
result, it became banker to other banks, which, by maintaining balances with
the Bank of England, could settle debts among themselves. The bank was
threatened by the economic instability that accompanied the French
Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, but its standing was also considerably enhanced
by its actions in raising funds for Britain’s involvement in those conflicts.
7-During
the 19th century the bank gradually assumed the responsibilities of a central
bank. In 1833 it began to print legal tender, and it undertook the roles of
lender of last resort and guardian of the nation’s gold reserves in the
following few decades.
Coffee house
1-A coffeehouse or coffee
shop is an establishment which primarily serves prepared coffee or other
hot beverages.
2- It shares some of the characteristics
of a bar, and some of the
characteristics of a restaurant, but
it is different from a cafeteria.
3-As the name suggests, coffeehouses focus on providing coffee and tea as
well as light snacks.
4-The first coffeehouse in England was set up in Oxford in 1652 by a Jewish man named Jacob at the
Angel in the parish of St Peter in the East in a building now known as "The
Grand Cafe".
5-A plaque on the wall still commemorates this and the cafe
is now a trendy cocktail bar.
6- Oxford's Queen's Lane Coffee House, established in 1654, is also still in existence
today. 7-The first coffeehouse in London was
opened in 1652 in St Michael's Alley, Cornhill.
8- By 1675, there were more than 3,000 coffeehouses in
England.
9- From a cultural standpoint, coffeehouses largely
serve as centers of social interaction: the coffeehouse provides social members
with a place to congregate, talk, write, read, entertain one another, or pass
the time, whether individually or in small groups of 2 or 3.
Ideology of Locke
1-John Locke,widely known as the Father of Classical
Liberalism, was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the
most influential of Enlightenment thinkers.
2-Considered
one of the first of the British empiricists,
following the tradition of Francis
Bacon, he is equally important to social
contract theory.
3-His
work had a great impact upon the development of epistemology and political
philosophy.
4-His
writings influenced Voltaire and Rousseau,
many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the American revolutionaries.
5-His
contributions to classical
republicanism and liberal theory are reflected in the United States Declaration of
Independence.
6-Locke's theory of mind is often cited as the origin of modern
conceptions of identity and the self.
7-Locke
was the first to define the self through a continuity of consciousness.
8-Lock’s
ideas greatly influenced in the english Revolution of 17th century.
9-In his
“Two treatises on Government”,lock put forward famous Natural right theory.
10-He
also rejected absolutism,divine right theory of kingship,and defended glorious
revolution.
William Wordsworth
1-William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who,
with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English
literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads.
2-Like
other Romantics, Wordsworth’s personality and poetry were deeply influenced by
his love of nature, especially by the sights and scenes of the Lake Country, in
which he spent most of his mature life.
3-A profoundly earnest and sincere thinker, he displayed
a high seriousness tempered with tenderness and a love of simplicity.
4-His works: 1-Lyrical Ballads.2-To the Cuckoo.3-Lines Written in Early Spring..4-I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud ..5-Lucy Poems .
5-Wordsworth
poetry is marked by the vision of the organic relation between man and the
natural world.
6-He
was a [poet of nature.
7-He
was also a critic of 18th century science.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
1-Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) was an English
poet, critic and philosopher who was, along with his friend William Wordsworth,
one of the founders of the Romantic Movement in England and one of the Lake
Poets.
2-He is probably best known for his poems The Rime
of the Ancient Mariner, as well as his major prose work Biographia
Literaria.
3-His critical
work, especially on Shakespeare,was
highly influential, and he helped introduce German
idealist philosophy to
English-speaking culture.
4-He
coined many familiar words and phrases, including the celebrated suspension of disbelief.
5-He was
a major influence on Emerson, and
American transcendentalism.
6-Throughout
his adult life, Coleridge suffered from crippling bouts of anxiety and
depression; it has been speculated by some that he suffered frombipolar
disorder, a condition as yet unidentified during his lifetime.
7- Coleridge is probably best known for his long poems, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Christabel.
8-He was known by
his contemporaries as a meticulous craftsman who was more rigorous in his
careful reworking of his poems than any other poet, and Southey and Wordsworth
were dependent on his professional advice.
