Chapter 8
THE AGE OF NEO-CLASSICISM
OR
THE AGE OF POPE (1700-1750)
Social Background of the Age
During this time first Queen Anne and then the three Georges ruled over
England. Saintsbury refers to the Age as ‘The Peace of the Augustans’.
(1) The Rise of the Political Parties—The two political parties, the Whigs
and the Tories rose at the Age. Everyone was either a Whig or a Tory. Political
debates often took on a hostile turn, much heat was generated by personal
abuses. Literature was honoured not for itself but for the sake of the party. The
politics of the period helped to make it an Age of political pamphleteering and
the writers were only two willing to make the most of it. We find in this age the
rise of the periodical essay and journalism, which required neat, lucid clear
and simple prose style.
(2) Clubs and Coffee Houses—John Dennis observes “Books were
seldom judged on their merits, the praise or blame being generally awarded
according to the political principles of their authors.” The Coffee Houses were
the popular haunts of famous writers and they figure prominently in the writings
of the day. These Coffee Houses gave rise to purely literary association such
as the famous Scribberies and Kit-Cat Clubs.
Literary Characteristics of this Age
The poet Goldsmith was the first to call it “The Augustan Age.”
(1) An Age of Prose and Reason—Matthew Arnold called the Age “The
Age of Prose and Reason.” The greatest names in the period are the names of
prose writers—Addison, Steele, Swift, Defoe, Gibbon and Edmund Burke.
Indeed poetry itself becomes prosaic, for it is used not for creative works of
imagaination, but for ethical essays, for satire and for criticism. It is used for
purpose which are suitable for prose and not for poetry.
(2) Rise of Satire—W.G. Long observes, “Now satire, a literary work
which searches out the faults of men or institutions in order to hold them up to
ridicule, is at best a destructive kind of criticism. A satirist is like a labourer
who clears away the ruins and rubbish of an old house before the architect and
builders begin on a new and beautiful structure. The work may sometime be
necessary, but it rerely arouses our enthusiam. While the satire of Pope, Swift
and Addison are doubtless by the best in our language, we hardly place them
with our great literature, which is always constructive in spirit, and we have
the feeling that all these men were capable of better things than they ever
wrote.”
(3) The Rise of the Novel—In the field of literature the most important
phenomenon is the complete collapse of drama and the rise of the novel. This
new kind of prose fiction reflects the life of the middle classes and is
distinguished from the earlier romances by its realism. We have four outstanding
novelists in this Age—Henry Fielding, Richardson, Smolette and Sterne.
Neo-Classicism : Its Characteristics
The 18th century is called the elassical age in English literature because
the writers of this age were governed by set principles and rules laid down by
the Ancient classical writers. The term ‘Neo-classicism’ implies not only Neoclassicism
but also false classicism. The writers of the 18th century did not try
to reproduce the essential spirit of the great classics whom they imitated.
Moreover their inspiration came from the French writers and not direct from
the Greek and Latin writers.
Hence the term Neo-classicism is applied to the 18th century literature.
This Age is characterised by intellect, reason, satire and, as opposed to
enthusiasm, freedom of romanticism. The other literary features of the age are
zealous pursuit of the ideals of wit and commonsense, absence of passion for
lyricism, sharpness and over-mastering desire for neatness and correction in
style and an unflinching devotion to the Heroic Couplet.
Contribution to English Literature : An Age of Prose
Most of the features of the Age helped the development of prose. This age
marks the triumph and dominance of prose. The great names of this period—
Addison, Steele, Defoe, Swift are those of great prose writers.
In the field of poetry the tendency towards prosaic, which we noticed in
the Age of Dryden, became far most marked and deep. Correctness, neatness
and polish came to be more highly valued than practical favour and passion.
Matthew Arnold regarded Pope and Dryden as “classics not of our poerty
but of our prose.”
Sir Leslie Stephen rightly says of Pope, “Most of the works may be fairly
described as rhymed prose differing from prose not in substance or tone or
feeling, but only in the form of expression.”
Comparing the poetry and prose of the 18th century W.J. Long observes
“Now for the first time we must chronicle the triumph of English prose A
multitude of practical interest arising from the neo-social and practical
conditions demanded expression, not simply in books, but more specially in
pamphlets, magazines newspapers. Poetry is inadequate for such a task, hence
the development of prose, of the word.” Unfettered Dante calls it a development
The Age of Neo-Classicism (1700-1750) 43. 44. A HAND BOOK OF VIVA-VOCE
which astonishes us by its rapidity and excellence, the graceful elegance of
Addison’s essays, the artistic finish of Fielding’s novels. There was no parallel
in the poetry of the Age. Which indeed, itself became prosaic in this respect
that it was used not for creative work of imagination but for really the same
practical ends as was prose. The poetry of the first half of the century is polished
and witty enough, but artifical, it lacks fire, deep feeling, enthusiasm, the glow
of Elizabethan age and the moral earnestness of Puritanism. In a word, it interests
us as a study of life, rather than delights, or conspires us by its appeal to the
imagination. The variety and excellence of prose works and the development
of a serviceable prose style, which had begun by Dryden, until it served to
express clearly every human interest and emotion. These are the chief literary
glories of the 18th century.
The Chief Characteristics of the Neo-classicism
In 18th century, the literature is marked with the following characteristic
features—
(1) Respect for Classical Rules—The ancient Greek and Latin classics
were the highest models of this Age. To copy them now became the poet’s
chief endeavour and to be able to do so he must adhere to the principles on
which which they were written. The coming of Charles II to the throne of
England was compared to the Restoration of Augustun Caesar in Rome in 31
B.c. Dryden wrote.
“Oh happy age! oh times like alone
those by fate reserved for great Augustus throne!
When the joint growth of arms and arts
Forshew the world of monarch, and the monarchy.”
In this way each kind of poetry came to have rules of its own. Homer and
Virgil provided the model for the epic, Theocrites for the pastoral, Pindar
and Horace for the Ode and so on. the writers of this age imitated all these
ancients.
(2) Stress on Reason or Good Sense—The writers of this Age insisted
on clarity of thought and feeling. They did not favour mere hints, suggestions
or half-statements particularly fancied by the Metaphysicals. The poetry of
this age is “so well expressed” that it makes an instant expression. This quality
came to be called wit and it is in this that Neo-classical poetry is particularly
rich. Pope himself expressed the fact thus,
“True wit is nature to advantage dressed,
What often thought but never so well expressed.”
(3) Treatment of Town Life—Classical poetry is almost exclusively a
town poetry made out of the interests of society in the great centres of culture.
This poetry is concerned with clubs, coffee houses, courts scenes, and drawing
rooms. Pope, a representative poet of this Age, gives us a faithful image of
contemporary life but he holds his mirror no where except in the drawing
rooms. The humbler aspects of life are disregarded in it, and classical poetry
shows no real love for nature or country life. W.H. Hudson remarks “There is
no place of nature and no expression of it.”
(4) Didacticism—With the intellectual turn now given to poetry, its
teaching function came to be emphasised upon no less than pleasure giving.
Every kind attempted—the lyrics, the ode, satire, the epic—was valued for the
lesson it conveyed or the virtue it extolled. If it happened to be a verse title
there must be poetic justice in it i.e., virtue rewarded and vice punched.
(5) Set Poetic Style—Clarity was the chief object. The plain statement
“A close naked, natural way of speaking” was preferred to the ornate with
every poet doing so. A set style of poetry soon developed. Its chief
characteristics were direction, and elegance. To secure the former, it eschewed
of the way expressions like courage and to achieve the latter, it avoided everyday
turns of speech, which are so common to appear graceful, middle vocabulary
neither too familiar nor too remote was evolved.
(6) The Rise of the Heroic Couplet—Of all the stanza forms used so far,
the Heroic Couplet proved the most suited to the poetry of the day. It accorded
well with the intellectual temper of the age and it proved an effective medium
for the form now fovoured most, the satire. It tended to be self-contained, or
closed, with each of its two lines also generally conveying its sense alone. This
not only regarded the length of the idea to be conveyed at a time but its greater
concentration and free, without which no satire can succeed. It also gradually
came to have rules of its own.
Poetry in Neo-Classical Age
1. Alexander Pope (1688-1744)—Pastorals (1709), An Essay in Criticism
(1711), Windsor Forest (1713), The Rape of the Lock, (this is a mock-heroic
poem), Eloisa to Aberlard, Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady, To
Lord Bathurst, Of the Use of Riches, Of the knowledge and character of Man,
Of the Characters of Women, An Essay on Man. The purpose of the Essay is,
in Alexander Pope’s words, “to vindicate the ways of God to man.”
Satire and Epistles of Horace lmitated Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, The
Dunciad.
2. Mathew Prior (1664-1721)—His parody of Dryden’s The Hind and
the Panther entitled story of the country Mouse, Alma the Progress of the
Mind (1718), Solomon on the Vanity of the World (1718).
3. John Gay (1685-1732)—Fables (1727), the Beggar’s Opera (1728),
Gagy’s chief poetic works are the Rural Sports (1713), The Shepherds’ Week
(174), Trivia or the Art of Walking the Streets of London (1716).
4. Edward Young (1683-1765)—Last Day (1714), The Force of Religion
(1714), The Love of Fame (1725-28).
5. Dr. Johnson (1709-84)—His two verse satires are London (1738) and
the Vanity of Human Wishes (1746).
Prose is Neo-Classical Age
The Periodical Essay was the peculiar product of the eighteenth century.
Defining the periodical essay William Hazlitt remarks, “It makes us familiar
with the world of men and women record their actions, assigns their motives,
exhibits their whims, characterises their pursuits in all their singular and variety,
redicules their absurdities, exposes their inconsistencies, holds the mirror up
to nature.”
1. Daniel Defoe (1661-1731)—As a pioneer in journalism as well as in
the novel, Defoe enjoys an important place in English literature. The germs of
the periodical essay are found in Defoe’s Review. The Review came to and
end in 1712. His ficitional works include Robinson Crusoe (1791), Duncan
Campbell Memoirs of a Cavalier, Captain Singleton (1720), Moll Flanders, A
Journal of the Plague Year, Colonel Jacques (1722), Roxana (1724). A New
Voyage Round the World (1725).
2. Jonatham Swift (1667-1745)—He wrote a few papers for the Tatler
and the Spectator. The Battle of Books (1704), A Tale of A Tub (1704), rank
among the finest prose satires in English literature. Gulliver Travels.
3. Sir Richard Steele (1672-1729)—He founded the periodical ‘The
Tatler’ on April 12, 1709 and it was discountinued on Jan. 2, 1711. Steele
started with Addison. ‘The Spectator’ in 1711.
4. Jeseph Addison (1672-1719)—In the Spectator Addison appears as a
perfect painter of contemporary life and manners. According to Courthope
“Addison may be said to have almost created and/wholly perfected English
prose as an instrument for the expression of social thought.”
According to Dr. Johnson, “Addisons prose is the model of the middle
style, on great objects not formal, on light occasions, not grovelling, pure without
scrupulosity, and exact without elaborate elaboration, always equable and
always easy without glowing words or pointed sentences.”
