Puritan age

Materie:	Appunti
Categoria:	Letteratura Inglese
Download:	1656
Data:	09.05.2007
Numero di pagine:	5
Formato di file:	.doc (Microsoft Word)

Charles I and the clash with Parliament

Charles I became king in 1625 at his father’s death.
The problem between king and Parliament started with his father was not solved yet, because James I didn’t want to have a confrontation with the long Parliament because it lasted till 1653, but instead to give money to the king, it limited his divine right , the Archbishop of Canterbury was impeached and imprisoned and Charles was asked to leave the command of the Army, he refused and the Civil War started in 1642.

CIVIL WAR

When the Civil War broke out there were two opposing forces:
1. the Royalists ( also called Cavaliers, because they had long hair), strong in the north and west, they included conservatives, aristocracy, lords, the gentry and the church of England.
2. the Parliamentarists, supporters of the Parliament, ( they were also called Roundheads, because they had very short hair) they included small landowners, the new gentry, merchants, artisans, and Puritans. They were strong in the south of England, London and the ports.

Oliver Cromwell was a leader of the Puritans and their representative in the Parliament from 1640.
He was also the leader of the cavalry and with his men , the Ironmen, he defeated the king, that was imprisoned in 1647.
Cromwell took the control of the Government and arrested more than 100 members of the Parliament, The remaining formed the Rump Parliament and they declared the execution of the king that occurred in 1649 (30th January).
After that the monarchy was abolished, and England became a republic with the name of Commonwealth.
In Parliament there was only the House of Common, because the House of Lords was abolished because it was considered dangerous.
Cromwell became Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland. In 1653..
He had a positive foreign policy, reorganized the Navy, he reused the Navigation Acts, against Holland. This brought to a war against Holland that was defeated. . In 1655 England won also against the Spain in the Caribbean islands.
Instead the domestic policy was negative because he had to rule on the use of the army., and people felt themselves oppressed by the severe rules of the Puritans. When he died in 1658 the Protectorate collapsed.
His son was not able to rule and after two years of chaos the New Parliament in 1660 invited Charles II to come back from exile, and the republic was over.

Oliver Cromwell and the Irish question

Cromwell would have liked to rule with democracy and to do free elections, but it wasn’t possible, because the public opinion was not all in his favour; he has a series of problems:
1. his authority was refused by Cavaliers and radical democrats
2. the Navy was paralysed by mutiny
3. Scotland and Ireland wanted the king
4. Virginia and Barbados ( English colonies) refused his authority
5. Holland France and Spain were not in his favour.

So Cromwell for four years had to rule with the help of the army.
Also in Ireland the situation became dramatic.
Cromwell wanted to use Irish lands to pay the soldiers who had fought for him, to defeat rebellion and to extirpate Catholicism.
In Ireland he was supported by the Protestants and his opposing force was the Catholics.
Only in Ulster , where the population was largely British and Protestant he had supporters, in the other parts no, when he left Ireland the leaders of the people became the priests, because the native gentry was completely destroyed by Cromwell’s army.

Hierarchy and mobility

It was the land-ownership that gave importance in the society in this period.
The middle groups included the gentry , whose sons were sent to work into trade.
City men invested in land, and landowners were involved in trading.
Trade and transport improved, there were more markets, manufactures,
London became very big with a quarter of a million of population, it was the centre for trading , there were many companies, but it was also important6 as a centre of political, and cultural affairs.
The families were run by the fathers, whose authority was increased as a result of the puritan ideas., because he was seen as the head of the family and a spiritual and moral guide.
The Puritans were very severe. They wore simple in dark , they didn’t drink, or play sports, they closed the theatres because they considered them immoral.

The Puritan mind

Religion dominated national and personal life. They complained against ecclesiastical rituals of both Catholics and Anglicans,
They didn’t want a Church interpretation of the Scriptures, and the wanted a personal understanding of the Bible.
They believed in the Calvinist theory of predestination, it means that all men were born sinners and bound to damnation. Only God can save men, if they live a holy life with moral rectitude, hard work and discipline.
For this reasons Puritans considered entertainment like a sin and corruptive. Instead they were always concentrated on hard and profitable profession and on improving their social status, like signs of God’s salvation.

From celebration to introspection

The literature of the Puritan Age was full of austerity, introspection and self-criticism.
The most important authors were:
1. John Donne and the metaphysical poets: sometimes their ideas were very difficult in relation to emotions.
2. the Cavalier Poets: they referred to Ben Jonson’s works, they supported Charles I during the Civil War and their ideals were personal elegance and courteous behaviour ( just the opposite of the Puritans)
3. George Herbert wrote religious poems
4. John Milton, instead, showed many different influence, humanist and puritan.
5. Andrew Marvell: mixed wit and grace, puritan simplicity and classical sophistication.

The prose in the Puritan Age was not very important because Puritans considered it false, the only example of prose are the sermons and the political pamphlets, that were very important.

Puritans against theatres

Puritans considered theatres immoral because, they came from the medieval miracle plays, that had origin half in liturgy and half in folk plays, so they were twice damned, because they were both heathen and popish.
There was also a conflict between pulpit and stage.
Considering also that the performances were usually on Sundays, it was in conflict with their ideas oh holy days.
So they considered that the theatre was not in the grace of God.

Metaphysical poetry

Metaphysical means related to fundamental problems of the nature of the universe.
The metaphysical poets were men of wit , with references to religious debate, astrology, alchemy, philosophy.
They could use difficult and unusual metaphors, and images to surprise the readers.
The most important characteristics of this poetry were:
- the ability to use this combination of metaphysical elements,( metaphors, similes)
- the use of paradoxes and conciseness.
- The poems began in media res, that is in the middle of the argument
- The language was rich and varied, with Latinism and words of Anglo-saxon origin
- The poems have many different forms.