The Augustan literature

The Augustan age represented a period of relative stability, as the conflicts and
enthusiasms of the mid-17th century receded into past(a political revolution in
France and an independence revolution in England).This period is associated with
the reign of Queen Anne(1702-1714),the new concept and the key-term being
balance,both of property,of classes and religion.Common sense is the definitory
term,as opposed to the individuality of inspiration and imagination.The linguistic
corollary of common sense was common usage.The Restoration had heralded a
conscious campaign to improve English as a medium of
communication.However,the basis of the English Augustanism remained
political.For the writers of this period,it was essential to compare their work with
that of the famous Latin scholars.The unifying element of this period was the
general acceptance of Rome(mainly the period of the Emperor Augustus)as the
social model that should be followed or imitated.The "imitation" was a form of free
translation with the original allusions adapted to the modern circumstances.The
Horatian imitations of John Dryden,Jonathan Swift,Alexander Pope and Samuel
Johnson showed the writers'conviction in their civilizing mission.
Poetry became a civilized action;it demanded polish,elegance,restrain,good taste
and subordination of one's personal idiom to the social norms.Poets were
encouraged to write for a civilized group whose education they could take for
granted.In point of technique,the heroic couplet became the standard technical
verse,being considered the best form of conveying a combination of elegance and
wit.
In point of social and cultural life,the coffee-houses replaced the Court as meeting
places of men of culture; it is the period in which journalists and journalism made
their appearance,playing a very important part in the development of the English
middle classes,their aims being highly educational.The Augustan period stressed
the fact that,although since the 18th century the steady rise of the middle classes had
been a feature of English history,they were not the real rulers of the country.The
political rulers were the landed aristocracy,the country gentlemen and the big
landowners,though they ruled only with the permission of and in alliance with the
commercial interests.
The journalists that began writing in this period were Richard Steele and Joseph
Addison.Richard Steele wrote a review that appeared 3 times a week entitled
suggestively The Tatler(from the verb to title-tatle=to gossip).It was a kind of a
tabloid in which Steele satirized the immorality and shallowness of the high
society;at the same time, Steele unmasked all sorts of swindlers and adventurers of
London.Joseph Addison contributed to The Tatler regularly,but as far as this
review is concerned,the leading role was held by Richard Steele.After a life of 2
years,The Tatler ceased to appear in March 1711 and 2 months after the death of
this review,a new journal was born,a journal which was entitled The
Spectator.This new review was published from March 1711 until December
1712.In 1714 Joseph Addison took up the publication of The Spectator and
published some more numbers of this review.The 2 reviews(The Tatler and The
Spectator) gave Steele and Addison a permanent place in the history of the English
literature as they were the founders of the English essay and as they were fine
humourists and moralists.From the first issue of The Tatler,Steele set himself the
task of exposing the falsity of the social life of his time and he advocated a general
simplicity in clothing,manners and in speech.In The Spectator,Addison asserted
courageously that the only aim of his writings was to eliminate vice and ignorance
from English life.Richard Steele and Joseph Addison were acknowledged as being
the first educators of the English middle classes,they were concerned to bridge the
gap between town and country,between the aristocracy and the middle classes.
The dominant representative of the Augustan period was Alexander Pope(1688-
1744),who was called by the literary critics the spokesman and the scourge of his
age.His personality combined a wide range of features:optimistic deism,stylized
balance,self-confidence,a delicate sadness, savage pessimism and sharp
criticism.His early poems show optimism and balance,the later works display a
kind of Swiftian contempt for his fellow men.His major attack was against
individuals characterized by stupidity,corruption and venality.In technique,he was
the craftiest user of the heroic couplet,but he refined it to such extend that it
approached the type of line used by the metaphysical poets.Pastorals were
published in 1709 and they are Pope's early poems showing simplicity and poetic
delicacy.They contain the proper qualities of a pastoral poem in creating the image
of a golden age.Pope's first important great poem was Windsor Forest,published in
1713,which was called by the literary critics "local poetry".It is a descriptive and
reflective poem which gives formality and artificiality to a rural scene.In his next
important poem entitled An Essay on Criticism(published in 1711),Pope defined
the doctrine of neo-classicism .The poem summarizes the literary doctrines
accepted by the best,the most cultivated minds of this age.Pope asserted that to read
poetry for the sound of words and not for the sense,is like going to church not for
the doctrine,but for the music.Nature is the best guide of the judgement,said Pope,a
poet must always be skillful in his choice of words.The next important (mock-
heroic) poem was entitled The Rape of the Lock and it was published in 1712.In
this poem Pope offers his readers a picture of the contemporary Engtlish high
society.It describes in an extravagant manner,the court of Queen Anne,where a
young courtier,Lord Peter(the "Baron" of the poem) cuts a lock from the hair of a
beautiful maid of honour,Arabella Fermor("Belinda" in the poem).This trivial
incident is treated with great extravagance by Pope.He describes the frivolous
society of London in those days and he exaggerates and amplifies the importance of
a trivial act such as the cutting of a lock from the hair of a beautiful maid of
