An outline of English Literature

Chapter 6

The main characteristics of Restoration Age (1660-1700) Triumph of reason and tolerance over religious and

political passions. Known for its use of philosophy, reason, wit,

skepticism, and refinement. More emphasis on science and natural facts. Witnessed the earliest beginning of literary

criticism. Appraising the regaining of monarchy and kingdom. The appearance of the comedy of humors and the

comedy of manners. It was the age of real and significant poetry. Poems

affected political events and reflected the times. Lyric, historical, and epic poems were developed.

The main characteristics of Restoration Age (1660-1700) The tragic drama was made up mainly of heroic plays. Where men

were brave and women were beautiful. There was a lot of shouting and a good deal of nonsense. The plays were written in heroic couplets, a form of metre perfected by John Dryden (p. 63-64). Some of them were good and some were bad. He wrote his best heroic play “The Conquest of Granada” with loud language and some good lyrics. His well-known play “All for Love (or The World Well Last) is in blank verse, written to please himself. It is based on Shakespeare’s “ Antony and Cleopatra.” Dryden also wrote a comedy titled “The Rehearsal” where he satirizes the men who saw the stupidity of the extraordinary situations in the heroic plays, and its plot is intentionally foolish.

A new kind of comedy appeared known as the Comedy of Manners, which is hard and bright, witty and heartless. It’s introduced by Sir Thomas Etherege, where in his play “The Man of Mode” he gives a picture of the immoral manners of the society.

Read about John Bunyan, Oliver Goldsmith, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan for their great contributions to the English Restoration Drama (p. 66 – 67).

The main characteristics of Restoration Age (1660-1700) Read the definition of the heroic couplet: lines of iambic

pentameter that rhyme in pairs (aa, bb, cc). Also it is a traditional form for English poetry, commonly used for epic and narrative poetry; it refers to poems constructed from a sequence of rhyming pairs of iambic pentameter lines. The rhyme is always masculine. A frequently-cited example illustrating the use of heroic couplets in this passage from cooper’s hill by John Denham, part of his description of the Thames: O could I flow like thee, and make thy stream My great example, as it is my theme ! Though deep, yet clear, though gentle, yet not dull, Strong without rage, without o’erflowing full.

In closed couplets, each pair of lines is self-contained, even if they are part of a larger grammatical structure, as in the rollowing lines from pope’s “An Essay on Criticism” (1711): In wit, as nature, what affects our hearts Is not th’ exactness of peculiar parts; ‘tis not a lip, or eye, we beauty call, But the joing force and full resut of all.