Reader's Log 2A

There are two Reader's Log sections within this assignment block. They consist of detailed lecture material and instructions for responding to assigned passages of literature. Please study both the lecture material and the assigned passages of literature carefully. You will know when a response is required of you when you see the term READER'S LOG in all capital letters before a paragraph of text.

It will be necessary to have your text book at hand while completing them. You should study them carefully on this Web page.

Neoclassical Literary Taste:

The period which immediately precedes the Neoclassical Era is the Renaissance. It is useful to know that Neoclassical literary taste disliked what it considered the excesses of emotion, irregularities in prosody (versification), and indelicate diction (word choice) of the Renaissance. It particularly abhorred what is called metaphysical poetry, the work of John Donne, George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, and Henry Vaughan of the final decades of the Renaissance period. In fact, the term "metaphysical" was first applied to these poets by John Dryden and later amplified by Samuel Johnson, who accused them of employing extravagant and farfetched metaphors, called metaphysical conceits (at that time, the word conceit meant a figure of speech).

Also usually thought of as a poet of the late Renaissance is John Milton, who is recognized as second only to Shakespeare in his poetic achievement among English poets. His greatest opus is the religious epic, Paradise Lost, excerpts from which are in our text. You may wish to browse a little in the lengthy excerpts from this novel-length work included in our text. As you will see, Milton had enormous impact on some of the authors considered in this class. Milton was on the side of the Puritans and Parliament during the English Civil War, which broke out in 1640. Had he not been blind, he would likely have been executed after the monarchy was restored in 1660.

Although Milton's poetry is different in many ways from that of Dryden and Pope, the most prominent practitioners of the Neoclassical style, it also shares many traits with their poetry. Perhaps most notable among these traits is an abundant allusion to the literature and mythology of ancient Greece and Rome. The literature and mythology of antiquity had been known in western Europe since the 12th century. By the time the Renaissance began around 1450 AD, scholarly monks and clergymen, highly educated noble persons, and even some of more wealthy members of the urban commercial class were reading the classics. Allusions to classical literature and mythology are frequent in the writings of the English Renaissance. For example, there are many classical allusions in Shakespeare's plays. However, the tendency to make such allusions culminated between 1660 and 1800. So great is this tendency that we are justified in called this the Neoclassical Era. This quality explains, at least in part, the difficulty of the poetry of this era for the modern reader. It is a simple fact that the better a reader knows classical literature, the more lucid Neoclassical literature becomes.

The English Civil War, the Commonwealth, and the Restoration.

Please review the list of monarchs from the House of Stuart and the House of Hanover on p. 2834 of our text, who reigned throughout the Neoclassical and Romantic Eras. Also review the section on the religions of England on pp. 2836-2837. England rejected Catholicism and became a Protestant nation in 1533 under Henry VIII of the House of Tudor. The Anglican church, as the official English Protestant church is called, retained certain aspects of Catholic ritual, including the celebration of the mass. Many within the Anglican church believed it had not gone far enough in its reformation and called for a more austere, less Catholic worship. These were called Puritans because they wished to "purify" the Anglican church of its Catholic elements.

In 1640, Puritan factions joined with supporters of the English Parliament (as the legislative branch of the English government is called) in a civil war against Anglican factions and supporters of the monarchy under Charles I of the House of Stuart. The Puritan/Parliamentarian forces eventually won and Charles I was beheaded in 1649. For 11 years, for the only time in its entire history, England was a republic. After the powerful dictator Oliver Cromwell died and his son Richard had proved ineffectual, Parliament negotiated with the exiled son of Charles I and allowed him to return as king of England. The return to England of Charles II in 1660 began the Restoration, a term applied to English culture for the next 40 years.

When Charles II died in 1685, his brother became James II. Although Charles had hidden his Catholic sympathies, James proceeded to make overt gestures toward returning England to Catholicism. Parliament revolted once again and, in what is called the Bloodless Revolution of 1688, drove James into exile and invited his Protestant daughter Mary and her Dutch husband, William of Orange, to the English throne. William and Mary, who had no children, were succeeded by the unmarried Anne, second daughter of James II. With the death of Anne in 1714, the House of Stuart, which had begun with James I in 1603, came to its end as the reigning dynasty in England. Further establishing its supremacy, Parliament invited to the English throne George I of Hanover, a German prince who was a great grandson of James I. This king and his descendants would occupy the English throne till 1901 with the death of Queen Victoria. Of particular note for us are his immediate successors, George II, George III, and George IV, who reigned throughout the remainder of the Neoclassical and Romantic Eras.

The Restoration Period:

We will examine two prominent authors from this period, John Dryden and Aphra Behn.

We will consider Dryden in the present assignment unit, where he will be paired with the greatest poet of the Augustan period, Alexander Pope. Aphra Behn will be considered in the next assignment block, paired with another Augustan, Jonathan Swift.

Despite political and religious turmoil, the Restoration period was highly productive in literature, philosophy, and science. In poetry a favored prosody emerged called heroic verse and in drama the comedy of manners emerged with a brilliance matched by no other period in all of English literature. In theoretical science the mathematics and physics of Sir Isaac Newton and the empirical psychology of John Locke appeared and would remain influential till the beginning of the 20th century. In applied science the foundations were laid for the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century.

John Dryden, foremost poet of the Restoration period:

You will be directed to read and respond to specific passages from Dryden's poems Mac Flecknoe and Absalom and Achitophel. By way of preparation, read the introduction to Dryden, pp. 877-878.

