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TheEighteenthCenturyanAgeofProseand CommunicationSkills
Reason WriteUpServices
Introduction:
TakeOnlineClasses
The eighteenth century, says Legouis in A Short History of English Literature,
"viewedasawholehasadistinctivecharacter."Itwas"theclassicalage"inEnglishliterature, WelcometoNEO
and,assuch,heldandpractisedsomebasicprinciplesconcerninglifeandliterature.Eventhen
one should avoid sweeping generalizations/The temptation to generalizethe eighteenth Home
centuryparticularlyishardtoovercome.
LEARNINGENGLISH
"Fewcenturies,"saysGeorgeSherburninALiteraryHistoryof.EnglandeditedbyAlbertC.
NEOMETHOD
Baugh,"havewithmorefacilitybeenreducedtoaformulatHantheeighteenth....Few
centuries,tobesure,havedemonstratedmoreunityofcharacterthansuperficiallyconsidered NEOCOURSES
theeighteenthseemstohavepossessed."However,itisfallacioustobelievethatthereisaclear REGISTRATION
cleavagebetweentheseventeenthcenturyandtheeighteenth.ObservesSherburn:"Theideasof
thelaterseventeenthcenturycontinueintotheeighteenth."Atanyrate,intheeighteenth LikeMyFanPage
centurytherewasthecompletionofthereactionagainstElizabethanromanticism.This JoinNeoGroup
reactionhadstartedintheseventeenthcenturywithDenham,Waller,andDryden.Popeand
hiscontemporariesstoodontheotherextremetoElizabethanromanticistsandusheredin"the TheLan
5.8Klikes
ageofproseandreason,"asMatthewArnoldcharacterisestheeighteenthcentury.Now,letus
seehowandhowfartheeighteenthcenturywas"anageofproseandreason."
DominanceofReason:
Popeandhisfollowersgivemuchimportancetoreasonintheirmodesofthinkingand LikePage
expressing.Reasonmayvariouslymanifestitselfasgoodsense,rationalism,intellect,witor
just dry logicism, but it is definitely against all excessive emotionalism, sentimentalism,
extravagance, eccentricity, lack of realism, escapism, and even imagination. It is easy to see Bethefirstofyourfriends
thatintheeighteenthcenturyreasonwasexaltedtoashibboleth.Cazamianmaintains:"The tolikethis
truesourceandtherealqualityofEnglishclassicismareofapsychologicalnature.Itsideal,its
characteristics, its method, all resolve themselves into a general searching after rationality."
This search which started in the age of Dryden culminated in the age of Pope. Cazamian
maintains in this connexion: "One may say that the age of Pope lives more fully, more
spontaneously, at the pitch of that dominant intellectuality, which during the preceding age NeoFeed
waschieflyanirresistibleimpulse,akindofcontagiousintoxication."Thisreignofreasonand
commonsensecontinuedintothemiddleofthecenturywhennewideasandvoicesappeared,
Posts
andtheprecursorsoftheEnglishromanticsofthenineteenthcenturyappearedonthescene.
All the important writers of the ageSwift, Pope, and Dr. Johnsonglorified reason both in
Comments
their literary and critical work and, conversely, made unreason and bad sense the recurring
targets of their satire. Swift in the fourth book of Gulliver's Travels, for example, chastises
Yahoosforbeingcreaturesofimpulse,withoutreasonorcommonsense.Ontheotherhand, NeoArchives
Houyhnhnmsareglorifiedastenaciousadherentsofthesequalities.ThesatireonYahoosis.
byimplication,asatireonthehumanbeingswhoresemblethemsoclosely.Thusthefourth December(904)
bookisthemostterriblesatireonhumanlackofgoodsenseandreason.
ImitationoftheAncients:
Thisglorificationofreasonalsomanifestsitselfintheformofthestresslaidonthe
imitationofthe"ancients,"thatis,theGreekandRomanwritersofantiquity.Itwasthought GreenLinks
contrarytoreasontobeledby.one'sownimpulsesandeccentricitiesandtodeviseone'sown
idiomforexpression.Toomuchofsubjectivitywasconsideredirrational.Itwasbelievedthata
manshouldcultivateunrefinedand"natural"tastebysubjectingittotheinfluenceofclassical
writers. Much stress was laid on controlling and disciplining one's heady feelings and wild
imaginationandthepersonalwayofexpressionwiththehelpofthestudyoftheclassics.We
find in this century many translations and adaptations of the classics as also their
"imitations," not to speak of their rich echoes in most works of the century. The eighteenth
centuryparticularlyitsfirsthalfisalsocalledtheclassicalageofEnglishliteratureonaccount
oftworeasonswhichW.H.Hudsonenumeratesasfollows:
(i)"...thepoetsandcriticsofthisagebelievedthattheworksofthewritersofclassical
