Introduction

Following the Restoration, in 1660, of the King Charles the second, to the throne of England the manners of the seventeenth century became quite coarse, politics scandalously corrupt and the general tone of the society brutal. But people soon grew sick of this and therefore the 18th century witnessed a resolute attempt in the direction of moral regeneration.

This desire for improvement, was feature of the literature of this age, and particularly of the literature that was created by the middle class writers who were most strongly influenced by the moral considerations. But the people of this age were quite as hostile and thus, though England began to regain lost ground morally, she did not recover the high passion or the spiritual fervour of the Elizabethan age. ‘Good sense’ became the idol of the time, and by ‘good sense’ was meant a love of the reasonable and useful and a hatred of the extravagant, the mystical and the visionary.

In this literature, spontaneity and simplicity are sacrificed to the dominant for elegance and correctness. This is true even of poetry, which seldom travelled beyond the interests of that narrow world of the ‘Town’ by which men’s outlook was commonly circumscribed and finding it’s publicity in the coffee houses and the drawing rooms, drew for its substance upon the politics and the discussion of the hour; and the couplet was its accepted mode. Such poetry however clever, was necessarily fugitive, it lacked the depth and grasp of essential things in literature. And the quest for refinement in style resulted too often in stilted affections.

The Classical Age Or The Augustan Age

The period covering the age of Dryden as well as that of Pope is sometimes called the Classical or the Augustan Age of English literature. The poets and critics of this age believed that the work of the writers of classical antiquity, especially those of the Latin writers presented the best models and the ultimate standards of literary taste. Secondly, in a more general way, like the Latin writers, they had little or no faith in the guidance of individual genius, but they had much faith in laws and rules imposed by the authorities of the past.

“The best of the modern poets in all languages are those that have nearest copied the ancients.”

By Walsh, In 1706

This expressed concisely the principles of classicism. Pope also reiterated this principle in the lines of his ‘Essay on Criticism’

“Tis more to guide … To copy Nature is to copy them.”

Lines from the Essay on Criticism

In imitating the models set by the ancients in the following the rules and laws laid by them, the poets of this period thought that they themselves were producing work which would be called classic or first rate. But the fact is that they only followed their rules mechanically and imitated the ancient classic writers so far as the form or technique of their work goes; otherwise they lacked their genius. For this reason, this age is also called the age of false or pseudo-classicism.

The Age of Prose and Satire

The 18th century, Classical Age was the Age of Reasons and Satire. The writers of the age laid down the foundation of real prose style in English literature. They tried to prevent the absurd extravagances of metaphysical poetry of comparing two lovers to a the two legs of a compass. They brought order and harmony both in poetry and prose. Their poetry devoid as it was of imaginative quality, the prose of Steele and Addison, the novels of Defoe and the work of Swift are things of which every age will be proud of.

This was also the Age of Satire as the social and political conditions of the time were just suitable for the development of satire. The fashionable society of the time was immoral and corrupt and was infested with numerous vices and follies. Pope could not fail to see the emptiness of life around him and by nature being a satirist, he didn’t fail to ridicule it.

The literature of this period, therefore became mostly of satires as almost all the works of Pope are satires. The heroic couplet was the chief medium for poetry that time and suited the best for Satires. We can surely say that this Age created a lot of masterpieces, though not much in poetry but in prose. This age made a direct contribution to English literature rather than merely repeating the tendencies of the preceding ages.