Augustan literature is a style of English literature whose origins correspond roughly with the reigns of Queen Anne, King George I, and George II. In contemporary critical parlance, it refers to the literature of 1700 up to approximately 1760 (or, for some, 1789). It is a literary epoch that featured the rapid development of the novel, an explosion in satire, the mutation of drama from political satire into melodrama, and an evolution toward poetry of personal exploration. In philosophy, it was an age increasingly dominated by empiricism, while in the writings of political-economy it marked the evolution of mercantilism as a formal philosophy, the development of capitalism, and the triumph of trade. Style may refer to genre, design, format, or appearance, including: Clothing: fashion Flower part: flower Music: music genre Sundial part: Gnomon Titles or honorifics: Style (manner of address) including Chinese courtesy names Web design: Cascading Style Sheets Writing: style guide and literary genre Linguistics: Variation in language use of an... The term English literature refers to literature written in the English language, or literature composed in English by writers who are not necessarily from England; Joseph Conrad was Polish, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Edgar Allan Poe was American, Salman Rushdie is Indian. ... Anne ( 6 February 1665 – 1 August 1714 ) became Queen of England, Queen of Scotland and Queen of Ireland on 8 March 1702. ... George I King of Great Britain and Ireland George I (George Ludwig von Guelph-dEste) (28 May 1660–11 June 1727) was Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) from 23 January 1698, and King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 1 August 1714, until his death. ... George II King of Great Britain and Ireland George II (George Augustus) (10 November 1683–25 October 1760) was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) and Archtreasurer and Prince-Elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 11 June 1727 until his death. ... Events January 1 - Russia accepts Julian calendar. ... 1760 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... 1789 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... The word epoch can mean either an interval of time, or a particular point in time used as a reference point. ... DeFoes Robinson Crusoe, Newspaper edition published in 1719 A novel (from French nouvelle, new) is an extended fictional narrative in prose. ... Satire is a literary technique of writing or art which exposes the follies of its subject (for example, individuals, organizations, or states) to ridicule, often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change. ... Drama is a term generally used to refer to a literary form involving parts written for actors to perform. ... Political satire is a subgenre of general satire that specializes in gaining entertainment from politics, politicians and public affairs. ... Poster for The Perils of Pauline (1914). ... Poetry (ancient Greek: ποιεω (poieo) = I create) is traditionally a written art form (although there is also an ancient and modern poetry which relies mainly upon oral or pictorial representations) in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ... These five broad types of question are called analytical or logical, epistemological, ethical, metaphysical, and aesthetic respectively. ... Empiricism (greek εμπειρισμός, from empirical, latin experientia - the experience), is the philosophical doctrine that all human knowledge ultimately comes from the senses and from experience. ... Political economy was the original term for the study of production, the acts of buying and selling, and their relationships to laws, customs and government. ... A painting of a French seaport from 1638, at the height of mercantilism. ... Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Capitalism The dollar-sign is often used as a symbol representing capitalism. ... A fruit stand at a market. ...

The chronological anchors of the era are generally vague, largely since the label's origin in contemporary 18th-century criticism has made it a shorthand designation for a somewhat nebulous age of satire. This new Augustan period exhibited exceptionally bold political writings in all genres, with the satires of the age marked by an arch, ironic pose, full of nuance, and a superficial air of dignified calm that hid sharp criticisms beneath. (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... The Roman Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Ancient Roman polity in the centuries following its reorganization under the leadership of Octavian (better known as Caesar Augustus), until its radical reformation in what was later to be known as the Byzantine Empire. ... Politics is the process and method of decision-making for groups of human beings. ... A genre is a division of a particular form of art according to criteria particular to that form. ...

As literacy (and London's population, especially) grew, literature began to appear from all over the kingdom. Authors gradually began to accept literature that went in unique directions rather than the formerly monolithic conventions and, through this, slowly began to honor and recreate various folk compositions. Beneath the appearance of a placid and highly regulated series of writing modes, many developments of the later Romantic era were beginning to take place — while politically, philosophically, and literarily, modern consciousness was being hewn out of hitherto feudal and courtly notions of ages past. Literacy is the ability to read and write. ... Part of the London skyline viewed from the South Bank London is the most populous city in the European Union, with an estimated population on 1 January 2005 of 7,421,328 and a metropolitan area population of between 12 and 14 million. ... Royal motto: Dieu et mon droit (French: God and my right)1 Capital London Head of State King of Great Britain Head of Government Prime Minister Parliament House of Commons, House of Lords This article is about the historical state called the Kingdom of Great Britain (1707-1800). ... Folklore is the body of narratives, including tales, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs current among a particular population, comprising the oral tradition of that culture, subculture, or group. ... Romanticism was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in late 18th century Western Europe. ... Modern can simply mean something that is up-to-date, trendy, new, or from the present time. ... Consciousness is a quality of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and ones environment. ... Feudalism comes from the Late Latin word feudum, itself borrowed from a Germanic root *fehu, a commonly used term in the Middle Ages which means fief, or land held under certain obligations by feodati. ... The Lords and Barons prove their Nobility by hanging their Banners and exposing their Coats-of-arms at the Windows of the Lodge of the Heralds. ...

William Hogarth's portrait of a Grub Street poet starving to death and trying to write a new poem to get money. The "hack" (hired) writer was a response to the newly increased demand for reading matter in the Augustan period.

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1463x2307, 3106 KB)William Hogarths The Distressd Poet, detail, 1737. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1463x2307, 3106 KB)William Hogarths The Distressd Poet, detail, 1737. ... William Hogarth, self-portrait, 1745 William Hogarth (November 10, 1697 – October 26, 1764) was a major British painter, engraver, pictorial satirist, and editorial cartoonist who has been credited as a pioneer in western sequential art. ... Grub Street is the former name of the present day Milton Street, London, EC2. ...

Enlightenment? The historical context

"Augustan" derives from George I wishing to be seen as Caesar Augustus. Alexander Pope, who had been imitating Horace, wrote an Epistle to Augustus that was to George II and seemingly endorsed the notion of his age being like that of Augustus, when poetry became more mannered, political and satirical than in the era of Julius Caesar. Later, Voltaire and Oliver Goldsmith (in his History of Literature in 1764) used the term "Augustan" to refer to the literature of the 1720s and '30s. Outside of poetry, however, the Augustan era is generally known by other names. Partially because of the rise of empiricism and partially due to the self-conscious naming of the age in terms of Ancient Rome, two imprecise labels have been affixed to the age. One is that it is the age of neoclassicism. The other is that it is the Age of Reason. Both terms have some usefulness, but both also obscure much. While neoclassical criticism from France was imported to English letters, the English had abandoned their strictures in all but name by the 1720s. As for whether the era was "the Enlightenment" or not, the critic Donald Greene wrote vigorously against it, arguing persuasively that the age should be known as "The Age of Exuberance," while T.H. White made a case for "The Age of Scandal." Most recently, Roy Porter attempted again to argue for the developments of science dominating all other areas of endeavor in the age unmistakably making it the Enlightenment (Porter 2000). Bust of Augustus Caesar Augustus redirects here. ... Alexander Pope, an English poet best known for his Essay on Criticism and Rape of the Lock Pope, circa 1727. ... Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus, (December 8, 65 BC - November 27, 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading lyric poet in Latin, the son of a freedman, but himself born free. ... Gaius Julius Caesar (Classical Latin: IMP·C·IVLIVS·CAESAR·DIVVS) (b. ... The last of Voltaires statues by Jean-Antoine Houdon (1781). ... Oliver Goldsmith Oliver Goldsmith (November 10, 1730(?) – April 4, 1774) was an Irish writer and physician known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), his pastoral poem The Deserted Village (1770) (written in memory of his brother), and his plays The Good-naturd Man (1768) and She Stoops... 1764 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Ancient Rome was a civilization that existed in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East between 753 BC and its downfall in AD 476. ... Neoclassicism (sometimes rendered as Neo-Classicism or Neo-classicism) is the name given to quite distinct movements in the visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture. ... The Age of Reason is either Thomas Paines book The Age of Reason. ... Terence Hanbury White (May 29, 1906 - January 17, 1964) was a writer. ... Roy Porter (31 December 1946 to 3 March 2002) was a British historian noted for his work on the history of medicine. ...

An auctioneer sells books from the estate of a condemned doctor (an abortionist?), c. 1700, in Moorfields. The books contain pornography, medicine, and Classics. The print satirizes "new men" wanting to collect libraries without collecting learning.

One of the most critical elements of the 18th century was the increasing availability of printed material, both for readers and authors. Books fell in price dramatically, and used books were sold at Bartholomew Fair and other fairs. Additionally, a brisk trade in chapbooks and broadsheets carried London trends and information out to the farthest reaches of the kingdom. Not only, therefore, were people in York aware of the happenings of Parliament and the court, but people in London were more aware than before of the happenings of York. Furthermore, in this age before copyright, pirate editions were commonplace, especially in areas without frequent contact with London. Pirate editions thereby encouraged booksellers to increase their shipments to outlying centers like Dublin, which increased, again, awareness across the whole realm. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (723x1069, 745 KB)An auctioneer of the books left over from a condemned doctors hanging, circa 1700, in Moorfields, London. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (723x1069, 745 KB)An auctioneer of the books left over from a condemned doctors hanging, circa 1700, in Moorfields, London. ... An abortion is the termination of a pregnancy associated with the death of an embryo or a fetus. ... Events January 1 - Russia accepts Julian calendar. ... In London, the Moorfields were one of the last pieces of open land in the City of London, near the Moorgate. ... Pornography (from Greek πορνογραφία pornographia — literally writing about or drawings of harlots) (also informally referred to as porn, porno, and more recently, pr0n) is the representation of the human body or human sexual behaviour with the goal of sexual arousal, similar to, but (according to some) distinct from, erotica. ... Medicine on the Web Medical Alarm & Use Medical Marijuana NLM (National Library of Medicine, contains resources for patients and healthcare professionals) Virtual Hospital (digital health sciences library by the University of Iowa) Online Medical Information- medical news, links and resources. ... Bartholomew Fair is a play in five acts by Ben Jonson. ... A chapbook is an item of popular literature, as would have formed part of the stock of a chapman, peddler, or other itinerant trader. ... Newspaper sizes in August 2005. ... Part of the London skyline viewed from the South Bank London is the most populous city in the European Union, with an estimated population on 1 January 2005 of 7,421,328 and a metropolitan area population of between 12 and 14 million. ... York is a city in northern England, at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss. ... An aerial view of Parliament of India at New Delhi. ... For copyright issues in relation to Wikipedia itself, see Wikipedia:Copyrights. ... This article is about the city in Ireland. ...

All types of literature were spread quickly in all directions. Newspapers not only began, but they multiplied. Furthermore, the newspapers were immediately compromised, as the political factions created their own newspapers, planted stories, and bribed journalists. Leading clerics had their sermon collections printed, and these were top selling books. Since dissenting, Establishment, and Independent divines were in print, the constant movement of these works helped defuse any one region's religious homogeneity and fostered emergent latitudinarianism. Periodicals were exceedingly popular, and the art of essay writing was at nearly its apex. Furthermore, the happenings of the Royal Society were published regularly, and these events were digested and explained or celebrated in more popular presses. The latest books of scholarship had "keys" and "indexes" and "digests" made of them that could popularize, summarize, and explain them to a wide audience. The cross-index, now commonplace, was a novelty in the 18th century, and several persons created indexes for older books of learning, allowing anyone to find what an author had to say about a given topic at a moment's notice. Books of etiquette, of correspondence, and of moral instruction and hygiene multiplied. Economics began as a serious discipline, but it did so in the form of numerous "projects" for solving England's (and Ireland's, and Scotland's) ills. Sermon collections, dissertations on religious controversy, and prophecies, both new and old and explained, cropped up in endless variety. In short, readers in the 18th century were overwhelmed by competing voices. True and false sat side by side on the shelves, and anyone could be a published author, just as anyone could quickly pretend to be a scholar by using indexes and digests. Latitudinarian was initially a pejorative term applied to a group of 17th century British theologians who believed in conforming to official Church of England practices but who felt that matters of doctrine, liturgical practice, and ecclesiastical organization were of relatively little importance. ... This article is about the magazine as a published medium. ... The premises of the Royal Society in London. ... In publishing, an index is a detailed list, usually alphabetical, of the specific information included in a book, publication, or multimedia collection. ... U.S. Economic Calendar Economics at the Open Directory Project Economics textbooks on Wikibooks The Economists Economics A-Z Daily analysis of economics in the news (UK focus) Institutions and organizations Bureau of Labor Statistics - from the American Labor Department Center for Economic and Policy Research (USA) National Bureau...