The Spectator has been rightly called the forerunner of novel. It has all the
elements of Social Comedy, except a harmonious plot. Addison and Steele
show a sure sense of characterisation in The Spectator which is essential for
the novel. The Spectator has discussed a vivid and realistic picture of
contemporary society.
Other Prose Writers
John Arbuthnot (1667-1735) has written Memoirs of Martinus Scribleses
(1709), The History of John Bull (1712) and the Art of Political Lying.
Lord Bolingbroke (1678-1751). His works include Letter to Sir William
Wyndham, A Letter on the Spirit of Patriortism and the Idea of a Patriot King.
George Berdey (1685-1753)—The Principles of Human Knowledge,
Dialogues between Hytas and Philosnous and Alciphron or the Minute
Philosopher.
Drama in the 18th Century
The area of drama is blank in this period. Addison’s Cato is the only
noteworhy work in the field of tragedy. George Lillo’s (1693-1739) famous
works are London Merchant and Fatal curiosity.
QUESTIONS
Q. 1. What do you understand by the term Neo-classicism and why is
this applied to the literature of the 18th century?
Ans. The 18th century is called the Age of Neo-classicism because the
writers of the age imitated only the rules of the great ancient classics but not
the essential spirit of the classics.
Q. 2. What are the literary characteristics of the Neo-classical age?
Ans. The age of Pope is called the Neo-classical Age in English literature.
It is characterized by restraint, reason, predominances of prose literature,
absence of passion for lyricism, over mastering desire for neatness, sharpness
and correctness in style and an unflinching devotion to heroic couplet.
Q. 3. Why is the eighteenth century called ‘The Augustan Age’ in
English literature?
Ans. During the period of Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar (27 B.C.-
A.D. 14) Virgil, Ovid, Horace and other great poets lived and wrote. The writers
of the eighteenth century tried to imitate these classical writers. In the same
way the Age of Queen Anne is called the Augustan Age in English literature.
Q. 4. Tell us the important historical events of the Eighteenth Country.
Ans. The important historical events of the eighteenth century are (1) War
of the Spanish Succession, (2) Rise of political parties (3) Passing of the Act
of Settlement and (4) Succession of the House of Hanover.
Q. 5. What was the most important form of literature which was used
in the Eighteenth Century?
Ans. Satire was the most important form of literature used in the eighteenth
century.
Q. 6. Name the satirists of the Eighteenth Century.
Ans. The important satirists of the eighteenth century are Dr. Johnson
Swift and Addison and Steele.
Q. 7. What was the important poetic form used by the poets of the
Eighteenth Century?
Ans. The important poetic form used by eighteenth century poets was the
heroic couplet.Q. 8. What are the important poetic works of Alexander Pope?
Ans. The important poetic works of Alexander Pope are (1) Winds or
Forest, (2) Essay on Criticism, (3) Translation of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey,
(4) The Rape of the Lock, (5) Dunciad, (6) The Essay on Man.
Q. 9. What is the theme of Alexander Pope’s poem ‘The Rape of the
Lock’?
Ans. What is the theme of Alexander Pope’s poem ‘The Rape of the Lock’
shows the fashions and manners of the polite society of Alexander Pope’s
time. The poem is a light satire on the upper class. The poem is based upon the
incident that occurred in the Roman Catholic Church Society in which Lord
Petre cut a lock of hair from head of a young beauty named Arabella Termour
(Belinda of the poem). This practical joke led to a quarrel between the two
families and Alexander Pope was appealed to by a common friend, John Carlyle
to throw out the troubled waters by turning the whole affair in a light manner.
The result was ‘The Rape of the Lock’.
Q. 10. What kind of poem is ‘The Rape of the Lock’?
Ans. ‘The Rape of the Lock’ is a mock-heroic poem.
Q. 11. Tell us about the ‘machinery’ of The Rape of the Lock.
Ans. Alexander Pope introduced Rosicrucian machinery in ‘The Rape of
the Lock’. According to this system, there are four types of spirits—slyphus,
nymphs, gnomes and salamanders which live in air, water, earth and fire.
Q. 12. Matthew Arnold commented, “Pope is a classic, but a classic of
an age of prose”. Explain the statement.
Ans. The qualities that we find in the poetry of Alexander Pope are not
the qualities of true poetry, but the qualities of Pope. A good prose has trerseness,
neatness, finish, condemnation and elegance but the poetry of Pope contains
all these qualities. In this way, he has been considered the classic of prose
because his language is falsely and his poetry is cold and unemotional.
Q. 13. Tell us about Alexander Pope’s ‘Essay on Criticism’.
Ans. ‘Essay on Criticism’ was written in heroic Couplets in 1711. Pope’s
aim was to restate the rules of the ancients “What often was thought but never
so well expressed.”
Q. 14. Who were the chief prose writers in the 18th century?
Ans. The chief prose writers in the 18th century were Daniel Defoe (1661-
1781), Swift (1667-1745), Joseph Addison (1672-1719), Sir Richard Steele
(1672-1729), John Arbuthnot (1667-1735).
Q. 15. Tell us about the rise of periodicals in the eighteenth century.
Ans. The eightneeth century saw the rise of periodicals. In 1702 the first
daily newspaper was published. In 1704 Daniel Defoe brought out his ‘Review’.
Its opponent was ‘The Examiner’ in which Jonathan Swift and Prior contributed.
In 1709 Richard Steele started ‘The Tatler’ and ‘The Spectator’ was started by
Joseph Addison and Richard Steel in 1711.
The Age of Neo-Classicism (1700-1750) 49. 50. A HAND BOOK OF VIVA-VOCE
Q. 16. Tell us the importance of ‘The Spectator’.
Ans. ‘The Spectator’ was started in March 1711 by Richard Steele and
Joseph Addison. Joseph Addison contributed 274 essays out of 555 essays.
‘The Spectator’ has presented a ture picture of the eighteenth century society.
The aim of ‘The Spectator’, as pointed out by Joseph Addison himself, was to
bring “Philosophy out of closets and libraries, schools and colleges, to dwell
in clubs and assemblies, at tea-tables and coffee-houses.”
Q. 17. What do you understand by ‘The Coverley Paper’s?
Ans. The Coverely Papers were a part of the Periodical ‘The Spectator’
and it contained 35 papers. In these papers, Joseph Addison presented such
character sketches like Sir Roger De Coverley, Sir Andrew Freeport, and
Templers. On the basis of these papers, Joseph Addison has been called the
forerunner of the English novel.
Q. 18. Who has called Addison’s prose style as ‘middle style’?
Ans. Dr. Johnson has called Addison’s prose style as ‘middle style’.
Q. 19. What comment has Dr. Johnson made regarding the style of
Addison?
Ans. Dr. Johnson has commented, “Who ever wishes to attain an English
style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his
days and nights to the volumes of Addison.”
Q. 20. Tell us about the prose writings of Daniel Defoe.
Ans. Defoe’s political writings include Review (1704), The Shortest Way,
The Dissenters (1702), The True-born Englishman (1701), His fictions include
Robinson Crusoe (1719), Duncan Campbell, Memories of a Cavalier, Captain
Singleton (1720), Moll Flanders, A Journal of the Plague Year, Colonel Jacque,
Roxana (1724), A New Voyage Round the World (1725).
Q. 21. Tell us the theme of Robinson Crusoe.
Ans. Robinson Cursoe is a famous novel by Dainel Defoe. It narrate
beautifully the adventures of Robinson Crusoe on a desert land. This novel is
based on the real experiences of Alexander Selkirk.
Q. 22. What is the most famous book by Jonathan Swift?
Ans. The most famous book by Jonathan Swift is Culliver’s Travels.
Q. 23. Why did Joseph Addison create a fictitions name of Sir Roger
de Coverley?
Ans. The name Sir Roger de Coverley is the fictitious name of Toby Squire.
The purpose behind depicting the picture was to lessen and remove finally the
then existing social evils like dwelling and gambling.
Q. 24. Tell us about the Battle of the Books.
Ans. The Battle of the Books is a famous work of Jonathan Swift. It was
published in 1704. It is a burlesque of the famous controversy on the relative
merits of the Ancients and the Moderns (poets).
Chapter 9
THE AGE OF TRANSTION (1750-1798)
OR
THE AGE OF DR. JOHNSON
Cheif Characteristics of the Age
1. The French Revolution—The French Revolution of 1789 was only
the climax to a long and deeply diffused unrest. Revolutionary ideas gave birth
to democratic and humanitarian feelings. The period is characterised by the
rapid growth of democracy. People became familiar with the notion of equality,
liberty and brotherhood.
2. Age of Transition—On the one hand we have poets like Dr. Johnson
and Oliver Goldsmith, who slavishly follow the Augustan tradition, and, on
the other hand, we have poets like William Blake and Burns who herald the
‘New Age of Romanticism’ and have nothing in common with Augustan School
of poetry. Between these two extremes, we have poets like Thomas Gray and
Collins, who are both romantic and classical.
Poetry in the Age of Transition
(A) The Augustan Poets
(1) Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-84)—London, The Vanity of Human
Wishes.
(2) Churchill (1731-64)—His best work is The Rosciad.
(B) The Transitional Poets
1. James Thomson (1700-48)—Season (1726), The Caste of Indolence
(1748), Liberty (1735).
2. Oliver Goldsmith (1728-74)—The Traveller (1764), The Deserted
Village (1770), The Hermit, On the Death of a Mad Dog.
3. Thomas Gray (1716-71)—The Alliances of Education and
Government, Hymn to Adversity. To Spring, On a Distant Prospect of Eton
College, The Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, The Progress of Poes
The Bard, The Fatal Sisters, The Descent of Odim.
4. William Collins (1721-59)—Oriental Eclogues (1742), Ode to Evening,
Ode to the Popular Superstitions of the High Lands, Ode To Simplicity, To
Fear, To the Passion.
5. William Cowper (1731-1800)—The Progress of Error, Truth, Table
Talk, The Task (1785), Olney Hymes.
6. George Crabbe (1754-1832)—The Library (1781), The Village (1783),
The Borough (1810), Tales (1812).
7. Mark Akenside (1721-1770)—An Epistle to Curio, The Pleasures of
the Imagination (1744).
8. William Shentone (1714-63)—Levities or Pieces of Humour, The
School Mistress.
9. Robert Burns (1559-96)—The Cotter’s Saturday Night, Tamo Shanter,
Address to the Unco Guid, The Holy Fair.
10. William Blake (1757-1827)—Poetical Sketches (1783), Songs of
Innocence (1789), The Book of Thel (1790), The French Revolution (1791),
The Visions of the Daughter of Abbion (1793), America (1793), Europe (1794),
Songs of Experience (1794), The First Book of Urizen (1794), The Book of
Ahamia (1795), The Book of Los, The Song of Los (1795).
Prose in the Age of Transition
1. Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-84)—The Gentleman’s Magazine, The Life
of Savage, The Lives of Poets, Dictionary of the English Language, Reasselas,
Princes of Abyssina, A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland.
2. Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774)—He started the periodical ‘The Bee’
(1759), The Citizen of the World, On the English Clergy, The Popular Preachers.
Other Prose Writers
Edward Gibbon (1737-94) wrote History of the Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire (1776).
David Hume (1711-76) wrote a History of England in six volumes, A
Treatise of Human Nature, Essays, Moral and Political.
Edmund Burke (1729-97) wrote philosophical writings like. A
Vindication of Natural Society (1756), A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin
of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1756), American Taxation (1774),
On Condiation with the Colonies (1775).
Warren Hastings famous pamphlets are Thoughts on the Cause of Present
Discontent (1770), Reflections on the Revolution of France (1790), A Letter
to a Noble Lord (1795), Letters on Regicide Peace (1797).
Adam Smith (1723-90) wrote the Wealth of Nations (1776).
Boswell (1740-95) wrote the famous biography of Dr. Samuel Johnson
named Life of Samuel Johnson (1791).
Novel in the Age of Transition
Malory’s Morte D’ Arthur is a romance. Nash’s The Unfortunate Traveller
or the Life of Jack Wilton (1594) is an early source of the realistic novel of
today. Byron’s The Pilgrmis Progress and The Life and Death of Mr. Badman
come nearer to modern novel. Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe can be
considered the real beginning of the English novel. Addison and Steele
contributed much to the evolution of realistic novel. Richardson’s Pamela (1740)
can be considered the first true novel.
1. Samuel Richardson (1689-1761)—Pamela (1740-41), Clarina or the
History of A Young Lady.
2. Henry Fielding (1707-54)—Joseph Andrews, A Journey From This
World to the Next, Jonathan Wild the Great, Tom Jones, Amelia, Voyage to
Lisbon, Sir Walter Scott has called Henry Felding “the father of English novel.”
3. Tobias Smolett (1721-71)—The Adventures of Roderick Random
(1748), The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle (1750), The Expedition of Humphry
Clinker (1771).
4. Laurance Sterne (1713-1768)—The Life And Opinions of Trister and
Shandy (1760), A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy.
5. Oliver Goldsmith (1728-74)—The Vicar of Wakefield (1766).
6. Henry Mackenzie (1745-1831)—The Man of Feeling (1771).
7. William Godwin (1756-1836)—Caleb William or Things As They
Are (1794).
8. Miss Fanny Burney (1752-1842)—Evelina (1778), Cecilia (1782),
Camilla (1796), The Wanderer (1814).
9. Horace Walpole (1717-1797)—Caste of Otrants (1764).
10. Mrs. Ann Radcliffe (1764-1832)—She was the most popular of terror
novelists, The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), The Italian (1794).
11. William Beckford (1760-1844)—The History of the Caliph Vathek
(1786).
12. Matthew Lewis (1775-1818)—The Monk.
Drama in the Age of transition
The Sentimental Comedy
This type of comedy had two main features—first, an excessive display of
sensibility by the chief characters and secondly, the strong homiletic strain in
their utterances. The famous critic A Nicoll observes, “In the place of laughter,
they sought tears, in the place of gallants and witty damsels, pathetic damsels
and serious lovers.”
1. Oliver Goldsmith (1728-74)—In his essay ‘The Present State of
Political Learning’ he attacked the sentimental dramatists. In the preface of his
anti-sentimental comedy, The Good Natured Man (1768), Goldsmith exposes
the hollowness of the sentimental comedy. She Stoops to Conquer (1773).
2. R.B. Sheridan (1751-1816)—Rivals (1774), St. Patricks is Day or
The Scheming Lieutenant (1775), The Duenna (1775), The School For Scandal
(1777), The Critic or A Tragedy Rehearsed (1779) was an attack on the popular
sentimental drama.
Tragedies of this Period
Dr. Johnson’s Irene (1749), John Home’s Douglas (1756), Joanna Baille’s
Count Basil (1798), De Monfort (1798).
QUESTIONS
Q. 1. What were the cheif characteristics of The Age Of Transition?
Ans. The Age of Transition showed a double tendency, the writers of this
period adhered to the classical rules but their spirit was towards romanticism.
Q. 2. What are the chief features of the poetry of the Romantic Revival
during the eighteenth century?
Ans. The chief features of the poetry of the Romantic Revival during the
eighteenth century are : (1) There was a reaction against the poetic forms of
the Augustan Age, (2) There was a re-admission of emotion into poetry, (3)
There was a renewed appreciation of Nature.
Q. 3. What is the significance of James Thomson’s poems?
Ans. James Thomson showed the appreciation of Nature. In his poems,
The Seasons, Winter, Autumn, he showed a genuine love for Nature which
was unknown to the poetry of 18th century.
Q. 4. What do you understand by the Graveyard School of Poetry?
Ans. In the eighteenth century, some of the pre-Romantic poets showed
an inclination towards melancholy and the graveyard. The line of these poets
begins with Edward Young (1638-1765) and his famous work Night Thoughts.
Thomas Gray has also written ‘An Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.’
Which has remained popular to this day.
Q. 5. Name the poetic works of Dr. Johnson.
Ans. The important poetic works of Dr. Johnson are London (1738), The
Vanity of Human Wishes (1749).
Q. 6. What is the significance of Percy’s ‘Work Reliques’?
Ans. Percy’s ‘Work ‘Reliques’ is of great importance because this wrok
quickened the impulse towards Romanticism by virtue of their native feeling
and simple passionate expression.
Q. 7. Name important poetical works of Oliver Goldsmith.
Ans. The important poetical works of Oliver Goldsmith are, The Traveller
(1764), The Deserted Village (1770).
Q. 8. What are the chief characteristics of The ‘Elegy Written In A
Country Churchyard’?
Ans. The poem ‘An Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard’ describe
the simple lives close to the soil and expresses deep sympathies. It is
characterized by the humanitarian and the democratic sentiments of the great
romantic poets.
Q. 9. Clarify the statement “Gray never spoke out”.
Ans. Thomas Gray was born in the age of Classicism in which there was
on place for romanticism. Gray tried to create on atmosphere of romanticism
but his poems were nipped in the bud by the cold winds of the classical ideals.
Q. 10. How can you prove that Thomas Gray was a precursor of the
romanticism?
Ans. Dr Johnson has called Thomas Gray a romantic snake on a classical
grass’. Gray’s poems The Elegy, The Bard and The Progress of Poesy have the
characteristics of Romanticism. Gray’s poetry has love for Nature, a feeling of
melancholy and a sense of historical past.
Q. 11. Trace out the mystical elements in the poetry of William Blake.
Ans. William Blake’s world was the world of thoughts, ideas and visions.
Like all mystic poets, he emphasised the momentariness of the body and the
immortality of the soul. His works Songs of Innocence (1789) and Songs of
Experience show his mysticism.
Q. 12. What is the different types of prose in the Age of Transition?
Ans. The following types of prose were written in the Age of Transition.
1. Periodical Essays—The Rambler, The Idler by Dr. Johnson and
Goldsmith.
2. Critical Prose—Lives of Poets and Preface to Shakespeare by Dr.
Samuel Johnson.
3. Novels—Richardson, Henry Fielding, Smolett and Sterne wrote novels.
4. Biographical Prose—Life of Dr. Johnson by Dr. Johnson.
Q. 13. What is the importance of Dr. Jonson’s The Lives of the Poets
in the history of English Criticism?
Ans. This work of Dr. Johnson marks the beginning of biographical-cumcritical
criticism. Dr. Johnson has presented fifty two poets in three volumes.
Q. 14. What the limitations of Dr. Johsnon as a critic?
Ans. Dr. Johnson judged everything from set principles of his own and in
this way his judgements are sometimes narrow and superficial. He has several
prejudices. He judged poets only against the background of the eighteenth
century.
Q. 15. What do you know about ‘The Citizen of the World’?
Ans. Goldsmith’s famous book of prose is ‘The Citizen of the World’
(1759). This book has series of imaginary letters from a China-man.
Q. 16. What do you know about ‘Life of Dr. Johnson’?
Ans. ‘Life of Dr. Johnson’ is related to famous literary figure, Dr. Johnson
written by boswell.
Q. 17. What do you know about the rise of Sentimental Comedy in
the 18th century?
Ans. Sentimental comedy was a type of pathetic play which reflected the
false sensibility of the rising 18th century middle class. It showed the weakness
of mankind in such a way as to enlist the sympathy of the audience and to
appeal to their bitter instincts and nobility of heart. Sentimental comedy was
first introduced by Sir Richard Steele and developed by Colley Cibber, Hugh
Kelly and and Richard Cumberland.
Q. 18. What were the main defects of the Sentimental Comedy?
Ans. In sentimental comedy they atmospere is sombre and it lacked the
atmospheree of humour and gaiety.
Q. 19. What were the reactions against the sentimental comedy during
the 18th century.
Ans. Goldsmith and R.B. Sheridam revived the true comedy containing
humour and laughter. Oliver Goldsmith criticized the sentimental comedy in
his Essays on the Theatre or A comparison between Laughing and Sentimental
Comedy (1772). Sheridan also showed his reactions by writing such plays like
The Rivals and The Critic.
Q. 20. Name some important plays of Oliver Goldsmith.
Ans. The important plays of Oliver Goldsmith are The Good Natured
Man and She Stoops to Conquer.
Q. 21. In which play of Goldsmith appear these characters ‘Mr.
Honeywood, Sir William Honeywood, Miss Richard and Leontine?
Ans. The name of the play is the Good Natured Man.
Q. 22. In which play of Sheridan appear such characters like Mrs.
Malaprop and Sir Anthony Absolute?
Ans. These two characters Mrs. Malaprop and Sir Anthony Absolute
appear in Sheridan’s play ‘The Rivals’.
Q. 23. Which play of R.B. Sheridan is a satire against the sentimental
Comedy?
Ans. ‘The Critic’ is a satire against the sentimental comedy.
Q. 24. What were the reasons responsible for growth of novel in the
eighteenth century?
Ans. The decline of drama was the major factor responsible for the growth
of novel in the 18th century. The Periodical Essays written by Addison and
steele contained the origin of the novel because these papers created a taste for
domestic novels. The rise of the common people and the middle class was also
responsible for the growth of novel in the eighteenth century.
h
Q. 26. Tell us about ‘Pamela’ or Virtue Rewarded.
Ans. The novel ‘Pamela’ written by Richardson marks the beginning of
epistolary fiction in English. It is written in the form of letters.
Q. 27. Whom do you consider the father of the English novel?
Ans. Henry Fielding can be considered the father of the English novel.
Q. 28. Who has defined novel as ‘a comic epic in prose’?
Ans. Henry Fielding has defined novel as a comic epic in prose.
Q. 29. What is Henry Fielding’s contribution to the English novel.
Ans. Henry Fielding’s chief contribution lies in the field of realism, homour,
characterisation and plot construction. He constructed plots according to the
principles of dramatic action. His characters form a complete picture of human
life and the workmanship of his plot-construction is cxcellent.
Q. 30. Name some important novelists of the Gothic Tradition.
Ans. The important novelists who wrote Gothic novels were—Horace
Walpole (1717-97), Mrs. Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823), Mathew Gregory Lewis
(1775-1811), Charles Robert Maturin (1782-1824), Mary Shelley (1797-1851)
and Miss Clara Reve (1729-1807).
Q. 31. What are the important characteristics of the Gothic Novel?
Ans. The scenes of the Gothic novel are invariably laid in haunted castels
and ruined buildings and they produce an impression of terror and fear. In this
way Gothic and novel is full of mysteries, supernaturalism and out of the way
things.
Q. 32. Name the main novels of Mrs. Ann Radcliffe.
Ans. The main novels of Mrs. Ann Radcliffe are—A Sicilian Romance,
The Romance of the Forest, The Mysteries of Udalopho and The Italian.
Q. 33. What are the important works of James Thomson?
Ans. The important works of James thomson are The Season, Winter and
the Castle be of Indolence.
Q. 34. Who is the prominent novelist of the Terror School?
Ans. The prominent novelist of the Terror school is Matthew Gregory
Lewis. His main work is The Monk (1795).
Q. 35. Who has written the novel The Castle of Otranto’?
Ans. Horace Walpole has written the novel ‘The Castle of Otranto’.
Q. 36. Name some other important novelists of the Terror School.
Ans. The other important novelists of the Terror School are—MIss Clara
Reve’s—The Old English Baron, Mary Shelley’s—Frankenstein, Robert
Bage’s—Man as He is, Charles Robert Maturin’s—Melmoth the Wanderer.
Q. 37. What do you understand by the term ‘Oriental Romance’?
Ans. The ‘Oriental Romance’ deals with the stories of eastern countries.
Eastern countires had a great attraction for the English people. Addison and
Steele were the writers, who presented oriental sketches in the periodical The
Spectator. Dr. Johnson presented the story of an Abyssinian prince in search of
happiness in ‘Rasselas’.
Q. 38. Name the Pindaric Odes written by Thomas Gray.
Ans. ‘The Progress of Poesry’ and ‘The Bard’ are the Pindaric Odes written
by Thomas Gray.
Q. 39. Trace out the shortcomings of Thomas Gary’s poetry.
Ans. The shortcomings of Thomas Gray’s is poetry are obscuirty, lack of
imaginative heart, lack of inspiration, and artificiality of style and artificial
poetic diction.
Q. 40. What has Saintsbury to say about William Collins?
Ans. Saintsbury has commented about Collins, “That almost everything
that is good in Collins belongs to the men, almost everything that is not good
belongs to the time.”
Q. 41. What has Dr. Johnson to say about Metaphysical Poets?
Ans. Dr. Johnson said that metaphysical poetry was wanting in emotional
effect for the treatment of these poets was impersonal. “Their courtship was
void of founders and their lamentations of sorrow. They attained the heights of
sublimity of thoughts that filled the mind with rapture and astonishment.
Moreover what they lacked in was greatness of thought, they attempted to
supply by means of hyperbole which gave to the work an air of excess and
unreality.”
!
The Age of Transition (1750-1798) 57. 58. A HAND BOOK OF VIVA-VOCE
Chapter 10
THE ROMANTIC AGE (1798-1850)
OR
THE AGE OF WORDSWORTH
The period form 1789 to 1832 in English social history is a period of
revolutionary social change which was destined to transform the entire economy
and social structure of the country. The romantic movement can not be given a
precise date, it developed slowly till it came to a head in the year 1798, and the
event that gave the definite shape and direction to the movement was the
publication of the Lyrical Ballads. The term ‘Romantic Revival’ indicates a
return to literature of those romantic qualities which had characterised the
literature of the Elizabethan age.
Romanticism Defined
The term “Romanticism’ has been variously defined by various critics.
Walter Pater calls it the “addition of strangeness to beauty.” Wats Dunton defines
it as “the renaissance of wonder”, Goethe the German poet-critic contrasts
Romanticism with Classicism and defines it “Romanticism is disease, Classicism
is health.” Legous and Cazamian define it “An accentuated predominance of
emotional life, provoked and directed by the exercise of imaginative vision.”
C.H. Herford defines it “an extraordinary development of imaginative
sensibility.”
Abercrombie’s definition reads “Romanticism is a withdrawal from outer
experience to concentrate on inner experience.” Heines, Beers and Phelps
define it as “the re-awakening of the Middle Ages.”
Romanticism : Its Chief Characteristics
The Romantic movement is perhaps the most complicated literary
movement in the history of English literature. This movement was, in fact, a
reaction to the school of poetry which Dryden and Pope had brought into
position and fervour. It is very difficult to date any particular movement, it is
equally impossible to date the Romantic movement. We have seen how before
the death of Pope in 1744, a reaction against the school of poetry was setting
in; this reaction gathered strength and became quiet violent during the second
half of the 18th century but all the same it is conventient to regard 1798, the
year of publication of the “Lyrical Ballads” by Wordsworth, as marking the
beginning of new poetry.
To define the word ‘Romanticism’ in terms is very difficult. Many critics
and writers have tried to define the term “Romanticism” but none of them is
completaly off the target. First, Watts Dunton’s expressive phrase, ‘the
renaissance of wonder’ describes remarkably well this particular phase of the
romantic movement. C.H. Herford points out that the romantic movement was
primarily “an extraordinary development of imaginative sensibility.”
The various terms are given to the romantic movement. The romantic
rise, romantic revival, Renaissance of wonder. The Ranaissance is the first
romantic period in English literature. The supreme romantic movement in
English Letters was the Renaissance. It had brought about a transformation
not only in English but also European life. It was flowered by a reaction in
which Classicism with its insistent force on reason and logic, passionless order
held the supreme sway. Then came the ‘romantic revival’. The beginning of
the nineteenth century completed throwing over forces and values that were
held dear by Alexander Pope. A new phrase was given to Art and Literature.
The poetry of the age witnessed a complete break away from the traditions and
usages followed by the pseudo-classicists of the former age. The salient
characteristics of Romantic Age are the following—
1. A Revival of the Past—The chief characteristic of the Romantic Age
was an abundance of intellectual curiosity and activity. This accounted for a
revival of the past, specially of the medieval ages, or a period so full of
everything romantic. Medievalism, the spirit of the middle ages, fired the
imagination of the romantic poets. The medieval element is thus a prevailing
feature of romantic poetry. In the second half of the eighteenth century, a
considerable revival of old things took place. Old authors began to be widely
studied and imitated, old tales of chivalry and, romance were retold. That is
why Romantic movement is often called the ‘romantic revival’.
The Revival of old literature opened up a new world to the imagination of
men and pouplarised metres that challenged supremacy of the heroic couplet.
2. A Revolt against Classical Poetry—The poetry of the romantic age is
a revolt against the classical poetry of Pope. In the eigheenth century, Poetry
was governed by set rules and regulations, but the poetry of the romantic age
protested against the bondage of rules and customs. The classical literature
deals with gallant lords and courtiers but the romantic poet took interest in the
lives of the common people. The classical literature was intellectual, rational
and didactic, but the romantic poetry was imaginative and passionate.
3. Predominance of Imagination and Emotion—In Romantic poetry
reason and intellect were subdued and their place was taken by imagination,
emotion and passion. In the poetry of all the romantic poets of the age, we
have heightened exhibtion of emotional sensibilties and imaginative flights of
genius. Keat’s imagination catches fire in “The Eve of St. Agnes.”
Full on this casement shown the wintry moon.
And threw warm guels on Madeline’s fair breast.
The Romantic Age (1798-1850) 59. 60. A HAND BOOK OF VIVA-VOCE
4. Mysticism and Supernaturalism—One of the chief characteristics of
the romantic poetry was a love of the mysterious and the supernatural, the
strange and the vague. The mysticism of Wordsworth and Shelley’s poetry laid
the supernatural element in that of coleridge are illustrations of this aspect of
the romantic movement Mark the following lines of Shelley in ‘Adonais’ “The
one remains, the many change and pass.”
When in the midst of Nature
Just like a mystic he had vision of—
A presence that destructs we with fine
Of elevated thoughts, a sense subline.
5. Interest in Country Life—Poetry in the 18th century was concerned
with clubs, coffee houses and drawing rooms. It was essentially a poetry of
town life. Nature had no place in classical poetry. In the poetry of romantic age
the interest of the poets was transfered fromt town to country life and from
artificial decoration of drawing room to the natural beauty and loveliness of
nature Wordsworth was a giant poet of nature. He inscribed the suffering and
struggles of human life. He had a like and sympathy for the common people.
In the prelude wordsworth expresses. “And thus my heart was early introduced
to an unconsious love and reverence of human nature.”
6. Love for Nature—Nature began to base its own importance in the
poetry of this age and Wordsworth was the great poet who revealed the physical
and spiritual beauty of nature. Wordsworth found in nature what he sought—
the peace which was in the own soul. That is why he could find—
“The silence that is in starry night
The sleep that is among the lonely hills.”
And finds joy in nature,
A poet could not but be gay
In such a jocund company
I gozed and gazed but little thought
What wealth they show to me had brought.
(The Daffodils)
7. Not of Subjectivity—Subjectivity was the chief characteristic of the
poetry of this age. The poets were in favouree of giving subjective interpretation
to the objective realities of life.
Long says, “The Romantic movement was the expression of individual
genius rather than of established rules.”
Mark the subjective note in Wordsworth’s is poem “The Education of
Nature”.
The Child I to myself will take.
She shall be mine, and I will make
A Lady of my own.
Myself will to my darling be.
Both law and impulse and with me.
8. Love of Beauty—Prof. Herford has said that the Romanticism was
primarily “An extraordinary development of imaginative sensibility.”
A love of beauty is so expressed by different poets in different ways. The
beauty of nature, both in its wild and domesticated aspect, finds nobel expression
in all romatic poetry with poets, however beauty becomes a reflection and is
identified by him with truth. To Keats,
Beauty is truth..... Truth beauty
That is all he know on earth..... and all he need to know.”
He expresses....
“A thing of beauty is a joy forever.”
9. Love of Liberty and Freedom—In Romantic poetry emphasis was
laid on liberty and freedom of the indiviudal. Romantic poets are rebel against
tyranny and brutality exercised by tyrants over human beings. In the poetry of
Romantic poets, we note a wave of liberty and freedom. Freedom is the breadth
in which the Romantic poets breathed well and freely.
10. Lyricism—In Romantic poetry lyricism predominates. All the
Romantic poets were great lyrical poets. Shelley was the most lyrical poet of
this Age. His lyrics were famous functions for their spontaneity and simplicity.
In the “Ode to the West Wind” he expresses, “Wind! make me thy lyre”
O Lift me! as a wave, a leaf a cloud,
I fall upon the thoms of life! I bleed.”
