The Augustan Age

The eighteenth century in English literature has been called the Augustan Age, the Neoclassical Age, and the Age of Reason. The term 'the Augustan Age' comes from the self-conscious imitation of the original Augustan writers, Virgil and Horace, by many of the writers of the period. Specifically, the Augustan Age was the period after the Restoration era to the death of Alexander Pope (~1690 - 1744). The major writers of the age were Pope and John Dryden in poetry, and Jonathan Swift and Joseph Addison in prose. Dryden forms the link between Restoration and Augustan literature; although he wrote ribald comedies in the Restoration vein, his verse satires were highly admired by the generation of poets who followed him, and his writings on literature were very much in a neoclassical spirit. But more than any other it is the name of Alexander Pope which is associated with the epoch known as the Augustan Age, despite the fact that other writers such as Jonathan Swift and Daniel Defoe had a more lasting influence. This is partly a result of the politics of naming inherent in literary history: many of the early forms of prose narrative common at this time did not fit into a literary era which defined itself as neoclassic. The literature of this period which conformed to Pope's aesthetic principles (and could thus qualify as being 'Augustan') is distinguished by its striving for harmony and precision, its urbanity, and its imitation of classical models such as Homer, Cicero, Virgil, and Horace, for example in the work of the minor poet Matthew Prior. In verse, the tight heroic couplet was common, and in prose essay and satire were the predominant forms. Any facile definition of this period would be misleading, however; as important as it was, the neoclassicist impulse was only one strain in the literature of the first half of the eighteenth century. But its representatives were the defining voices in literary circles, and as a result it is often some aspect of 'neoclassicism' which is used to describe the era.

'Neoclassicism'

The works of Dryden, Pope, Swift, Addison and John Gay, as well as many of their contemporaries, exhibit qualities of order, clarity, and stylistic decorum that were formulated in the major critical documents of the age: Dryden's An Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668), and Pope's Essay on Criticism (1711). These works, forming the basis for modern English literary criticism, insist that 'nature' is the true model and standard of writing. This 'nature' of the Augustans, however, was not the wild, spiritual nature the romantic poets would later idealize, but nature as derived from classical theory: a rational and comprehensible moral order in the universe, demonstrating God's providential design. The literary circle around Pope considered Homer preeminent among ancient poets in his descriptions of nature,

and concluded in a circuitous feat of logic that the writer who 'imitates' Homer is also describing nature. From this follows the rules inductively based on the classics that Pope articulated in his Essay on Criticism:

Those rules of old discovered, not devised, Are nature still, but nature methodized.

Particularly influential in the literary scene of the early eighteenth century were the two periodical publications by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, The Tatler (1709-11), and The Spectator (1711-12). Both writers are ranked among the minor masters of English prose style and credited with raising the general cultural level of the English middle classes. A typical representative of the post-Restoration mood, Steele was a zealous crusader for morality, and his stated purpose in The Tatler was "to enliven Morality with Wit, and to temper Wit with Morality." With The Spectator, Addison added a further purpose: to introduce the middle-class public to recent developments in philosophy and literature and thus to educate their tastes. The essays are discussions of current events, literature, and gossip often written in a highly ironic and refined style. Addison and Steele helped to popularize the philosophy of John Locke and promote the literary reputation of John Milton, among others. Although these publications each only ran two years, the influence that Addison and Steele had on their contemporaries was enormous, and their essays often amounted to a popularization of the ideas circulating among the intellectuals of the age. With these wide-spread and influential publications, the literary circle revolving around Addison, Steele, Swift and Pope was practically able to dictate the accepted taste in literature during the Augustan Age. In one of his essays for The Spectator, for example, Addison criticized the metaphysical poets for their ambiguity and lack of clear ideas, a critical stance which remained influential until the twentieth century.