The positive side of the explosion in information was that the 18th century was markedly more generally educated than the centuries before. Education was less confined to the upper classes than it had been in centuries, and consequently contributions to science, philosophy, economics, and literature came from all parts of the newly United Kingdom. It was the first time when literacy and a library were all that stood between a person and education. It was an age of "enlightenment" in the sense that the insistence and drive for reasonable explanations of nature and mankind was a rage. It was an "age of reason" in that it was an age that accepted clear, rational methods as superior to tradition. However, there was a dark side to such literacy as well, a dark side which authors of the 18th century felt at every turn, and that was that nonsense and insanity were also getting more adherents than ever before. Charlatans and mountebanks were fooling more, just as sages were educating more, and alluring and lurid apocalypses vied with sober philosophy on the shelves. As with the world-wide web in the 21st century, the democratization of publishing meant that older systems for determining value and uniformity of view were both in shambles. Thus, it was increasingly difficult to trust books in the 18th century, because books were increasingly easy to make and buy. (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... The Charlatans could refer to two bands The Charlatans, a United States band The Charlatans, a British band, sometimes known in the US as Charlatans UK This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Apocalyptic literature was a new genre of prophetical writing that developed in post-Exilic Jewish culture and was popular among millennialist early Christians. ... Graphic representation of the world wide web around Wikipedia The World Wide Web (WWW, or simply Web) is an information space in which the items of interest, referred to as resources, are identified by global identifiers called Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI). ... The 21st century is the century that began on 1 January 2001 and will last to 31 December 2100. ...

Political and religious historical context

A "sulkily stupid" Queen Anne.

The Restoration period ended with the exclusion crisis and the Glorious Revolution, where Parliament set up a new rule for succession to the British throne that would always favor Protestantism over sanguinity. This had brought William and Mary to the throne instead of James II, and was codified in the Act of Settlement 1701. James had fled to France from where his son James Francis Edward Stuart launched an attempt to retake the throne in 1715. Another attempt was launched by the later's son Charles Edward Stuart in 1745. The attempted invasions are often referred to as "the 15" and "the 45". When William died, Anne Stuart came to the throne. Anne was reportedly immoderately stupid: Thomas Babbington Macaulay would say of Anne that "when in good humour, [she] was meekly stupid and, when in bad humour, was sulkily stupid." Anne's reign saw two wars and great triumphs by John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough. Marlborough's wife, Sarah Churchill, was Anne's best friend, and many supposed that she secretly controlled the Queen in every respect. With a weak ruler and the belief that true power rested in the hands of the leading ministers, the two factions of politics stepped up their opposition to each other, and Whig and Tory were at each others' throats. This weakness at the throne would lead quickly to the expansion of the powers of the party leader in Parliament and the establishment in all but name of the Prime Minister office in the form of Robert Walpole. When Anne died without issue, George I, Elector of Hanover, came to the throne. George I never bothered to learn the English language, and his isolation from the English people was instrumental in keeping his power relatively irrelevant. His son, George II, on the other hand, spoke some English and some more French, and his was the first full Hanoverian rule in England. By that time, the powers of Parliament had silently expanded, and George II's power was perhaps equal only to that of Parliament. Image File history File links Queen Anne. ... Image File history File links Queen Anne. ... The Exclusion Bill crisis ran from 1678 till 1681. ... The Term Glorious Revolution refers to the generally popular overthrow of James II of England in 1688 by a conspiracy between some parliamentarians and the Dutch stadtholder, William III of Orange-Nassau. ... Succession to the British Throne has generally been according to the rules of male-preference primogeniture. ... Protestantism is a movement within Christianity, representing a split from within the Roman Catholic Church during the mid-to-late Renaissance in Europe —a period known as the Protestant Reformation. ... The phrase William and Mary usually refers to the joint sovereignty over the Kingdoms of England and Scotland of King William III and his wife Queen Mary II. Their joint reign began in February, 1689, when they were called to the throne by Parliament, replacing James II, who was deemed... James II of England and VII of Scotland ( 14 October 1633–16 September 1701 ) became King of England, King of Scots, and King of Ireland from 6 February 1685. ... The Electress Sophia The Act of Settlement (12 & 13 Wm 3 c. ... Prince James Francis Edward Stuart or Stewart (June 10, 1688 – January 1, 1766) was a claimant of the thrones of Scotland and England (September 16, 1701 – January 1, 1766) who is more commonly referred to as The Old Pretender. ... // Events July 24 - Spanish treasure fleet of ten ships under admiral Ubilla leave Havana, Cuba for Spain. ... Bonnie Prince Charlie Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Silvester Maria Stuart (December 31, 1720 – January 31, 1788), was the exiled claimant to the thrones of Great Britain and Ireland, commonly known as Bonnie Prince Charlie. Charles was the son of James Francis Edward Stuart, the Old Pretender, who was in... // Events May 11 - War of Austrian Succession: Battle of Fontenoy - At Fontenoy, French forces defeat an Anglo-Dutch-Hanoverian army including the Black Watch June 4 – Frederick the Great destroys Austrian army at Hohenfriedberg August 19 - Beginning of the 45 Jacobite Rising at Glenfinnan September 12 - Francis I is elected... Quotes His imagination resembled the wings of an ostrich. ... John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, in his Garter robes John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough (May 26, 1650 - June 16, 1722), in full The Most Noble Captain-General John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, Earl of Marlborough, Baron Churchill of Sandridge, Lord Churchill of Eyemouth, KG, PC (in addition... The coat of arms of the Dukes of Marlborough The Dukedom of Marlborough (pronounced Maulbruh) is an hereditary title of British nobility in the Peerage of England. ... Sarah Churchill, née Jennings, Duchess of Marlborough (May 29, 1660 - October 18, 1744), rose to be one of the most influential women in British history, largely as a result of her close friendship with Queen Anne. ... This article is about the British Whig party. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... A prime minister may be either: chief or leading member of the cabinet of the top-level government in a country having a parliamentary system of government; or the official, in countries with a semi-presidential system of government, appointed to manage the civil service and execute the directives of... The Right Honourable Sir Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, KG , GCB , PC, ( 26 August 1676–18 March 1745 ) was a British statesman who is generally regarded as having been the first Prime Minister of Great Britain. ... George I King of Great Britain and Ireland George I (George Ludwig von Guelph-dEste) (28 May 1660–11 June 1727) was Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) from 23 January 1698, and King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 1 August 1714, until his death. ... George II King of Great Britain and Ireland George II (George Augustus) (10 November 1683–25 October 1760) was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) and Archtreasurer and Prince-Elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 11 June 1727 until his death. ...

London's population exploded spectacularly. During the Restoration, it grew from around 30,000 to 600,000 in 1700 (Old Bailey) (Millwall history). By 1800, it had reached 950,000. Not all of these residents were prosperous. The enclosure act had destroyed lower-class farming in the countryside, and rural areas experienced painful poverty. When the Black Act was expanded to cover all protestors to enclosure, the communities of the country poor were forced to migrate or suffer (see Thompson, Whigs). Therefore, young people from the country often moved to London with hopes of achieving success, and this swelled the ranks of the urban poor and cheap labor for city employers. It also meant an increase in numbers of criminals, prostitutes and beggars. The fears of property crime, rape, and starvation found in Augustan literature should be kept in the context of London's growth, as well as the depopulation of the countryside. Enclosure (also historically inclosure) is the process of subdivision of common land for individual ownership. ... The Black Act (9 Geo. ...

William Hogarth's Gin Lane is not caricature, for in 1750, over a fourth of all houses in St Giles were gin shops, all unlicensed.

Partially because of these population pressures, property crime became a business both for the criminals and for those who fed off of the criminals. Major crime lords like Jonathan Wild invented new schemes for stealing, and the newspapers were eager to report crime. Biographies of the daring criminals became popular, and these spawned fictional biographies of fictional criminals. Cautionary tales of country women abused by sophisticated rakes and libertines in the city were popular fare, and these prompted fictional accounts of exemplary women abused (or narrowly escaping abuse). Image File history File links William Hogarths Gin Lane (1751) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links William Hogarths Gin Lane (1751) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... William Hogarth, self-portrait, 1745 William Hogarth (November 10, 1697 – October 26, 1764) was a major British painter, engraver, pictorial satirist, and editorial cartoonist who has been credited as a pioneer in western sequential art. ... Gin Lane William Hogarth produced the twin engravings Beer Street and Gin Lane at the height of what became known as the London Gin Craze in 1751. ... Saint Giles (Latin Ægidius) was a 7th-8th century Christian hermit saint. ... Jonathan Wild in the condemned cell at Newgate Prison Jonathan Wild (1683–May 24, 1725) was perhaps the most famous criminal of London — and possibly Great Britain — during the 18th century, both because of his own actions and the uses novelists, playwrights, and political satirists made of them. ... The Tavern Scene from A Rakes Progress by William Hogarth. ...