11. Simple Diction and Natural Style—In Romantic poetry, use paid we
find simple Diction and natural style. All Romantic poets express their thoughts
and emotions in natural diction and spontaneous way. Mark the simplicity in
the following lines of Wordsworth, “For oft when on my couch I hie, In vacant
or in pensuasive mood”
They flash upon that in ward eye which is the bliss of solitude
and then my heart with pleasure fills and dances with the dafodills.”
Poetry in The Romantic Age
1. William Wordsworth (1771-1850)—Descriptive Sketches, Evening
Walk, Lyrical Ballads, Lines Written A Few Miles Above Tentern Abbey.
Michael, The Old Cumberland Beggar, She Dwelt Among The Untrodden
Ways, Strange Fits of Passion and Nutting, The Prelude. The Solitary Reaper,
The Green Linnet, I Wandered Lonely As A cloud, Ode on Intimations of
Immortality, Resolution and Independence, Ode to Duty, The Excursion, The
White Doe of Rylstone, The Waggoner, Peter Bell, Yarrow Reisited.
The Romantic Age (1798-1850) 61. 62. A HAND BOOK OF VIVA-VOCE
2. S.T. Coleridge (1772-1834)—The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,
Christable Part-I in 1797, Part-II in 1800, Kubla Khan 1798, First at Midnight,
France : An Ode.
3. Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)—Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, The
Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805), Marmion (1808), The Lady of the Lake (1810),
The Bridal of Triermain (1813), The Lord of Isles (1814).
4. George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824)—The Curse of Minerva
(1812), The Waltz (1813), The Giaour (1813), The Bride of Abydos (1813),
The Corsair (1814), Lara (1814), Hebrew Melodies (1814), Parisina Manfred,
Cain and the unfinished Don Juan.
5. P.B. Shelley (1792-1822)—Queen Mab (1813), Alastor (1815),
Promethrus Unbound, Ode to the West Wind, To A Skylark, The Cloud, Adonais
and Epeprychidion, The Revolt of Islam (1818) (it is passionate plea for
freedom). Julian and Meddale (1818), Lines written Among the Euganean Hills,
Prometheus Unbound (1818-19) (a superb lyrical drama), The Cenci, The Witch
of Atlas, Hymn to Apollo (1820).
6. John Keats (1795-1821)—Lmitation of Spenser (1813), I Stood Tip
Toe Upon A Hill, Sleep and Beauty, Endymion 1818, Isabella or The Pot of
Basil (1818), The Eve of St. Agnes (1819), The Eve of St. Mark and Hyperion.
Keat’s Great Odes are—To a Nightinagle, On a Grecian Urn, To Psyche,
On Melancholy, To Autumn. His sonnets are On First Looking into Chapman’s
Homer, When I Have Fears, Bright Star.
Other Poets
Robert Suthey (1774-1843) is remembered for Joan of Arc (1798), Thalba
the Destroyer (1801), The Curse of Kehama (1810), Rodrick, The Last of the
Gothus (1814), Thomas Moore (1779-1852) is remembered for his Lalla Rookh
(1817).
Thomas Campbell (1717-1844) wrote Gertrude of Wyoming (1809), The
Pilgirm of Glencoe (1842), Ye Mariner’s of England, The Battle of Baltic.
Prose in the Romantic Age
The Edinburgh Review was established in 1802 by Jeffre, Sydney Smith.
The Quarterly was started by William Gifford and Lockhard as the mouth
piece of Tory Party. Black wodo’s Edinburgh Mazazine was launched in 1817
by Wilson, Lockhart and Hoggy. There was also London Magazine to which
charles Lamb, Hazlitt and De Quincey contributed.
1. Charles Lamb (1775-1834)—Tales Fom Shakespeare with his sister.
Specimen of English Dramatic Poets, Who Lived About the Time of
Shakespeare (1818), Rosamund Gray.
Adventures of Ulysses, John Woodvil (1802), Essays of Elia (1823), The
Last Essays of Elia (1833).
2. William Hazlitt (1778-1830)—Characters in Shakespeare’s Plays
(1817), The English Poets (1818), The English Comic Writers (1819), The
Drammatic Literature of the Age of Elizabeth, The Round Table (1817), Table
Talk or Original Essays on Men and Manners (1821-22), The Spirit of the Age
on Contemporary Portraits (1825).
3. Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859)—The Confession of An Opium
Eater. The Dialogue of Three Templars, Literary Reminescences, On the
Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth (1823), Murder Considered as one of the
Fine Arts (1827), Letters to a Young Man (1823), Joan of Arc (1827), The
Revolt of Tartars (1840), The English Mail Coach (1849), Susperia de Profundis
(1845).
Novel in the Romantic Age
1. Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)—Count Robert of Paris, The Bethrothed,
The Talislman, Ivanhoe, Castle Dangerous The Fair Maid of Perth, Quentin
Durward, Annie of Geiestein, The Monastry, The Abbot, Kenilworth. The
Fortunes of Nigel, A Legend of Montrose, Woodstock, Old Mortality, The
Bride of Lammermoor, The Pirate. The Heart of Midlothian, The Black Dwarf,
Rob Roy, The Heart of Midlothian, Guy Man nering, Waverley, The Highland
Window, The Surgeon’s Daughter’s The Tapasteried Chamber, The Two
Drovers, The Antiquary.
2. Jane Austen (1775-1813)—Pride and Prjudice (1796-97), Sense and
Sensibility (1797-98), Northanger Abbey (1798), Mansfield Park, Emma
(1815), Persuasion (1815-16).
3. Meria Edgeworth (1767-1849)—Castle Rackrent (1800), The
Abssentee (1809), Ormond (1817), Belinda (1801), Leonora (1806), Patronage
(1814), Harrington (1817).
4. Thomas Love Peacock (1785-1866)—Headlong Hill (1816), Melin
Court (1817), Nightmore Abbey (1818), Maid Marian (1822), The Misfortunes
of Elphin (1829), Crotchet Castle (1831), Gryll Grange (1860).
Drama in the Age of Romanticism
The Romantics were attracted towards poetry and fiction. Most of the
Romantics were introverts, whereas drama needs extroverts.
P.B. Shelley some poetic plays. They are Prometheus Unbound (1819),
The Cenci (1820) and Hellas (1822), Wordsworth wrote Borderers, S.T.
Coleridge Remorse, Byron Marino Faliero and John Keats Cetho, The Great.
The Romantic Age (1798-1850) 63. 64. A HAND BOOK OF VIVA-VOCE
QUESTIONS
Q. 1. What is the importance of the ‘Lyrical Ballads’ in the history of
English Poetry?
Ans. The Lyrical Ballads published in 1798 by William Wordsworth and
S.T. Coleridge. This work started the New Era of Romanticism.
Q. 2. What was Wordsworth’s theory of poetry given in the Preface
to the ‘Lyrical Ballads’?
Ans. William Wordsworth propounded that “Poetry is the breath and finer
spirit of all knowledge and poetry in the spontaneous overflow of powerful
feelings. It takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.”
Q. 3. Tell us about the Sonnets of Wordsworth.
Ans. William Wordsworth has written 523 sonnets and he followed the
Petarchan form in them. The important sonnets of William Wordsworth are—
(1) The World Is Too Much With Us (2) To Milton, (3) To London.
Q. 4. What are Wordsworth’s views on Poetic diction.
Ans. Wordsworth said that poetry should be written in a selection of the
real language of man in a state of vivid sensation. According to Wordsworth,
“There neither is nor can by any essential difference between the language of
prose and metrical composition.”
Q. 5. Name some of the works and their writers that heralded the
coming of Romanticism?
Ans. ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’ by Thomas, Gray, ‘The
Seasons’ by James Thomson, Ossian by Macpherson and ‘Reliques’ by Thomas
Percy.
Q. 6. What is the difference between Fancy and Imagination according
to S.T. Coleridge?
Ans. For S.T. Coleridge fancy and imagination were two different things.
By fancy he meant a mode of memory independent of time and space. This
node according of him was always dependent on the poet’s choice. He was of
the opinion that imagination was of two types—Primary and Secondary. The
first one he took to be the instrument of human perception and the second, the
believed, was the echo of the first one. This all dissolved, diffused and dissipated
and finally did its function which has to recreate.
Q. 7. What is Coleridge’s criticism of Wordsworth’s theory of poetic
diction.
Ans. S.T. Coleridge has criticized Wordsworth’s Theory of Poetic Diction
in his book Biographia Literaria. Coleridge said that Wordsworth was wrong
in making a sweeping generalisation for all types of poetic thoughts to be
rendered in the language of common speech. Coleridge clarified that the use
of metre in poetry was necessary and therefore the use of a language was also
necessary.
Q. 8. What was the difference between the attitudes of Wordsworth
and Coleridge towards Nature?
Ans. According to Wordsworth Nature was a philosopher, friend and guide.
S.T. Coleridge finds in nature the supernatural and he presents this supernatural
as purely natural.
Q. 9. What Wordsworth’s conception of Nature.
Ans. Wordsworth believed that there was a divine spirit working through
all the objects of nature. Wordsworth was a high priest of Nature. In his long
poem, Tintern Abbey, Wordsworth has described the various stages in the
development of his attitude towards Nature. His appreciation of Nature began
with the physical plane and ended with the mystical and spiritualistic
interpretation of Nature.
Q. 10. Name two works of S.T. Coleridge as a critic.
Ans. S.T. Coleridge has written two works Biographia Literaria and
Lectures on Shakespeare.
Q. 11. What is William Wordsworth’s treatment of Child Life.
Ans. Wordsworth was primarily attracted by the mystical and philosophical
strains in the carefree life of a child as mentioned in the following quotes from
his poems :
(1) “Mighty prophet, seer blest,
On whom those truths, do rest,
Which we are toiling all our lives to find.”
(2) “Child is the father of man.”
(3) “Heaven lies about us in our infancy.”
Q. 12. What are main characteristic features of the poet, S.T.
Coleridge.
Ans. S.T. Coleridge was a supernatural poet. In this way his supernaturalism
appears to be natural. His other qualities are—His imaginative power.
Medievalism, love for Nature and simplicity of diction.
Q. 13. Tell us about the supernaturalism of S.T. Coleridge.
Ans. S.T. Coleridge with his imagination creates a willing suspension of
disbelief. In his works Ancient Mariner and Christabel, the supernatural effect
is achieved by delicate suggestion. The supernaturalism of S.T. Coleridge is
very different from the crude sentimentalsim of the terror novelists.
Q. 14. Tell us about supernaturalism in ‘Kubla Khan’.
Ans. Kubla Khan was written under the influence of drug. After that S.T.
Coleridge fell asleep and during the three hours that he slept he saw a vision of
rare beauty and charm. After that S.T. Coleridge wrote about his vision. This
poem is a delightful mixture of imagination, emotion, mystery, sensuousness,
romantic description, sweet melody and exquisite words.
The Romantic Age (1798-1850) 65. 66. A HAND BOOK OF VIVA-VOCE
Q. 15. Tell us about the ‘Rime of Ancient Mariner’ and ‘Christable’.
Ans. The Rime of Ancient Mariner is a ballad while Christabel is a
remarkable poem by S.T. Coleridge dealing with the theme of super-naturalism.