antiquity (really of the Latin writers), presented the best of models and the ultimate
standardsofliterarytaste."
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(ii) "...like these Latin writers they had little faith in the promptings and guidance of
individualgenius,andmuchinlawsandrulesimposedbytheauthorityofthepast."
In1700WalshwrotetoPope:"Thebestofthemodernpoetsinalllanguagesarethose
thathavenearestcopiedtheancients."SwiftinTheBattleoftheBooksshowedthesupremacy
oftheancientsoverallthesucceedingwriters.Walsh'sexpressioncopiedtheancientsshould
notleadonetobelievethateighteenthcenturywriterswerenomorethancopyistsandassuch
areopentothechargeofplagiarism.Whattheycopiedwasonlythegoodtasteandreasonof
theancients.WelldidPopeobserve:"Thosewhosayourthoughtsarenotourownbecausethey
resemble the Ancients' may as well say our Faces are not our own because they are like our
Fathers."Thustheancientsweretoberespectedasguidesandmodels,notastyrants.Among
theancientsthemostrespectedweretheLatinwritersoftheAgeofAugustusandamongthem,
too,particularlyVirgilandHorace.TheonereasonwhythisageiscalledtheAugustanageis
this.However,theEnglish"ancients"likeChaucerandSpenserwerenotrespected.Addisonin
hiscriticalpoemAccountoftheGreatestEnglishPoetsobservesaboutTheFaerieQueene:
....Butnowthemystictalematpleasedofyore
Cancharmanunderstandingagenomore.
Chaucerisdismissedasa"rudebarbarian"whotriesinvaintomakethereaderslaughwithhis
jestsin"unpolishedstrain."ThomasRymersavagelycriticisedShakespeare.
"FirstFollowNature":
A.R.Humphreysobserves:"Basically,thecriticalinjunctionwhichgainedthewidest,
indeed,almostuniversal,acceptancewasthecallto"followNature".Inthefamouslinesfrom
Pope'sEssayohCriticismadviceistenderedtowriters:
FirstfollowNature,andyourjudgementframe
Byherjuststandard,whichisstillthesame:
UnerringNature,stilldivinelybright,
Oneclearunchanged,anduniversallight,
Life,force,andbeauty,musttoallimpart,
Atoncethesource,andend,andtestofArt.
Pope's"Nature"wasnotthe"Nature"oftheromanticslikeWordsworthandColeridge.
TheAugustanswerenotmuchinterestedinforests, flowers, trees, birds, etc. which inspired
poets like Wordsworth. Nor did Pope and his contemporaries mean by "Nature" that Nature
which, td use the words of Louis I. Bredvold, "Sir Isaac Newton had recently interpreted in
terms of mathematical physics, in his Principia Mathematica (1687) they could hardly have
gonetophysicsforaliterarystandard,andtheyweremoreoverweHawarethattheirconceptof
Nature antedated Newtefffeyienturies." For them Nature indicated, what Bredvohtxalls, "a
rational and intelligible moral order in theliniverse, according to which the various
experiences of mankind could be confidently and properly vahled." Nature to them meant, in
the words of A. R. Humphreys, "the moral course of the world or as ideal truth by which art
shouldbeguided."Man'ssubjectivefeelingswerethusdiscreditediandsacrificedto"tnelawsof
Nature." As Basil Willey observes in The NineteenthCentury Background, "the individual
mind was carefully ruled out of the whole scheme." Even in the field of religion, reason and
Nature ruled the roost. This was the age of the spread of natural religion or Deism which
believed in the existence of God but disbelieved in any revealed religion, not excepting
Christianity. People were also talking about,"natural morality." The doctrines of the reason
lovingDeistswererepudiatedbyorthodoxtheologists,notpassionatelybutwithreason.
Rules:
This eighteenthcentury emphasis on Nature often took the form of the emphasis on
the "rules" formulated by the ancients. These rules were supposed to be of universal
applicability. Nature was the criterion of propriety, and the rules of the ancients were to be
respectedasthey,inthewordsofPope,"areNaturestillbutNaturemethodised."Andfurther,
Naturelikeliberty,isbutrestrained
Bythesamelawswhichfirstherselfordained.
Thetendencytoadheretotheruleswentagainsttheeccentricitiesandirrationalitiesof
individual genius. The eighteenth century was. infact, an age of formalism in ai! spheres
literature architecture, gardening, and even social etiquette. A critic maintains: 'Just as a
gentlemanmightnotactnaturally(thatis,inaccordancewithhisimpulses),butmustfollow
exactrulesindoffinghishat,oraddressingalady,orenteringaroom,orofferinghissnuff
