6. English literature of 17 century. J. Milton’s poem “Paradise Lost”, the plot, the portrayal of Satan, the concept of God and man.

The literature of the Restoration period. W. Wyrcherley, W. Congreve.

PL was written at the time when the bourgeois revolution had ended unsuccessfully, but the powerful voice of the poet declared that the spirit of revolution was not broken, that it still lived in the hearts of the people, In his PL M shows revolt. PL is an epic poem written in 12 ‘books’. The place of action is the universe. The char-s are: Satan and his rebel-angels, God the Almighty, 3 guardian angels –Raphael, Gabriel [ei] and Michael, and the 1^st man and woman – Adam and Eve (A&E). The revolutionary spirit is shown in Satan, who revolts against God, draws to his side many rebel-angels and is driven out of Heaven. They fall down into the Hell. But Satan hasn’t been overcome and is determined to go on with the war against God. A&E are allowed by God to live in of Paradise, in the Garden of Eden, as long as they don’t eat the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge. Satan assumes the form of a serpent and next morning, while A&E work in diff. parts of the Garden, persuades E to eat an apple from the Tree of Knowledge. E eats an apple and plucks (срывает) another for A. as a punishment for the sin they have committed, God banishes them from Paradise to the newly-created world, where they are to face a life of toil and grief. The angel Michael leads them out of Paradise. From a hill, he shows A a picture of the tyranny which is to befall mankind.

The major theme of PL is the idea of the Fall. The books opened immediately after the fall of Satan and will now close on the fall of mankind. M began his poem by saying that he meant to justify the ways of God to man. But in PL M was not only justifying God's ways to humans in general; he was justifying His ways to the English people between 1640 and 1660. That is, he was telling them why they had failed to establish the good society by deposing the king, and why they had welcomed back the monarchy (at the end of the Civil war -1649- the king -Charles- was beheaded and England was proclaimed a Commonwealth = a Republic). Like A&E, they had failed through their own weaknesses, their own lack of faith, their own passions and greed, their own sin. The failure of the Puritan revolution was equal for M to the people's failure to govern themselves according to the will of God. PL was more than a work of art. It was a poetic explanation for the course that English history had taken.

A sense of religiosity and patriotism drive M's work. On the one hand, he felt that he could best serve God by following his vocation (призвание) as a poet. On the other hand, his poetry would best serve England by putting before it noble and religious ideas in the highest poetic form. In other words, Milton sought to write poetry would serve to teach delightfully. In PL M tries to harmonize these intentions and becomes the Christian singer. 

“Paradise Lost” is written in blank verse; it’s the 1st specimen of that kind of poetry. Previously, it was drama that was written in blank verse with a rich range of voc-ry and classical allusions. The epic reveal the contradiction that tortures the author: dissatisfaction with God’s law vs. importance of obedience to God - M presents us 2 moral paths after the Fall: like Satan = to insist on disobedience = degradation and like Adam = to repent and redeem.

Milton restored epic poem again to life from Middle Ages. For Enlightenment novel is a typical kind of writing. For Renaissance writers time and history didn’t exist. For them time was an element of philosophy, they regarded it as some substance, through which the successive generations of men have moved. It wasn’t something that changed men or made one generation unlike the other. For a novelist (and for Enlightenment writer, therefore) it’s important to put his char-s within a specific place and time. Space and time have become characteristic features.  NB! Epic – is a along poem describing the deeds of a legendary or traditional hero. Characteristic features: 1. the characters are of noble birth or they aresupernatural beings from the past; 2. the action is connected with the fate of the whole human race; 3. gods or semidivine creatures come to help; 4. the poem begins at a critical point in the action; 5. the style is noble and majestic; 6. the characters speak ceremoniously in long speeches; 7. there are long descriptions of characters or things; 8. we can see magic things and numbers.

English literature written after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 following the period of the Commonwealth. Some literary historians equate its era with the reign of Charles II (1660–85), while others add the reign of James II (1685–88). Many typical modern literary forms (e.g., the novel, biography, history, travel writing, and journalism) began to develop with sureness during the Restoration period. Pamphlets and poetry (notably that of John Dryden) flourished, but the age is chiefly remembered for its glittering, critical, and often bawdy comedies of manners by such playwrights as George Etherege, Thomas Shadwell, William Wycherly, John Vanbrugh, William Congreve, and George Farquhar.Wycherley, William, 1640?–1716, English dramatist, b. near Shrewsbury. His first comedy, Love in a Wood (1671), was a huge success and won him the favor of the duchess of Cleveland, mistress of Charles II. His next play, The Gentleman Dancing-Master (1672), was followed by his two masterpieces, The Country Wife (1674?), in which the hero feigns castration as a cover for his affairs, and The Plain Dealer (1676), an exposé laden with satirical irony on the deception inherent in love and friendship. His brilliant wit and savagely clever satire give him a prominent place in the history of English Restoration drama. He lost court favor by his marriage (c.1680) to the countess of Drogheda, and after her death he spent several years in prison for debt. With the accession of James II he was released from prison and given a pension. The publication of his Miscellany Poems in 1704 led to a friendship with young Pope, who revised many of the elder poet's verses.

Congreve, William, 1670–1729, English dramatist, b. near Leeds, educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and studied law in the Middle Temple. After publishing a novel of intrigue, Incognita (1692), and translations of Juvenal and Persius (1693), he turned to writing for the stage. His first comedy, The Old Bachelor (1693), produced when he was only 23, was extremely successful and was followed by The Double Dealer (1693) and Love for Love (1695). In 1697 his only tragedy, The Mourning Bride, was produced. About this time Congreve replied to the attack on his plays made by Jeremy Collier, who in a famous essay attacked the English stage for its immorality and profaneness. Congreve reached his peak with his last play, The Way of the World (1700), which has come to be regarded as one of the great comedies in the English language. The leading female roles in Congreve's plays were written for Anne Bracegirdle, who was probably his mistress. He never married. After 1700, Congreve did little literary work, perhaps because of the cool reception accorded his last play or because of his failing health—he suffered from gout. He subsequently held various minor political positions and enjoyed the friendships of Swift, Steele, Pope, Voltaire, and Sarah, duchess of Marlborough. The plays of Congreve are considered the greatest achievement of Restoration comedy. They are comedies of manners, depicting an artificial and narrow world peopled by characters of nobility and fashion, to whom manners, especially gallantry, are more important than morals. Congreve's view of mankind is amused and cynical. His characters are constantly engaged in complicated intrigues, usually centering around money, which involve mistaken identities, the signing or not signing of legal documents, weddings in masquerade, etc. His plays are particularly famous for their brilliance of language; for verbal mastery and wit they have perhaps been equaled only by the comedies of Oscar Wilde.