Early 17th Century English Literature (PDF)

ISLE Early 17th century I George Herbert; Andrew Marvell; John Donne Major poets men Elizabeth queen, major role in society,... 16^th^ and 17^th^ century are similar to each other - Both plays, drama,... \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\...

ISLE Early 17th century I George Herbert; Andrew Marvell; John Donne Major poets men Elizabeth queen, major role in society,... 16^th^ and 17^th^ century are similar to each other - Both plays, drama,... \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ Monarchy - Death of Elizabeth I (1603) - James VI (kinsman, someone who is related to her because she did not have any children; his mother was beheaded by Elizabeth I because she was plotting something against her, so very controversial to put her son on the throne) of Scotland \> James I of England - Charles I (1625): royal absolutism \> tensions - Civil War: (1642-1649): Parliament vs. King - Charles (I) imprisoned & beheaded in 1649 (they needed a king, but decided to start a parliament so without a king) - Commonwealth (1649- 1660) - Oliver Cromwell ('ruler', England wasn't a kingdom for 11 years) 'Lord Protector' (Rump parliament = smaller parliament (not the house of lords) - Problem of succession \> Restoration monarchy was restored at this point (1660) - Charles II becomes King (they asked him back) - Protestant Reformation (continued in the 16^th^ century) still ongoing - James I: stability \> peace with Spain (1604) - His mother was a Catholic, he Presbyterian = Kirk (he was brought up catholic, but he was king of Scotland so Protestantism - Middle ground between Bible interpretations - Thomas Cranmer: Book of Common Prayer (1549) - Church service mandatory & protest illegal - Guy Fawkes & Gunpower Plot (1605) (they tried to blow up the royal house; but the bomb was found and they were executed; life turned bad for Catholics they had to go into hiding or converted to Protestantism) - Upsurge of anti-Catholic sentiments (execution) - Charles II & wife: Catholic sympathies \> anxiety - William Laud (archbishop) (V for vendetta, gunpowder movie and tv) Religious publication The King James Version (1611) - New translation - Graceful & moderate \ Puritan Geneva version (1550s) - Standard English scripture for writers (Catholic & Protestant) - Beautiful rhymes, phrasings, metaphors - Literary qualities - Importance of analogy and order - Parallels microcosm & macrocosm - New discoveries (colonies) challenge existing categories - Regicide (Charles I) breaks the old order! \> chaos - New scientific theories = changing worldviews - Galileo/Kepler \> heliocentrism (sun is middle of universe, so planets go around it) \ Ptolemy (earth) - Heavens are not constant & perfect but changeable - Francis Bacon, Novum Organum (1620) \ alchemy = a medieval chemical science with the goals of changing less valuable metals into gold, discovering a single cure for all diseases, and discovering how to live forever - William Harvey, blood circulation \ 4 humours - Scientific method: observation, experiment, logic - Royal Society of London (1660) \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ Literature Gradual change, it is not radically different than 16^th^ century Patronage - Still no copyright, but Milton \> royalties for PL - Mostly manuscript circulation for poetry (\ Jonson) - System fell apart with Civil War \> commercialisation Censorship - Stationer's Company collapses during Civil War - Treatises, pamphlets and newsbooks (public debate) (opsearch in politics of the day, way more open than before) - Public theatres suspended (private 'operas') Dominant literary genres - Poetry, epic, familiar essay - Short prose \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ Poetry Important changes in poetic style - Sonnet (ornamentation) \> shorter, witty poetry - Direct, conversational, dramatic monologue - 'Carpe diem' (live in the moment, we have to love now) motif (\ Platonic eternal love) Metaphysical Poets (cf. Samuel Johnson) - Draw on science & religion for ideas & images - (love) elegy, (religious) epigram \> formal experiments (already in the 16^th^ century, but more broad) - Andrew Marvell, John Donne, George Herbert - Later influence on T.S. Eliot \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ Andrew Marvell (1621- 1678) - Trinity College, Cambridge - Secretary, tutor to Cromwell - Milton's colleague & friend - 'To His Coy Mistress' (p. 835) - Rhyme, iambic tetrameter - Dramatic monologue, couplets - Syllogism (argumentative) (it has 30 lines, so not a sonnet = 14 lines) - Thesis, antithesis, synthesis (scientific intercourse has entered poetry as well) - 'Carpe diem' poem ('now') (cease the day message that the man has for the woman in the poem, try to live now and here what he wants to say to her) - Hyperbole (cf. Petrarch) Blazon description of the outside, the body of the lover John Donne (1572 -- 1631) - Converted Roman Catholic - Otherwise no university, no career - Church of England preacher - Uses a lot of images or 'conceits' - Small and big world - 'The Sun Rising' (p. 752) - Aubade (morning poem) - Irregular metre & rhyme - Colloquial, but learned - \ Petrarchan love poetry The Sun Rising Content: he's addressing the sun; he is mad that the sun wakes them up; if I close my eyes, I cannot see my lover anymore, but he thinks is he is the centre of everything, he wants the sun to go around them Blazon but the lover is not so important; he just uses her; 'she is all states,.... hes saying that they are everything, not the universe \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ George Herbert (1593-1633) - Trinity College, Cambridge - Preacher (no sermons exist) - Destroyed all secular verse (his personal work is gone) - Only religious poems survive - The Temple (1633) collection - 'Easter Wings' (p. 821) - Irregular metre (no same number of stresses, every line has a different length) - Form and content: relationship?