literature, except for the pamphlets of Milton on political and social questions, was practically at a standstill. In 1660, however, began another active literary period, now called the Restoration, or after its chief literary figure -the age of Dryden. From 1700 to 1740 a new generation was writing which continued the traditions established in the age of Dryden. This is called the Queen Anne period, or-after its chief literary figure the age of Pope. After 1660 the men of letters no longer saw life in the old way. The enthusiasms of the Elizabethan age were now gone; Spenser became a dim figure of the past; Shakespeare was thought of as a genius, but rough and careless in workmanship. The literary men of the Restoration wanted the imagination controlled and organized. Spontaneity, originality, variety, novelty-all these qualities were in disrepute. An "age of prose and reason" was beginning. "A fit prose was a necessity; but it was impossible that a fit prose should. establish itself . . . without some touch of frost to the imaginative life of the soul. The needful qualities for a fit prose are regularity, uniformity, precision, balance." These qualities are exemplified in the work of John Dryden (1631-1700) whose influence was uppermost from 1660 to 1700. He modernized English prose in his critical essays, and his successors followed his simple and flexible style. Prose From the mass of forms in prose after 1660, three stand out with most significance for us: the prose allegory, the prose tale, and the essay. The prose allegory is best exemplified by one of the world's most famous books, Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan (1628-1688). The great power of this allegory is due in part to its religious interest, but mainly to its simplicity, sincerity, and applicability. Under the familiar form of a jour ney is allegorized the way of life. Without strain and without extravagance are pictured the trials of a Christian on his way toward Heaven, with such power that Vanity Fair, the Slough of Despond, and other obstacles in the pilgrim's path are known even to those who have never actually read the book. Another prose allegory which has become a classic is Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (1667-1745). The political allegory of Gulliver's Travels has long since evaporated and it has become a popular book for children who do not know that it is a bitter satire. A third form of prose literature is the prose tale, best exemplified by the famous Robinson Crusoe of Daniel Defoe (c. 1659-1731). Defoe's stories, written in a style of absolute realism, were regarded not as fiction but as true accounts of the lives of adventurers. They have no real plot, but are in the line of the so-called "picaresque" tales. The "picaresque" tale originated in Spain with the famous Lazarillo de Tormes, a story of a beggar boy and the masters whom he served. The Spanish word "picaro," a rogue, gives the term "picaresque" to the many stories of vagabonds and adventurers which followed Lazarillo de Tormes in Spain, France, and England. But of all prose forms after 1660 the most important is the essay. Dryden developed the informal critical essay in his Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668). Defoe introduced the idea of publishing essays in periodical form in A Review of the Affairs of France (1704-1713). Richard Steele (1672-1729) and Joseph Addison (1672-1719) improved upon their predecessors in their periodicals The Tatler (1709-11) and The Spectator (1711-12 and 1714), especially in the well-known papers on Sir Roger de Coverley and his friends, and established the essay as a standard form in English literature. As it was developed in the eighteenth century the essay became the prose counterpart of the lyric. It was the personal expression of a writer's ideas of life. Informality, ease, and individuality are the chief characteristics of the essay; grace, charm, and urbanity are its ideals. The chief purpose of the essay is not to convey information or instruction but to give opportunity for the self-expression of the writer. Drama The The drama flourished after 1660, but it could add nothing to the supreme work of the great Elizabethans. The search for novelty, however, added two forms to dramatic literature, the heroic play and the comedy of manners. heroic play was a short-lived dramatic form. It was a tragedy written in rhyme, outrageously improbable in plot, presenting characters of preposterous emotions, picturing love as a raging and devastating passion, and presented with lavish stage setting. A well-known heroic play is Dryden's Conquest of Granada. The comedy of manners reflected the life of the witty, brilliant, superficial, and dissolute court of King Charles II and his successors. The comedy of manners is primarily intellectual comedy rising from the absurdity, shallowness, or hypocrisy of social life. Such plays are usually in prose, the conversation of the characters sparkling with epigram and wit. The greatest writer of the comedy of manners before 1740 is William Congreve (1670-1729) whose The Way of the World is a fascinating picture of "high society." Poetry Though poetry after 1660 lost the imaginative qualities which glorified it in earlier days, it continued to be widely written and widely read. Only one poet, John Milton (1607-1674), continued the poetic traditions of the past. After a youth spent in study and travel, writing with gentle seriousness his descriptive poems L'Allegro and Il Penseroso, his masque Comus and his early sonnets, he turned, in the prime of his life, to the service of the state under Oliver Cromwell. He vehemently defended the Puritan power with his pamphlets and worked diligently in what we should call the department of state of the Puritan government. When Charles II returned from exile in 1660, Milton retired from active life, old, worn, and blind. In his last years he wrote the greatest examples of the English epic. Epic poetry had received much study ever since 1550 because of the high reputation of Virgil who was regarded as the greatest of ancient poets. It was natural for Milton when he made up his mind to crown his life with a poem which would demand all his powers to fix upon the grandest of all the ancient forms of poetry, the epic. His epic poems Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained take their place among the greatest literary achievements of the world. They stand beside the Eneid and the Divine Comedy. Written in Milton's old age, after a lifetime spent upon intellectual pursuits, they engaged his ripest powers. As the Divine Comedy is the epic of medieval Catholicism, Milton's great poems are the epic of the Protestantism of the Reformation. They were, even by an age hostile to Puritanism, recognized as a mighty achievement, and soon became established as the supreme expression of the epic in English literature. An interesting offshoot of epic poetry was the mock-epic in which the so-called "epic machinery," the familiar epic expressions, the extended similes, the intervention of deities, the "catalogue," the invocations to the muses, and the epic battles were used for burlesque or satirical purposes. The best example of the mock-epic in English is Alexander Pope's Rape of the Lock. The poem is an elaborate satire on English society. Lords and ladies replace classic heroes, attendant sylphs replace pagan divinities, a card game becomes an epic conflict, and a quarrel over a lock of hair causes a mighty struggle in society. Never was the heroic couplet used with more brilliance than in this, the most polished and subtle of Pope's works. Descriptive poetry received its full development after 1660. In the eighteenth century every phase of city and country life received attention in more or less poetic descriptive verse. In general, nature in its varied phases was the subject. As time went on, the description of nature became more and more conventionalized with a standardized poetic diction which was not disturbed until Wordsworth in 1800 pointed the way to a simpler and more natural manner of expression. Another poetical form which became even more widespread than descriptive poetry was didactic poetry of two kinds: satire and the versified essay. Didactic poetry adopted as the vehicle best suited for satire and for expository purposes the heroic couplet, two iambic pentameter lines rhymed. This measure was admirable in its condensation, point, terseness, brilliance, and clearness. But it also was death to imaginative poetry. At its best it furnishes some of the most quotable lines in English poetry; at its worst it is monotonous and dreary. John Dryden (1631-1700) took the heroic couplet in its experimental stage and by the vigor of his mind made it a powerful intellectual instrument. Alexander Pope (16881744) took Dryden's verse and, adding to it polish, brilliance, and nimble wit, became the greatest satirist and verse essayist in English literature. With Pope the heroic couplet flashed like a rapier: "Hither the heroes and the nymphs resort, In various talk th' instructive hours they past |