英国文学资产阶级革命时期

Chapter 1 The English Revolution and Restoration

1. Queen Elizabeth I died leaving no heirs, thus ending the Tudor dynasty.

2. James I became the new king in 160

3.

–Began the Stuart line of kings

–Great Britain became the United Kingdom

3. Believed in the Divine Right of Kings.

-- God made him king and God alone can tell him what to do.

-- Did not allow Puritans to make changes in the Church of England or to challenge his authority.

-- Caused friction with Parliament used to working with the monarch.

-- When Parliament complained, Charles disbanded it for 11 years.

4. The English Civil War (1642--1649)

?The King’s supporters

-- Called Cavaliers

-- Mostly Anglicans, Catholics

-- Mostly landed nobility

?The Parliament’s supporters

-- Called the Roundheads

-- Mostly Puritans

-- Mostly middle class

5. The Commonwealth

6. The Restoration(1660-1688

7. The Glorious Revolution (1688)

?Charles II died in 1685, his brother James was his successor.

?James II was Roman Catholic, who believed in divine right .

?James II was expelled by Parliament.

?William from Holland became the King.

?Constitutional Monarchy

John Donne (1572-1631)---the founder of the Metaphysical school

I. Metaphysical Poetry

?Metaphysical Poetry（玄学派诗歌)

?It is the poetry of John Donne and other seventeenth-century poets who wrote in a similar style. Metaphysical poetry is characterized by verbal wit and excess, ingenious structure, irregular meter, colloquial language, elaborate imagery, and metaphysical conceits and a drawing together of dissimilar ideas.

?Example: compare love bt. Husband and wife with compass.;

?dislike traditional poem

?Scholar, Highly abstract or theoretical;

?Example:

“It sucked me first, and now sucks thee,

And in this flea, our two bloods mingled be;

This flea is you and I, and this

Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is”

Cavalier Poets(保皇派诗人）

?Cavalier poets were often courtiers.

?The Cavalier poets wrote light poetry, polished and elegant, but often superficial. They mostly dealt in short songs on the flitting joys of the day, but underneath their light-heartedness lies some foreboding of impending doom. This spirit of pessimism and cynicism is typical of the aristocratic class in decline.

PART THREE: THE PERIOD OF THE ENGLISH BOURGEOIS REVOLUTION

Chapter 1. The English Revolution and the Restoration

Ⅰ. The Weakening of the Tie Between Monarchy and Bourgeoisie:

During the Tudor dynasty (1485-1603) the English bourgeoisie lived in harmony with the Crown. Until about 1590, the bourgeoisie had many interests in common with those of the monarchy —in the struggles against Spain, against the Roman Catholic Church, against noble houses ruining the country with their civil wars. Hence the collaboration between the monarchy and the bourgeoisie. But when all its internal and external foes had been crushed, the bourgeoisie ceased to depend upon the protection of the monarchy. At the same time the Crown strove to consolidate its position before it was too late. There had already been some conflict between the Queen and Parliament at the end of Elizabeth's reign. There were more and more quarrels of James I and Charles I with their Parliaments.

Ⅱ. The Clashes Between the King and Parliament:

The major parliamentary clashes of the early 17th century were over monopolies, the means by which the monarchy attempted to control commercial activity in the interests of the court.

The king granted monopolies on such and such merchandises to his favourites, and then nobody could sell them without purchasing the permission of the monopoly holders. This caused grave inconvenience to merchants and a sharp rise in prices. And monopolies were extended in the reigns of James I and Charles I on such necessities as butter, herrings, salt, beer, and many others.

At last the Parliament declared that monopolies without its consent were illegal. Charles I dissolved it in 1629. For eleven years Charles ruled the country with an absolute government. He relied upon the prerogative courts (the Star Chamber, etc.) as the instruments of his policy.

Severe persecutions hit the capitalist class as a whole. Thus arose the demand for a new government on the part of the English bourgeoisie.

Ⅲ. The Outburst of the English Revolution:

The various classes in England soon split up into two camps. The opposition leaders in Parliament were supported by contributions of merchants, the mass demonstrations of artisans and apprentices in the city, and by the peasants' riots against enclosures in the countryside. While around the King were clustered the conservative gentry, the big landlords and the monopolists. A civil war broke out in 1642 and lasted till 1649.

