L'Inghilterra nel XVII secolo

Materie:	Appunti
Categoria:	Lingue
Voto:	2 (2)
Download:	209
Data:	11.12.2001
Numero di pagine:	2
Formato di file:	.doc (Microsoft Word)

THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE
17th century → troubled period of religious and political controversies → Civil War
10 years England was ruled as a REPUBLIC → the COMMONWEALTH

people grew tired of the Puritanism
the Restoration changed the atmosphere
1) the reopening of thatres, important changes: 1) quality of the plays
2) organization of the playhouses
artificial lights, scenery, separation stage/
audience, women
2) many people migrated to the NEW CONTINENT: 1) looking for employment and a better life
standard
2) escaping from religious persecution
3) criminals or vagrants
3) In 1689 → TOLERATION ACT – put an end to religious quarreling
BILL OF RIGHT - sanctioned the power of the Parliament

the king ruled not by ‘divine right’
but by consent of the Parliament
4) the growing prosperity of the classes in the middle of society (economic status – nobility had
social status)
5) continuation of the WITCH-HUNT
developement in SCIENTIFIC THINKING
Charles II → president of the Royal Society (1662), group of scientists who shared ideas (Isaac
Newton, Christopher Wren)
interests in astronomy (Royal Observatory of Greenwich 1675)
6) new habits → meet at the COFFEE HOUSES (London)

a new drink
man used to meet women gathered at home sipping some
tea (higher classes)
lower classes → drinking houses (centres of popular culture)
7) falls of the ideals of humanism and chivalry
beginning of a new spirit of INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM and PRAGMATISM (Locke)
1702 → Queen Anne
1714 → accession of George I (start of the House of Hanover)
1721 – 1742 → Robert Walpole PM
1746 → Battle of Culloden
1743 – 1754 → Henry Pelham PM
1756 → William Pitt the Elder leading politician
1760 → official beginning of the Industrial Revolution (end in 1840)
1773 → Boston Tea Party
1776 → Declaration of American indipendence
1783 – 1801 → William Pitt the Younger PM
1789 → French Revolution