ENLIGHTENMENT The 17 th century was one

ENLIGHTENMENT

The 17 th century was one, of the most stormy periods of English history

The political situation in the country was complicated. The growing contradictions between the new class, the bourgeoisie, and the old forces of feudalism brought about the English Bourgeois Revolution in the 1640 s

As a result of the revolution, the king was dethroned and beheaded and England was proclaimed a republic. Though very soon monarchy was restored, the position of the bourgeoisie had changed.

The 18 th century saw Great Britain rapidly growing into a capitalist country.

It was an age of intensive industrial development. New machinery was invented that turned Britain into the first capitalist power of the world.

The 18 th century was also remarkable for the development of science and culture. It was in this period that English painting began to develop too.

• In spite of the progress of industry and culture in England the majority of : he English people were still very ignorant. That is why one of the most important problems that faced the country was the problem of education.

• The 17 th and 18 th centuries are known in the history of European culture as the period of Enlightenment. The Enlightenment defended the interest of the common people — craftsmen, tradesmen, peasants

• The central problem of the Enlightenment ideology was that of man and his nature. The Enlighteners believed in reason as well as in man's inborn goodness.

• Vice in people, they thought, was due to the miserable living conditions which could be changed by force of reason. They considered it their duty to enlighten people, to help them see the roots of evil. The Enlighteners also believed in the powerful educational value of art.

• The English Enlighteners were not unanimous in their views. Daniel Defoe , Alexander Pope and Samuel Richardson spoke in defence of the existing order, considering that a few reforms were enough to improve it.

• The other group included the writers who openly protested against the social order. They defended the interests of the exploited masses. They were: Jonathan Swift, Henry Fielding, Oliver Goldsmith, Richard Sheridan, Robert Burns. Jonathan Swift

Henry Fielding Oliver Goldsmith

Robert Burns Richard Sheridan

Alexander Pope (1688 -1744)

Alexander Pope was born in London in 1688

His father, a prosperous linen-draper, was a catholic, and because of his religion Pope was expelled from the public schools and universities. He picked up most of his knowledge from books, and though he read much he never became an accurate scholar.

Pope's poetic career began with Four Pastorals published in 1709.

These were short poems on spring, summer, autumn and winter, closely fashioned on Virgil. His Essay on Criticism contained Pope's aesthetic views.

A mock-heroic poem The Rape of the Lock which appeared in 1712 enjoyed instant success. It was founded on an incident which occurred at that time.

• A certain Lord Petre cut a lock of hair from the head of young beauty named Arabella Fermor (the Belinda of the poem).

• This practical joke led to a quarrel between the two families. Pope seized on the occasion and wrote a long poem in which the society is pictured in detail and satirized with great wit.

Pope's next work was the translation of the Illiad, which brought his fame and established financial positions. Pope translated Homer in the elegant artificial language of his own age and gave the reading public what it wanted — a readable version of the Greek poem in accordance with the taste of time.

• After the Illiad Pope translated the Odyssey. After the publication of his Homer, as the two poems are together popularly called, Pope wrote satiric poetry.

• In 1728 he published a long satire on the "dunces" — the bad poets — called The Dunciad. In The Dunciad Pope ridiculed his literary opponents

• The theme of the poem is the most important theme of the Enlightenment — the fight of the reason against ignorance and barbarity. It is the fiercest and the finest of Pope's satires.

• One of the best known and most quoted of his works is The Essay on Man. The purpose of the essay is to justify the existing state of things.

• In his Moral Essays and Essays on Criticism Pope expressed similar views. Yet he was not blind to the vices of bourgeois society, which he often criticized.

• Pope expressed his ideas in wonderfully quotable verse. After Shakespeare he is the most quoted of English poets.

These and many other quotations from Pope have found their way into common speech: • "A little learning is a dangerous thing. " • "And fools rush in, where angels fear to tread. " • "The proper study of mankind is man. " • "To err is human, to forgive divine. "

In his lifetime Pope was immensely popular. Many foreign writers as well as the majority of English poets, looked to him as their model. But later at the end of the 18 th century young ro mantic poets, especially Wordsworth and Coleridge criticized Pope's poetry for its rationalism and lack of imagination.