The population pressure also meant that urban discontent was never particularly difficult to find for political opportunists, and London suffered a number of riots, most of them against supposed Roman Catholic agent provocateurs. When highly potent, inexpensive distilled spirits were introduced, matters worsened, and authors and artists protested the innovation of gin (see, e.g. William Hogarth's Gin Lane). From 1710, the government encouraged distilling as a source of revenue and trade goods, and there were no licenses required for the manufacturing or selling of gin. There were documented instances of women drowning their infants to sell the child's clothes for gin, and so these facilities created both the fodder for riots and the conditions against which riots would occur (Loughrey and Treadwell, 14). Dissenters (those radical Protestants who would not join with the Church of England) recruited and preached to the poor of the city, and various offshoots of the Puritan and "Independent" (Baptist) movements increased their numbers substantially. One theme of these ministers was the danger of the Roman Catholic Church, which they frequently saw as the Whore of Babylon. While Anne was high church, George I came from a far more Protestant nation than England, and George II was almost low church, as the events of the Bangorian Controversy would show. The convocation was effectively disbanded by George I (who was struggling with the House of Lords), and George II was pleased to keep it in abeyance. Additionally, both of the first two Hanoverians were concerned with James and Charles Stuart in France (the Old Pretender and the Young Pretender), who had considerable support in Scotland and Ireland, and anyone too high church was suspected of being a closet Jacobite, thanks in no small part to Walpole's inflating fears of Stuart sympathizers among any group that did not support him. The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the Christian Church whose visible and spiritual head is the Pope, currently Pope Benedict XVI. It teaches that it is the one holy catholic and apostolic Church founded by Jesus Christ, and that the sole Church of Christ which... Gin and tonic This article concerns the beverage. ... William Hogarth, self-portrait, 1745 William Hogarth (November 10, 1697 – October 26, 1764) was a major British painter, engraver, pictorial satirist, and editorial cartoonist who has been credited as a pioneer in western sequential art. ... Gin Lane William Hogarth produced the twin engravings Beer Street and Gin Lane at the height of what became known as the London Gin Craze in 1751. ... // Events April 10 - The worlds first copyright legislation became effective, Britains Statute of Anne Ongoing events Great Northern War (1700-1721) War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713) Births January 3 - Richard Gridley, American Revolutionary soldier (d. ... The term dissenter (from the Latin dissentire, to disagree), labels one who dissents or disagrees in matters of opinion, belief, etc. ... The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England, and acts as the mother and senior branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion, as well as a founding member of the Porvoo Communion. ... The Puritans were members of a group of English Protestants seeking further reforms or even separation from the established church during the Reformation. ... A Baptist is a member of a Baptist church. ... The Whore of Babylon or Babylon the Great is one of several Christian and Rastafarian allegorical figures of supreme evil, who is mentioned in the Book of Revelation in the Bible. ... High Church is a term that may now be used in speaking of viewpoints within a number of denominations of Protestant Christianity in general, but it is one which has traditionally been employed in Churches associated with the Anglican tradition in particular. ... Protestantism is a movement within Christianity, representing a split from within the Roman Catholic Church during the mid-to-late Renaissance in Europe —a period known as the Protestant Reformation. ... Low church is a term of distinction in the Church of England, initially designed to be pejorative. ... The Bangorian Controversy was a theological argument within the Church of England in the 18th century. ... A Convocation is a group of people formally assembled for a special purpose. ... This article is about the British House of Lords. ... Prince James Francis Edward Stuart or Stewart (June 10, 1688 - January 1, 1766) was a claimant of the thrones of Scotland and England (September 16, 1701 - January 1, 1766) who is more commonly referred to as The Old Pretender. ... Bonnie Prince Charlie Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Silvester Severino Maria Stuart (December 31, 1720 – January 31, 1788), was the exiled claimant to the thrones of Great Britain and Ireland, commonly known as Bonnie Prince Charlie. Charles was the son of James Francis Edward Stuart, the Old Pretender, who was... This article concerns the political movement supporting the restoration of the House of Stuart, not the earlier Jacobean period. ...

History and literature

The literature of the 18th century — particularly the early 18th century, which is what "Augustan" most commonly indicates — is explicitly political in ways that few others are. Because the professional author was still not distinguishable from the hack-writer, those who wrote poetry, novels, and plays were frequently either politically active or politically funded. At the same time, an aesthetic of artistic detachment from the everyday world had yet to develop, and the aristocratic ideal of an author so noble as to be above political concerns was largely archaic and irrelevant. The period may be an "Age of Scandal," for it is an age when authors dealt specifically with the crimes and vices of their world.

Satire, both in prose, drama, and poetry, was the genre that attracted the most energetic and voluminous writing. The satires produced during the Augustan period were occasionally gentle and non-specific—commentaries on the comically flawed human condition—but they were at least as frequently specific critiques of specific policies, actions, and persons. Even those works studiously non-topical were, in fact, transparently political statements in the 18th century. Consequently, readers of 18th-century literature today need to understand the history of the period more than most readers of other literature do. The authors were writing for an informed audience and only secondarily for posterity. Even the authors who criticized writing that lived for only a day (e.g. Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope, in The Dedication to Prince Posterity of A Tale of a Tub and Dunciad, among other pieces) were criticizing specific authors who are unknown without historical knowledge of the period. 18th-century poetry of all forms was in constant dialog: each author was responding and commenting upon the others. 18th-century novels were written against other 18th-century novels (e.g. the battles between Henry Fielding and Samuel Richardson and between Laurence Sterne and Tobias Smollett). Plays were written to make fun of plays, or to counter the success of plays (e.g. the reaction against and for Cato and, later, Fielding's The Authors Farce). Therefore, history and literature are linked in a way rarely seen at other times. On the one hand, this metropolitan and political writing can seem like coterie or salon work, but, on the other, it was the literature of people deeply committed to sorting out a new type of government, new technologies, and newly vexatious challenges to philosophical and religious certainty. Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (November 30, 1667 – October 19, 1745) was an Anglo-Irish writer who is famous for works like Gullivers Travels, A Modest Proposal, and A Tale of a Tub. ... Alexander Pope, an English poet best known for his Essay on Criticism and Rape of the Lock Pope, circa 1727. ... A Tale of a Tub (play). ... The Dunciad is a landmark literary satire by Alexander Pope published in three different versions at different times. ... Henry Fielding (April 22, 1707 – October 8, 1754) was an English novelist and dramatist known for his rich earthy humor and satirical prowess and as the author of the novel Tom Jones. ... Samuel Richardson (August 19, 1689 – July 4, 1761) was a major eighteenth-century writer best known for his three epistolary novels: Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded (1740), Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady (1748) and Sir Charles Grandison (1753). ... Laurence Sterne Laurence Sterne (November 24, 1713 – March 18, 1768) was an Anglo-Irish novelist and clergyman. ... Tobias Smollett Tobias George Smollett (March 19, 1721 - September 17, 1771) was a Scottish author, best known for his picaresque novels, such as Roderick Random and Peregrine Pickle. ...

Prose

Main article: Augustan prose An engraved ticket for Francis Woodss circulating library in London from some time after mid-century. ...

An engraved ticket for Francis Woods's circulating library in London from some time after mid-century.

The essay, satire, and dialogue (in philosophy and religion) thrived in the age, and the English novel was truly begun as a serious art form. Literacy in the early 18th century passed into the working classes, as well as the middle and upper classes (Thompson, Class). Furthermore, literacy was not confined to men, though rates of female literacy are very difficult to establish. For those who were literate, circulating libraries in England began in the Augustan period. Libraries were open to all, but they were mainly associated with female patronage and novel reading. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (780x1118, 1962 KB)An advertisement for Nobles Circulating Library. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (780x1118, 1962 KB)An advertisement for Nobles Circulating Library. ... Part of the London skyline viewed from the South Bank London is the most populous city in the European Union, with an estimated population on 1 January 2005 of 7,421,328 and a metropolitan area population of between 12 and 14 million. ... An essay is a short work that treats a topic from an authors personal point of view, often taking into account subjective experiences and personal reflections upon them. ... The term dialogue (or dialog) expresses basically reciprocal conversation between two or more persons. ... These five broad types of question are called analytical or logical, epistemological, ethical, metaphysical, and aesthetic respectively. ... // Early novels in English See the article First novel in English. ... Modern-style library In the traditional sense of the word, a library is a collection of books and periodicals. ...

The essay/journalism

English essayists were aware of Continental models, but they developed their form independently from that tradition, and periodical literature grew between 1692 and 1712. Periodicals were inexpensive to produce, quick to read, and a viable way of influencing public opinion, and consequently there were many broadsheet periodicals headed by a single author and staffed by hirelings (so-called "Grub Street" authors). One periodical outsold and dominated all others, however, and that was The Spectator (1711), written by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele alone. The Spectator developed a number of pseudonymous characters, including "Mr. Spectator," Roger de Coverley, and "Isaac Bickerstaff", and both Addison and Steele created fictions to surround their narrators. The dispassionate view of the world (the pose of a spectator, rather than participant) was essential for the development of the English essay, as it set out a ground wherein Addison and Steele could comment and meditate upon manners and events. Rather than being philosophers like Montesquieu, the English essayist could be an honest observer and his reader's peer. After the success of The Spectator, more political periodicals of comment appeared. However, the political factions and coalitions of politicians very quickly realized the power of this type of press, and they began funding newspapers to spread rumors. The Tory ministry of Robert Harley (1710–1714) reportedly spent over 50,000 pounds sterling on creating and bribing the press (Butt). Politicians wrote papers, wrote into papers, and supported papers, and it was well known that some of the periodicals, like Mist's Journal, were party mouthpieces. Events February 13 - Massacre of Glencoe March 1 - The Salem witch trials begin in Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony with the charging of three women with witchcraft. ... // Events Treaty of Aargau signed between Catholic and Protestants. ... The Spectator was a daily publication of 1711‑14, founded by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele. ... Joseph Addison, the Kit-cat portrait, circa 1703-1712, by Godfrey Kneller. ... Other persons called Richard Steele include Richard Steele, the boxing referee, and Richard Steele, the American magican and illusionist. ... The Spectator was a daily publication of 1711–14, founded by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele. ... This article is about the pseudonym used by Richard Steele, Joseph Addison, and Jonathan Swift; for information about the Anglo-Irish playwright, see Isaac Bickerstaffe. ... A philosopher is a person devoted to studying and producing results in philosophy. ... Portrait of Montesquieu in 1728 Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (January 18, 1689 – February 10, 1755), more commonly known as Montesquieu, was a French political thinker who lived during the Enlightenment and is famous for his articulation of the theory of separation... Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer (5 December 1661 - 21 May 1724), was an English statesman of the Stuart and early Georgian periods. ... // Events April 10 - The worlds first copyright legislation became effective, Britains Statute of Anne Ongoing events Great Northern War (1700-1721) War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713) Births January 3 - Richard Gridley, American Revolutionary soldier (d. ... // Events August 1 - George, elector of Hanover becomes King George I of Great Britain. ...

Philosophy and religious writing

A woodcut of Daniel Defoe.

The Augustan period showed less literature of controversy than the Restoration. There were Puritan authors, however, and one of the names usually associated with the novel is perhaps the most prominent in Puritan writing: Daniel Defoe. After the coronation of Anne, dissenter hopes of reversing the Restoration were at an ebb, and dissenter literature moved from the offensive to the defensive, from revolutionary to conservative. Defoe's infamous volley in the struggle between high and low church came in the form of The Shortest Way with the Dissenters; Or, Proposals for the Establishment of the Church. The work is satirical, attacking all of the worries of Establishment figures over the challenges of dissenters. It is, in other words, defensive. Later still, the most majestic work of the era, and the one most quoted and read, was William Law's A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (1728). The Meditations of Robert Boyle remained popular as well. Both Law and Boyle called for revivalism, and they set the stage for the later development of Methodism and George Whitefield's sermon style. However, their works aimed at the individual, rather than the community. The age of revolutionary divines and militant evangelists in literature was over for a considerable time. Image File history File links Defoe-daniel. ... Image File history File links Defoe-daniel. ... Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (1660 [?] â€“ 1731) was an English writer, journalist and spy, who gained enduring fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. ... The Puritans were members of a group of English Protestants seeking further reforms or even separation from the established church during the Reformation. ... Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (1660 [?] â€“ 1731) was an English writer, journalist and spy, who gained enduring fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. ... William Law (1686 – April 9, 1761), English divine, was born at Kings Cliffe, Northamptonshire. ... Events Astronomical aberration discovered by the astronomer James Bradley Swedish academy of sciences founded at Uppsala Births January 9 - Thomas Warton, English poet (d. ... Robert Boyle The Honourable Robert Boyle (January 25, 1627 - December 30, 1691) was an Anglo-Irish natural philosopher, noted for his work in physics and chemistry. ... The Methodist movement is a group of denominations of Protestant Christianity. ... George Whitefield was a minister in the Church of England and one of the leaders of the Methodist movement. ...