At first, the Royalists had certain military advantages. Then Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), the famous opposition leader, reorganized the Parliamentary forces into the New Model Army. Once properly organized, the Army advanced rapidly to victory and the Royalists were decisively routed in Naseby in 1645. The war soon ended and Charles was captured. But he escaped from captivity, and civil war broke out again until the King was re-captured and executed in 1649, as "a public enemy to the good people of this nation." Monarchy was abolished. England was declared a commonwealth, i.e., a republic.

Ⅳ. The Split within the Revolutionary Camp:

As soon as victory was won, there arose a split in the revolutionary camp. First, the middle bourgeoisie (Independents) struggled with the big bourgeoisie (Presbyterians) for the supremacy in Parliament. Then the bourgeoisie as a whole broke with the people. So class struggle became complicated under the new situation.

The Levellers, a section of the petty bourgeoisie, maintained that "the poorest he that is in England hath a life to live as the greatest he", and wanted manhood suffrage. But the Independents, who represented the bourgeoisie, answered: "Liberty cannot be provided for in a general sense." The ordinary people who previously fought for the Parliament were now disappointed; they felt they had been betrayed. A revolt of the Levellers broke out and was put down by Cromwell.

At the same time arose the movement of the Diggers who preached a rural communism and led the poor peasants to dig up the waste land in several places. But this was also suppressed by the landlords and soldiers. Gerard Winstanley (1609-52?), leader of the Diggers, wrote: "Every one talks of freedom, but there are but few that act for freedom, and the actors of freedom are oppressed by the talkers and verbal professors of freedom." The full realization of the people's democracy is impossible unless there is a working class to carry it out thoroughly.

Ⅴ. The Bourgeois Dictatorship and the Restoration:

Thus the bourgeois dictatorship was established, and Cromwell became the Protector of the English Commonwealth. But the breach of the big bourgeoisie with the popular forces meant that their government could only be maintained by a compromise with the feudal remnants. After the death of Cromwell, the Parliament recalled Charl es Ⅱ to England in 1660. Then followed the Restoration period. A white terror was introduced to the country. Many Republicans were put to death. Most notorious was Jeffreys, the Chief Justice of Charles Ⅱ and James Ⅱ. He alone executed hundreds of innocent people. But the big bourgeoisie was more afraid of the people's revolution than of the King's reaction. Only when James Ⅱ threatened to

restore the old absolute monarchy that the bourgeoisie expelled him and invited William, Prince of Orange, from Holland, to be King of England, in 1688. This was the so-called "Glorious Revolution" —"glorious" because it was bloodless and there was no revival of the revolutionary demands. So, after a century of disputes and battles, the state structure of England was settled, within which capitalism could develop freely.

Ⅵ. The Religious Cloak of the English Revolution:

The English Revolution was carried out under a religious cloak. Religious disputes filled many pages of the political pamphlets of the 17th century: Both sides believed they were fighting God's battles. But religion covered something more. Marx pointed out, "Cromwell and the English people had borrowed speech, passions and illusions from the Old Testament for their revolution." That is why the English Revolution was sometimes called the Puritan Revolution.

Puritanism was the religious doctrine of the revolutionary bourgeoisie during the English Revolution. It preached thrift, sobriety, hard work and unceasing labour in whatever calling one happened to be, but with no extravagant enjoyment of the fruits of labour. The wealthy were to accumulate capital, the poor to labour at their tasks, as a "divine duty." Worldly pleasures were condemned as harmful. This was precisely the outlook needed by the bourgeoisie for the accumulation of capital. The Puritans opposed the old church that squandered a lot of money upon robes, candles and magnificent processions. They closed down the London theatres in 1642, not only for their extravagance and deterioration but also for the puritanic abhorrence of "worldly" pleasures in general.

Ⅶ. Literature of the Revolution Period:

The spirit of unity and the feeling of patriotism ended with the reign of Elizabeth I, and England was then convulsed with the conflict between the two antagonistic camps, the Royalists and the Puritans. English literature of this revolution and restoration period was very much concerned with the tremendous social upheavals of the time. Milton, one of the greatest poets of England, defended the English Commonwealth with his pen. His pamphlets, together with those of Gerard Winstanley and John Lilburne (1614-57), leader of the Levellers, played an active part in pushing on the revolutionary cause. Even after the Restoration in 1660, Milton and Bunyan, the poor tinker-writer, continued to defend in their works the ideals of the Revolution, "the good old cause", and expose the reactionary forces. We shall first discuss them in the following chapters.