This poem is also a ballad,Christable is a tale of mystery and this poem evokes
a weird sensation in the mind of the reader.
Q. 16. Wordswroth and S.T. Coleridge both were the poets of Nature?
What is the difference between their attitudes?
Ans. According to William Wordsworth, Nature was a philosopher, friend
and guide. During childhood, Nature turns into “The Light of the common
day, and then in the “Still, sad music of humanity.”
On the other hand, S.T. Coleridge finds in Nature the supernatural element.
Q. 17. Tell us about John Keats as a poet of beauty.
Ans. John Keats says in his ‘Ode On A Grecian Um’.
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty—that is all,
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
John Keats was primarily a poet of beauty. There is an element of hellenism
and sensuousness in this poetry. Again in ‘Ode on a Grecian Um’ he writes
about the concept of beauty—
“She cannot fade, though those hast not the bliss,
For ever wilt then love, and she be fair.”
Q. 18. Tell us about P.B. Shelley as a lyrical poet?
Ans. P.B. Shelley has been regarded as the greatest lyrical poet of England.
A.C. Swinburne has called him ‘the perfect singing god’. The lyrical quality is
present in all the longer poems of P.B. Shelley like Alastor, Prometheus
Unbound. The Witch of Atlas. He has also written fine lyrics-like Ode to the
West Wind, Stanzas Written in Dejection Near Naples etc. The main qualities
of P.B. Shelley’s lyrics are spontaneity, pressimism, and emotional ecstasy.
Q. 19. Can you quote few lines to show the pessimism in P.B. Shelley?
Ans. I “O lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud,
(1) I fall upon the thoms of life, I bleed.”
—“Ode to the West Wind.”
(2) “Alas ! I have nor hope nor health
Nor peace within nor calm around
Nor that content surpassing wealth
The sage in meditation found
Nor fame, nor power, nor love,
nor leisure
Others I see whom these surround
To me that cup has been
Dealt in another measure.”
—Stanzas in dejection near Naples.
Q. 20. What are the chief characteristics of John Keat’s Poetry?
Ans. The chief characteristics of John Keats poetry are Hellenism,
Sensuousness and pictuersquenss.
Q. 21. Quote few lines from the poems of John Keats to show his
sensuousness.
Ans. (1) “My heart aches and a drowsy numbness pains,
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains,
One minute past and Lethe Worlds had sunk.”
—Ode to A Nightingale.
(2) “Pillowed upon my fair love’s
ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall
and swell.”
—Ode to a Nightingale.
Q. 22. Tell us about John Keat’s ‘Negative Capability’?
Ans. Keats has an impulse to interest himself in anything he saw on heard.
He accepted it and identified himself with it “If a sparrow come before my
window, says Keats, I take part in its existence and pick out the grave.” A poet,
he says, has no identity. He is continually in for and feeling some other body.
Keats says of the poetic character it has no self, it is everything and nothing.
For Keats, the necessary quality of poetry is a submission to things as they are,
without any effort any effort to intellectualise them into something else.
Q. 23. Who has commented about P.B. Shelley, “He is a beautiful and
ineffectual angel, beating in the void his luminous wings in vain”?
Ans. Matthew Arnold made this comment about P.B. Shelley.
Q. 24. What is about Keat’s ‘conception of poetry’?
Ans. John Keats believed that poetry should come as naturally to the poet
as leaves to a tree and that if poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a
tree, it had better not come at all. John Keats was against the didacitc note in
poetry.
Q. 25. What are important poetical works of Sir Walter Scott.
Ans. The important poetical works of Sir Walter Scott are—The
Ministrelsy of the Scottish Border. The Lay of the Last Ministrel, Marmion.
The Lady of the Lake.
Q. 26. Which is famous lyrical drama of P.B. Shelley.
Ans. The famous lyrical drama of P.B. Shelley is Prometheus Unbound.
This drama is full of allusions and allgorical references. This drama provides
expression to Shelley’s love of liberty.
The Romantic Age (1798-1850) 67. 68. A HAND BOOK OF VIVA-VOCE
Q. 27. Clarify Matthew Arnold’s Statement about P.B. Shelley “a
beautiful and ineffectual angel beating his luminous wings in the void in
vain”.
Ans. According to Matthew Arnold, the poetry of P.B. Shelly lacks a
criticism of life; it is ethereal, unreal and unsubstantial. This statment of Arnold
is not correct as Shelley’s poetry contains better criticism of life and Arnold
himself seems tobe influenced by P.B. Shelley.
Q. 28. Tell us about P.B. Shelley’s treatment of Nature.
Ans. P.B. Shelley is the least pictorial of Nature poets. Shelley
intellectualises Nature and his observation is scientific. Shelley uses natural
objects as symbols of destruction and creation. Shelley’s treatment of Nature
is not only scientfic but also philosophical.
Q. 29. Tell us about Kea’ts Hellenism.
Ans. Hellenism means Keats’ love of Greek literature, mythology and
life. John Keats was effected by Greek sculpture and he tried to produce the
same effect in his poems. John Keats has taken themes from Greek literature in
all his major works like Endymion, Hyperion, Lamia, Ode on a Grecian Urn
and Ode to Psyche. P.B. Shelley once called John Keats, “A Greek.”
Q. 30. Quote few lines from John Keats on beauty.
Ans. (1) “Beauty is truth, truth beauty-that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
–Ode on a Grecian Urn.”
(2) A thing of beauty is a joy for ever,
Its loveliness increases, it will nover,
Pass into nothingness, but still will keep,
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep,
Full of sweet dreams, and health and quiet breathing.
–Endymion.
Q. 31. Tell us about Charles Lamb as an Essayist.
Ans. Hugh Walker has commented about Charles Lamb in these words
“There are essayists like Bacon of more massive greatness and others like Sir
Thomas Browne who can attain Inftier heights of eloquence but there is no
other who has in an equal degree the power to charm.” All of Charles Lamb’s
essays are auto-biographical and the is regarded as the prince of English
essayists of the 19th century.
Q. 32. Name the authobiographical essays of Charles Lamb.
Ans. The authobiographical essays of Charles Lamb are : Dream Children,
The South Sea House, Poor Relations, Christ an Hospital, The Old Benchers
of the Inner Tempie, Imperfect Sympathies, The Confessions of a Drunkard.
Q. 33. Tell us about the prose style of Charles Lamb?
Ans. According to Comption Rickett, “The prose style of Charles Lamb
is a mixture of many styles, it is a chemcial blend, not a mechanical mixture.”
Lamb has used obsolete and archaic words and he quotes frequently from his
favourite authors. His style is a mixture of poetic and pictorial quality.
Q. 34. Name the Important Prose writers of the Romantic Age.
Ans. The imprtant prose writers of the Romantic age are—Henry Hallam
(1717-1859), Francis Jeffrey (1773-1850), George Grote (1794-1871), John
G. Lockhard (1794-1845), William Cobbett (1762-1835) etc.
Q. 35. Name the important literary Journals of the 19th century?
Ans. The important literary Journals of the 19th century are—The London
Magazine, The Gentleman’s Magazine, The Edinburgh Review, The Quarterly
Reviewer, Blackwood’s Magazine etc.
Q. 36. Tell us about Jane Austen’s rage?
Ans. Jane Austens has presented the feminisatio of English novel. She
has written about female world. There is lack of natural scenery in her novels.
Her novels lack passion. She writes as woman about women and on the themes
that are of the first importance to a woman.
Q. 37. Tell us about the minor novelists of the Romantic period.
Ans. The minor novelists of the Romantic period are—Mary Godwin
Shelley (1797-1851), William Harrison, Ains Worth (1835-82), George P.R.
James (1801-60), Frederick Marryat (1792-1840), Thomas Love Peacock
(1785-1866).
Q. 38. Tell us about P.B. Shelley’s dramas?
Ans. P.B. Shelley has written some poetic plays in English. They are
Prometheus Unbound (1819), The Cenci (1820) and Hellas (1822).
Q. 39. Tell us about Lake poets.
Ans. The term Lake Poets is used for three poets—S.T. Coleridge Robert
Southey and William Wordsworth.
Q. 40. Tell us about Hazlitt’s remark about Charles Lamb.
Ans. Hazlitt is remark about Charles Lamb reads, “The streets of London
are his fairy land, teeming with wonder, with life and interest to his retrospective
glance as it did to the eager eye of childhood.”
Q. 41. What do you know about Byronic hero?
Ans. The Byronic hero is gloomy, weary, restless, stricken with grief
remorse and wonder.
Q. 42. What do you know about ‘Essays of Elia’?
Ans. ‘Essays of Elia’ is a collection of essays by Charles Lamb. All these
essays are authobiographical.
Q. 43. What are the important novels of Sir Walter Scott?
Ans. The important novels of Sir Walter Scott are The Bride of
The Romantic Age (1798-1850) 69. 70. A HAND BOOK OF VIVA-VOCE
Chapter 11
THE VICTORIAN PERIOD (1850-1990)
Cheif Characteristics
(1) Advance of Democratic Ideals—In this age the political supremacy
of the landed aristocracy had been destroyed by the Reform Bill of 1832. The
repeal of the Corn Law in 1848 unhered in an era of improved industiral
conditions. The literature of this period derived greater energy and driving
power from the democratic and humanitarian ideals. Carlyle, Ruskin, Dickens,
Kingsley and even Mr. Browning were deeply influenced by these ideals.
(2) The Impact of Science—The progress of science kept pace with the
progress of democracy. The publication of Darwin’s ‘Origin of Species’ in
1859 is of special significance. The impact of science was so powerful on
human mind that it had affected every channel of intellectual activity. We come
across the influence of Herbert Spenser and Comte in the novels of George
Eliot.
(3) The Development of the Novel and the collapse of Drama—The
novel is perhaps the most adaptable from that the literary artist has discovered.
With the variety of treatment the novel gives the writer scope for fullest selfexpression
and the variety of subjects it can treat is so great that the works of
Dickens and Thackeray give us a complete picture of London of their time.
Whatever the cause, the drama plays but a small part in the literature of the
period.
(4) The Lyrical Poetry—The poetry of this period generally reflects the
chief characteristics of its intellectual life. Poetry during the period is chiefly
lyrical or episodic in character.
Poetry in the Victorian Period
1. Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-92)—by Two Brothers, Isabell and
Madeline, The Lady of Shalott, Oenone, The Lotos Eaters, The Palace of Art,
Morte D’ Arthur, Ulysses, Locksley Hall, The Princess (1847). In Memoriam
(1850), Maud and Other poems (1855), Enoch Arden and other poems, The
Idylls of the King, The Death of Benone.
2. Robert Browning (1812-1889)—Note : Pauline, Paraclesus (1835),
Bells and Pomegranates (1846), Pippa Passes, A Soul’s Tragedy, King Victor
and King Charles, The Return of the Dresses, Blot on the Scutcheon, Colombe’s
Birthday Dramatic Lyrics (1846), Evelyn Hope, A Gondola, Porphyria’s Lover,
My Last Duchess, The Piped Piper, Dramatic Romances and Lyrics (1845).
The Romantic Age (1798-1850) 71. 72. A HAND BOOK OF VIVA-VOCE
Lammermoor, Waverly, Old Montalty, Quentin Durward, The Talisman,
Ivanhoe, Guy Mannering etc.
Q. 44. Who has made this statement, “Nature was not everything to
them (romantics) but they would have been nothing without Nature.”
Ans. The famous Critic C.M. Bowra made this statement.
Q. 45. In which poem has P.B. Shelley written the following line?
“If winter comes can spring be far behind”?
Ans. It appears in the poem ‘Ode to the West Wind’.
!Men and Women (1855). Fra Lippo Lippi, Andra del Sarto, Cleon, One Word
More, Bishop Blongram’s Apology Dramatis Personae (1864), Caliban upon
Setebos, A Death in the Desert, Rabbi Ben Ezra, Abt Vogler.
3. Mathew Arnold (1822-1883)—Rugby Chapel, The Scholar Gipsy,
Thyrsis, The Strayed Reveller, Empedocles, On Etna, Tristram and Iseult, A
Summer Night, Lines Written in Kensington Garden, New Poems.
4. A.H. Clough (1819-1861)—The Bothie of Toper-na-Vuolich (1848),
Mours de Voyage (1849), Dip Sychus (1850), Say Not the Struggle Naught
Availeth.
5. James Thomson (1834-1882)—The City of Dreadful Night.
6. Edward Fitzgerlald (1809-1888)—Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.
The Pre-Raphaelite Movement
The Pre-Raphaclite Poets drew their inspiration from the works of Italian
painters before Raphael in whom they found a sweetness, depth and sincerity
of devotional feeling. The famous Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded
in 1848 by three painters, Holman Hunt, John Millais, Rossetti and one sculptor,
Thomas Woolner.
Chief Characteristics of this Movement
1. Art for Art’s Sake—The Pre-Raphaelites had no moral didactic or
Philosophical purposes. The Pre-Raphaelites were the poets of beauty and
aimed at achieving that form. Their sole purpose was to depict or create beauty
in their works.
2. Medievalism—The Pre-Raphaelites were inspired by Medievalism.
These poets provided subtlety and a touch of realistic touch to the Middle
Ages. A.C. Swinburne remarks, “by the strong touch of moderness which
these poets and the best of their followers intorduced into their works, they
have given the vivification required.”
3. Picturesqueness—The Pre-Raphaelite poets presented vivid and
sensuous word pictures. The purpose of these poets was to create the effect of
landscape painting in poetry.
4. Love for Music and Melody—The Pre-Raphaelites had given great
attention to vowel music, to artistic metres and choice of musical words. Legouis
comments, “Vowels call to vowels, and consonants to consonants and these
links often seem stronger than the links of thought or imagery.”
The Pre-Raphaelite Poets
1. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)—Poems (1870), Ballads and
Sonnets (1881), Sister Helen, The Staff and Script.
2. William Morris (1834-1896)—The Earthly Paradise, The Defence of
Guenevere and Other Poems (1858), The Life and Death of Jason (1866), The
Dream of John Ball, News from Nowhere.
3. A.C. Swinburne (1837-1909)—Atlanta in Calydon (1865), Songs
before sunrise (1871), Trestram and Other Poems (1882).
Other Poets of this Period are—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-61),
wife of the poet Robert Browning. She wrote Prometheus Bound (1833), The
Seraphim and Other Poems (1838), Sonnets from the Portugese (1847), Case
Guidi Widows (1851), Aurora Leigh (1857), Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-
94), Younger Sister of the poet D.G. Rossetti. She wrote Goblin Market and
Other poems (1881) and Verses (1893).
The Oxford Movement
Oxford movement was a movement for religious reform. It is called
‘Oxford’ because some Oxford professors and scholars were the force on the
back of it. It was one of Wordsworth’s disciples, John Kable, Professor of
poertry at Oxford, who was the real founder of the Oxford Movement. John
Henry Newman (1801-90) was the chief protagonist of the Movement. His
poetry includes Dream of Gerontius, Apologia Provita Sua (1864) etc.
Prose Writers of the Victorian Period
1. Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)—Sartor Resartus, The Life of Schiler
(1825), The French Revolution (1837), Oliver Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches
(1845), The Life of John Sterling (1851), The History of Frederick II of Prussia,
called Frederick the Great (1858-65), Chartism, Past and Present (1843), Latter
Day Pamphlets (1850), On Heroes, Hero-Worship and Heroic in History.
2. John Ruskin (1819-1900)—The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849),
The Stone of Venice (1851-53), Two Paths Unto The Last (1861), Munera
Pulveris (1862), Time and Tide by Wear and Tyne (1867), Fors Clavigera
(1874-84), Seasame and Lilies (1865), The Crown of Wilde Olive (1866).
3. Matthew Arnold (1822-88)—Culture and Anarchy (1869), Literature
and Dogma (1873).
4. Walter Horatio Pater (1839-94)—Studies in the History of
Renaissance (1873), Imaginary Portraits (1887), Appreciations (1889), Marcius,
the Epicurean (1885).
5. Rasbert Louis Stevenson (1850-94)—The Amateur Emigrant,
Memories and Portraits, Random Memories Fountaineblean, The Lantern
Bearers, Some College Memories, Virginibus Puerisque, Familiar Studies of
Men and Books, An Island Voyage, Travles with a Donkey, Christmas Sermon,
Ordered South.
6. Other Prose Writers–Charles Darwin (1809-82)—His chief works
are : The Voyage of the Beagle (1839), On the Origin of Species (1859), The
Descent of Man (1871).
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)—His chief work is On Liberty and
Representative Government.
The Victorian Period (1850-1900) 73. 74. A HAND BOOK OF VIVA-VOCE
Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-95)—His main works are : Man’s Place in
Nature (1863), Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews (1870), American
Addresses (1877).
Novelists of the Victorian Period and Main Novels
1. Charles Dickens (1812-1870)—The Old Curiosity Shop, Barnaby
Rudge (1841), American Notes (1842), Martin Chuzzlewit (1843), A Christmas
Carol (1843), Dombey and Son (1846), David Copperfield, Bleak House
(1842), Hard Times (1854), A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations (1860),
Our Mutual Friend, The Mystery of Edwin Drood (unfinished).
2. Charles Kingsley (1819-75)—Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet (1850),
Yeast, A Problem, Hypatia, Westward Hoe (1855), Two Years Ago (1857),
Hereward the Wake, Alton Locke.
3. Charles Read (1814-1884)—A Terrible Temptation (1871), The
Cloister and the Hearth (1861).
4. Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)—Vivian Grey, Contarini Fleming, A
Psychological Autobiography (1832), Henrietta Temple (1837), Coningsby
(1844), Sybil (1845), Tancred (1847).
5. Edward Lytton Bulwer (1803-1873)—Falkland (1828), The Last of
the Barons (1843), Harold (1848), Zanoni (1842), The Coming Race (1871),
Kenelm Chillingly (1873).
6. Wilkie Collins (1824-89)—The Women in the White (1860), Armadale
(1866) and the Moonstone (1868).
7. William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-63)—The Book of Snobs
(1848), The History of Samuel Titmarsh and Memoris of Barry Lydon (1844),
The Vanity Fair (1847-48), Pendennis (1849-50), The History of Henry Esmond
(1852), Lovel, The Widower (1860), The Adventures of Philip (1861), Dennis
Duval (unfinished).
8. Anthomy Trollope (1815-1882)—The Warden (1855), Barchester
Towers (1857), Framely Parsonage (1861), The Last Chronicle of Barset
(1867), Phineas Finn (1869), The Prime Minister (1876).
9. Samuel Butler (1835-1902)—Erewhon (1872), Erewhon Revisited
(1901), The Way of All Flesh (1903).
10. Geroge Meredith (1828-1909)—The Shaping of Shagpat, The Ordeal
of Richard Feveral (1859), Eva Harrington (1861), Sandra Belloi (1864), Rhoda
Fleming (1865), Vittoria (1867), Harry Richmond (1871), Beauchamps Career
(1876), The Egoist (1879), Diana of the Crossways (1855).
11. Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)—The Return of the Native (1878), The
Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of D’Urbervilles (1891), Jude, The Obscure
(1896), The Hand of Ethelberta (1875), A Laodicean (1881), Two On A Tower
(1882), Under the Greenwood Tree (1872), Far From the Madding Crowed
(1874), A Pair of Blue Eyes (1875), The Trumpet Major (1880), The
Woodlanders (1887), The Well Beloved (1897).
12. Rohert Louis Stevenson (1850-94)—Trasure Island, Dr. Jekyll and
Mr. Hyde Kidnapped, The Master of Ballantre.
13. George Gissing (1857-1903)—Demos (1886), New Grub Street
(1891), The Town Traveller (1898).
Women Novelists of the Victorian Period and Their main Novels
1. Mrs. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (1810-65)—Mary Barton (1848),
North and South (1855), Sylvia’s Lovers (1863), Wives and Daughters,
Cranford (1853).
2. Charlottee Bronte (1816-1855)—The Prefressor (1857), James Eyre
(1847), Shirley (1849), Vilette (1852).
3. Emily Bronte (1818-1848)—Withering Heights (1847).
4. Anne Bronte (1820-1849)—Agnes Grey (1847), The Tenant of Wildfell
Hall.
5. George Eliot (1819-80)—Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss
(1860), Silas Marner the Weaver of Raveloe (1861), Romola (1863), A Study
of Provincial Life (1871-72), Daniel Deronda (1876), Amous Burta.
Drama in the Victorian Period
Robert Browing (1812-1889)—Strafford (1837), A Blot in the Scutcheon
(1843), Lord Lyton’s Money (1840).
Charles Reade (1814-84)—The Courier of Lyons (1854), Drank (1879).
In this way the first half of the 19th century was almost completely barren
from the dramatic point of view.
Revival of Drama
The influence of continental dramatists brought about a revolutionary chage
in British drama. Henrik Ibsen, Hebbel, Dumas, Augier, Gorky, Strindberg
and many others made memorable contribution to the rise of realistic drama in
England.
The Pioneers of Modern British Drama and their main Plays
1. T.W. Robertson (1829-71)—Ours Caste, School, Home, M.P., Dr.
David Garrick.
2. Henry Arthur Jones (1851-1929)—The Silver King, Saints and
Sinners.
3. A.W. Pinero (1855-1934)—The Squire, Sweet Lavender, The
Magistrate, The School Mistress, The Dandy Dick, The Weaker Sex, The
Profligate, The Second Mrs. Tranquery, Trelawany of the Wells, The Notorious
Mrs. Eblesmith.
The Victorian Period (1850-1900) 75. 76. A HAND BOOK OF VIVA-VOCE
4. Oscar Wilde (1856-1900)—The Importance of Being Earnest (1895),
Lady Winderemere’s Fan (1892), A Women of No Importance (1893), An
Ideal Husband (1895).
