THE NEO-CLASSICAL PERIOD

Outline:
 Genera Introduction
o Division
o Background
 Restoration period
o Introduction
o Religion and politics
o Restoration literature 1600 – 1700
 Restoration comedy
 Satire on manners of the people
 Theme of appearance and reality
 Characteristics of literature:
 Reason
 Balance
 Decorum
 Verbal wits
 Repartee
 Slapstick comedy
 Farce
 Heroic drama
 Writers:
o Alexander Pope (1688 – 1744)
o Jonathan Swift (1667 – 1745)
o Daniel Defoe (1660 – 1731)
o Samuel Richardson (1689 – 1761)
o Henry Fielding
 Introduction
Neoclassical literature was written between 1660 and 1798. It was the time of both formality and
artificiality. This time period is broken down into three parts:
o The Restoration periods
o Augustan period
o Age of Johnson

Writers of neo classical period tried to imitate the style of Romans and Greeks. Thus, the combination of
the terms “neo” which means “new” and “classical” as in the day of the Roman and Greek classics. This
was also the era of The Enlightenment, which emphasized logic and reason. It was preceded by the
Renaissance and followed by the Romantic era. In fact, the Neoclassical period ended in 1798, when
Wordsworth published the Romantic “Lyrical Ballads”.

Restoration period:
 Introduction:
One of the most important and interesting aspects of literature is the way that it both respond to and it’s
inevitably shaped by the political context in which it is written. Some of the best examples of this can be
found in the Restoration period, which lasted from 1660 to around 1688.
The name “Restoration” comes from the crowing of Charles II, which marks the restoring of the
traditional English monarchal form of government following a short period of rule by a handful of
republican governments. At the heart of this literature is the attempt to come to terms with the political
event that had occurred in previous decades. The writings of this time are both innovative and varied, the
style and subject matter of the literature produced during the Restoration period spanned the spectrum
from definitively religious to satirical and risqué. In 1699, James II, Charles II’s brother was removed
from the throne, which many scholars use to mark the end of Restoration.

 Religion and Politics:

The monarchical restoration was accompanied by the re-opening of English theatres (closed during
Cromwell’s Puritan regime) and the Church of English as the national church. Church and state continued
to be closely intertwined. The test Act of 1673 required all holders of civil and military offices to take the
sacrament in the Anglican church and deny transubstantiation; those who refused (e.g. Protestant
Dissenters and Roman Catholics) were not allowed to attend university or hold public office.
King Charles II, though he outwardly conformed to Anglicanism, had Catholic sympathies that placed
him at odds with his strongly anti-Catholic parliament. Charles had no legitimate heir. His brother James
was next in line to the throne. Parliament tried to force Charles to exclude his brother from the line of
succession. Charles ended this “Exclusion Crisis” by dissolving Parliament.
The exclusion Crisis in a sense created modern political parties: the Tories, who supported the King, and
the Whigs, who opposed him. Once crowned, King James II quickly suspended the test Act. In 1688, the
birth of James’s son so alarmed the country with the prospect of a new succession of Catholic monarchs
that secret negotiations began to bring a new protestant ruler from Europe to out James.
  Restoration Literature: 1600 – 1700
Dryden was the most influential writer of the Restoration, for he wrote in every form important to the
period occasional verse, comedy, tragedy, heroic play, odes, satires, translations of the classical works
and produced influential critical essays concerning how one ought to write these forms.
Restoration prose style grew more like witty, urbane conversation and less like the intricate, rhetorical
style of previous writers like John Milton and John Donne. Simultaneously, Restoration literature
continued to appeal to heroic ideals of heroic tragedy.
The other major dramatic genre was the Restoration comedy of manners, which emphasizes sexual
intrigue and satirizes the elite’s social behavior with witty dialogue.

o Restoration Comedy:
Restoration comedy is also known as comedy of manners. Following are the characteristics of restoration
comedy.
 Satire on manners of the people
 Theme of appearance and reality

1. Satire on manners of the people:

The predominance of satire is an important literary characteristic of the age. Nearly every writer of the
first half of the eighteenth century was used and rewarded by Whigs or Tories for satirizing their enemies
and for advancing their special political interests. A satirist is like a laborer who clears away the ruins and
rubbish of on old house before the architect and builders begin on a new and beautiful structure. The work
may sometime be necessary but it rarely arouses our enthusiasm.
2. Theme of appearance and reality:
In this manner writers wrote on both appearance and reality. They represent that how things are in
looking and what are these realities. In this type of literature different manners were exposed. That
literature was not the literature of imagination. There are some manners in literature.