Also in contrast to the Restoration, when philosophy in England was fully dominated by John Locke, the 18th century had a vigorous competition among followers of Locke. Bishop Berkeley extended Locke's emphasis on perception to argue that perception entirely solves the Cartesian problem of subjective and objective knowledge by saying "to be is to be perceived." Only, Berkeley argued, those things that are perceived by a consciousness are real. For Berkeley, the persistence of matter rests in the fact that God perceives those things that humans are not, that a living and continually aware, attentive, and involved God is the only rational explanation for the existence of objective matter. In essence, then, Berkeley's skepticism leads to faith. David Hume, on the other hand, took empiricist skepticism to its extremes, and he was the most radically empiricist philosopher of the period. He attacked surmise and unexamined premises wherever he found them, and his skepticism pointed out metaphysics in areas that other empiricists had assumed were material. Hume doggedly refused to enter into questions of his personal faith in the divine, but his assault on the logic and assumptions of theodicy and cosmogeny was devastating, and he concentrated on the provable and empirical in a way that would lead to utilitarianism and naturalism later. Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: John Locke Free, full-text works by John Locke Works by John Locke at Project Gutenberg Works by Locke on the Web John Locke Online Bibliography Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry John Locke Bibliography John Locke Manuscripts Readable versions of the Essay... Bishop George Berkeley George Berkeley (British English://; Irish English: //) (March 12, 1685 – January 14, 1753), also known as Bishop Berkeley, was an influential Irish philosopher whose primary philosophical achievement is the advancement of what has come to be called subjective idealism, summed up in his dictum, Esse est percipi... Wikisource has original works written by or about: René Descartes Works by René Descartes at Project Gutenberg A summary of his book A Discourse On Method French French Audio Book (mp3) : excerpt about animals/machines from Discourse On the Method Discourse On the Method – at Project Gutenberg Selections from the... God is the term used to denote the Supreme Being believed by monotheistic religions to exist and to be the creator and ruler of the Universe. ... Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: David Hume Online editions of Humes work: Works by David Hume at Project Gutenberg Free eBook of A Treatise of Human Nature at Project Gutenberg Free eBook of The History of England, Volume I at Project Gutenberg Free eBook of An... Metaphysics (Greek words meta = after/beyond and physics = nature) is a branch of philosophy concerned with the study of first principles and being (ontology). ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Cosmogony [Gr. ... ... Naturalism refers to a number of different topics: Naturalism (philosophy): the view that nothing exists but the natural universe, either methodologically or ontologically — that there are no supernatural entities or at least no observations that show them to exist. ...

In social and political philosophy, economics underlies much of the debate. Bernard de Mandeville's The Fable of the Bees (1714) became a center point of controversy regarding trade, morality, and social ethics. Mandeville argued that wastefulness, lust, pride, and all the other "private" vices were good for the society at large, for each led the individual to employ others, to spend freely, and to free capital to flow through the economy. Mandeville's work is full of paradox and is meant, at least partially, to problematize what he saw as the naive philosophy of human progress and inherent virtue. However, Mandeville's arguments, initially an attack on graft of the War of the Spanish Succession, would be quoted often by economists who wished to strip morality away from questions of trade. // Events August 1 - George, elector of Hanover becomes King George I of Great Britain. ... Charles II was the last Habsburg King of Spain. ...

Adam Smith is remembered by lay persons as the father of capitalism, but his Theory of Moral Sentiments of 1759 also attempted to strike out a new ground for moral action. His emphasis on "sentiment" was in keeping with the era, as he emphasized the need for "sympathy" between individuals as the basis of fit action. These ideas, and the psychology of David Hartley, were influential on the sentimental novel and even the nascent Methodist movement. If sympathetic sentiment communicated morality, would it not be possible to induce morality by providing sympathetic circumstances? Smith's greatest work was An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations in 1776. What it held in common with de Mandeville, Hume, and Locke was that it began by analytically examining the history of material exchange, without reflection on morality. Instead of deducing from the ideal or moral to the real, it examined the real and tried to formulate inductive rules. Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Capitalism The dollar-sign is often used as a symbol representing capitalism. ... 1759 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... There are several persons with the name David Hartley: David Hartley (1705-1757), English philosopher David Hartley (1731-1813), son of David Hartley the philosopher, and signatory to the Treaty of Paris David Hartley, musician This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise... This article is about the year 1776. ...

The novel

The ground for the novel had been laid by journalism, drama and satire. Long prose satires like Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726) had a central character who goes through adventures and may (or may not) learn lessons. However, the most important single satirical source for the writing of novels came from Cervantes's Don Quixote (1605, 1615). In general, one can see these three axes, drama, journalism, and satire, as blending in and giving rise to three different types of novel. Gulliver Gullivers Travels (1726, amended 1735) is a work of fiction by Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of the travellers tales literary sub-genre. ... Events George Friderich Handel becomes a British subject. ... Cervantes can refer to: Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote Francisco Cervantes de Salazar, 16th-century man of letters Cervantes, Ilocos Sur, a municipality in the Philippines Cervantes, a town in Western Australia Cervantes de Leon, a character in the Soul Calibur series of fighting games This is a... Statues of Don Quixote (left) and Sancho Panza (right) This page is about the fictional character and novel. ... Events April 13 - Tsar Boris Godunow dies - Feodor II accedes to the throne May 16 - Paul V becomes Pope June 1 - Russian troops in Moscow imprison Feodor II and his mother. ... Events June 2 - First Récollet missionaries arrive at Quebec City, from Rouen, France. ...

Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719) was the first major novel of the new century. Defoe worked as a journalist during and after its composition, and therefore he encountered the memoirs of Alexander Selkirk, who had been stranded in South America on an island for some years. Defoe took the actual life and, from that, generated a fictional life, satisfying an essentially journalistic market with his fiction. In the 1720s, Defoe interviewed famed criminals and produced accounts of their lives. In particular, he investigated Jack Sheppard and Jonathan Wild and wrote True Accounts of the former's escapes (and fate) and the latter's life. From his reportage on the prostitutes and criminals, Defoe may have become familiar with the real-life Mary Mollineaux, who may have been the model for Moll in Moll Flanders (1722). In the same year, Defoe produced A Journal of the Plague Year (1722), which summoned up the horrors and tribulations of 1665 for a journalistic market for memoirs, and an attempted tale of a working-class male rise in Colonel Jack (1722). His last novel returned to the theme of fallen women in Roxana (1724). Thematically, Defoe's works are consistently Puritan. They all involve a fall, a degradation of the spirit, a conversion, and an ecstatic elevation. This religious structure necessarily involved a bildungsroman, for each character had to learn a lesson about him or herself and emerge the wiser. Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (1660 [?] â€“ 1731) was an English writer, journalist and spy, who gained enduring fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. ... Robinson Crusoe and Man Friday by Carl Offterdinger Robinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published in 1719 and sometimes regarded as the first novel in English. ... // Events January 23 - The Principality of Liechtenstein is created within the Holy Roman Empire April 25 - Daniel Defoe publishes Robinson Crusoe June 10 - Battle of Glen Shiel Prussia conducts Europes first systematic census Miners in Falun, Sweden find an apparently petrified body of Fet-Mats Israelsson in an unused... Alexander Selkirk, born Alexander Selcraig, (1676–December 13, 1721) was a sailor who spent 4 years as a castaway on an uninhabited island; he is supposed to be the prototype of Defoes Robinson Crusoe. ... South America South America is a continent crossed by the equator, with most of its area in the Southern Hemisphere. ... Jack Sheppard (1702-16 November 1724) was a notorious English robber, burglar and thief of early 18th century London. ... Jonathan Wild in the condemned cell at Newgate Prison Jonathan Wild (1683–May 24, 1725) was perhaps the most famous criminal of London — and possibly Great Britain — during the 18th century, both because of his own actions and the uses novelists, playwrights, and political satirists made of them. ... Events Abraham De Moivre states De Moivres theorem connecting trigonometric functions and complex numbers Publication of the first book of Bachs Well-Tempered Clavier Fall of Persias Safavid dynasty during a bloody revolt of the Afghani people. ... Events Abraham De Moivre states De Moivres theorem connecting trigonometric functions and complex numbers Publication of the first book of Bachs Well-Tempered Clavier Fall of Persias Safavid dynasty during a bloody revolt of the Afghani people. ... Events March 4 - Start of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. ... Events January 14 - King Philip V of Spain abdicates the throne February 20 - The premiere of Giulio Cesare, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel, takes place in London June 23 - Treaty of Constantinople signed. ... A bildungsroman (German: novel of education or novel of formation) is a novel which traces the spiritual, moral, psychological, or social development and growth of the main character from (usually) childhood to maturity. ...

A plate from the 1742 deluxe edition of Richardson's Pamela, or, Virtue Rewarded showing Mr. B intercepting Pamela's first letter home to her mother.

Although there were novels in the interim, Samuel Richardson's Pamela, or, Virtue Rewarded (1740) is the next landmark development in the English novel. Richardson's generic models were quite distinct from those of Defoe. Instead of working from the journalistic biography, Richardson had in mind the books of improvement that were popular at the time. Pamela Andrews enters the employ of a "Mr. B." As a dutiful girl, she writes to her mother constantly, and as a Christian girl, she is always on guard for her "virtue" (i.e. her virginity), for Mr. B lusts after her. The novel ends with her marriage to her employer and her rising to the position of lady. Pamela, like its author, presents a dissenter's and a Whig's view of the rise of the classes. The work drew a nearly instantaneous set of satires, of which Henry Fielding's Shamela, or an Apology for the Life of Miss Shamela Andrews (1742) is the most memorable. Fielding continued to bait Richardson with Joseph Andrews (1742), the tale of Shamela's brother, Joseph, who goes through his life trying to protect his own virginity, thus reversing the sexual predation of Richardson and satirizing the idea of sleeping one's way to rank. However, Joseph Andrews is not a parody of Richardson, for Fielding proposed his belief in "good nature," which is a quality of inherent virtue that is independent of class and which can always prevail. Joseph's friend Parson Adams, although not a fool, is a naïf and possessing good nature. His own basic good nature blinds him to the wickedness of the world, and the incidents on the road (for most of the novel is a travel story) allow Fielding to satirize conditions for the clergy, rural poverty (and squires), and the viciousness of businessmen. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (563x946, 1372 KB)An illustration from the 1742 octavo edition of Pamela, which combined both parts of the novel. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (563x946, 1372 KB)An illustration from the 1742 octavo edition of Pamela, which combined both parts of the novel. ... // Events January 24 - Charles VII Albert becomes Holy Roman Emperor. ... Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded is a novel by Samuel Richardson, first published in 1740. ... Samuel Richardson (August 19, 1689 – July 4, 1761) was a major eighteenth-century writer best known for his three epistolary novels: Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded (1740), Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady (1748) and Sir Charles Grandison (1753). ... Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded is a novel by Samuel Richardson, first published in 1740. ... Events May 31 - Friedrich II comes to power in Prussia upon the death of his father, Friedrich Wilhelm I. October 20 - Maria Theresia of Austria inherits the Habsburg hereditary dominions (Austria, Bohemia, Hungary and present-day Belgium). ... This is an article on biographies. ... A lady is a woman who is the counterpart of a lord; or, the counterpart of a gentleman. ... Henry Fielding (April 22, 1707 – October 8, 1754) was an English novelist and dramatist known for his rich earthy humor and satirical prowess and as the author of the novel Tom Jones. ... // Events January 24 - Charles VII Albert becomes Holy Roman Emperor. ... Joseph Andrews is a novel by Henry Fielding, first published in 1742. ... // Events January 24 - Charles VII Albert becomes Holy Roman Emperor. ...

A portrait of Henry Fielding.

