The Restoration and

Romanticism

Two Contrasting Periods:

The Restoration and Eighteenth

Century1660-1785

The Time: 1660-1785 1666: Great Fire burns 80% of

London

1681: Woman flogged in London for becoming involved in politics

1689: Parliament passes Bill of Rights and Toleration Act

1692: Salem witch trials

1700: Life expectancy in England is 36 years

1707: Great Britain formed Scotland + England

1721: After defeating Sweden, Russia has become a great power under Peter the Great

1725: “The Golden Age of Piracy” ends

1750: Benjamin Franklin links lightning and electricity

1769: Father Junipero Serra, a Franciscan, has become head of missions in Lower California

1776: Declaration of Independence

PoliticsKing Charles II• The Restoration of the Monarchy!

King James II

William and Mary• Glorious Revolution Constitutional Monarchy

Queen Anne• Great Britain = England + Scotland

King George I

EnlightenmentEnlightenment/Age of

Reason: Human intellect could discover

natural laws that would solve social, political, economical problems

Emphasized intellect over feeling

Empiricism: scientific method, learn things by observation and experiment

Neocla

ssic

Lit

era

ture DEFINITIONS

Emulated ancient Greek and Roman texts

Made us of classical forms and allusions and promoted ideals of harmony, tradition, and reason

STYLES

Essays Rhymed couplets Satire

Genre that uses irony, wit, and sarcasm to expose humanity’s vices and foibles, giving impetus to change or reform through ridicule.

Parody Imitates a literary style

for comic effect, usually to criticize that work, author, or style.

Epistle Novel

Witty, emphasized social interaction

More openly bawdy

The Romantic Movement (1785-1832)

Stuff Happening: 1785-1832

1783: Treaty of Paris ends American Revolution

1788: Great Britain begins sending convicts to Australia, rather than America

1789: Storming of the Bastille!

1791: Mozart dies in Vienna 1799: Napoleon. 1800: World Population

about one billion 1801: United Kingdom

formed 1802: Slave rebellion in Haiti

1803: Louisiana Purchase, Morphine derived from opium

1807: UK outlaws slave trade across Atlantic

1811: King George III is declared insane – Regency Period

1815: Napoleon defeated at Waterloo

1829: Scotch Tape invented

1830: First railway station in US opens, lawn mower and sewing machine invented

Terms Explainedromance: the actions and feelings of people

who are in love, especially behavior which is very caring or affectionate.

Romance: episodic narratives concerned with the exploits of knights, chivalry, and courtly love (generally Medieval)

Romanticism: a literary style and philosophy focused on subjective experience, nature, imagination, and the individual (late 1700s)

The Romantic Creed“Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of

powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.” William Wordsworth, The Preface to Lyrical

Ballads

Tenets of Romanticism

Nature is beautiful, powerful, untamable Humanity must look to Nature to understand itself

Emotions are important Poetry should be about common

people!Written in common language, accessible

Common people are closer to nature, less artificial

Romanticism is Reactionary!

Pre-RomanticismIndustrialization and

Urbanization

Enlightenment: Reason over Emotion

Enlightenment: All about the over-educated

American and French Revolutions

RomanticismIndustry is artificial,

Nature is Real

Emotion over Reason!

The common people are Real, should have voice

The commoners do have power!

A Lady’s Dressing RoomJonathan Swift

 FIVE Hours, (and who can do it less in?)    By haughty Celia spent in Dressing;    The Goddess from her Chamber issues,    Array'd in Lace, Brocades and Tissues.

Strephon, who found the Room was void,     And Betty otherwise employ'd;     Stole in, and took a strict Survey,     Of all the Litter as it lay;     Whereof, to make the Matter clear,     An Inventory follows here.

A Restoration

Poem!

        And first a dirty Smock appear'd,     Beneath the Arm-pits well besmear'd.     Strephon, the Rogue, display'd it wide,     And turn'd it round on every Side.     On such a Point few Words are best,     And Strephon bids us guess the rest;     But swears how damnably the Men lie,     In calling Celia sweet and cleanly.     Now listen while he next produces     The various Combs for various Uses,     Fill'd up with Dirt so closely fixt,     No Brush could force a way betwixt.

***

Hard by a filthy Bason stands,Fowl'd with the Scouring of her Hands; The Bason takes whatever comes The Scrapings of her Teeth and Gums, A nasty Compound of all Hues, For here she spits, and here she spues. But oh! it turn'd poor Strephon's Bowels,When he beheld and smelt the Towels,Begumm'd, bematter'd, and beslim'd With Dirt, and Sweat, and Ear-Wax grim'd.

  No Object Strephon's Eye escapes,     Here Pettycoats in frowzy Heaps;     Nor be the Handkerchiefs forgot     All varnish'd o'er with Snuff and Snot.     The Stockings why shou'd I expose,     Stain'd with the Marks of stinking Toes;     Or greasy Coifs and Pinners reeking,     Which Celia slept at least a Week in?     A Pair of Tweezers next he found     To pluck her Brows in Arches round,     Or Hairs that sink the Forehead low,     Or on her Chin like Bristles grow.

***

Why Strephon will you tell the rest? And must you needs describe the Chest?...For Strephon ventur'd to look in, Resolv'd to go thro' thick and thin; He lifts the Lid, there needs no more, He smelt it all the Time before. As from within Pandora's box, When Epimetheus op'd the Locks, A sudden universal Crew Of humane Evils upwards flew; He still was comforted to find That Hope at last remain'd behind; So Strephon lifting up the lid, To view what in the chest was hid. The Vapours flew from out the Vent, But Strephon cautious never meant The Bottom of the Pan to grope, And fowl his Hands in Search of Hope. O never may such vile Machine Be once in Celia's Chamber seen!

***

And up exhales a greasy Stench,     For which you curse the careless Wench;     So Things, which must not be exprest,     When plumpt into the reeking Chest,     Send up an excremental Smell     To taint the Parts from whence they fell.     The Pettycoats and Gown perfume,     Which waft a Stink round every Room.         Thus finishing his grand Survey,     Disgusted Strephon stole away     Repeating in his amorous Fits,     Oh! Celia, Celia, Celia shits!

But Vengeance, Goddess never sleeping,     Soon punish'd Strephon for his Peeping;     His foul Imagination links     Each Dame he sees with all her Stinks

***  I pity wretched Strephon blind     to all the Charms of Female Kind;     Should I the Queen of Love refuse,     Because she rose from stinking Ooze?

*** If Strephon would but stop his Nose;     (Who now so impiously blasphemes     Her Ointments, Daubs, and Paints and Creams,     Her Washes, Slops, and every Clout,     With which he makes so foul a Rout;)     He soon would learn to think like me,     And bless his ravisht Sight to see     Such Order from Confusion sprung,     Such gaudy Tulips rais'd from Dung.