honour.Pope describes in great detail certain small and unimportant things,but he
does it in an elevated style,to suggest in a way that what he is describing is very
important and can be compared with the great events and heroic deeds sung by the
ancient poets.
The next highly important poem written by Pope was entitled The Dunciad, a
mock-heroic poem which was published for the first time in 1728.This mock-heroic
poem was designed,at first,as a contribution to Pope's personal war against
dullness,stupidity and pedantry.The Dunces to Pope were either pedants or fools or
both.However,Pope is too much overcome by his own passion,and in this poem,he
makes fun of almost all of his literary opponents( the word "dunce" in English
means fool).The theme of the poem is the association between
pedantry,dullness,stupidity and boredom to create a soporific effect upon the
world.The poem is a criticism of the bad poets of Pope's time,who are associated
with the soporific effect,with dullness and total boredom.This poem does not have
a fully developed mock-heroic action as in the mock-heroic poem entitled The
Rape of the Lock,it is a collection of episodes,each of them being a self-contained
unit.The Dunciad deals with literary dullness and pedantry in general and with
specific writers guilty of these vices.The opening of the poem focuses on the
speech of the Godess Dullness who contemplates on her realm of confusion and
bad poetry and thinks of the long succession of bad poets to the city of London.The
poem is rounded off with the picture of the triumph of Dullness,the triumph that in
the future nothing will escape Dullness,the triumph of the resulting disintegration
of civilization.In fact,the triumph of Dullness is seen and presented by Pope as
being a tragic sense of doom.
The last important literary work written by Pope was entitled An Essay on Man(it
was published between 1733-1734) and it summarizes the philosophical
speculations of Pope's age.It expresses the rationalistic and deistic trends of an age
in which man was placed in the centre of the Universe.Pope's line "The proper
study of mankind is man" sums up this view.The structure of the poem presents a
picture of man in relation to his universe,to the God created chain of being "a
mighty maze!but not without a plan".This poem is made up of 4 epistles.The first
epistle praises Reason as being the particular attribute that separates Man from
other creatures,from animals,and the faculty by which he can understand his true
position in Nature.The second epistle is concerned with Man's
abilities,weaknesses,emotions and his nature.Man is depicted as being involved in a
moral conflict between Reason and Passion.The third epistle presents Man as being
integrated in the chain that binds all things to one another,in an interdependent
society.In the fourth epistle,having considered Man in relation to 1.the Universe,
2.his individuality and 3.the society,Pope turns to a study of Man in terms of
happiness .Pope's conclusion is that virtue alone can lead to happiness and can
actually bring happiness.
Important conclusions:Both The Rape of the Lock and The Dunciad are mock-
heroic poems.The ending of The Dunciad goes beyond satire though,to achieve a
tragic sense of doom as though Pope in the end genuinely gave up hope for
civilization.This is a strange climax undoubtedly.In spite of the real gloom of the
ending,The Dunciad reveals a satiric poet,enjoying to the full the exercise of his
art,it is a high spirited work and Pope's satires have a scope,a clearly defined
aim(that of correcting the vices of society,of its institutions by mocking at
them).The Dunciad represents the most artful use of the mock-heroic idiom in
defence of culture.It is true,however,that Pope's satire was not always just,but The
Dunciad is remembered for its literary craftsmanship.Its form served as a model of
literary satire for almost a century to other significant poets.In the 19th century
Byron wrote his English Bards and Scotch Reviewers under Pope's influence.
Being a fervent supporter of the neo-classical principles defined by
Boileau(clarity,order,reason,wit and balance),Pope tried to attain perfection
throughout his entire life.
The Augustan "Novel" is represented by a multitude of new themes and new
characters,mainly evoked in the works written by Daniel Defoe and Jonathan
Swift.Daniel Defoe is the representative writer of the middle class protestant
Englishmen.He wrote verse-satires(The True Born Englishman,The Shortest
Way with the Dissenters and "novels"(Robinson Crusoe,Moll Flanders,Captain
Singleton,The Journal of the Plague Year,Roxana).Defoe brings up the
prudential hero in English fiction,as well as a new view of the man-nature
relationship,the pattern of material and moral civilization,the allegoric invocation
of the symbolic pragmaticism of the age,and,in point of technique,the formal
realism(an ethically neutral presentation of facts and events).Yet,his "novels" lack
coherence of structure and the imaginative conditions of a true novelist.
Jonathan Swift was generally acknowledged as being the master inventor of irony
and a pamphleteer of genius,possesor of a both brilliant and bitter imagination.His
narrative style is characterized by clarity,balance and consciousness.His main
works are the following : A Tale of a Tub(which is an allegoric satire representing
the ironic history of the development of Christianity),A Modest Proposal
demonstrates the author's hatred for mankind and his love for individuals(being
thus totally opposed to Alexander Pope).This work represents an expression of
Swift's indignation regarding the children's situation in his time.Gulliver's Travels
is generally regarded as being Swift's masterpiece;it is a book that mocks at human
false pretensions and vanity;it is a political,social,philosophical allegory(in fact a
harsh satire) whose target is to mock at human pride.

Important specification :A mock-heroic poem refers to a satirical imitation or a

parody of a heroic subject or a gallant style.It makes use of a trivial matter in a
heroic subject and it exaggerates it with satire and humour.