boxtoafriend,sothewritersofthisagelostindividualityandbecameformalandartificial."
AgainstEnthusiasmandImagination:
The adoration of reason naturally implied a keen distrust of enthusiasm and
imagination which could lead a man to ludicrous extremes. EighteeBtitcentufyliterature is,
onsequently, devoid of the enthusiasm, elemental passion, mysterious suggestiveness, and
headyimaginationwhichcharacterizeromanticliterature.Theseromanticcharacteristicswere
discredited as they led one to violate Nature. If a writer abandoned himself to emotions or
impulses,orlethisimaginationrunawayuncontrolled,theresultcouldbedisastrousforhis
writing. Sir Richard Blackmore observed in his "Essay on Epick Poetry" (in Essays upon
Various Subjects) that the writers of old romances "were seized with an irregular Poetic
phrenzy, and having Decency and Probability in Contempt, fill'd the world with endless
Absurdities." Swift in "Letter to a Young Clergyman" expresses his distrust of the passionate
eloquence of a particular preacher. "I do not see," says he, "how this talent of moving the
passionscanbeofanygreatusetowardsdirectingGhristianmenintheconductoftheirlives."
InSectionIXofTaleofaTubhescarifiesthePuritanenthusiasmbyrepresentingitaswind.
LikewisetheEarlofShaftesburyinhisLetterConcerningEnthusiasm(1708)lashes,religious
enthusiasmandfanaticism.
Prose:
Theeighteenthcenturywasdoubtlesslyanageofgreatprose,butnotofgreatpoetry.
WhenMatthewArnoldcallsitanageofprose,hesuggeststhateventhepoetryoftheperiod
wasofthenatureofprose,orversifiedprose.It:ishewhoobservedthatDrydenandPopeare
theclassics not of our poetry but of prose. Among the greatest prose writers of the age are
Addison,Steele,andSwift.TheytookEnglishprosefromtheantiquityofBurton,Browne,and
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4/9/2017 TheEighteenthCenturyanAgeofProseandReason|LearnEnglish,IELTS,EFL,ESLPublicSpeaking,Grammar,Literature,LinguisticsbyNEO
otherstothebalance,clarity,andsimplicityofthemoderntimes.Theymadeprosefunctional,
usingitnotforimpressingbutenlighteningthereader.Inthefieldofprosethereactionagainst
romantic extravagance and involvedness, started by Dryden, was brought to a logical
conclusionbytheprosewritersoftheageofQueenAnnementionedabove.
In poetry, however, the age has not to show much excellence. Imagination and
passioncametobe^replaoedbytheidealsofclearness,perspecuity,andbeautyofexpression.
Theseidealsappeartosomeastheidealsofgoodprose,notgoodpoetry.Regularity,order,and
artisticcontrolarecertaintlydesirablebutnosubstitutesforpoetictalentorinspiration.One
maybetemptedtoaskwithRoyCampbell:"Theyusesnaffleandthecurb,allright.Butwhere's
thebloodyhorse?"Comparingthepoetryandproseoftheeighteenthcentury,Longobserves:
"NowforthefirsttimewemustchroniclethetriumphofEnglishprose.Amultitudeofpractical
interestsarisingfromthenewsocialandpoliticalconditionsdemandedexpressionnotsimply
in books, but more especially in pamphlets, magazines, and newspapers. Poetry was
inadequateforsuchatask:hencethedevelopmentofprose,ofthe'unfetteredword'asDante
callsitadevelopmentwhichastonishesusbyitsrapidityandexcellence.Thegracefulelegance
ofAddison'sessays,thetersevigourofSwift'ssatires,theartisticfinishofFielding'snovels,
thesonorouseloquenceofGibbon'shistoryandofBurke'sorationsthesehavenoparallelin
thepoetryoftheage.Indeed,poetryitselfbecameprosaicinthisrespect,anditwasusednotfor
thecreativeworksofimaginationbutforessays,forsatire,forcriticismforexactlythesame
practicalendsaswasprose.Thepoetryofthefirsthalfofthecentury,astypifiedbytheworkof
Pope, is polished and witty enough, but artificial it lacks fire, fine feeling, enthusiasm, the
glowoftheElizabethanAgeandthemoralearnestnessofPuritanism.Inaword,itinterestsus
as a study of life, rather than delights or inspires us by its appeal to the imagination. The
varietyandexcellenceofproseworks,andthedevelopmentofaserviceableprosestyle,which
hadbeenbegunbyDryden,untilitservedtoexpressclearlyeveryhumaninterestandemotion,
thesearethechiefliterarygloriesoftheeighteenthcentury."

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2comments:

Anonymoussaid...

good

February16,2012at8:56PM

ABHISHEKsaid...

itsgoodforpgstudents

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September20,2013at5:49PM

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