"To evaluate my assignment, click here"
Smt. S.B. Gardi Department of English
Assignments
Name:- Rathod Neha R.
Class:- M.A. Sem-1
Roll No:- 33
Email Id:- neharathod108@gmail.com
Year:- 2015-2016
Paper No:- 2
Topic:-
BACKGROUND OF HISTORY OF NEO-CLASSICAL AGE
The Neo-classical Age
The thick shows the period of active literary work:
Ø Pope: 1688-1744(The Rape of the Lock)
Ø Priot:1664-1721
Ø Young:1683-1765 (The Complalnt, or Night Thoughts)
Ø Swift:1667-1745(Gulliver’s Travels)
Ø Addison:1672-1719(The Spectator)
Ø Steele:1672-1729
Ø Defoe:1659-1731(Robinson Crusoe)
The Historical Background (1700-1750)
In the beginning of the eighteenth century the old quarrcts tack on new feature.
The Rise of the Political Parties:
In the reign of Charles 2 the terms ‘Whig’ and ‘Tory’ first become current; by the year 1700 they were in everybody’s mouth. About that time domestic politicians become sharply cleft into two groups that were destined to become established as the basis of our political system.
Domestic affairs, While they never approached the stage of bloodshed, took on a new acrimony that was to affect literature deeply. Actual points of political faith upon which the parties were divided are not of great importance to us here; but, generally speaking, we may say that the whig party stood for the pre-eminence of personal freedom as opposed to the Tory view of royal divine right.
Hence the Whose Supported the Hanoverian Succession, Whereas the Tories were Jacobites. The Tories, whose numbers were recruited chiefly from the landed classes, objected to the foreign war upon the score that they had to pay taxes to prolong it; and the whigs, representing the trading classes generally, were alleged to be anxious to continue the war, as it brought them increased prosperity. In the matter of religion the whigs were Low Churchmen and the Tories high churchmen.
This war of the Spanish succession was brilliantly successful under the leadership of Marlborough, who besides being a great general, was a prominent Tory politician. The Tories, as the war seemed to be indefinitely prolonged, super planted the whigs, with whom they had been co-operating in the unfortunate Treaty of Utrecht, contemporary literature is much concerned both with the war and the peace.
The Succession:
When Anne ascended the throne the succession seemed to be safe enough, for she had a numerous family Nevertheless, her children all died before her, and in 1701 it become necessary to pass the Act of settlement, a whig measure by which the succession was settled upon the House of Hanover on the death of Anne, in the year 1714,the succession took effect, in spite of the efforts of the Toris, who were anxious to restore the stuarts the events of this year 1714 deeply influenced the lives of Addison, Steele, Swift and many other writers of lesser degree.
The Spirit of the Age:
After the succession of the House of Hanover the first half of the eighteenth century was a period of stabilization and steadily growing wealth and prosperity. The evils of the approaching Industrial Revolution had not yet been realized and the country, still free from any suggestion of acrimonious class consciousness, underwent a period of comfortable aristocratic rule, in which local government rested on the squires, typified by sir Roger de coverley . It was age of tolerance, moderation, and common sense, which, in cultured circles at least, sought to refine manners and introduce into life the rule of sweet reasonableness.
The balance of political power, in spite of the fifty years superiority of the whig oligarchy, was so even as to predude fanatical party ,paliticies, while the
Established church pursued a placid middle way and all religion was free from strife over dogma and the fanaticism which it called enthusiasm until Wesley and whitefield began the Evangelical Revival, This middle way of control and reason, and the distrust of ‘enthusiasm’ are faithfully reflected in the literature of the period.
“The Predominance of Prose”
The age of pope intensified the movement that, as we have seen , began after the Restoration. The drift away from the poetry of passion was more pronounced than ever, the ideals of ‘wit’ and ‘common sense’ were more zealously pursued, and the lyrical note was almost unheard. In its place we find in poetry the overmastering desire for neatness and perspicacity, for edge and point in style, and for correctness in technique. These aims received expression in the devotion to the heroic couplet, the aptest medium for the purpose. In this type of poetry the supreme master is Pope: apart from him the age produced no great poet on the other hand, the other great names of the period – Swift, Addison ,Steele, Defoe are those of prose writers primarily, and prose writers primarily, and prose writers of a very high quality.
Some other outstanding condition of the age remain to be considered. Most of them, it will be noticed , help to give prose its dominating position.
Political Writing:
We have already noticed the rise of the two political parties, accompanied by increased acerbity of political passion. This development gave a fresh importance to man of literary ability, for both parties competed for the authors with place and pensions, and admitted them more or less deeply into their counsels. In previous ages authors had to depend on their patrons, often capricious beings or upon the length or their subscription lists; they now acquired an independence and an importance that turned the heads of some of them. Hardly is writer of the time is free from the political bias.
After bring a Whig Swift become a virulent Tory: Addison was a tepid Whig Steele was Whig and Tory in turn, it was indeed the Golden Age of political pamphleteering and the writers made the most of it.
The Clubs and Coffee House:
Politicians are necessarily gregarious, and the increased activity in politics led to a great addition to the number of political clubs and coffee houses which become the foci of fashionable and public life. In the first number of ‘The Tatler Steele’ announces as a matter of course through activities of his new journal will be based upon the clubs, accounts of Gallantry, pleasure, and Entertainment shall be under that of with coffee House, Learning under the title of Grecian, Foreign and Domestic news you will have from saint James coffee house.
These coffee house became the ‘clearing house’ for literary basicness, and from them branched purely literary association such at the famous scriblerus and kit cat clubs, those haunts of the fashionable writers which figure so prominently in the writing of the period.
Periodical Writing:
The development of the periodical will be noticed elsewhere. It is sufficient here to point out that the struggle for political mastery led both factions to issues a swarm of Examiners, Guardians, Freeholders, and Similar publication. These journals were run by a band of vigorous and facile prose writers, who in their differing degrees of excellence represent almost a new type in our literature.
The New Publishing House:
The interest in politics and probably the decline in the drama caused a great increase in the size of the reading public. In its turn this aroused the activates of a number of men who become the forerunners of the modern publishing houses. Such were Edmund Crull, Jacob Tonson and John Dunton.
These men employed number of needy writers, who produced the translations, adaptations, and other popular works of the time. It is unwise to judge a publisher by what authors say of him, but the universal condemnation leveled against curll and his kind compels the belief that they were a breed of scoundrels who preyed upon authors and puplic, and upon one another. The miserable race of hack writers venomously attacked by pope in The Dunciad who existed on the scanty bounty of such men lived largely in a though farwe near mortifield called grub street,the name of which has become synonymous with literary drudgery
The New Morality:
The immorality of the Restoration, which had been almost entirely a court phenomenon and was largely the reaction against extreme Puritanism, soon spent itself. The natural process of time was hastened by opinion in high quarters William 3 was a severe moralist, and Anne, his successor, was of the same character. Thus we soon see a new tone in the writing of the time and a new attitude to life and morals. Addison, in an early number of the spectator, puts the new fashion in his own admirable way:
“I shall Endeavour to enliven morality
With wit, and to temper wit with morality”.
Another development of the same spirit is seem in the revised opinion of woman, who are treated with new respect and dignity. Much coarseness is still to be felt, especially in satirical writing, in which swift, for instance, can be quite vile, but the general upward tendency is undoubtedly there.
Prose- Writers
1) Jonathan swift
2) Joseph Addison
3) Sir Richard Steele
4) Daniel Defoe
Other Prose Writers
1) John Arbuthnot
2) Lord Bolingbroke
3) George Berkeley
4) Lady Mary Worley Montagu
5) Earl of Shaftesbury
Famous Poets:
1) Alexander pope
Other poets:
1) Matthew Prior
2) John Gay
3) Edward Young
4) Sir Samuel Garth
5) Lady Winchilsea
6) Ambrose Philips
7) Allan Ramsay
Development of Literary Forms:
The period under review marks a hardening of the process scernible in the last chapter. The secession from romanticism is complete; the ideals of classicism reign supreme. Yet even at the west ebb of the romantic spirit, a return to nature is feebly beginning.
In the most chapter we shall notice this new movement, for the next period we shall see it becoming full and strong.
Poetry:
In no department of literature is the triumph of classicism seen more fully than in poetry.
The lyric almost disappears:-
What remains is of a light and artificial nature. The best lyrics are found in some of prior’s shorter pieces, in Gay’s ‘the Beggar’s Opera’ and in Ramsay’s ‘The Gentle Shepherd”
The ode still feebly survives in the Pindaric form:-
Pope wrote a few with poor success, one of them being on St. Cecilia’s Day in imitation of Dryden’s ode Lady Winehilsea was another mediocre expoint of the same form.
The satiric type is common, and of high quality:-
The best example is Pope’s Dunciad, a personal satire, of political satire in poetry we have nothing to compare with Dryden’s satire tends to be lighter, brighter, and more lyrical. It is spreading to other forms of verse besides the heroic couplet, and we can observe it in the octosyllabic couplet in the poems of Swift, prior, and Gay. A slight development is the epistolary from of the satire, of which Pope become found in his latter years. Such is his Epistles of Horace imitated.
Narrative poetry:
This is of considerable bulk, and contains some of the best productions of the period. Pope’s translation of Homer is a good example, and of the poorer sort are Blackmore’s imitations are bloodless things, but they are abundant epics. We have also to notice a slight revival of the ballad, which was imitated by Gay and prior. Their imitations are bloodless things, but they are worth noticing because they show that the interest is there.
The pastoral:
The artificial type of the pastoral was highly popular, for several reasons. In gave an air of rusticity to the most formal of composition, it was thought to be element, it was easily written; and it had the approval of the ancients, who made free of the type. Pope and Philips have been mentioned as example the pastoral poet.
Drama
Here there is almost a blank. The brilliant and explanation flower of restoration comedy has withered, and nothing of a merit takes its place. In this period nothing is more remarkable than the poverty of its oramatic literature of this no real explanation can be given. The age was simply not a dramatic one; for the plays that the age produce, with the exceptions of a few notable examples of comedy, are hardly worth nothing.
Tragedy comedy off worst of all.
The sole tragedy hitherto mentioned in this chapter is Johnson’s Irene, which only the reputation of its author has preserved from complete oblivion. A tragedy which had a great vogue was Douglas, by John Home. It is now almost forgotten Joanna Baillie produced some historical blank-verse tragedies, such as count Basic and De Monfort. Her plays make fairly interesting reading and some of their admirers, including Scott said that she was Shakespeare revived .
Prose:
The prose product of the period is bulky, varied, and of great importance. The importance of it is clear enough when we recollect that it includes, among many other things, possibly the best novel in the language, the best history, and the best biography.
The Rise of the Novel
There are two main classes of fictional prose narratives, namely, the tale or romance and the novel. The distinction between the two need, not be drawn too fine, for there is a large amount of prose narrative that can fall into either group, but broadly speaking, we may say that the tale or romance depends for its chief interest on incident and adventure, whereas the novel depends more on the display of character and motive.
In Addison the story of the novel tends to be more complicated than that of the tale, and it often leads to what were called by the older writers “Revolution and Discoveries”-that is, unexpected developments in the narrative, finishing with an explanation that is called the denouement. The tale, moreover, can be separated from the romance the plot of the tale is commonly matter- of -fact, while that of the romance is often wonderful and fantastic.
There is little doubt that the modern novel has its roots in the medieval romances, such as sir Gawain and the Green Knight and those dealing with the legends of king Arthur. Another sources of the novel was the collection of ballads telling of the adventures of popular heroes of the type of Robin Hood. These romances were written in verse; they were supplied with stock character, like the wandering knight, the distress damsel, and the wicked wizard; they had stock incidents, connected with wicked; stock incidents, connected with enchanted castles, fiery dragons and perious ambushes; and their story rambled on almost interminably, they were necessary to satisfy he human craving for fiction, and they were often fiction of a picturesque and lively kind.
The age of Elizabeth, saw the rise of the prose romance. We have examples in the Euphues of Lyly an Arcadia of Sidney. As fiction these tales are weighed down with their fantastic prose, styles, and with their common desire to expound a moral lesson. Their characters are rudimentary, and there is little attempt at an integrated plot. Yt they represent an advance, for they are fiction.
The are interesting from another viewpoint. They show us that curious diffidence that was to be a drag on the production of the novel even as late as the time of Scott. Authors were shy of being novelists for two main reason; first, there was thought to be some- thing almost immoral in the writing of fiction, as it was but the glorification o a pack of lies and, secondly the liking for fiction was considered to be the craving of diseased or immature intellects, and so the production of it was unworthy of reasonable men. Thus if a men felt impelled to write fiction he had to conceal the narrative with some moral or allegorical dressing.
“The Development of Literary Style”
1) Poetry:
In poetical style the transitional features are well marked. The earlier authors reveal man artificial mannerisms for example, extreme regularity of meter and the frequent employment of the more formal figure of speech, such as personification and apostrophe. The Pindaric odes of Gray and
Collins are examples of the transitional style:
“Ye distant spires! Ye antique towers!
That crowns the wat’ry glade’
Where grateful science still adores
Her Henry’s holy shade;
And ye that from the stately brow
Or grove, of lawn of mead survey,
Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowers among
Wanders the hoary Thomas along
His silver winding way.”
2) Prose:
In prose the outstanding feature is the emergence of middle style, of this the chief exponent is Addison, of whom Johnson says:
“His prose is the model of the
Middle style… pure without scrupul-
Osity, and exact without apparent
Elaboration; always equable, and
Always EASY, WITHOUT Glowing words
Or pointed sentences”
While the school of Addison represented the middle style, the plainer style is represented in the work of Swift and Defoe Defoe’s writing is even plainer and often descends to carelessness and inaccuracy. This is due almost entirely to the haste with which he wrote we give an example of this colloquial style:
“Well” says I “honest man, that is a great mercy, as
Things go now with the poor, but do you live then
And how are you kept from the dreadful calamity that is now upon us all!”……
"To evaluate my assignment, click here"
*****************
Smt. S.B. Gardi Department of English
Assignments
Name:- Rathod Neha R.
Class:- M.A. Sem-1
Roll No:- 33
Email Id:- neharathod108@gmail.com
Year:- 2015-2016
Paper No:- 2
Topic:-
BACKGROUND OF HISTORY OF NEO-CLASSICAL AGE
The Neo-classical Age
The thick shows the period of active literary work:
Ø Pope: 1688-1744(The Rape of the Lock)
Ø Priot:1664-1721
Ø Young:1683-1765 (The Complalnt, or Night Thoughts)
Ø Swift:1667-1745(Gulliver’s Travels)
Ø Addison:1672-1719(The Spectator)
Ø Steele:1672-1729
Ø Defoe:1659-1731(Robinson Crusoe)
The Historical Background (1700-1750)
In the beginning of the eighteenth century the old quarrcts tack on new feature.
The Rise of the Political Parties:
In the reign of Charles 2 the terms ‘Whig’ and ‘Tory’ first become current; by the year 1700 they were in everybody’s mouth. About that time domestic politicians become sharply cleft into two groups that were destined to become established as the basis of our political system.
Domestic affairs, While they never approached the stage of bloodshed, took on a new acrimony that was to affect literature deeply. Actual points of political faith upon which the parties were divided are not of great importance to us here; but, generally speaking, we may say that the whig party stood for the pre-eminence of personal freedom as opposed to the Tory view of royal divine right.
Hence the Whose Supported the Hanoverian Succession, Whereas the Tories were Jacobites. The Tories, whose numbers were recruited chiefly from the landed classes, objected to the foreign war upon the score that they had to pay taxes to prolong it; and the whigs, representing the trading classes generally, were alleged to be anxious to continue the war, as it brought them increased prosperity. In the matter of religion the whigs were Low Churchmen and the Tories high churchmen.
This war of the Spanish succession was brilliantly successful under the leadership of Marlborough, who besides being a great general, was a prominent Tory politician. The Tories, as the war seemed to be indefinitely prolonged, super planted the whigs, with whom they had been co-operating in the unfortunate Treaty of Utrecht, contemporary literature is much concerned both with the war and the peace.
The Succession:
When Anne ascended the throne the succession seemed to be safe enough, for she had a numerous family Nevertheless, her children all died before her, and in 1701 it become necessary to pass the Act of settlement, a whig measure by which the succession was settled upon the House of Hanover on the death of Anne, in the year 1714,the succession took effect, in spite of the efforts of the Toris, who were anxious to restore the stuarts the events of this year 1714 deeply influenced the lives of Addison, Steele, Swift and many other writers of lesser degree.
The Spirit of the Age:
After the succession of the House of Hanover the first half of the eighteenth century was a period of stabilization and steadily growing wealth and prosperity. The evils of the approaching Industrial Revolution had not yet been realized and the country, still free from any suggestion of acrimonious class consciousness, underwent a period of comfortable aristocratic rule, in which local government rested on the squires, typified by sir Roger de coverley . It was age of tolerance, moderation, and common sense, which, in cultured circles at least, sought to refine manners and introduce into life the rule of sweet reasonableness.
The balance of political power, in spite of the fifty years superiority of the whig oligarchy, was so even as to predude fanatical party ,paliticies, while the
Established church pursued a placid middle way and all religion was free from strife over dogma and the fanaticism which it called enthusiasm until Wesley and whitefield began the Evangelical Revival, This middle way of control and reason, and the distrust of ‘enthusiasm’ are faithfully reflected in the literature of the period.
“The Predominance of Prose”
The age of pope intensified the movement that, as we have seen , began after the Restoration. The drift away from the poetry of passion was more pronounced than ever, the ideals of ‘wit’ and ‘common sense’ were more zealously pursued, and the lyrical note was almost unheard. In its place we find in poetry the overmastering desire for neatness and perspicacity, for edge and point in style, and for correctness in technique. These aims received expression in the devotion to the heroic couplet, the aptest medium for the purpose. In this type of poetry the supreme master is Pope: apart from him the age produced no great poet on the other hand, the other great names of the period – Swift, Addison ,Steele, Defoe are those of prose writers primarily, and prose writers primarily, and prose writers of a very high quality.
Some other outstanding condition of the age remain to be considered. Most of them, it will be noticed , help to give prose its dominating position.
Political Writing:
We have already noticed the rise of the two political parties, accompanied by increased acerbity of political passion. This development gave a fresh importance to man of literary ability, for both parties competed for the authors with place and pensions, and admitted them more or less deeply into their counsels. In previous ages authors had to depend on their patrons, often capricious beings or upon the length or their subscription lists; they now acquired an independence and an importance that turned the heads of some of them. Hardly is writer of the time is free from the political bias.
After bring a Whig Swift become a virulent Tory: Addison was a tepid Whig Steele was Whig and Tory in turn, it was indeed the Golden Age of political pamphleteering and the writers made the most of it.
The Clubs and Coffee House:
Politicians are necessarily gregarious, and the increased activity in politics led to a great addition to the number of political clubs and coffee houses which become the foci of fashionable and public life. In the first number of ‘The Tatler Steele’ announces as a matter of course through activities of his new journal will be based upon the clubs, accounts of Gallantry, pleasure, and Entertainment shall be under that of with coffee House, Learning under the title of Grecian, Foreign and Domestic news you will have from saint James coffee house.
These coffee house became the ‘clearing house’ for literary basicness, and from them branched purely literary association such at the famous scriblerus and kit cat clubs, those haunts of the fashionable writers which figure so prominently in the writing of the period.
Periodical Writing:
The development of the periodical will be noticed elsewhere. It is sufficient here to point out that the struggle for political mastery led both factions to issues a swarm of Examiners, Guardians, Freeholders, and Similar publication. These journals were run by a band of vigorous and facile prose writers, who in their differing degrees of excellence represent almost a new type in our literature.
The New Publishing House:
The interest in politics and probably the decline in the drama caused a great increase in the size of the reading public. In its turn this aroused the activates of a number of men who become the forerunners of the modern publishing houses. Such were Edmund Crull, Jacob Tonson and John Dunton.
These men employed number of needy writers, who produced the translations, adaptations, and other popular works of the time. It is unwise to judge a publisher by what authors say of him, but the universal condemnation leveled against curll and his kind compels the belief that they were a breed of scoundrels who preyed upon authors and puplic, and upon one another. The miserable race of hack writers venomously attacked by pope in The Dunciad who existed on the scanty bounty of such men lived largely in a though farwe near mortifield called grub street,the name of which has become synonymous with literary drudgery
The New Morality:
The immorality of the Restoration, which had been almost entirely a court phenomenon and was largely the reaction against extreme Puritanism, soon spent itself. The natural process of time was hastened by opinion in high quarters William 3 was a severe moralist, and Anne, his successor, was of the same character. Thus we soon see a new tone in the writing of the time and a new attitude to life and morals. Addison, in an early number of the spectator, puts the new fashion in his own admirable way:
“I shall Endeavour to enliven morality
With wit, and to temper wit with morality”.
Another development of the same spirit is seem in the revised opinion of woman, who are treated with new respect and dignity. Much coarseness is still to be felt, especially in satirical writing, in which swift, for instance, can be quite vile, but the general upward tendency is undoubtedly there.
Prose- Writers
1) Jonathan swift
2) Joseph Addison
3) Sir Richard Steele
4) Daniel Defoe
Other Prose Writers
1) John Arbuthnot
2) Lord Bolingbroke
3) George Berkeley
4) Lady Mary Worley Montagu
5) Earl of Shaftesbury
Famous Poets:
1) Alexander pope
Other poets:
1) Matthew Prior
2) John Gay
3) Edward Young
4) Sir Samuel Garth
5) Lady Winchilsea
6) Ambrose Philips
7) Allan Ramsay
Development of Literary Forms:
The period under review marks a hardening of the process scernible in the last chapter. The secession from romanticism is complete; the ideals of classicism reign supreme. Yet even at the west ebb of the romantic spirit, a return to nature is feebly beginning.
In the most chapter we shall notice this new movement, for the next period we shall see it becoming full and strong.
Poetry:
In no department of literature is the triumph of classicism seen more fully than in poetry.
The lyric almost disappears:-
What remains is of a light and artificial nature. The best lyrics are found in some of prior’s shorter pieces, in Gay’s ‘the Beggar’s Opera’ and in Ramsay’s ‘The Gentle Shepherd”
The ode still feebly survives in the Pindaric form:-
Pope wrote a few with poor success, one of them being on St. Cecilia’s Day in imitation of Dryden’s ode Lady Winehilsea was another mediocre expoint of the same form.
The satiric type is common, and of high quality:-
The best example is Pope’s Dunciad, a personal satire, of political satire in poetry we have nothing to compare with Dryden’s satire tends to be lighter, brighter, and more lyrical. It is spreading to other forms of verse besides the heroic couplet, and we can observe it in the octosyllabic couplet in the poems of Swift, prior, and Gay. A slight development is the epistolary from of the satire, of which Pope become found in his latter years. Such is his Epistles of Horace imitated.
Narrative poetry:
This is of considerable bulk, and contains some of the best productions of the period. Pope’s translation of Homer is a good example, and of the poorer sort are Blackmore’s imitations are bloodless things, but they are abundant epics. We have also to notice a slight revival of the ballad, which was imitated by Gay and prior. Their imitations are bloodless things, but they are worth noticing because they show that the interest is there.
The pastoral:
The artificial type of the pastoral was highly popular, for several reasons. In gave an air of rusticity to the most formal of composition, it was thought to be element, it was easily written; and it had the approval of the ancients, who made free of the type. Pope and Philips have been mentioned as example the pastoral poet.
Drama
Here there is almost a blank. The brilliant and explanation flower of restoration comedy has withered, and nothing of a merit takes its place. In this period nothing is more remarkable than the poverty of its oramatic literature of this no real explanation can be given. The age was simply not a dramatic one; for the plays that the age produce, with the exceptions of a few notable examples of comedy, are hardly worth nothing.