5. G.B. Shaw (1856-1950)—Pleasant and Unpleasment (1898), The
nidower’s Houses (1892), Mrs. Warren’s Profession (1894), The Philanderer
(1893), Arms and the Man (1894), Candida (1895), The Man of Destiny (1895),
You Never can Tell (1897), The Devil’s Disciple (1897), Caesar and Cleopatra
(1898), Man And Superman (1903), Major Barbara (1905), The Doctor’s
Dilemma (1906), Getting Married (1908), Androcles and the Lion (1912),
Pygmalion (1912), Back to Methuseeah (1921), St. Joan (1923), The Apple
Cort (1929), Too True to be Good (1932), The Millionairess (1936), Geneva
(1938), Buoyant Billions (1949).
QUESTIONS
Q. 1. Who was the representative poet of the Victorian Age?
Ans. Lord Alfred Tennyson was the representative poet of the Victorian
age.
Q. 2. What are the chief characteristics of teh Victorian age?
Ans. The chief characteristics of the Victorian age are self satisfaction
engendered by the great increase of wealth, the prosperity of the nation as a
whole, scientific development and rise of democracy.
Q. 3. Who are Pre-Raphaelite poets?
Ans. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hurt, Thomas Woolner,
John Everett Millais, Frederick George etc. are the Pre-Raphaelite poets.
Q. 4. What is the effect of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution?
Ans. After the publication of the ‘Origin of the Species’, the foundations
of the religion started to rock and this created about the authority of the Bible.
The doubt and despair occasioned by Darwinian theories can be read in a
number or victorian writers of—Alfred Tennyson, Matthew Arnold etc.
Q. 5. What do you know about The Chartist Movement?
Ans. A Poeple’s Charter was drawn up in 1888 and this started the chartist
Movement which demanded universal manhood sufferage. Although this
movement remained unsuccessful in the beginning but it arose the social
consciousness which went a long way to reform the living conditions of the
working men.
Q. 6. What are the main features of Victorian poetry?
Ans. The main features of Victorian poetry are : (i) A note of pessimism
and cynicism which is the result of contemporary conflicts between religion
and science, (ii) Elements of Patriotism, (iii) Inheritance of the Romantic poets,
modified in certain cases.
Q. 7. What are the most important characteristics of Lord Alfred
Tennyson’s poetry?
Ans. The most important characteristics of Lord Alfred Tennyson’s poetry
are—(i) Use of music in poetry, (ii) Rictorial beauty, (iii) Superb, Craftsmanship,
(iv) Choicest diction.
Q. 8. Tell us about criticism against Lord Alfred Tennyson.
Ans. The modern critics have critized Lord Alfred Tennyson’s mainly as
: (i) There is lack of profoundity and thought, (ii) Tennyson lacks psychological
insight, (iii) Tennyson’s art lacks too much of artificiality. Dr. A.C. Bradley
has criticized Lord Alfred Tennyson in his brilliant little essay entitled The
Modern Reaction Against Tennyson.
Q. 9. What are the important poetical works of Robert Browning?
Ans. The important poetic works of Robert Browning are (i) Ring and the
Book, (ii) Dramatic Lyrics, (iii) Dramatic Presence, (iv) Pauline, (v) Men and
Women.
Q. 10. What is the theme of Tennyson’s ‘In Memorium’?
Ans. The poem ‘In Memorium’ was written in memory of Arthur H.
Hallam. The faith and religion, scepticism and science of Victorian era are
very well represented in this poem. The conflict and the confusion created by
Darwin’s theory is the theme of the poem and the poet is so much confused and
tormented that he tries to seek some via media between the dogmatic chritianity
and and materialitic science.
Q. 11. What is the most important poetic form used by Robert
Browning?
Ans. The most important poetic form used by Robert Browning is ‘dramatic
monologues.’
Q. 12. Tell us about Browning’s philosophy of life?
Ans. Robert Browning is an optimist in an age of pessimism. Browning
believes in God and in the immortality of human soul.
He had a very firm faith that life was nothing but struggle, which should
be boldly and happily undertaken by everyone who comes in the world. His
optimistic views helped him to believe that life was good and fit to be lived.
He was perfectly a believer in the existence of God and identified him with
love.
Q. 13. What is Robert Browning’s philosophy of love?
Ans. Robert Browning is a great poet of love. His love is endowed with
physical passion. Love in his poems is the great magician clothing the barrenness
of earth with the glory of summer. The following lines from his poem ‘The
Guardian Angel’ will reveal his idealistic conception of love—
“O world, as God has made it all is beauty.
And knowing this, is love, and love is duty,”
He took ‘love’ to be an essential thing for the human beings.
The Victorian Period (1850-1900) 77. 78. A HAND BOOK OF VIVA-VOCE
Q. 14. What are the chief defects of Robert Browning’s poetry?
Ans. David Diaches in his book ‘The Critical History of English Literature’
says that nobody now reads the longer philosophic poems of Browning. The
charge of obscurity has been brought against the poetry of Browning, it seems
to lack a real sense of the evil, though much has been made of the philosophy
of life.
Q. 15. Explain the statement, “Robert Browning is a disciple of P.B.
Shelley?”
Ans. Like Shelley, Browning uses highest form of imagination and
intelligence.
Q. 16. Explain Matthew Arnold’s Statement that ‘poetry is a criticism
of life’?
Ans. By this statement Arnold suggested that poetry should be concreted
and it must refer the emotions of the poet to the real solid earth.
Q. 17. Name some prose works Matthew Arnold.
Ans. The most important prose works of Matthew Arnold are—Essays in
Criticism (1865-1888), The Celtic Literature (1887), Culture and Anarchy.
Q. 18. Give the theme of ‘Thyrsis’?
Ans. ‘Thyrsis’ is a monody by Matthew Arnold to commemorate the
author’s friend. Arthur High Clough who died at Florence in 1861. This poem
is written in Pastoral form and there are many references to ‘Scholoar Gipsy’
which combines a lament for the dead friend.
Q. 19. Please quote few lines from the poems of Matthew Arnold?
Ans. “As love, let us be true,
To one another, for the work which seems,
To be before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love,
nor light, nor certitude.
nor peace, nor help for pain,
And we are here as on a darkling plain,
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and fight,
Where ignorant armies cleash by night.”
Q. 20. “in Arnold’s Poetry there is a fine blend of Romanticism and
Classicism”. Explain.
Ans. Matthew Arnold’s love for Nature was like romantics and his style
was classical. The famous critic Cazamian obseves “The iromy of fate has
decreed that Arnold’s works shall continue to be read because of its inner
Romanticism, which precisely was what the poet sternly tried to express. The
true note of Arnold’s temperament is sadness, a pensive melancholy essentially
Romantic in origin.”
Q. 21. what are the chief characteristics of the Pre-Raphaelite poetry.
Ans. The chief characteristics of the Pre-Raphaelite poetry are—(i) Love
of the Middle Ages, (ii) Sensuousness, (iii) Pictorial quality, (iv) Art for art’s
sake.
Q. 22. What do you know about the Pre-Raphaelite Movement?
Ans. J.E. Millais founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848. Pre-
Raphaelite is the name given to a group of young artists and men of letters
who, about the year, 1830, united to resist the existing conventions in art and
literature by return to art forms as they supposed them to exist in European art
before the time of Raphael.
Q. 23. Name the Pre-Raphaelite poets?
Ans. The Pre-Raphaelite poets are—(i) Dante Gabriel Rossetti, (ii) A.C.
Swinburne, (iii) William Morris.
Q. 24. Tell us about D.G. Rossetti’s poem ‘The Blessed Damozel’?
Ans. D.G. Rossetti is known for his ‘The Blessed Damozel.’ This poem is
sensuous and mystic. This poem deals with the mystical love between a lover
on earth and the blessed Damozel in heaven. According to Ifor Evans, “The
main purpose of the poem is to praise the human love of man and woman.”
Q. 25. Can you quote few lines from A.C. Swinburne to show his
sensuous quality?
Ans. The following lines show the sensuous quality of Swinburn’s poetry—
“Her languid lips are sweeter,
Than love’s who fears to greet her
To men that mix and meet her
From many times and lands.”
–’The Garden of Proserpine’.
Q. 26. Tell us about Thomas Hardy as a poet.
Ans. The famous novelist Thomas Hardy belongs to the Victorian age.
His poetry has a note of cynicism and a deep rooted sense of frustration,
pessimism and fatalism.
Q. 27. What are the chief characteristics of the Victorian novel.
Ans. Among the Victorians, there is for the first time a large number of
novelists. The Victorian novel has many themes but all of them have common
characteristics. There is a moral purpose and deep concern with the social
atmosphere of the age.
Q. 28. Tell us about Bronte Sisters.
Ans. The Bronte Sisters, who are called the stormy sister-hood, agewise
are charlotte, Anne, Emily and Sume. Anne Bronte wrote tow novels ‘Agnes
Grey’ and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Emily Bronte’s only novel is ‘Withering
Heights’. Charlotte Bronte’s best novel is ‘Jane Eyre’.
The Victorian Period (1850-1900) 79. 80. A HAND BOOK OF VIVA-VOCE
Q. 29. What are the chief characteristics of the novel of Charles
Dickens.
Ans. The chief characteristics of the novel of Charles Dickens are—(i)
The novels are journalistic, (ii) They have humour, pathos and depiction of
child life, (iii) They are melodramatic.
Q. 30. Tell us about the auto-biographical novels of Charles Dickens.
Ans. The autobiographical novels of Charles Dickens are Nicholas
Nickleby, Bleak House, David Copperfield.
Q. 31. Discuss the theme of Thackerary’s novel ‘Vanity Fair’?
Ans. Thackeray’s novel Vanity Fair deals with the corruption in the upper
middle classes of the Victorian age. The central character of this novel is Becky
Sharp.
Q. 32. Name the important novels of George Eliot.
Ans. The important novels of George are, Felix Hott, The Mill on the
Floss, Silas Marner, Amos Burton, Romola etc.
Q. 33. Name the important novels of George Meredith?
Ans. The important novels of George Meredith are—Farina, The Shaving
of Shagpat, Orderal of Richard Feveral, Evan Harringion, Rhoda Fleming,
Victoria, The Egoist and Diana of the Crossways.
Q. 34. What was Thomas Hardy’s Conception of Fate?
Ans. Thomas Hardy had personified Fate and called it by different names
such as Destiny, God, Providence of the immortals. In the novels of Hardy fate
always crushes the human being. In this way Hardy is totally pessimistic from
the point of view of fate.
Q. 35. Whose novels are called Worsex novels?
Ans. It is said that Thomas Hardy was given to his Dorsetshire the name
Wessex. Wessex was his province and all his novels are set in Wessex. He
never parted from his Wessex and whenever he did and shifted from the country
to the town life he always describe it.
Q. 36. Tell us about Mrs. Gaskell as a novelist.
Ans. The important novels of Mrs. Gaskell are—Ruth, Mary Barton, North