 Characteristics of literature:
Literature of neo-classical era has some characteristics; these characteristics are as follows:
 Reason
 Balance
 Decorum
 Verbal wits
 Repartee
 Slapstick comedy
 Farce
 Heroic drama
Here are the details of above-mentioned types.
1) Reason:
Literature in age before neo-classical age had imagination. But in neo-classical literature people started
thinking about reason Poet wrote poetry, authors wrote novels, essays etc. with reason. That literature had
some objective purpose. Literature had some purpose in neo-classical literature.
2) Balance:
There is balance in neo-classical literature. The balance is between reason and imagination. If there is
some imagination then their reason also lies here.
3) Decorum:
Decorum means appropriate style and Diction. Appropriate style means Latinate style. Latinate style has
OSV rule. This rule is object, subject and verb. But appropriate diction means polysyllabic vocabulary.
These are some characteristics of neo-classical literature.
Restoration era was the era of novels. In this era novels were very famous. We can also say that this era
was the beginning of novel.
4) Verbal Wits:
After restoration comedy we will move towards verbal wits. Verbal wit is the type of literature in which
you make fun or satire on someone in words.
5) Repartee:
Repartee comes from the French word repartire which is a fencing term meaning an answering trust with
a sword. In which you come back with a quick and sharp blow. Most of us aren’t as quick as we’d like to
be. Mark Twain defined repartee as,
“something we think of 24 hours too late.”
Repartee is also a kind of insult.
6) Slapstick comedy:
Slapstick, a type of physical comedy characterized by broad humor, absurd situations, and vigorous,
violent actions. The slapstick must often be an acrobat, a stunt performed, and something of a magician –
a master of uninhibited action and perfect timing.
7) Farce:
Farce is a type of comedy. It is a comedy that aims at entertaining the audience through situations that are
highly exaggerated, extravagant, and thus importable.
Elements of farce are:

 Mistaken identities
 Escapades (when two people escape)
 Infidelity of lover (when lover deceive)
 8) Heroic drama:
Heroic drama is a type of play popular during the Restoration era in England, distinguished by both its
verse structure and its subject matter. Heroic plays showed the heroic virtues in noble men, and the
women were described as wonderfully beautiful.
John Dryden was a famous dramatist of restoration period. His best heroic plays were “The conquest of
Granada” and “Aurangzeb”’. There was also some prose work. Dryden wrote his critical work named
“Essay on Dramatic poesy”. In this work Dryden compares English drama with French drama.

Writers of Neo-Classical Age

1) Alexander Pope: (1688 – 1744)
 Birth:
Alexander Pope was born in Lombard street, London, the son of a prosperous merchant who was also a
Roman Catholic.

 Education:
He was largely educated at home. His parents moved to Benfield in Windsor Forest in 1700. Probably in
response to laws which, among other restrictions, prevented Catholics from living within 10 miles of
London. Here he contracted the first of a series of illness.

 Works;
By 1700 he was already writing imitations of Cowley, Chaucer and Spenser and translating Ovid and
Homer. His essay on criticism was published and quickly established his literary reputation. The Rape of
the Lock, a mock-heroic poem on the theft of a lock of hair from a society beauty by a society beau, was
published in 1712. Eloisa to Abelard and Elegy to the Memory of an unfortunate Lady established his
reputation as the foremost poet of his day. He died in 1744.

2) Jonathan Swift: (1667 – 1745)

 Birth:
Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin. His father died before he was born, and his nurse, who had become
very fond of her young charge, took him at the age of one year old to Whitehaven in Cumberland.

 Education:
On his return to Ireland his education was paid for his uncle, Godwin, first at Kilkenny School and then at
Trinity College, Dublin.
  Works:
His first major works were, A tale of a Tub, and The Battle of the Books. These were satire concerning
whether ancient or modern authors were to be preferred, which was the continuation of debate begun by
Temple in his essay upon Ancient and Modern Learning of 1692.

3) Daniel Defoe: (1660 – 1731)

 Birth:
He was born in 1660.

 Education:
Defoe was educated at the Rev. James Fisher’s boarding school in Pixham Lane in Dorking, surrey. At
age of 14, he attended a dissenting academy at Newington Green in London.

 Works:
He was an English trader, writer, journalist and spy. He wrote many novels. He was most famous for his
novels, as he helped to popularized the form in Britain and with other such as Samuel Richardson. He
wrote more than five hundred books, pamphlets and journals on various topics. He was also a pioneer of
economic journalism. Pamphleteering and prison, Anglo-Scottish Union of 1707, Late writing and novels,
The Complete English Tradesman were his famous works. A leading Unionist, wrote in his memories
that,
“He was a spy among US, but not known
as such, otherwise the Mob of Edinburgh
would pull him to pieces.”

4) Samuel Richardson: (1689 – 1761)

 Birth:
He was born o 19 August 1689, Mackworth, Derbyshire, England.

 Education:
The Richardson were not exiled forever from London; they eventually returned, and the young
Richardson was educated at Christ’s Hospital grammar school. The extent he was educated at the school
is uncertain, and Leigh Hunt wrote years later.
“It’s a fact not generally known that Richardson…
Received what education he had at Christ’s Hospital”

 Works:
Richardson printed the daily Gazette in 1738. He was also printed to the “society for the Encouragement
of Learning”. In 1738, Richardson’s printing business was successful enough to allow him to lease a
house in Fulham. While writing Richardson was inspired was inspired to write his first novel, Pamela: or,
Virtue Rewarded, was, sometimes regarded as the first novel of English. Clarissa: or, the history of a
Young Lady was his second novel. In The history of Sir Charles Grandison, he provides a hero who is
a model of benevolence. Richardson died on 4 July 1761, at London, England.

5) Henry Fielding:
 Birth:
He was born on April 22, 1707, Sharp ham Park, Somerset, England.

 Education:
The son of army lieutenant and a judge’s daughter, he was educated at Eton school and he University of
Leiden before returning to England where he wrote a series of farces, operas and light comedies.

 Work:
In 1739, Fielding turned to journalism and became editor of “The Champion”. He also began writing
novels, including:
 The Adventures of Joseph Andrews
 Abraham Adams
 Jonathan wild
 The history of Tom Jones
“The history of Tom Jones” was public acclaim. Critics agree that it is one of the greatest comic novels in
the English language.