The literary criticism of these writers often sought its justification in classical precedents. In the same vein, many of the important genres of this period were adaptations of classical forms: mock epic, translation, and imitation. A large part of Pope's work belongs to this last category, which exemplifies the artificiality of neoclassicism more thoroughly than does any other literary form of the period. In his satires and verse epistles Pope takes on the role of an English Horace, adopting the Roman poet's informal candor and conversational tone, and applying the standards of the original Augustan Age to his own time, even addressing George II satirically as "Augustus." Pope also translated the Iliad and the Odyssey, and, after concluding this demanding task, he embarked on The Dunciad (1728), a biting literary satire.

The Dunciad is a mock epic, a form of satiric writing in which commonplace subjects are described in the elevated, heroic style of classical epic. By parody and deliberate misuse of heroic language and literary convention, the satirist emphasizes the triviality of the subject, which is implicitly being measured against the highest standards of human potential. Among the best-known mock epic poems of this period in addition to The Dunciad are John Dryden's MacFlecknoe (1682), and Pope's The Rape of the Lock (1714). In The Rape of the Lock, often considered one of the highest achievements of mock epic poetry, the heroic action of epic is maintained, but the scale is sharply reduced. The hero's preparation for combat is transposed to a fashionable boat ride up the Thames, and the ensuing battle is a card game. The hero steals the titular lock of hair while the heroine is pouring coffee.

Although the mock epic mode is most commonly found in poetry, its influence was also felt in drama, most notably in John Gay's most famous work, The Beggar's Opera (1728). The Beggar's Opera ludicrously mingles elements of ballad and Italian opera in a satire on Sir Robert Walpole, England's prime minister at the time. The vehicle is opera, but the characters are criminals and prostitutes. Gay's burlesque of opera was an unprecedented stage success and centuries later inspired the German dramatist Bertolt Brecht to write one of his best-known works, Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera, 1928).

One of the most well-known mock epic works in prose from this period is Jonathan Swift's The Battle of the Books (1704), in which the old battle between the ancient and the modern writers is fought out in a library between The Bee and The Spider. Although not a mock epic, the satiric impulse is also the driving force behind Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726), one of the masterpieces of the period. The four parts describe different journeys of Lemuel Gulliver; to Lilliput, where the pompous activities of the diminutive inhabitants is satirized; to Brobdingnag, a land of giants who laugh at Gulliver's tales of the greatness of England; to Laputa and Lagoda, inhabited by quack scientists and philosophers; and to the land of the Houhynhnms, where horses are civilized and men (Yahoos) behave like beasts. As a satirist Swift's technique was to create fictional speakers such as Gulliver, who utter sentiments that the intelligent reader should recognize as complacent, egotistical, stupid, or mad. Swift is recognized as a master of understated irony, and his name has become practically synonymous with the type of satire in which outrageous statements are offered in a straight-faced manner.

The Nature and Graveyard Poets

Neoclassicism was not the only literary movement at this time, however. Two schools in poetry rejected many of the precepts of decorum advocated by the neoclassical writers and anticipated several of the themes of Romanticism. The so-called nature poets, for example, treated nature not as an ordered

pastoral backdrop, but rather as a grand and sometimes even forbidding entity. They tended to individualize the experience of nature and shun a methodized approach. Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, was a rural poet in an urban era, and the poems of Miscellany Poems by a Lady (1713) were often observations of nature, largely free of neoclassical conventions. Her contemporaries regarded her as little more than a female wit, but she was highly praised by the Romantic poets, particularly William Wordsworth. A further influential poet of this school was James Thomas, whose poetical work The Seasons, which appeared in separate volumes from 1726 to 1730 and beginning with Winter, was the most popular verse of the century. In his treatment of nature, he diverged from the neoclassical writers in many important ways: through sweeping vistas and specific details in contrast to circumscribed, generalized landscapes; exuberance instead of balance; and a fascination with the supernatural and the mysterious, no name just a few.

This last was also the major concern of the poets of the Graveyard School. Foremost among them was Edward Young, whose early verses were in the Augustan tradition. In his most famous work, however, The Complaint: or, Night Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality (1742-45), the melancholy meditations against a backdrop of tombs and death indicate a major departure from the conventions and convictions of the preceding generation. While the neoclassicists regarded melancholia as a weakness, the pervasive mood of The Complaint is a sentimental and pensive contemplation of loss. It was nearly as successful as Thomas's The Seasons, and was translated into a number of major European languages.

