Extremes always lead to revulsion, and from Puritanism we pass to the
licentious court of Charles II., with the songs of Rochester, and the
works of Etherege. The comic dramatists of the Restoration and the
period immediately succeeding--Wycherley, Congreve, Vanbrugh, and
Farquhar--vividly and wittily reflect the glittering life and base
morality of the age. One stronger intellect did bring with it for a time
the sense of a fresher and diviner air, when John Dryden sang with vigor
and insight, and also produced his best comedies and tragedies. Otway
likewise showed a momentary gleam of the old Elizabethan dramatic fire.
In the sphere of mental and natural philosophy, Locke, Newton, and Boyle
grappled with problems hitherto considered unsolvable, and illumined for
the world the devious and mysterious paths of scientific inquiry. The
selection of names in every branch of English literature, and in every
age, can, of course, only be illustrative, not exhaustive.
PERIOD OF DRYDEN AND POPE.--The eighteenth century witnessed a great
revolution in English literature, especially on the poetic side.
Imagination, passion, and nature were dethroned, and poetry became
didactic, philosophical, and political.
Dryden manifested something of the qualities of both schools, but when
Alexander Pope arose the new order triumphed. Everything was sacrificed
to precision and artificiality.
Pope was the most brilliant and impressive of the new writers. His
_Essay on Man_ and his _Essay on Criticism_ enshrined many old
philosophical truths in epigrammatic form. The heroic couplet became in
his hands an instrument for cutting diamonds, but the lover of poetry
longs after a time to exchange his dazzling couplets for the flowers of
poesy. In all that he did, however, whether the work took the form of
satires, essays, epistles, or translations, Pope was the finished
artist.
The minor poets of Pope’s period included John Philips, known by his
_Splendid Shilling_; John Gay, the author of the _Shepherd’s Week_, and
the _Fables_; Samuel Garth, the writer of the mock heroic poem of _The
Dispensary_; and Richard Blackmore, who tried to restore the epic in
_Prince Arthur_.
Prose literature had many distinguished exponents. Jonathan Swift looms
up before us as a gloomy, overshadowing figure, whose saturnine genius
found bitter yet powerful expression in _Gulliver’s Travels_, the
_Battle of the Books_, and the _Tale of a Tub_. His command of English
was masterly, but his wit was coarse, his life hopelessly sad, and his
death miserable.
Daniel Defoe was not only one of the most vigorous of political
pamphleteers, but practically the father of the English novel by his
_Robinson Crusoe_, a work which has surpassed almost every other in its
uninterrupted popularity. Defoe invested fictitious events with an
unapproachable semblance of truth. Metaphysical literature had its best
representative in the philosopher Bishop Berkeley, the founder of
Idealism in English philosophy; Bernard de Mandeville unfolded a new
satirical philosophy in _The Fable of the Bees_, which was intended to
prove that the vices of society are the foundation of civilization; and
Bishop Butler sought to reconcile reason and revelation by his closely
argumentative work, the _Analogy of Religion_.
RISE OF THE ESSAY AND MODERN NEWSPAPER.--A new and interesting form of
literary effort, which popularized letters and criticism, was the
periodical essay, instituted by Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele.
The latter began the _Tatler_, which dealt in humorous and incisive
fashion with the social and political life of the times. Steele was
aided by Addison, and they afterwards founded the more famous
_Spectator_, which was inimitable in its humor and criticism. The
_Guardian_ and the _Freeholder_ followed, and a higher tone was given to
both literature and manners by these admirable publications.
The modern newspaper had its origin in the _Public Intelligencer_, begun
in August, 1663, by Sir Roger L’Estrange. The _Oxford Gazette_ began in
November, 1665, and the _London Gazette_ on the 5th of February, 1666.
Defoe, while in prison, began the publication of the _Review_ (February,
1704).
The drama at the close of the seventeenth century had, besides the
greater names already mentioned, Sedley, Shadwell, Mrs. Behn, and Mrs.
Centlivre, all of whose comedies, however, were licentious. Nicholas
Rowe wrote heavy tragedies, which are no more likely to rise again in
popularity than Addison’s _Cato_. Foote, Cibber, and Fielding reproduced
the follies of the times in their comedies and farces; and the _Beggar’s
Opera_, by Gay, produced in 1728, was the first specimen of the English
ballad opera. Sentimental comedy is associated with Macklin, the
Colmans, Murphy, Cumberland, and others; but the two greatest names in
English comedy in the eighteenth century are Goldsmith and Sheridan. The
delightful humor of _The Good-natured Man_ and _She Stoops to Conquer_
is only to be matched by the sparkling wit of the _Rivals_ and the
_School for Scandal_.
Samuel Johnson, born in 1709, began to write in 1744, and from that
period until his death in 1784 he was an acknowledged leading power in
letters. His _Lives of the Poets_, his _Rasselas_, _The Rambler_, and
the great _Dictionary_ were remarkable undertakings in various fields;
while the world could afford to part with a thousand masterpieces rather
than lose that immortal _Biography_ by Boswell which has enshrined his
master’s opinions and conversations. The _Letters of Junius_ remind us
of the right of criticism over public events and public men, and of the
struggle by which the freedom of the press was ultimately won.