6. The early period of Enlightenment. ‘The Augustan Age’. The poetry of a. Pope. “The Rape of the Lock”.

Augustan Age may refer toThe period in Roman history when Caesar Augustus was the first emperor.

The period in the history of the Latin language when Caesar Augustus was emperor and Golden-age Latin was in use

Augustan literature and Augustan poetry, the early 18th century in British literature and poetry, where the authors highly admired and emulated the original Augustan Age. Pope's poetry basically falls into three periods. The first includes the early descriptive poetry; the Pastorals (1709); Windsor Forest (1713); the Essay on Criticism (1711), a poem written in heroic couplets outlining critical tastes and standards; The Rape of the Lock (1714), a mock-heroic poem ridiculing the fashionable world of his day; contributions to the Guardian; and "Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady" and "Eloise to Abelard," the only pieces he ever wrote dealing with love.. Pope's second period includes his magnificent, if somewhat inaccurate, translations of Homer, written in heroic couplets; the completed edition of the Iliad (1720); and the Odyssey (1725–26), written with William Broome and Elijah Fenton. These translations, along with Pope's unsatisfactory edition of Shakespeare (1725), amassed him a large fortune. In 1719 he bought a lease on a house in Twickenham where he and his mother lived for the rest of their lives. In the last period of his career Pope turned to writing satires and moral poems. These include The Dunciad (1728–43), a scathing satire on dunces and literary hacks in which Pope viciously attacked his enemies, including Lewis Theobald, the critic who had ridiculed Pope's edition of Shakespeare, and the playwright Colley Cibber; Imitations of Horace (1733–38), satirizing social follies and political corruption; An Essay on Man (1734), a poetic summary of current philosophical speculation, his most ambitious work; Moral Essays (1731–35); and the "Epistle to Arbuthnot" (1735), a defense in poetry of his life and his work.The Rape of the Lock. The poem satirises a petty squabble by comparing it to the epic world of the gods. It was based on an incident recounted by Pope's friend, John Caryll. Arabella Fermor and her suitor, Lord Petre, were both from aristocratic recusant Catholic families at a period in England when all denominations except Anglicanism suffered legal restrictions and penalties (for example Petre could not take up his place in the House of Lords as a Catholic). Petre, lusting after Arabella, had cut off a lock of her hair without permission, and the consequent argument had created a breach between the two families. Pope, also a Catholic, wrote the poem at the request of friends in an attempt to "comically merge the two." He utilised the character Belinda to represent Arabella and introduced an entire system of "sylphs," or guardian spirits of virgins, a parodic version of the gods and goddesses of conventional epic.

14. English literature of the Enlightenment. D. Defoe’s novel “Robinson Crusoe” or in j. Swift’s novel “Gulliver’s Travels”, the satirical skill of the author.

The epoch of Enlightenment = the Age of Reason (1648-1789) was a rational age that saw a remarkable rise of literature. The central problem of paramount importance to the writers of the 18^th c. was the study of Man and the origin of his good and evil qualities. They started a public movement for enlightening people – to improve the world by teaching. They rejected Church dogmas and cast distinctions and insisted upon a systematic education for all, upon self-government and liberty. This period saw the transition from poetry and the heroic age of Shakespeare to the prosaic age (Kolker: but we shouldn’t underestimate the influence of Shakespeare and his contemporaries upon the novel). The factor that pushed forward the development of prose was the translation of Scripture into national languages that brought about the necessity of a simple but inspired style. The style of prose became clear and polished. Satire became popular. This period also saw the rise of the political pamphlet, but the leading form of lit-re became the novel.  The main difference between the writers of the Renaissance period and the novelists of the 18^th c. was their attitude to history. For the first history hardly existed, they didn’t treat the past as smth different from the present. Time for them was an element of philosophy, some substance, though which the success of generations moved, but which couldn’t change Man and make one generation unlike the other. For novelists it was very important to locate their characters within a specific place and at a specific time. They tried to show the qualities of time and the difference of some period from others. A novelist is a maker who creates an imitation of life on the earth. He provides for the reader a model of life as he sees and feels it; he expresses his conclusions about life placing his characters in the situations, which show the mechanisms of social life.  Every age has its favorite genre: for Renaissance it’s drama & the 18^th century was represented by Novel. The novel as a genre belongs to fiction. The novel appeared at the turn of the 18^th century it manifested the change in man’s interest. Nothing that preceded it could explain it. There are no classical models of it. The only book that may be considered as a novel is Servantes’s “Don Quixote”, but still there is no evidence that it influenced English authors.  The novel is a genre that deals with the past, present & future. The novelist must deal with men in a specific place & time. The novelist is very much conscious of time. A talented novelist can distinguish its difference from other times. Still the Shakespearian drama had a great influence upon the novel, as Shakespeare & his contemporaries were able to create life-like characters. Every novel should be populated with characters, who serve as pivots. The novel & the plot evolve around a character. The novel imitates life & at the same time it may be regarded as a model of life.  If in the theatre the public takes part in the performance, in the novel the character is the bridge between the invented episodes & the experience of the reader (We have the author’s ability to sum up the experience & we have reader, who compares his own experience with the experience of the characters). The novelist is able to depict any relationships of life: man-man, man-society, man-nature, man-sign etc. Only novel can afford it, because of its unlimited size. The novel may be regarded as a unity consisting of every word in it (every word on its right place) – this makes fiction credible. The novel imposes its own moral code. Features of novel: