The document summarizes major events and developments in England between 1649-1713, including the English Civil War, establishment of the Commonwealth and Protectorate under Oliver Cromwell, Restoration of the monarchy under Charles II, and Glorious Revolution. Key events were the trial and execution of Charles I, exile of Charles II, replacement of the monarchy with Commonwealth and Protectorate rule, and eventual restoration of the monarchy with constitutional limits on royal power. Literature and theater also evolved during this period from works like Paradise Lost to satires, comedies of manners, and sentimental dramas.
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Literature - The Commonwealth
The document summarizes major events and developments in England between 1649-1713, including the English Civil War, establishment of the Commonwealth and Protectorate under Oliver Cromwell, Restoration of the monarchy under Charles II, and Glorious Revolution. Key events were the trial and execution of Charles I, exile of Charles II, replacement of the monarchy with Commonwealth and Protectorate rule, and eventual restoration of the monarchy with constitutional limits on royal power. Literature and theater also evolved during this period from works like Paradise Lost to satires, comedies of manners, and sentimental dramas.
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1649-1713
• With the death of Elizabeth in
1603, King James Charles Struart VI (James I of England) united England and Scotland • James is the son of King Henry’s Oldest sister, Margaret Tudor • A protestant • Ruled England and Scotland at the same time from 1625-1649 • James I intention to rule as an absolute monarch set the civil war between the royalist/the cavaliers and the Puritans/The Round Heads • Gun powder plot • Son of King James I/James IV • Born weak, not clever • Married to Henrietta Maria • a Roman catholic, mistrusted by the Puritans • Ruled England, Scotland and Ireland from 1566-1625 • Dismissed the parliament related to war funding by rising taxes • Executed on a strafford outside the Banqueting Hall in Whitehall • a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians ("Roundheads") and Royalists ("Cavaliers") • The war ended with the Parliamentarian victory at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651. • The overall outcome of the war was threefold: 1. the trial and execution of Charles I (1649) 2. the exile of his son, Charles II (1651) 3. the replacement of English monarchy with, at first, the Commonwealth of England (1649–1653) and then the Protectorate under the personal rule of Oliver Cromwell (1653–1658) and subsequently his son Richard (1658–1659). • The period from 1649 to 1660 when England and Wales, later along with Ireland and Scotland,[1] were ruled as a republic following the end of the Second English Civil War and the trial and execution of Charles I. • The period between the execution of King Charles I in 1649 and the Restoration of the Monarchy with the son of King Charles I from France • The republic's existence was declared through "An Act declaring England to be a Commonwealth adopted by the Rump Parliament on 19 May 1649 • In 1653, after the forcible dissolution of the Rump Parliament, the Army Council adopted the Instrument of Government which made Oliver Cromwell Lord Protector of a united "Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland", inaugurating the period now usually known as the Protectorate • A puritan • Leader of the Commonwealth • Succeeded as the Lord Protector from 1649-1658 • Under his rule, theaters were closed • Succeeded by his son, Richard Cromwell who was not successful • The throne was given back to King Charles’s son, Charles II from France • Upon the restoration, the power was held by the Parliament; two parties (The Wigs and the Tories) • King James II became the king after the death of Charles II in 1685 • King James reign ended with the Glorious or Bloodless Revolution in 1688 • The new King and Queen were Mary, sister of Charles and James, and William of Orange from Holland. • Avoid another revolution • The new middle classes had more and more influence • Time of commercial growth and scientific advances • The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge (The Royal Society) was established in 1662-3 • Bank of England was established in 1694 • The War of the Spanish Succession • The United Kingdom was finally united when the Union of the Parliaments of England and Scotland took place in 1707 • One of the main texts of the Commonwealth is by Andrew Marvell, An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell’s Return from Ireland, known as the greatest political poem in English. • The poem is about strength and strong government, the main concern of the nation during and after Cromwell • Marvell was the unofficial poet Laurette to Cromwell • Marvell contrasted the world of politics and city life with the quiet life in the country. • During the time, poets contrasted the personal and public life . • Richard Lovelace’s To Lucasta, Going to the Wars is about leaving beloved one in order to go to a war. • The major figure who links the Renaissance and the Restoration • Lived from 1608-1674 • He saw all the greatest strugles of the century • Both classical and christian influence him • He was the Latin Secretary to Oliver Cromwell • His major work, Paradise Lost was publised in twelve books • Followed by Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes • The best known is The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan, an allegory. • The book is probably the most widely read of all books in English literature • It is considered to be close to the Bible and a religious text itself • A master of satire in poetry • His Heroic Stanza praised Cromwell on his death in 1658 • To His Sacred Majesty, welcomed the return of the king in 1660 • Some of Dryden’s satirical poems are Absalom and Achitopel and The Medal • He wrote more than twenty plays from tragedy to comedy. • He was successful with his tragi-comedy, Marriage-a-la-Mode • His successful tragedy is All for Love • After the Restoration, drama and the theatre were different than before • Dryden wrote than twenty plays, from comedy to tragedy and was successful in the new genre tragi-comedy, for example: Marriage-a-la-Mode (Fashionable Marriage) in 1672 and his most successful trangedy is All for Love in1678. • There were now two public licensed theatres: The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and the Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre which later moved to Covent Garden in 1732. • The audience were first-upper-class or upper-middle-class • The plays reflect the manner and morals of the men and women who had just returned with the King from France -> the Comedy of Manners (The Restoration Comedy) • Drayden rote comedies, but the most famous ones were written by George Etheredge, Wiliam Wycherley and William Congreve. • The main subject was love where older men or women looking for younger lovers, upper-class manners contrasting with the middle-class values, and country life contrasting with city life • Plays became more and more obvious in their comic treatment of sexual themes. • The Comical Revenge (1664) • She Wou’d if she cou’d, The Alan of Mode are some of the most successful which satirize the false fashions and selfish behavior of the time. • The Country Wife was accused of immorality and helped a start in moral reaction against the kind of manners on the stage, and as the century came to an end, more and more objection was made • More and more objections to the kind of morals seen in restoration comedy. • The protest led to the publication of a pamphlet by Jeremy Collier called ‘A Short View of the Profaneness and Immorality of the English Stage’ which attack the Country Wife. • The dialogues were not seen proper as wives can be stolen from their husbands, or ho people laugh at religious men. • Large section of the public agreed with Collier • Many other playwrights against Collier such as William Congreve by his final play The Way of the World. • Susanah Centlivre • Aphra Behn • Mary de la Riviere Manley. • Main themes are the result of arraged and unsuitable marriages, social problems, and false values in the society. • The new middle class audiences could not accept much of Shakespeare’s violence and the tragic ending. • The taste for quieter, problem-fre shakesperian drama continued for about two centuries and it is an indication of the great changes in taste and in the role of the theater between the beginning and the end of the 17th century. • The main tragic form was heroic tragedy as shown in Venice Preserv’d • There was a spirit of realism on the stage yet the pressure wa grwoing to limit what the theatre could say. • John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera, was one of the most popular work to satirize politicians and the false values of the society made the introduction of the Stage Licensing Act in1737 • Henry Fielding’s The Hstorical Register for the year 1936 annoyed the prime minister, Richard Walpole that he decided to censor all plays. • Henry Fielding was a novelist after that
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