The Rise of the Novel

The most important figure in terms of lasting literary influence during this period, however, was undoubtedly Daniel Defoe. An outsider from the literary establishment ruled by Pope and his cohorts, Defoe was in some ways an anomaly during a period defined as 'Augustan,' despite the fact that he was a writer of social criticism and satire before he turned to novels. He did not belong to the respected literary world, which at best ignored him and his works and at worst derided him. (In 1709, Swift for example referred to him as "the Fellow that was Pilloryed, I have forgot his name.")

The works of fiction for which Defoe is remembered, particularly Moll Flanders (1722) and Robinson Crusoe (1719), owe less to the satirical and refined impulse of the Augustan tradition, and more to a contrary tradition of early prose narrative by women, particularly Aphra Behn, Mary Delariviere Manley and Jane Barker. Since Ian Watt's influential study, The Rise of the Novel (1957), literary historians have generally considered Robinson Crusoe the first successful English novel and Defoe as one of the originators of realistic fiction in the eighteenth century, but he was deeply indebted to his female

precursors and probably would never have attempted prose narrative if they had not created an audience for it in the first place.

The English novel was a product of several differing literary traditions, among them the French romance, the Spanish picaresque tale and novella, and such earlier prose models in English as John Lyly's Euphues (1579), Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia (1590) and John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (1684). The authors of these works collectively helped pave the way for the form of the novel as it is known today. The true pioneers of the novel form, however, were the women writers pursuing their craft in opposition to the classically refined precepts of the writers defining the Augustan Age. Particularly influential were Aphra Behn's travel narrative Oroonoko (1688) and her erotic epistolary novel Love Letters Between a Nobleman and his Sister (1683). In Oroonoko, Behn provides numerous details of day to day life and a conversational narrative voice, while with Love Letters she pioneered the epistolary form for a longer work of fiction, over fifty years before Richardson. The political prose satires of Mary Delariviere Manley were racy exposs of high-society scandals written in the tradition of Love Letters, Behn's erotic roman clef. Manley's novels The Secret History of Queen Zarah and the Zaraians (1705) and The New Atalantis (1709) were widely popular in their day and helped create an audience for prose narratives that was large enough to support the new breed of the professional novelist.

Eliza Haywood also began her career writing erotic tales with an ostensibly political or high society background. Her first novel, Love in Excess (1719) went through four editions in as many years. In the thirties, her writing underwent a transformation suitable to the growing moral concerns of the era, and her later novels show the influence of her male contemporaries Richardson and Fielding (this despite the fact that she may have been the author of Anti-Pamela (1741), an early attack on Richardson's first novel). Haywood's The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless (1751) in particular belongs in a more realistic tradition of writing, bringing the action from high society into the realm of the middle class, and abandoning the description of erotic encounters.

Particularly interesting among the work of early women novelists is that of Jane Barker. Her novel Loves Intrigues: Or, The History of the Amours of Bosvil and Galesia (1713) tells in first-person narrative the psychologically realistic tale of a heroine who doesn't get her man. The portrayal of Galesia's emotional dilemma, caught in a web of modesty, social circumstances and the hero's uncertainty and indecisiveness, captures intriguing facets of psychological puzzles without providing easy answers for the readers. Galesia retreats from marriage, hardly knowing why she does so or how the situation came about, and the reader is no smarter.

Many of the elements of the modern novel attributed to Defoe -- e.g. the beginnings of psychological realism and a consistent narrative voice -- were anticipated by women writers. Defoe's contribution was in putting them all together and creating out of these elements sustained prose narratives blending physical and psychological realism. His most impressive works, such as Moll Flanders and Roxana (1724), treated characters faced with the difficulties of surviving in a world of recognizably modern economic forces. Given his capitalist philosophy, it is not surprising that Defoe's protagonists are self-reliant, resourceful individualists who express his middle-class values. In his attempt to balance individualism and economic realism with a belief in God's providence, Defoe created multi-faceted characters who combine repentance for past misdeeds with a celebration of the individual's power to survive in a hostile environment.