In 1747 through 1748, Samuel Richardson published Clarissa in serial form. Unlike Pamela, it is not a tale of virtue rewarded. Instead, it is a highly tragic and affecting account of a young girl whose parents try to force her into an uncongenial marriage, thus pushing her into the arms of a scheming rake named Lovelace. In the end, Clarissa dies by her own will. The novel is a masterpiece of psychological realism and emotional effect, and when Richardson was drawing to a close in the serial publication, even Henry Fielding wrote to him, begging him not to kill Clarissa. As with Pamela, Richardson emphasized the individual over the social and the personal over the class. Even as Fielding was reading and enjoying Clarissa, he was also writing a counter to its messages. His Tom Jones of 1749 offers up the other side of the argument from Clarissa. Tom Jones agrees substantially in the power of the individual to be more or less than his or her birth would indicate, but it again emphasizes the place of the individual in society and the social ramifications of individual choices. Fielding answers Richardson by featuring a similar plot device (whether a girl can choose her own mate) but showing how family and village can complicate and expedite matches and felicity. This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Henry Fielding (April 22, 1707 – October 8, 1754) was an English novelist and dramatist known for his rich earthy humor and satirical prowess and as the author of the novel Tom Jones. ... // Events January 31 - The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Dock Hospital April 9 - The Scottish Jacobite Lord Lovat was beheaded by axe on Tower Hill, London, for high treason; he was the last man to be executed in this way in Britain May 14 - First battle of Cape... Events April 24 - A congress assembles at Aix-la-Chapelle with the intent to conclude the struggle known as the War of Austrian Succession - at October 18 - The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle is signed to end the war Adam Smith begins to deliver public lectures in Edinburgh Building of... This article needs to be wikified. ... The Tavern Scene from A Rakes Progress by William Hogarth. ... Ada Lovelace, assistant to Charles Babbage and the first computer programmer Linda Lovelace, pornographic film star Francis Lovelace, Governor of New York Colony This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (often known simply as Tom Jones) is a comic novel by Henry Fielding. ... Events While in debtors prison, John Cleland writes Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure). ...

A portrait of Tobias Smollett.

Two other novelists should be mentioned, for they, like Fielding and Richardson, were in dialog through their works. Laurence Sterne's and Tobias Smollett's works offered up oppositional views of the self in society and the method of the novel. The clergyman Laurence Sterne consciously set out to imitate Jonathan Swift with his Tristram Shandy (1759–1767). Tristram seeks to write his autobiography, but like Swift's narrator in A Tale of a Tub, he worries that nothing in his life can be understood without understanding its context. For example, he tells the reader that at the very moment he was conceived, his mother was saying, "Did you wind the clock?" To explain how he knows this, he explains that his father took care of winding the clock and "other family business" on one day a month. To explain why the clock had to be wound then, he has to explain his father. In other words, the biography moves backward rather than forward in time, only to then jump forward years, hit another knot, and move backward again. It is a novel of exceptional energy, of multi-layered digressions, of multiple satires, and of frequent parodies. Journalist, translator, and historian Tobias Smollett, on the other hand, wrote more seemingly traditional novels. He concentrated on the picaresque novel, where a low-born character would go through a practically endless series of adventures. Sterne thought that Smollett's novels always paid undue attention to the basest and most common elements of life, that they emphasized the dirt. Although this is a superficial complaint, it points to an important difference between the two as authors. Sterne came to the novel from a satirical background, while Smollett approached it from journalism. In the 19th century, novelists would have plots much nearer to Smollett's than either Fielding's or Sterne's or Richardson's, and his sprawling, linear development of action would prove most successful. This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Tobias Smollett Tobias George Smollett (March 19, 1721 - September 17, 1771) was a Scottish author, best known for his picaresque novels, such as Roderick Random and Peregrine Pickle. ... Laurence Sterne Laurence Sterne (November 24, 1713 – March 18, 1768) was an Anglo-Irish novelist and clergyman. ... Tobias Smollett Tobias George Smollett (March 19, 1721 - September 17, 1771) was a Scottish author, best known for his picaresque novels, such as Roderick Random and Peregrine Pickle. ... The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (or, more briefly, Tristram Shandy) is a novel by Laurence Sterne. ... 1759 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... 1767 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... An autobiography (from the Greek auton, self, bios, life and graphein, write) is a biography written by the subject or composed conjointly with a collaborative writer (styled as told to or with). The term dates from the late eighteenth century, but the form is much older. ... A Tale of a Tub (play). ... Digression in literature is a section of a composition or speech that is an intentional change of subject. ... Tobias Smollett Tobias George Smollett (March 19, 1721 - September 17, 1771) was a Scottish author, best known for his picaresque novels, such as Roderick Random and Peregrine Pickle. ... The picaresque novel (Spanish: picaresco, from pícaro, for rogue or rascal) is a popular style of novel that originated in Spain and flourished in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries and has continued to influence modern literature. ...

In the midst of this development of the novel, other trends were taking place. The novel of sentiment was beginning in the 1760s and would experience a brief period of dominance. This type of novel emphasized sympathy. In keeping with the theories of Adam Smith and David Hartley (see above), the sentimental novel concentrated on characters who are quickly moved to labile swings of mood and extraordinary empathy. Sarah Fielding's David Simple outsold her brother Henry Fielding's Joseph Andrews and took the theory of "good nature" to be a sentimental nature. Other women were also writing novels and moving away from the old romance plots that had dominated before the Restoration. There were utopian novels, like Sarah Scott's Millennium Hall (1762), autobiographical women's novels like Frances Burney's works, female adaptations of older, male motifs, such as Charlotte Lennox's The Female Quixote (1752) and many others. These novels do not generally follow a strict line of development or influence. However, they were popular works that were celebrated by both male and female readers and critics. Sarah Fielding (November 8, 1710 – 1768) was a British author and sister of Henry Fielding. ... 1762 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Fanny Burney later Madame DArblay (June 13, 1752-January 6, 1840) was an English novelist and diarist. ... Charlotte Ramsey Lennox (c. ... 1752 was a leap year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...

Historians of the novel

Ian Watt's The Rise of the Novel (1957) still dominates attempts at writing a history of the novel. Watt's view is that the critical feature of the 18th-century novel is the creation of psychological realism. This feature, he argued, would continue on and influence the novel as it has been known in the 20th century. Michael McKeon brought a Marxist approach to the history of the novel in his 1986 The Origins of the English Novel. McKeon viewed the novel as emerging as a constant battleground between two developments of two sets of world view that corresponded to Whig/Tory, Dissenter/Establishment, and Capitalist/Persistent Feudalist. Literary critic and literary historian Ian Watt (1917-1999) was a professor of English at Stanford University. ... 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Marxism is the social theory and political practice based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century German philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ...

Satire (unclassified)

An illustration from Jonathan Swift's A Tale of a Tub showing the three "stages" of human life: the pulpit, the theatre, and the gallows. Click on the image for detail.

A single name overshadows all others in 18th-century prose satire: Jonathan Swift. Swift wrote poetry as well as prose, and his satires range over all topics. Critically, Swift's satire marked the development of prose parody away from simple satire or burlesque. A burlesque or lampoon in prose would imitate a despised author and quickly move to reductio ad absurdum by having the victim say things coarse or idiotic. On the other hand, other satires would argue against a habit, practice, or policy by making fun of its reach or composition or methods. What Swift did was to combine parody, with its imitation of form and style of another, and satire in prose. Swift's works would pretend to speak in the voice of an opponent and imitate the style of the opponent and have the parodic work itself be the satire. Swift's first major satire was A Tale of a Tub (1703–1705), which introduced an ancients/moderns division that would serve as a distinction between the old and new conception of value. The "moderns" sought trade, empirical science, the individual's reason above the society's, while the "ancients" believed in inherent and immanent value of birth, and the society over the individual's determinations of the good. In Swift's satire, the moderns come out looking insane and proud of their insanity, and dismissive of the value of history. In Swift's most significant satire, Gulliver's Travels (1726), autobiography, allegory, and philosophy mix together in the travels. Thematically, Gulliver's Travels is a critique of human vanity, of pride. Book one, the journey to Liliput, begins with the world as it is. Book two shows that the idealized nation of Brobdingnag with a philosopher king is no home for a contemporary Englishman. Book four depicts the land of the Houyhnhnms, a society of horses ruled by pure reason, where humanity itself is portrayed as a group of "yahoos" covered in filth and dominated by base desires. It shows that, indeed, the very desire for reason may be undesirable, and humans must struggle to be neither Yahoos nor Houyhnhnms, for book three shows what happens when reason is unleashed without any consideration of morality or utility (i.e. madness, ruin, and starvation). Download high resolution version (705x1192, 78 KB)Woodcut from the Tale of a Tub illustrating the Three Stages of Humanity, which are the theater, the gallows, and the pulpit. ... Download high resolution version (705x1192, 78 KB)Woodcut from the Tale of a Tub illustrating the Three Stages of Humanity, which are the theater, the gallows, and the pulpit. ... Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (November 30, 1667 – October 19, 1745) was an Anglo-Irish writer who is famous for works like Gullivers Travels, A Modest Proposal, and A Tale of a Tub. ... A Tale of a Tub (play). ... Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (November 30, 1667 – October 19, 1745) was an Anglo-Irish writer who is famous for works like Gullivers Travels, A Modest Proposal, and A Tale of a Tub. ... In contemporary usage, parody is a form of satire that imitates another work of art in order to ridicule it. ... A Tale of a Tub (play). ... Events February 2 - Earthquake in Aquila, Italy February 4 - In Japan, the 47 samurai commit seppuku (ritual suicide) February 14 - Earthquake in Norcia, Italy April 21 - Company of Quenching of Fire (ie. ... Events Construction begins on Blenheim Palace, in Oxfordshire, England. ... Gulliver Gullivers Travels (1726, amended 1735) is a work of fiction by Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of the travellers tales literary sub-genre. ... Events George Friderich Handel becomes a British subject. ... Philosopher-kings are the hypothetical rulers of Platos utopian Kallipolis. ...

There were other satirists who worked in a less virulent way, who took a bemused pose and only made lighthearted fun. Tom Brown, Ned Ward, and Tom D'Urfey were all satirists in prose and poetry whose works appeared in the early part of the Augustan age. Tom Brown's most famous work in this vein was Amusements Serious and Comical, Calculated for the Meridian of London (1700). Ned Ward's most memorable work was The London Spy (1704–1706). The London Spy, before The Spectator, took up the position of an observer and uncomprehendingly reporting back. Tom D'Urfey's Wit and Mirth: or Pills to Purge Melancholy (1719) was another satire that attempted to offer entertainment, rather than a specific bit of political action, in the form of coarse and catchy songs. Tom Brown refers to multiple individuals, including: notable historical people: Tom Brown (hero), Hero from Yarm who fought in the battle of Dettingen. ... Events January 1 - Russia accepts Julian calendar. ... Events Building of the Students Monument in Aiud, Romania. ... Events March 27 - Concluding that Emperor Iyasus I of Ethiopia had abdicated by retiring to a monastery, a council of high officials appoint Tekle Haymanot I Emperor of Ethiopia May 23 - Battle of Ramillies September 7 - The Battle of Turin in the War of Spanish Succession - forces of Austria and... // Events January 23 - The Principality of Liechtenstein is created within the Holy Roman Empire April 25 - Daniel Defoe publishes Robinson Crusoe June 10 - Battle of Glen Shiel Prussia conducts Europes first systematic census Miners in Falun, Sweden find an apparently petrified body of Fet-Mats Israelsson in an unused...