Dryden wrote plays, poems, and essays and translated classical works into the idiom of his time. His abundance can scarcely be guessed at from the offerings in our text. As for his overall stature, he must be ranked with Pope, Swift, and Johnson as a top literary figure in the Neoclassical Era. Of note is the fact that Dryden established the Neoclassical style in poetry. During the last third of the 17th century, his contemporaries read his poetry, liked it, and adopted its style as their own. For over 130 years, from the beginnings of the Restoration till the end of the 18th century, poets would continue to write poetry in this style. One of the chief signs of literary revolution with the advent of Romanticism was the abandonment by Romantic poets of the Neoclassical style.

Neoclassical Literary Traits:

Please memorize the Neoclassical traits listed in this paragraph. Neoclassical writers made (1) abundant allusion to classical literature and mythology. They admired imitations of classical models and translations of classical works and saw them as appropriate activities for a creative poet. In keeping with (2) the spirit of satire, much neoclassical writing was aimed at correcting vices and foibles through ridicule. Neoclassical taste preferred poetry that was (3) philosophical and didactic rather than lyrical and personal. Finally, Neoclassical verse was characterized by the (4) heroic couplet, also called heroic verse. The term heroic verse derives from Dryden's use of rhyming couplets in iambic pentameter in his heroic plays. I will expect you to understand that when I use the term "heroic verse," I am referring expressly to rhyming couplets in iambic pentameter.

Pay close attention to these Neoclassical traits as they appear in the two assigned poems by Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel and Mac Flecknoe. This will help you prepare to point out the same Neoclassical traits in the poetry of Pope, which will be your writing assignment for block two.

Absalom and Achitophel

Please memorize the important literary terms used in the following discussion. Read the editor's introduction to this poem, pp. 879-880. Read the poem with sufficient care to get a feel for what Dryden is doing in it. This is a long polemic poem, one that attempts to argue for an opinion or position on a controversial matter. A polemic poem may be said to be didactic, didacticism in literature being the quality of intending to teach, convey a message, or persuade someone to an opinion rather than to entertain or delight. Dryden develops an allegory (a term you should look up if you don't know its meaning) in this poem, likening Shaftsbury's attempt to supplant the future James II with Charles II's illegitimate son Monmouth to Achitophel's support for Absalom's revolt against his father, King David. You may wish to read this account in 2 Samuel 15-23 in the Old Testament.

READER'S LOG. Absalom and Achitophel, lines 1-22, pp. 880-881. Dryden compares King David's siring of children by concubines and plural wives to Charles II's siring of illegitimate children by many mistresses. Enter your opinion in your reader's log as to whether Dryden is condoning Charles II or satirizing him. Keep in mind that the general purpose of this poem is to support Charles II.

READER'S LOG. Absalom and Achitophel, lines 45-66, pp. 881-882. What events among the English of the past 30 or 40 years is Dryden referring to here in this statement about the Jews?

READER'S LOG. Absalom and Achitophel, lines 150-177, p. 884. In a few sentences summarize the characterization that Dryden makes here of Achitophel (Anthony Ashley Cooper, first Earl of Shaftsbury).

READER'S LOG. Absalom and Achitophel, lines 230-251, pp. 885-886. Quote several lines that seem at the heart of Achitophel's appeal to Absalom.

READER'S LOG. Absalom and Achitophel, lines 313-330, pp. 887-888. Why would have Charles II have been pleased upon reading these lines?

READER'S LOG. Absalom and Achitophel, lines 682-722, p. 896. Absalom, persuaded by many false friends, here undermines his father's position. Restate the essence of his argument as you find it in lines 707-712.

READER'S LOG. Absalom and Achitophel, lines 751-776, p. 897. Moving to refute the specious arguments of Achitophel and Absalom, Dryden argues the divine right of kings. According to this interpretation, once crowned, a king cannot be removed by his people. Quote several lines that clearly indicate this view.

READER'S LOG. Absalom and Achitophel, lines 933-958, pp. 901. Here David speaks in grand dignity, emphasizing his mercy and mildness yet hinting that he is capable of using force. Quote lines that reveal this hint of force.

READER'S LOG. Absalom and Achitophel, lines 1000-1031, pp. 902-903. Quote lines that show that God himself approves of David's refusal to concede to Absalom's rebellion.

Mac Flecknoe

READER'S LOG. Mac Flecknoe, lines 1-24, p. 904. Read the editors' introduction, pp. 903-904. Read the poem. This is a mock heroic lampoon of a literary rival of Dryden's named Thomas Shadwell. It pretends to be an episode from an epic and is therefore written in the heroic verse considered appropriate for grand themes. It treats the supposed coronation of a successor to the retiring king of "the realms of Nonsense." From lines 1-24, quote several lines that best define the trait that qualifies Shadwell for his supposed father's crown.

READER'S LOG. Mac Flecknoe, lines 94-105, p. 906. In a few sentences characterize the kind of people who supposedly throng along the route of the coronation procession.

READER'S LOG. Mac Flecknoe, lines 106-117, pp. 906-907. Note that wit is one of the qualities the new king swears never to be at peace with. Look up the double term Wit and Humor in the section on Poetic Terms and Literary Terminology and enter in your reader's log a definition of wit which fits the word as Dryden is using it in this poem.