Although Defoe and his female contemporaries were looked down upon by the intellectual establishment represented by Pope and Swift, later developments in literary history have shown that it was they who would define the literature of a new age, and not the so-called Augustans. While the novel remains the dominant literary form of the twentieth century, mock epic is at best an element used occasionally in comedy. Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders are still widely read; The Rape of the Lock is mentioned in history books. Jonathan Swift produced an enduring classic as well with Gulliver's Travels, but despite his brilliance it is the merchant Daniel Defoe, a journalist who saw writing as "a considerable branch of the English commerce" (Essay upon Literature, 1726), who is considered the father of the English novel.

http://www.gradesaver.com/metamorphoses/study-guide/section9/ The Augustan Age The Emperor Augustus lived from 43 B.C.E. to 18 C.E.; during his lifetime, Rome and the Roman Empire saw a remarkable flourishing of art and literature, especially poetry. Augustus was the adopted son of the Emperor Julius Caesar, whose rule degenerated into a Tyranny which lead to his execution by members of his own Senate. After Caesar's death, Augustus's adoption was almost nullified by Mark Antony, but Cicero, a noted orator and government official, spoke for him and convinced the Senators to give him their support. While in some ways Augustus gathered power primarily for himself, he was also an intelligent and successful ruler. For example, he extended Roman citizenship to all Italians, and while elections to public office continued, Augustus actually rigged them in favor of the most talented, rather than the richest or most influential. He professionalized the army, and by sending the military throughout the extensive Roman territory, he spread the Latin language and Roman culture throughout Europe and the Mediterranean. The Age of Augustus was known for the longest period of peace and prosperity in Roman history. Augustus also provided a tremendous amount of support for the arts, consequently, his rule is known as the Golden Age of Roman Literature. Of course, Augustus did not

support writers solely out of the goodness of his heart. He created a complex system for identifying the most talented writers who would best serve the agenda of his government.

The iconic poets of the Augustan Age are Virgil (70-19 B.C.E.), Horace (65-8 B.C.E.) and Ovid (43 B.C.E. 18 C.E.). Virgil first wrote the Eclogues, a series of poems idealizing the rural life and glorifying the farmer. His next work, the Goergics is also about farming, and emphasizes the superiority of agrarian values. Virgil's most famous work was the Aeneid, an epic about Aeneas's flight from Troy and the eventual founding of the Roman state. On one level, the Aeneid is a political poem about the greatness of the Roman Empire and the Roman Emperor. Horace wrote many poems and letters which were extremely popular during his life, but are not read nearly as much as Ovid or Virgil's works in modern times. Ovid, of course, is most famous today for his writing of the Metamorphoses. These poets were hugely influential in later centuries; their ideas were interpreted, represented and even stolen for hundreds of years. This influence is one of the reasons that the Age of Augustus stands out in the history of the Ancient world. Augustus harnessed literary talent well - his name will be remembered so long as the works which glorify him continue to be read and studied throughout the world. Augustus was also remember for reforming the tax system, supporting many building projects, and, primarily, for maintaining the peace. Many historians and Classical Scholars credit Augustus with laying the groundwork for a regime that would last for another 250 years. After Augustus's death, he was seceded by Tiberius. Augustus was deified and Cult of Augustus was the primary religious cult in Rome until the takeover of Christianity in the fourth century C.E.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744) 19 MAART 2010 tags: Alexander Pope, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, John Dryden, Samuel Johnson by Ronny De Schepper Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 30 May 1744) was a famous eighteenth century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson. He s a representative of classicism, in England they call this the Augustan age , because poets like Dryden, Johnson and of course Pope himself are trying to reveal the age of Augustus. As far as poetry is concerned, this implies a generalized form of poetry (as the opposite of the romantic poets who are about to follow and concentrate completely on their ego) and also a form of urbanity (polite, polished). But on the other

hand it is also the age of satire: it reflects the animosity that is found in the mind of a number of people. How these two different approaches can go hand in hand, can be best illustrated by a couplet out of Alexander Pope s Rape of the lock : On her white Breast a sparkling Cross she wore Which Jews might kiss, and Infidels adore. In this couplet we see the contrast between Art and Nature (the cross versus the breasts) and at the same time the struggle of the crusaders is leaveled down to a low attitude.