Particularly after Swift's success, parodic satire had an attraction for authors throughout the 18th century. A variety of factors created a rise in political writing and political satire, and Robert Walpole's success and domination of Commons was a very effective proximal cause for polarized literature and thereby the rise of parodic satire. The parodic satire takes apart the cases and plans of policy without necessarily contrasting a normative or positive set of values. Therefore, it was an ideal method of attack for ironists and conservatives—those who would not be able to enunciate a set of values to change toward but could condemn present changes as ill-considered. Satire was present in all genres during the Augustan period. Perhaps primarily, satire was a part of political and religious debate. Every significant politician and political act had satires to attack it. Few of these were parodic satires, but parodic satires, too, emerged in political and religious debate. So omnipresent and powerful was satire in the Augustan age that more than one literary history has referred to it as the "Age of satire" in literature. The Right Honourable Sir Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, KG , GCB , PC, ( 26 August 1676–18 March 1745 ) was a British statesman who is generally regarded as having been the first Prime Minister of Great Britain. ... British House of Commons Canadian House of Commons In some bicameral parliaments of a Westminster System, the House of Commons has historically been the name of the elected lower house. ...

Poetry

Main article Augustan poetry Augustan poetry is named for Caesar Augustus. ...

In the Augustan era, poets wrote in direct counterpoint and direct expansion of one another, with each poet writing satire when in opposition. There was a great struggle over the nature and role of the pastoral in the early part of the century, reflecting two simultaneous movements: the invention of the subjective self as a worthy topic, with the emergence of a priority on individual psychology, against the insistence on all acts of art being performance and public gesture designed for the benefit of society at large. The development seemingly agreed upon by both sides was a gradual adaptation of all forms of poetry from their older uses. Odes would cease to be encomium, ballads cease to be narratives, elegies cease to be sincere memorials, satires no longer be specific entertainments, parodies no longer be performance pieces without sting, song no longer be pointed, and the lyric would become a celebration of the individual rather than a lover's complaint. These developments can be seen as extensions of Protestantism, as Max Weber argued, for they represent a gradual increase in the implications of Martin Luther's doctrine of the priesthood of all believers, or they can be seen as a growth of the power and assertiveness of the bourgeoisie and an echo of the displacement of the worker from the home in growing industrialization, as Marxists such as E.P. Thompson have argued. It can be argued that the development of the subjective individual against the social individual was a natural reaction to trade over other methods of economic production. Whatever the prime cause, a largely conservative set of voices argued for a social person and largely emergent voices argued for the individual person. Titians The Pastoral Concert Pastoral refers to the lifestyle of shepherds. ... Ode is a form of stately and elaborate lyrical verse. ... A ballad is a story in a song, usually a narrative song or poem. ... Originally used for a type of poetic metre (Elegiac metre), the term elegy is also used for a poem of mourning, from the Greek elegos, a reflection on the death of someone or on a sorrow generally. ... A song is a relatively short musical composition for the human voice (possibly accompanied by other musical instruments), which features words (lyrics). ... Lyric can have a number of meanings. ... Protestantism is a movement within Christianity, representing a split from within the Roman Catholic Church during the mid-to-late Renaissance in Europe —a period known as the Protestant Reformation. ... Maximilian Weber (April 21, 1864 – June 14, 1920) was a German political economist and sociologist who is considered one of the founders of the modern, antipositivistic study of sociology and public administration. ... Luther at age 46 (Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1529) The Luther seal Martin Luther (November 10, 1483–February 18, 1546) was a German theologian, an Augustinian monk, and an ecclesiastical reformer whose teachings inspired the Reformation and deeply influenced the doctrines and culture of the Lutheran and Protestant traditions. ... The priesthood of all believers is a Protestant doctrine founded on the First Epistle of Peter, 2:9: But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into... Bourgeoisie (RP [], GA []) in modern use refers to the wealthy or propertied social class in a capitalist society. ... Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ... Edward Palmer Thompson (1924-1993) was a historian probably best known for his work The Making of the English Working Class, which included his reassessment of the Luddite movement. ...

Alexander Pope, the single poet who most influenced the Augustan Age.

The entire Augustan age's poetry was dominated by Alexander Pope. His lines were repeated often enough to lend quite a few clichés and proverbs to modern English usage. Pope had few poetic rivals, but he had many personal enemies and political, philosophical, or religious opponents, and Pope himself was quarrelsome in print. Pope and his enemies (often called "the Dunces" because of Pope's successful satirizing of them in The Dunciad) fought over central matters of the proper subject matter for poetry and the proper pose of the poetic voice. Alexander Pope, ca 1727, studio of Michael Dahl, oil on canvas, National Portrait Gallery 4132, Primary Collection. ... Alexander Pope, an English poet best known for his Essay on Criticism and Rape of the Lock Pope, circa 1727. ... Alexander Pope, an English poet best known for his Essay on Criticism and Rape of the Lock Pope, circa 1727. ... Alexander Pope The Dunciad is a landmark literary satire by Alexander Pope published in three different versions at different times. ...

There was a great struggle over the nature and role of the pastoral in the early part of the century. After Pope published his Pastorals of the four seasons in 1709, an evaluation in the Guardian praised Ambrose Philips's pastorals above Pope's, and Pope replied with a mock praise of Philips's Pastorals that heaped scorn on them. Pope quoted Philips's worst lines, mocked his execution, and delighted in pointing out his empty lines. Pope later explained that any depictions of shepherds and their mistresses in the pastoral must not be updated shepherds, that they must be icons of the Golden Age: "we are not to describe our shepherds as shepherds at this day really are, but as they may be conceived then to have been, when the best of men followed the employment" (Gordon). Philips's Pastorals were not particularly awful poems, but they did reflect his desire to "update" the pastoral. In 1724, Philips would update poetry again by writing a series of odes dedicated to "all ages and characters, from Walpole, the steerer of the realm, to Miss Pulteney in the nursery." Henry Carey was one of the best at satirizing these poems, and his Namby Pamby became a hugely successful obliteration of Philips and Philips's endeavor. What is notable about Philips against Pope, however, is the fact that both poets were adapting the pastoral and the ode, both altering it. Pope's insistence upon a Golden Age pastoral no less than Philips's desire to update it meant making a political statement. While it is easy to see in Ambrose Philips an effort at modernist triumph, it is no less the case that Pope's artificially restricted pastoral was a statement of what the ideal should be. Titians The Pastoral Concert Pastoral refers to the lifestyle of shepherds. ... // Events January 12 - Two-month freezing period begins in France - The coast of the Atlantic and Seine River freeze, crops fail and at least 24. ... Ambrose Philips (c. ... A golden age is a period in a field of endeavour where great tasks were accomplished. ... Events January 14 - King Philip V of Spain abdicates the throne February 20 - The premiere of Giulio Cesare, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel, takes place in London June 23 - Treaty of Constantinople signed. ... Henry Carey is the name of either Henry Charles Carey (1793-1879) - an American economist Henry Carey (died 1743) - dramatist and song-writer This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Namby Pamby is a term for affected, weak, and maudlin speech/verse. ...

Portrait of John Gay from Samuel Johnson's Lives of the English Poets, the 1779 edition. Gay's gentle satire was a contrast with the harsher Pope and Swift.

Pope's friend John Gay also adapted the pastoral. Gay, working at Pope's suggestion, wrote a parody of the updated pastoral in The Shepherd's Week. He also imitated Juvenal with his Trivia. In 1728, his The Beggar's Opera was an enormous success, running for an unheard-of eighty performances. All of these works have in common a gesture of compassion. In Trivia, Gay writes as if commiserating with those who live in London and are menaced by falling masonry and bedpan slops, and The Shepherd's Week features great detail of the follies of everyday life and eccentric character. Even The Beggar's Opera, which is a satire of Robert Walpole, portrays its characters with compassion: the villains have pathetic songs in their own right and are acting out of exigency rather than boundless evil. Image File history File links John Gay illustration from Samuel Johnsons Lives of the Poets, the 1779 edition. ... Image File history File links John Gay illustration from Samuel Johnsons Lives of the Poets, the 1779 edition. ... John Gay John Gay (30 June 1685 - 4 December 1732) was an English poet and dramatist. ... Samuel Johnson circa 2002, painted by Irish .]] Dr Samuel Johnson (September 7, 1709 Old Style/September 18 New Style 1–December 13, 1784), often referred to simply as Dr Johnson, was one of Englands most forgetful people: a poet, essayist, biographer, lexicographer, and often did stupid things like flooding... 1779 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Note: This article is about the Roman poet, who is the most famous person by this name. ... Trivia (1716) is the name of a poem by John Gay, loosely based on Juvenal. ...

Throughout the Augustan era the "updating" of Classical poets was a commonplace. These were not translations, but rather they were imitations of Classical models, and the imitation allowed poets to veil their responsibility for the comments they made. Alexander Pope would manage to refer to the King himself in unflattering tones by "imitating" Horace in his Epistle to Augustus. Similarly, Samuel Johnson wrote a poem that falls into the Augustan period in his "imitation of Juvenal" entitled London. The imitation was inherently conservative, since it argued that all that was good was to be found in the old classical education, but these imitations were used for progressive purposes, as the poets who used them were often doing so to complain of the political situation. Samuel Johnson circa 2002, painted by Irish .]] Dr Samuel Johnson (September 7, 1709 Old Style/September 18 New Style 1–December 13, 1784), often referred to simply as Dr Johnson, was one of Englands most forgetful people: a poet, essayist, biographer, lexicographer, and often did stupid things like flooding...

In satire, Pope achieved two of the greatest poetic satires of all time in the Augustan period. The Rape of the Lock (1712 and 1714) was a gentle mock-heroic. Pope applies Virgil's heroic and epic structure to the story of a young woman (Arabella Fermor) having a lock of hair snipped by an amorous baron (Lord Petre). The structure of the comparison forces Pope to invent mythological forces to overlook the struggle, and so he creates an epic battle, complete with a mythology of sylphs and metempsychosis, over a game of Ombre, leading to a fiendish appropriation of the lock of hair. Finally, a deux ex machina appears and the lock of hair experiences an apotheosis. To some degree, Pope was adapting Jonathan Swift's habit, in A Tale of a Tub, of pretending that metaphors were literal truths, and he was inventing a mythos to go with the everyday. The poem was an enormous public success. The Rape of the Lock is a mock-heroic poem written by Alexander Pope, first published in 1712 in two cantos, and then reissued in 1714 in a much-expanded 5-canto version. ... // Events Treaty of Aargau signed between Catholic and Protestants. ... // Events August 1 - George, elector of Hanover becomes King George I of Great Britain. ... ... Sylph is a faux-mythological creature in the Western tradition. ... Past Lives redirects here. ... Ombre was a card game played by three players with a deck of 40 cards. ... Deus ex machina is Latin for god from the machine and is a calque from the Greek από μηχανής θεός, (pronounced apo mekhanes theos). It originated with Greek and Roman theater, when a mechane would lower a god or gods onstage to resolve a hopeless situation. ... Apotheosis of French soldiers fallen in the liberation war, Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, beginning of 19th century. ...

One of the scabrous satirical prints directed against Pope after his Dunciad of 1727.

A decade after the gentle, laughing satire of The Rape of the Lock, Pope wrote his masterpiece of invective and specific opprobrium in The Dunciad. The story is that of the goddess Dulness choosing a new avatar. She settles upon one of Pope's personal enemies, Lewis Theobald, and the poem describes the coronation and heroic games undertaken by all of the dunces of Great Britain in celebration of Theobald's ascension. When Pope's enemies responded to The Dunciad with attacks, Pope produced the Dunciad Variorum, with a "learned" commentary upon the original Dunciad. In 1743, he added a fourth book and changed the hero from Lewis Theobald to Colley Cibber. In the fourth book of the new Dunciad, Pope expressed the view that, in the battle between light and dark (enlightenment and the dark ages), Night and Dulness were fated to win, that all things of value were soon going to be subsumed under the curtain of unknowing. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1088x1759, 1868 KB)Satirical print depicting A--- P--E, for Alexander Pope, depicted as a pope, with papal tiara and atop a stack of Popes works. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1088x1759, 1868 KB)Satirical print depicting A--- P--E, for Alexander Pope, depicted as a pope, with papal tiara and atop a stack of Popes works. ... Alexander Pope The Dunciad is a landmark literary satire by Alexander Pope published in three different versions at different times. ... The 10 avatars of Lord Vishnu In Hinduism, an avatar or avatara (Sanskrit अवतार), is the incarnation (bodily manifestation) of an Immortal Being, or of the Ultimate Supreme Being. ... Lewis Theobald (1688 - 1744), British textual editor and author, was a landmark figure both in the history of Shakespearean editing and in literary satire. ... // Events February 14 - Henry Pelham becomes British Prime Minister February 21 - - The premiere in London of George Frideric Handels oratorio, Samson. ... Colley Cibber, actor, playwright, Poet Laureate, first British actor-manager, and head Dunce of Alexander Popes Dunciad. ... There are several possible use of the 3 letter word/formula nox: Nox is a goddess of Night: see Nyx. ...

