The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century 16601785

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• The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century
  1660-1785
• Restoration 1660 1700 (death of Dryden)
• Augustan Age 1700 1745 (death of Pope and
  Swift, 1744-45)
• Age of Johnson 1740-1785 (death of Johnson,
  1784)

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Why We Recognize 18th Century England

• Increasing Literacy (60 of adult males by
  1800?) contributes to and is affected by
• Periodical culturenewspapers magazines, both
  topical and philosophical, and a freer and
  partisan press

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Why We Recognize 18th Century England

• Increasing Literacy (60 of adult males by
  1800?) contributes to and is affected by
• Coffeehouse Literary culture (not to mention
  news, business, and mail)

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Why We Recognize 18th Century England

• Increasing Literacy (60 of adult males by
  1800?) contributes to and is affected by
• The Rise of the Novel

Daniel Defoe Samuel Richardson Henry
Fielding Robinson Crusoe (1719) Pamela ( 1740)
Shamela (1741) Moll Flanders (1722) Clarissa
(1748 ) Tom Jones (1749)
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Why We Recognize 18th Century England

• Increasing Literacy (60 of adult males by
  1800?) contributes to and is affected by
• Improvementgradual, to be surein womens
  education and literary activity

Aphra Behn Lady Mary Wortley Montagu Eliza
Haywood (1640-1689)
(1689-1762) (1693-1756)
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Why We Recognize 18th Century England

• An Age of Empiricism and Experimental Science
• Foundation of Royal Society, 1662
• Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727)

• An Age of Religious Accomodation rather than
  Dogmatism
• with the occasional Evangelical Revival
• John Wesley (1703-1791), founder of Methodism

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Why We Recognize 18th Century England

• An Age of Party PoliticsWhigs versus Tories,
  under a Constitutional Monarchy

Robert Walpole, Whig Prime Minister, 1720-1742
Henry St. John, Viscount Bolinbroke Tory leader
in early 18th C.
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Charles II, 1660-1685
James II, 1685-1688
William and Mary, 1688-1702
Anne 1702-1714
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George I 1714-1727
George II 1727-1760
George III 1760-1820
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Why We Recognize 18th Century England

• An Age of World Wars
• War of the Spanish Succession, 1701-1713
• Seven Years War, 1756-1763

Death of Wolfe Benjamin West 1770
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Why We Recognize 18th Century England

• An Age of Stock Booms and Busts
• The South Sea Bubble, 1720

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Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
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(No Transcript)
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An engraving from The Rape of the Lock (Canto
2Belinda sails to Hampton Court 1714 edition)
Arabella Fermor (1696-1737)
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• Some Echoes of Paradise Lost in The Rape of the
  Lock
• 1.1-12 Epic invocations
• 1.23-44 Belindas dream
• 1.105-14 Ariels Warning
• 2.11-18 Belindas beauty hides her faults (if
  any)
• 2.29-34 Baron schemes by force or fraud
• 2.73-100 Ariel addresses his troops
• 3.147-52 A sylph cut in two re-forms
• 4.11-24 Descent to the underworld
• 5.43-44 Like Gods they fight, nor dread a
  mortal wound

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Cleanth Brooks (in The Well-Wrought Urn, 1947,
p. 87) writes Belindas charm is not viewed
uncritically, but the charm is real it can
survive the poets knowledge of how much art and
artifice have gone into making up the
charm. The Norton Anthology Introduction( pp
2513-14) claims Pope laughs at this world, its
ritualized triviality, it irrational, upper-class
women and feminized menbut he also makes us
aware of its beauty and charm. These are
conventional views of the poem and of Popes
meaning, that The Rape of the Lock is an
affectionate if ironical portrait of aristocratic
excess, and certainly not a contemptuous,
misogynist satire of feminine frivolitythat it
be a mistake to read the poem as yet one more
episode in the long history of antifeminism in
English literature.  But is that really the
case?  In other words, is there something serious
going on in this mock-heroic poem?
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Popes Iliad, 12.371-96Sarpedon to his brother
Glaucus
Belindas speech---Rape of the Lock 5.9-34 Say,
why are Beauties prais'd and honour'd most,The
Wise Man's Passion, and the Vain Man's Toast?Why
deck'd with all that Land and Sea afford,Why
Angels call'd, and Angel-like ador'd?Why round
our Coaches crowd the white-gloved Beaux,Why
bows the Side-box from its inmost Rows?How vain
are all these Glories, all our Pains,Unless good
Sense preserve what Beauty gainsThat Men may
say, when we the Front-box grace,Behold the
first in Virtue as in Face!Oh! if to dance all
Night, and dress all Day,Charm'd the Small-pox,
or chas'd old Age awayWho would not scorn what
Housewife's Cares produce,Or who would learn one
earthly Thing of Use?To patch, nay ogle, might
become a Saint,Nor could it sure be such a Sin
to paint.But since, alas! frail Beauty must
decay,Curl'd or uncurl'd, since Locks will turn
to greySince painted, or not painted, all shall
fade,And she who scorns a Man, must die a
Maid,What then remains but well our Pow'r to
use,And keep good Humour still whate'er we
lose?And trust me, dear! good Humour can
prevail,When Airs, and Flights, and Screams, and
Scolding fail.Beauties in vain their pretty Eyes
may rollCharms strike the Sight, but Merit wins
the Soul.
Why boast we, Glaucus! our extended reign,
Where Xanthus streams enrich the Lycian
plain,Our numerous herds that range the fruitful
field,And hills where vines their purple harvest
yield,Our foaming bowls with purer nectar
crownd,Our feasts enhanced with musics
sprightly sound?Why on those shores are we with
joy surveyd,Admired as heroes, and as gods
obeyd,Unless great acts superior merit
prove,And vindicate the bounteous powers
above?Tis ours, the dignity they give to
graceThe first in valour, as the first in
placeThat when with wondering eyes our martial
bandsBehold our deeds transcending our
commands,Such, they may cry, deserve the
sovereign state,Whom those that envy dare not
imitate!Could all our care elude the gloomy
grave,Which claims no less the fearful and the
brave,For lust of fame I should not vainly
dareIn fighting fields, nor urge thy soul to
war.But since, alas! ignoble age must
come,Disease, and deaths inexorable doomThe
life, which others pay, let us bestow,And give
to fame what we to nature oweBrave though we
fall, and honourd if we live,Or let us glory
gain, or glory give!