PILGRIMS’ PROGRESS THROUGH REVOLUTION

LECTURE 06

TO RESTORATION (1616 – 1696)

6.1. Особенности социального развития Англии в начале XVII века. Английская поэзия после Шекспира. Творчество Джона Донна. Трактовка человека и мира, специфика образов, экспрессивность стиля, усложненность ритма.

6.1.1. The Renaissance was still around at the beginning of the XVII century. The crucial literary effort of the time was the great translation of the Bible, called the King James Bible, or Authorized Version, published in 1611. It is significant because it was the culmination of two centuries of effort to produce the best English translation of the original texts, and also because its vocabulary, imagery, and rhythms have influenced writers of English in all lands ever since.

The prose of the period is not numerous. The majority of authors expressed themselves in poetic form. The most original and daring among the poets of the early XVII century is John Donne.

The mid-century saw the Civil war and the republican rule. The Puritan Revolution stimulated the poetic genius of John Milton. After the Revolution, many people felt disillusionment and sought a sort of intellectual refuge. One such person was John Bunyan, who produced one of the finest allegorical tales in the English language.

The restoration of Charles II ushered in a literature characterized by reason, moderation, good taste, deft management, and simplicity. The appreciation of the literature of the time of the Roman emperor Augustus led to a widespread acceptance of the new English literature and encouraged grandeur of tone in the poetry of the period, the later phase of which is often referred to as Augustan. The most important poet of the Restoration is John Dryden.

Finally, some great philosophical and political treatises were created emphasizing rationalism. Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), by John Locke, is the product of a belief in experience as the exclusive basis of knowledge. Locke also stated that the authority of the governor is derived from the consent of the governed and that the people's welfare is the only proper object of that authority. Those were enlightened ideas indeed.

This gives us almost a century that may well be called the Age of Five Johns.

6.1.2. John Donne(1572-1631) is an English poet, prose writer, and clergyman, considered the greatest of the metaphysical poets and one of the greatest writers of love poetry.

Donne was born in London; at the age of 11 he entered the University of Oxford, where he studied for three years. He began the study of law at Lincoln's Inn, London. About two years later, presumably, he relinquished the Roman Catholic faith, in which he had been brought up, and joined the Anglican Church. His first book of poems, Satires, is considered one of Donne's most important literary efforts. The volume had a fairly wide readership through private circulation of the manuscript, as did his love poems, Songs and Sonnets, written at about the same time.

At 26, Donne was appointed private secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton, Keeper of the Great Seal. Donne's secret marriage to Egerton's niece, Anne More, resulted in his dismissal from this position and in a brief imprisonment. During the next few years Donne made a meager living as a lawyer. Finally, reconciliation was effected between Donne and his father-in-law, and his wife received a much-needed dowry. Donne's next work, a treatise on religion, won him the favor of the king. Donne became a priest of the Anglican Church. He attained eminence as a preacher, delivering sermons that are regarded as the most brilliant and eloquent of his time.

* * *

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadful, for thou arrt not so;

For those whom you think’st thou dost overthrow

Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,

Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow;

And soonest our best men with thee do go,

Rest of their bones and souls’ delivery.

Thou’rt slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,

And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell;

And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well

And better than thy stroke. Why swell’st thou then?

Our short sleep past, we wake eternally,

And Death shall be no more: Death, thou shalt die.

Donne continued to write poetry, notably his Holy Sonnets, but most of it remained unpublished. James I appointed him Dean of Saint Paul's Cathedral; he held that post until his death. While convalescing from a severe illness, Donne wrote a prose work in which he treated the themes of death and human relationships; it contains these famous lines: No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; ... any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.

6.1.3. The poetry of Donne is characterized by complex imagery and irregularity of form. He frequently employed the conceit, an elaborate metaphor making striking syntheses of apparently unrelated objects or ideas. His intellectuality, introspection, and use of colloquial diction, seemingly unpoetic but always uniquely precise in meaning and connotation, make his poetry boldly divergent from the smooth, elegant verse of his day. The content of his love poetry, often both cynical and sensuous, represents a reaction against the sentimental Elizabethan sonnet, and this work influenced the attitudes of the Cavalier poets. Those 17th-century religious poets sometimes referred to as the metaphysical poets drew much inspiration from the imagery and spirituality of Donne's religious poetry. Donne was almost forgotten during the 18th century, but interest in his work developed and reached its heights in the 20^th century.

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ENGLISH RENAISSANCE: UTOPIAN IDEAS AND REALITY	\|	And worthie seemd, for in thir looks Divine

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