As proven above, Pope is famous for his use of the heroic couplet, which consists of two successive rhyming verses with five stresses. Other examples: Know then thyself / presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man (Alexander Pope, Essay on man) All human things are subject to decay, and when fate summons, monarches must obey. (Dryden) Why was the heroic couplet so popular? 1) the metrical regularity was an excellent vehicle of satire by the organisation of materials; 2) usually there is a break in the middle, giving the opportunity for antithesis or balance; 3) the neoclassical doctine is most clearly formulated in the Essay on man : - application of reason on nature, reason is a faculty of the mind, which is looked upon as being the same in mankind at large (*); - poetry is a form of public utterance and not the expression of an individual mind; - influence on religion: deism or natural religion as opposed to revealed religion, in which God is a divine architect ; - optimism: whatever is, is right (compare with Leibniz tout est pour le mieux dans le meilleur des mondes possibles ).

Ronny De Schepper (10/10/1970)

(*) In Essay on Criticism Pope writes that art must follow nature, so this seems in contradiction with his other ideas. However, in Pope s view nature is very reasonably structurized. He believes in an hierarchic chain of being, starting from God over the angels, the human beings, the animals, the plants and ending with lifeless materials. In the same way his art following nature implies a normative poetica!

Horace Profile | Horace Basics

Dates: December 8, 65 - November 27, 8 B.C. Full Name: Quintus Horatius Flaccus Occupation: Poet

Horace was the major lyric Latin poet of the Augustan Era. Emperor Augustus requested that Horace write a poem for the special public entertainment event known as the Secular Games that Augustus put on in 17 B.C. All wasn't smooth-sailing for Horace. He had stood on the wrong side during the civil war, and so, Horace's family's property was confiscated.

In 39 B.C., after Augustus granted amnesty, Horace became a secretary in the Roman treasury. In 38, Horace met and became the client of the artists' patron Maecenas, who provided Horace with a villa in the Sabine Hills.

When Horace died at age 59, he left his estate to Augustus and was buried near the tomb of Maecenas.

The Works of Horace

De Arte Poetica Liber - The Art of Poetry (18 B.C.) Carmen Saeculare - Poem of the Secular Games (17 B.C.) Carminum Libra IV - The Odes (4 Books) (starting 23 B.C.)

Epistularum Libri II - The Epistles (2 Books) (starting 20 B.C.) Epodon Liber - The Epodes (30 B.C.) Sermonum Libri II (Satura) - The Satires (2 Books) (starting 35 B.C.)

Augustus First Roman Emperor, 63 B.C. - 14 C.E. Augustus Caesar of Rome was born with the given name Gaius Octavius on September 23, 63 B.C. He took the name Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (Octavian) in 44 B.C. after the murder of his great uncle, Julius Caesar. In his will Caesar had adopted Octavian and made him his heir.

Octavian was a shrewd, brilliant and astute politician. Through cold, hard political calculation he was able to achieve ultimate power in Rome. At the time of Caesar s assassination, Octavian held no official position. Only after he marched on Rome and forced the senate to name him consul, was he established as a power to be reckoned with.

In 43 B.C., Octavian, Marcus Antonius (Marc Antony one of Julius Caesar s top lieutenants) and another Roman General, Marcus Lepidus, formed the second Triumvirate to rule Rome. After taking power, the Triumvirate proscribed and slaughtered thousands of political enemies, firmly establishing their control of the Roman government.