Tragedy comedy off worst of all.
The sole tragedy hitherto mentioned in this chapter is Johnson’s Irene, which only the reputation of its author has preserved from complete oblivion. A tragedy which had a great vogue was Douglas, by John Home. It is now almost forgotten Joanna Baillie produced some historical blank-verse tragedies, such as count Basic and De Monfort. Her plays make fairly interesting reading and some of their admirers, including Scott said that she was Shakespeare revived .
Prose:
The prose product of the period is bulky, varied, and of great importance. The importance of it is clear enough when we recollect that it includes, among many other things, possibly the best novel in the language, the best history, and the best biography.
The Rise of the Novel
There are two main classes of fictional prose narratives, namely, the tale or romance and the novel. The distinction between the two need, not be drawn too fine, for there is a large amount of prose narrative that can fall into either group, but broadly speaking, we may say that the tale or romance depends for its chief interest on incident and adventure, whereas the novel depends more on the display of character and motive.
In Addison the story of the novel tends to be more complicated than that of the tale, and it often leads to what were called by the older writers “Revolution and Discoveries”-that is, unexpected developments in the narrative, finishing with an explanation that is called the denouement. The tale, moreover, can be separated from the romance the plot of the tale is commonly matter- of -fact, while that of the romance is often wonderful and fantastic.
There is little doubt that the modern novel has its roots in the medieval romances, such as sir Gawain and the Green Knight and those dealing with the legends of king Arthur. Another sources of the novel was the collection of ballads telling of the adventures of popular heroes of the type of Robin Hood. These romances were written in verse; they were supplied with stock character, like the wandering knight, the distress damsel, and the wicked wizard; they had stock incidents, connected with wicked; stock incidents, connected with enchanted castles, fiery dragons and perious ambushes; and their story rambled on almost interminably, they were necessary to satisfy he human craving for fiction, and they were often fiction of a picturesque and lively kind.
The age of Elizabeth, saw the rise of the prose romance. We have examples in the Euphues of Lyly an Arcadia of Sidney. As fiction these tales are weighed down with their fantastic prose, styles, and with their common desire to expound a moral lesson. Their characters are rudimentary, and there is little attempt at an integrated plot. Yt they represent an advance, for they are fiction.
The are interesting from another viewpoint. They show us that curious diffidence that was to be a drag on the production of the novel even as late as the time of Scott. Authors were shy of being novelists for two main reason; first, there was thought to be some- thing almost immoral in the writing of fiction, as it was but the glorification o a pack of lies and, secondly the liking for fiction was considered to be the craving of diseased or immature intellects, and so the production of it was unworthy of reasonable men. Thus if a men felt impelled to write fiction he had to conceal the narrative with some moral or allegorical dressing.
“The Development of Literary Style”
1) Poetry:
In poetical style the transitional features are well marked. The earlier authors reveal man artificial mannerisms for example, extreme regularity of meter and the frequent employment of the more formal figure of speech, such as personification and apostrophe. The Pindaric odes of Gray and
Collins are examples of the transitional style:
“Ye distant spires! Ye antique towers!
That crowns the wat’ry glade’
Where grateful science still adores
Her Henry’s holy shade;
And ye that from the stately brow
Or grove, of lawn of mead survey,
Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowers among
Wanders the hoary Thomas along
His silver winding way.”
2) Prose:
In prose the outstanding feature is the emergence of middle style, of this the chief exponent is Addison, of whom Johnson says:
“His prose is the model of the
Middle style… pure without scrupul-
Osity, and exact without apparent
Elaboration; always equable, and
Always EASY, WITHOUT Glowing words
Or pointed sentences”
While the school of Addison represented the middle style, the plainer style is represented in the work of Swift and Defoe Defoe’s writing is even plainer and often descends to carelessness and inaccuracy. This is due almost entirely to the haste with which he wrote we give an example of this colloquial style:
“Well” says I “honest man, that is a great mercy, as
Things go now with the poor, but do you live then
And how are you kept from the dreadful calamity that is now upon us all!”……
"To evaluate my assignment, click here"
*****************
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