9- Coleridge also wrote influential pieces of literary
criticism including Biographia
Literaria, a collection of his thoughts and opinions on literature..
Percy Bysshe Shelley
1-Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) was one of the major
English Romantic poets and is widely considered to be among the finest lyric
poets in the English language.
2-He was famous for his association with John Keats and
Lord Byron. The novelist Mary Shelley was his second wife.
3-His major works:1-Prometheus Unbound ..2-A
Defence of Poetry..3-Ode to
the West Wind ...4-The
Revolt of Islam.
4- Considered too radical in his poetry and his political and
social views to achieve fame during his lifetime, recognition of his
significance grew steadily following his death.
5- Shelley is perhaps best known for such classic poems as Ozymandias, To a Skylark, Music, When Soft Voices Die, The Cloud and The
Masque of Anarchy, which are among the most popular and critically
acclaimed poems in the English language.
John Keats
1-John Keats (1795–1821) was one of the principal poets
of the English Romantic movement. 2-During his short life, his work received
constant critical attacks from periodicals of the day, but his posthumous
influence on poets has been immense.
3-Elaborate word choice and sensual imagery
characterize Keats's poetry.
4-Major works:1-Isabella
..2-The Eve
of St. Agnes,..3-Lamia..4-Ode to a Nightingale.
5- He had a significant influence on a diverse range of poets
and writers.
6-Jorge Luis Borges stated that his first encounter with Keats was the most
significant literary experience of his life.
7- The poetry of Keats is characterized by sensual imagery,
most notably in the series of odes.
8-shelly was a strong a strong advocate for social
justice for the lower classes.
Walter Scot
1-Sir Walter Scott(1771 – 1832) was a prolific
Scottish historical novelist and poet popular throughout Europe during his
time.
2-His novels and poetry are still read, and many of
his works remain classics of both English-language literature and of Scottish
literature.
3-Famous titles include Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, The Lady of
The Lake, Waverley, The Heart of
Midlothian and The Bride of
Lammermoor.
Jane Austen
1-Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic
fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most
widely read writers in English literature.
2- Her realism and biting social commentary have gained her historical
importance among scholars and critics
3- Austen's works critique the novels of sensibility of the second half of the 18th century and are part of the
transition to 19th-century realism.
4-Her plots,
though fundamentally comic,which highlight
the dependence of women on marriage to secure social standing and economic
security
5- Her
major works:1-Pride and Prejudice
...2-Sense
and Sensibility...3-Emma..4-Northanger Abbey...5-Mansfield Park...6-Persuasion.
6-With detail, Austen
portrayed the quiet, day-to-day life of members of the upper middle class.
Her works combine romantic
comedy with social satire and psychological insight.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
1- Johnson was a poet,
biographer, lexicographer, and an essayist on criticism and morals (The
Rambler , The Idler ).
2-He was the most
influential literary figure of his lifetime in England, and he is the hero of
one of the most acclaimed biographies ever written.
3- Johnson is the last
important critic of the neoclassicism, in an age where pre-Romantic ideas are
more widely accepted than neoclassicism.
4- Johnson is usually
less dogmatic and more eclectic than Pope in his assertion of the neoclassical
values.
5-He is not a consistent
theorist, but rather a practical critic of penetrating insights, honesty and
common sense.
6-In Johnson we can
witness both the dead weight of a tradition and the signs that a new conception
of literature is emerging.
7-Johnson had a strongly
classical mind, and a great desire for order and coherence. But he had very
little patience with whatever he perceived to be false, useless or pretentious,
and he made short work of many neoclassical prejudices.
8- A large part of Johnson's
criticism consists in rejecting what he sees as logical absurdities both in
criticism or in literature. His common sense leads him some times into
narrowness, because he tends to interpret poetical or critical conventions too
literally; no doubt he also does away with a lot of nonsense and rubbish.
9- His main work in
practical criticism is found in The
Lives of the Poets (1777),
dealing with Savage, Cowley, Milton, Gray, Dryden and Pope, among many others.
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