In 40 B.C., Antony married Octavia, Octavian s sister, and later deserted her for Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt. When Antony gave Roman provinces to his children by Cleopatra, Octavian declared war on Antony. In 31 B.C. the Roman Navy under Agrippa defeated the combined fleets of Antony and Cleopatra, and within a year both had committed suicide.

In 27 B.C., the Roman Senate granted Octavian the name Augustus, meaning the exalted. They also gave him the legal power to rule Rome s religious, civil and military affairs, with the Senate as an advisory body, effectively making him Emperor.

Rome achieved great glory under Octavian/Augustus. He restored peace after 100 years of civil war; maintained an honest government and a sound currency system; extended the highway system connecting Rome with its far-flung empire; developed an efficient postal service; fostered free trade among the provinces; and built many bridges, aqueducts and buildings adorned with beautiful works of art created in the classical style. Literature flourished with writers including Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and Livy all living under the emperor s patronage.

The empire expanded under Augustus with his generals subduing Spain, Gaul (now France), Panonia and Dalmatia (now parts of Hungary and Croatia). He annexed Egypt and most of southwestern Europe up to the Danube River. After his death, the people the Roman Empire worshipped Augustus as a god.

Augustus is the first of the Roman emperors. He first came to power as part of the triumvirate that took over in the aftermath of the assassination of Julius Caesar. Caesar had adopted his great-nephew Octavian in his will. On January 16, 27 B.C., in part of the First Constitutional Settlement, Octavian was given the title by which he has been known in history, Augustus.

Joseph Addison Of Addison's criticism as a whole it may be said that it represented a commonsense attitude based upon neo-classic ideals. Of his dramatic criticism proper, confined as it was almost wholly to five or six Spectator essays, there is not so much to be said. These essays were written before he had evolved the critical standards which add so materially to the value of his later contributions. However, the drama essays briefly sum up the rationalistic tendency of criticism in the early eighteenth century. Addison condemned English tragedy because it was not sufficiently moral, and he proceeded to write a dull tragedy in order to show what beautiful and stately sentiment should go into tragedy. He was rigidly classic in his denunciation of the tragi-comedy. Not until Johnson published his 156th Rambler (in 1751) was the classic spell broken.

John Dryden His first play The Wild Gallant was first staged in 1662. The Rival Ladies (1663) also had Spanish influences. Attached to it is one of his famous Prefaces where he describes his principles of dramatic criticism. His first successful play, written in heroic couplets was The Indian Emperor (1665). The same year of the Great Fire in London, Annus Mirabilis (1666) celebrates the English Navy's victory over the

Dutch. Dryden had retired to the country with the plague threat, where his first son was born, and he continued to write. The Maiden Queen composed in blank verse, rhyming couplets and prose and The Assignation, or Love in a Nunnery were produced in 1667. An Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668) was written two years after the Restoration with the reopening of the theatres. Dryden entered into a contract in 1668 with the King's Theatre Company in which he would produce three plays a year. For his efforts the Archbishop of Canterbury awarded him an M.A. in 1668. The same year he became Poet Laureate and in 1670 Royal Historiographer which would provide a stable income for him.

The play Marriage A-la-Mode (1672) was followed by his unsuccessful work on the theme of Paradise Lost, The State of Innocence, staged in 1674. After 1676, he began to use blank verse, and he produced his best play, All for Love in 1678. It is Dryden's most famous masterpiece based on Anthony and Cleopatra. He had mastered the art of comparative criticism, using prose and dialogue for debate, and wit and satire to illustrate disparities between church and state. A year later Dryden was beaten by thugs, an attack that had been ordered by the Earl of Rochester when Dryden was suspected of collaboration on An Essay upon Satire, which vilified various prominent figures, of which the real author was never realised.

The well-known political satire of Shaftesbury under the transparent guise of the Old Testament, Absalom and Achitophel, Dryden's allegorical poem appeared in 1681 and his didactic poem Religio Laici (1682) followed, which argues the case for Anglicanism. Threnodia Angustalis (1685) is an ode to Charles II. The Hind and the Panther (1687) marked Dryden's final conversion to Roman Catholicism.