John Gay and Alexander Pope belong on one side of a line separating the celebrants of the individual and the celebrants of the social. Pope wrote The Rape of the Lock, he said, to settle a disagreement between two great families, to laugh them into peace. Even The Dunciad, which seems to be a serial killing of everyone on Pope's enemies list, sets up these figures as expressions of dangerous and antisocial forces in letters. Theobald and Cibber are marked by vanity and pride, by having no care for morality. The hireling pens Pope attacks mercilessly in the heroic games section of the Dunciad are all embodiments of avarice and lies. Similarly, Gay writes of political society, of social dangers, and of follies that must be addressed to protect the greater whole. Gay's individuals are microcosms of the society at large. On the other side of this line were people who agreed with the politics of Gay and Pope (and Swift), but not in approach. They include, early in the Augustan Age, James Thomson and Edward Yonge. Thomson's The Seasons (1730) are nature poetry, but they are unlike Pope's notion of the Golden Age pastoral. Thomson's poet speaks in the first person from direct observation, and his own mood and sentiment color the descriptions of landscape. Unlike Pope's Windsor Forest, Thomson's seasons have no mythology, no celebration of Britain or the crown. Winter, in particular, is melancholy and meditative. Edward Yonge's Night Thoughts (1742–1744) was immediately popular. It was, even more than Winter, a poem of deep solitude, melancholy, and despair. In these two poets, there are the stirrings of the lyric as the Romantics would see it: the celebration of the private individual's idiosyncratic, yet paradigmatic, responses to the visions of the world. James Thomson (September 11, 1700 – August 27, 1748) was a Scottish poet. ... This article is about the poet Edward Young. ... The Seasons is a Lithuanian poem written by Kristijonas Donelaitis. ... Events Pope Clement XII elected September 17 - Change of emperor of the Ottoman Empire from Ahmed III (1703-1730) to Mahmud I (1730-1754) Anna Ivanova (Anna I of Russia) became czarina Births April 16 - Henry Clinton, British general (d. ... The Sentiment for 18th century readers and writers is an equivalent for a strong romantic, usually exageratedly powerful feeling. ... Edward Young Edward Young (1683 - April 5, 1765) was an English poet, best remembered for Night Thoughts. ... // Events January 24 - Charles VII Albert becomes Holy Roman Emperor. ... // Events The third French and Indian War, known as King Georges War, breaks out at Port Royal, Nova Scotia The First Saudi State founded by Mohammed Ibn Saud Prague occupied by Prussian armies Ongoing events War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748) Births January 10 - Thomas Mifflin, fifth President... The specific use of Romantic poetry varies, but the most common definition is a movement in poetry seeking formal freedom, increased emotional effect and use of ancient and folk sources for poetry. ...

James Thomson, from the 1779 edition of Samuel Johnson's Lives of the English Poets.

These hints at the solitary poet were carried into a new realm with Thomas Gray, whose Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard (1750) set off a new craze for poetry of melancholy reflection. It was written in the "country," and not in or as opposed to London, and the poem sets up the solitary observer in a privileged position. It is only by being solitary that the poet can speak of a truth that is wholly individually realized. After Gray, a group often referred to as the Churchyard Poets began imitating his pose, if not his style. Oliver Goldsmith (The Deserted Village), Thomas Warton, and even Thomas Percy (The Hermit of Warkworth), each conservative by and large and Classicist (Gray himself was a professor of Greek), took up the new poetry of solitude and loss. Image File history File links A low resolution image of James Thomson (Seasons), from Samuel Johnsons 1779 File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... James Thomson (September 11, 1700 – August 27, 1748) was a Scottish poet. ... 1779 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Samuel Johnson circa 2002, painted by Irish .]] Dr Samuel Johnson (September 7, 1709 Old Style/September 18 New Style 1–December 13, 1784), often referred to simply as Dr Johnson, was one of Englands most forgetful people: a poet, essayist, biographer, lexicographer, and often did stupid things like flooding... Thomas Gray (December 26, 1716 – July 30, 1771), English poet, classical scholar, and professor of history at Cambridge University. ... Events March 2 - Small earthquake in London, England April 4 - Small earthquake in Warrington, England August 23 - Small earthquake in Spalding, England September 30 - Small earthquake in Northampton, England November 16 – Westminster Bridge officially opened Jonas Hanway is the first Englishman to use an umbrella James Gray reveals her sex... Churchyard Poets or Graveyard Poets is a critical term applied in retrospect to a number of English poets of the 1750s to the 1790s who wrote in the vein of Thomas Grays Elegy in a Country Churchyard (1750). ... Oliver Goldsmith Oliver Goldsmith (November 10, 1730(?) – April 4, 1774) was an Irish writer and physician known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), his pastoral poem The Deserted Village (1770) (written in memory of his brother), and his plays The Good-naturd Man (1768) and She Stoops... Thomas Warton (January 9, 1728 - May 21, 1790) was an English academic and poet, holder of the title of Poet Laureate from 1785. ... Thomas Percy (April 13, 1729 - September 30, 1811), was Bishop of Dromore, and is remembered as editor of Tatler, Guardian, and Spectator. ...

When the Romantics emerged at the end of the 18th century, they were not assuming a radically new invention of the subjective self themselves, but merely formalizing what had gone before. Similarly, the later 18th century saw a ballad revival, with Thomas Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. The relics were not always very ancient, as many of the ballads dated from only the 17th century (e.g. the Bagford Ballads or The Dragon of Wantley in the Percy Folio), and so what began as an antiquarian movement soon became a folk movement. When this folk-inspired impulse combined with the solitary and individualistic impulse of the Churchyard Poets, Romanticism was nearly inevitable. The Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (sometimes known as Reliques of Ancient Poetry or simply Percys Reliques) is a collection of ballads and popular songs collected by Thomas Percy and published in 1765. ... The Bagford Ballads were English ballads collected by John Bagford (1651 - 1716) for Robert Harley, first Earl of Oxford. ... The Dragon of Wantley is a 17th century satirical verse parody about a dragon and a brave knight. ... The Percy Folio is a folio book of English ballads used by Thomas Percy to compile his Reliques of Ancient Poetry. ...

Drama

Main article at Augustan drama Augustan drama can refer to the dramas of Ancient Rome during the reign of Caesar Augustus, but it most commonly refers to the plays of Great Britain in the early 18th century, a subset of 18th-century Augustan literature. ...

The "Augustan era" is difficult to define chronologically in prose and poetry, but it is very easy to date its end in drama. The Augustan era's drama ended definitively in 1737, with the Licensing Act. Prior to 1737, however, the English stage was changing rapidly from the Restoration comedy and Restoration drama and their noble subjects to the quickly developing melodrama. Events 12 February — The San Carlo, the oldest working opera house in Europe, is inaugurated. ... The Licensing Act or Theatrical Licensing Act of 1737 was a landmark act of censorship of the British stage. ... Refinement meets burlesque in Restoration comedy. ... Refinement meets burlesque in Restoration comedy. ... Poster for The Perils of Pauline (1914). ...

George Lillo and Richard Steele wrote the trend-setting plays of the early Augustan period. Lillo's plays consciously turned from heroes and kings and toward shopkeepers and apprentices. They emphasized drama on a household scale, rather than a national scale, and the hamartia and agon in his tragedies are the common flaws of yielding to temptation and the commission of Christian sin. The plots are resolved with Christian forgiveness and repentance. Steele's The Conscious Lovers (1722) hinges upon his young hero avoiding fighting a duel. These plays set up a new set of values for the stage. Instead of amusing the audience or inspiring the audience, they sought to instruct the audience and ennoble it. Further, the plays were popular precisely because they seemed to reflect the audience's own lives and concerns. George Lillo (1693 - 1739) was a British playwright and tragedian. ... Other persons called Richard Steele include Richard Steele, the boxing referee, and Richard Steele, the American magican and illusionist. ... Tragic flaw, derived from the Greek word hamartia, which is also translated in religious works (e. ... In classical Greek drama, the agon refers to the formal convention according to which the struggle between the characters should be scripted in order to supply the basis of the action. ... Events Abraham De Moivre states De Moivres theorem connecting trigonometric functions and complex numbers Publication of the first book of Bachs Well-Tempered Clavier Fall of Persias Safavid dynasty during a bloody revolt of the Afghani people. ... A duel or duel of honour is a formalised type of armed combat in which two individuals participate. ...

Joseph Addison also wrote a play, entitled Cato, in 1713. Cato concerned the Roman statesman. The year of its première was important, for Queen Anne was in serious illness at the time, and both the Tory ministry of the day and the Whig opposition (already being led by Robert Walpole) were concerned about the succession. Both groups were contacting the Old Pretender about bringing the Young Pretender over. Londoners sensed this anxiety, for Anne had no heirs, and all of the natural successors in the Stuart family were Roman Catholic or unavailable. Therefore, the figure of Cato was a transparent symbol of Roman integrity, and the Whigs saw in him a champion of Whig values, while the Tories saw in him an embodiment of Tory sentiments. Both sides cheered the play, even though Addison was himself clearly Whig. John Home's play Douglas (1756) would have a similar fate to Cato in the next generation, after the Licensing Act. // Events April 11 - War of the Spanish Succession: Treaty of Utrecht June 23 - French residents of Acadia given one year to declare allegiance to Britain or leave Nova Scotia Canada first Orrery built by George Graham Ongoing events Great Northern War (1700-1721) War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713... Cato can refer to several different things. ... Prince James Francis Edward Stuart or Stewart (June 10, 1688 - January 1, 1766) was a claimant of the thrones of Scotland and England (September 16, 1701 - January 1, 1766) who is more commonly referred to as The Old Pretender. ... Bonnie Prince Charlie Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Silvester Severino Maria Stuart (December 31, 1720 – January 31, 1788), was the exiled claimant to the thrones of Great Britain and Ireland, commonly known as Bonnie Prince Charlie. Charles was the son of James Francis Edward Stuart, the Old Pretender, who was... John Home (September 22, 1722 - September 5, 1808) was a Scottish poet and dramatist. ... Douglas (also spelled Douglass) is a masculine given name. ... 1756 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

A print by William Hogarth entitled A Just View of the British Stage from 1724 depicting the managers of Drury Lane (Robert Wilks, Colley Cibber, and Barton Booth) rehearsing a play comprised of nothing but special effects, while they used the scripts for Macbeth, Hamlet, Julius Caesar and The Way of the World for toilet paper. This battle of effects was a common subject of satire for the literary wits, including Pope in The Dunciad.

As during the Restoration, economics drove the stage in the Augustan period. Under Charles II court patronage meant economic success, and therefore the Restoration stage featured plays that would suit the monarch and/or court. The drama that celebrated kings and told the history of Britain's monarchs was fit fare for the crown and courtiers. Charles II was a philanderer, and so Restoration comedy featured a highly sexualized set of plays. However, after the reign of William and Mary, the court and crown stopped taking a great interest in the playhouse. Theaters had to get their money from the audience of city dwellers, therefore, and consequently plays that reflected city anxieties and celebrated the lives of citizens drew and were staged. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1593x1607, 2222 KB)A Just View of the English Stage by William Hogarth. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1593x1607, 2222 KB)A Just View of the English Stage by William Hogarth. ... William Hogarth, self-portrait, 1745 William Hogarth (November 10, 1697 – October 26, 1764) was a major British painter, engraver, pictorial satirist, and editorial cartoonist who has been credited as a pioneer in western sequential art. ... Events January 14 - King Philip V of Spain abdicates the throne February 20 - The premiere of Giulio Cesare, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel, takes place in London June 23 - Treaty of Constantinople signed. ... Drury Lane is a street in the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. ... Colley Cibber, actor, playwright, Poet Laureate, first British actor-manager, and head Dunce of Alexander Popes Dunciad. ... Barton Booth (1681- May 10, 1733) was one of the most famous dramatic actors of the first part of the 18th century. ... Alexander Pope The Dunciad is a landmark literary satire by Alexander Pope published in three different versions at different times. ... Charles II (29 May 1630–6 February 1685) was the King of England, King of Scots, and King of Ireland from 30 January 1649 (retrospectively de jure) or 29 May 1660 (de facto) until his death. ...

Thus, there were quite a few plays that were, in fact, not literary that were staged more often than the literary plays. John Rich and Colley Cibber duelled over special theatrical effects. They put on plays that were actually just spectacles, where the text of the play was almost an afterthought. Dragons, whirlwinds, thunder, ocean waves, and even actual elephants were on stage. Battles, explosions, and horses were put on the boards. Rich specialized in pantomime and was famous as the character "Lun" in harlequin presentations. The plays put on in this manner are not generally preserved or studied, but their monopoly on the theaters infuriated established literary authors. John Rich (1682 - 1761) was an important theater manager in 18th century London. ... Colley Cibber, actor, playwright, Poet Laureate, first British actor-manager, and head Dunce of Alexander Popes Dunciad. ... Pantomime may refer to two different types of performing arts. ... Harlequin may refer to: Penis ...

Additionally, opera made its way to England during this period. Inasmuch as opera combined singing with acting, it was a mixed genre, and this violated all the strictures of neo-classicism. Further, high melodies would cover the singers' expressions of grief or joy, thus breaking "decorum." To add insult to injury, the casts and celebrated stars were foreigners, and, as with Farinelli, castrati. The satirists saw in opera the non plus ultra of invidiousness. As Pope put it in Dunciad B: The foyer of Charles Garniers Opéra, Paris, opened 1875 Opera refers to a dramatic art form, originating in Europe, in which the emotional content is conveyed to the audience as much through music, both vocal and instrumental as it is through the lyrics. ... Neoclassicism (sometimes rendered as Neo-Classicism or Neo-classicism) is the name given to quite distinct movements in the visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture. ... Farinelli (January 24, 1705-July 15, 1782), whose real name was Carlo Broschi, was one of the most famous Italian soprano castrato singers of the 18th century. ... A castrato is a male soprano, mezzo_soprano, or alto voice produced by castration of the singer before puberty. ...

"Joy to Chaos! let Division reign:

Chromatic tortures soon shall drive them [the muses] hence,

Break all their nerves, and fritter all their sense:

One Trill shall harmonize joy, grief, and rage,

Wake the dull Church, and lull the ranting Stage;

To the same notes thy sons shall hum, or snore,

And all thy yawning daughters cry, encore." (IV 55-60)

John Gay parodied the opera with his satirical Beggar's Opera (1728) and offered up a parody of Robert Walpole's actions during the South Sea Bubble. Superficially, the play is about a man named Macheath who keeps being imprisoned by a thief named Peachum and who escapes prison over and over again because the daughter of the jailor, Lucy Lockitt, is in love with him. This is an obvious parallel with the case of Jonathan Wild (Peachum) and Jack Sheppard (Macheath). However, it was also the tale of Robert Walpole (Peachum) and the South Sea directors (Macheath). The play was a hit, and its songs were printed up and sold. However, when Gay wrote a follow up called Polly, Walpole had the play suppressed before performance. Events Astronomical aberration discovered by the astronomer James Bradley Swedish academy of sciences founded at Uppsala Births January 9 - Thomas Warton, English poet (d. ... Hogarthian image of the South Sea Bubble by Edward Matthew Ward, Tate Gallery More well known than The South Sea Company is perhaps the South Sea Bubble (1711 - September 1720) which is the name given to the economic bubble that occurred through overheated speculation in the company shares during 1720. ... Jonathan Wild in the condemned cell at Newgate Prison Jonathan Wild (1683–May 24, 1725) was perhaps the most famous criminal of London — and possibly Great Britain — during the 18th century, both because of his own actions and the uses novelists, playwrights, and political satirists made of them. ... Jack Sheppard (1702-16 November 1724) was a notorious English robber, burglar and thief of early 18th century London. ...

Frontispiece to Fielding's Tom Thumb, a play satirizing plays (and Robert Walpole).

Playwrights were therefore in straits. On the one hand, the playhouses were doing without plays by turning out hack-written pantomimes. On the other hand, when a satirical play appeared, the Whig ministry would suppress it. This antagonism was picked up by Henry Fielding, who was not afraid to fight Walpole. His Tom Thumb (1730) was a satire on all of the tragedies written before him, with quotations from all the worst plays patched together for absurdity, and the plot concerned the eponymous tiny man attempting to run things. It was, in other words, an attack on Robert Walpole and the way that he was referred to as "the Great Man." Here, the Great Man is made obviously deficient by being a midget. Walpole responded, and Fielding's revision of the play was in print only. It was written by "Scribblerus Secundus," its title page announced, and it was the Tragedy of Tragedies, which functioned as a clearly Swiftian parodic satire. Anti-Walpolean sentiment also showed in increasingly political plays, and the theaters began to stage them. A particular play of unknown authorship entitled A Vision of the Golden Rump was cited when Parliament passed the Licensing Act of 1737. (The "rump" in question is Parliament, on the one hand, and buttocks on the other.) Image File history File links Frontispiece to Tragedy of Tragedies, or the Magnificent History of Tom Thumb the Great by Henry Fielding. ... Image File history File links Frontispiece to Tragedy of Tragedies, or the Magnificent History of Tom Thumb the Great by Henry Fielding. ... The Right Honourable Sir Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, KG , GCB , PC, ( 26 August 1676–18 March 1745 ) was a British statesman who is generally regarded as having been the first Prime Minister of Great Britain. ...

The Licensing Act required all plays to go to a censor before staging, and only those plays passed by the censor were allowed to be performed. The first play to be banned by the new Act was Gustavus Vasa, by Henry Brooke. Samuel Johnson wrote a Swiftian parodic satire of the licensers, entitled A Complete Vindication of the Licensers of the English Stage. The satire was, of course, not a vindication at all, but rather a reductio ad absurdum of the position for censorship. Had the licensers not exercised their authority in a partisan manner, the Act might not have chilled the stage so dramatically, but the public was well aware of the bannings and censorship, and consequently any play that did pass the licensers was regarded with suspicion by the public. Therefore, the playhouses had little choice but to present old plays and pantomime and plays that had no conceivable political content. In other words, William Shakespeare's reputation grew enormously as his plays saw a quadrupling of performances, and sentimental comedy and melodrama were the only choices. This page is about the 18th century writer. ... Samuel Johnson circa 2002, painted by Irish .]] Dr Samuel Johnson (September 7, 1709 Old Style/September 18 New Style 1–December 13, 1784), often referred to simply as Dr Johnson, was one of Englands most forgetful people: a poet, essayist, biographer, lexicographer, and often did stupid things like flooding... Censorship is the control of speech and other forms of human expression, often by government intervention. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...

Very late in the Augustan period, Oliver Goldsmith attempted to resist the tide of sentimental comedy with She Stoops to Conquer (1773), and Richard Brinsley Sheridan would mount several satirical plays after Walpole's death, but to a large degree the damage had been done and would last for a century. She Stoops to Conquer is a comedy by Oliver Goldsmith, first performed in 1773. ... 1773 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Richard Brinsley Sheridan Richard Brinsley Sheridan (October 30, 1751 – July 7, 1816) was an Irish playwright and politician. ...

References

• "Proceedings of the Old Bailey". Retrieved July 1, 2005.
• Edward Yonge on bibliomania.com. Retrieved July 1, 2005.
• Davis, Caroline. "Publishing in the Eighteenth Century: Popular Print Genres". Retrieved June 22, 2005.
• Defoe, Daniel. The Shortest Way with the Dissenters; Or, Proposals for the Establishment of the Church. Retrieved June 20, 2005.
• de Mandeville, Bernard. Excerpts from The Fable of the Bees, 1705. Retrieved June 21, 2005.
• D'Urfey, Tom. Wit and Mirth: or Pills to Purge Melancholy. 6 vol. London: Jacob Tonson, 1719-1720.
• "The Contemplator's Short Biography of Thomas D'Urfey (1653-1723)". Retrieved June 27, 2005.
• Fielding, Henry. Tragedy of Tragedies, or Tom Thumb. 1731.
• Gay, John. The Beggar's Opera. Bryan Loughrey and T. O. Treadwell, eds. London: Penuin Books, 1986.
• Gordon, I. R. F. "Pastorals 1709". Retrieved June 29, 2005.
• Greene, Donald. The Age of Exuberance: Backgrounds to Eighteenth-Century Literature, 1660-1785. New York: McGraw Hill Companies, 1970.
• Huber, Alexander, ed. The Thomas Gray Archive, Oxford University. Retrieved July 1, 2005.
• Macaulay, Thomas Babbington. History of England. 1848.
• Law, William. A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life. 1728. Retrieved June 20, 2005.
• The Millwall History Files, an account of the Great Fire of London. Retrieved June 15, 2005.
• Pope, Alexander. The Poetic Works of Alexander Pope. John Butt, ed. New Haven: Yale UP.
• Porter, Roy (2000). The Creation of the Modern World. New York: W. W. Norton.
• Shelley, Henry C. Inns and Taverns of Old London: Setting forth the historic and literary associations of those ancient hostelries, together with an account of the most notable coffee-houses, clubs and pleasure gardens of the British metropolis. Boston: L.C. Page and Company, 1909.
• Sterne, Laurence. Tristram Shandy. Retrieved July 1, 2005.
• Sutherland, Donald R. "The Religion of Gerrard Winstanley and Digger Communism", from Essays in History. Retrieved June 20, 2005.
• Thompson, E. P. The Making of the English Working Class.
• Thompson, E. P. Whigs and Hunters: The Origin of the Black Act. London: Allen Lane, 1975.
• Ward, A.W., A.R. Waller, W. P. Trent, J. Erskine, S.P. Sherman, and C. Van Doren. The Cambridge history of English and American literature: An encyclopedia in eighteen volumes. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1921.
  • Ibid. "'Hudibras' and Hudibrastic Verse", on bartleby.com. Retrieved July 1, 2005.
• Watt, Ian. The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding. Los Angeles: U California Press, 1957.
• Weber, Max. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, German original 1904–05, English ed. 1920. Retrieved July 3, 2005.

London, as it appeared from Bankside, Southwark, During the Great Fire — Derived from a Print of the Period by Visscher The Great Fire of London was a major confligration that swept through the City of London from September 2 to September 5, 1666, and resulted more or less in the...

See also

• Restoration literature
  • Restoration spectacular
• Romantic poetry
• Novel
• Jonathan Wild
• The Mint