VI.

AGE OF DRYDEN AND THE

RESTORATION.

A.D. 1660-1700.

SUPREMACY OF FRENCH INFLUENCE OVER LIFE AND

LITERATURE.

CULMINATION OF ENGLISH BURLESQUE IN BUTLER'S

"HUDIBRAS."

FOUNDATION OF THE CLASSICAL SCHOOL IN POETRY BY

JOHN DRYDEN.

CORRUPTION OF THE ENGLISH DRAMA.

METAPHYSICAL SPECULATION AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH UNDER LOCKE, NEWTON, AND BOYLE.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE OF DRYDEN

AND THE RESTORATION,

"Charles

Return of from exile, 1660.

Charles II.

So great was

the public reentrance into the restored monarch ex

joicing on his

London that

must have been my own fault,

surely, that I long before to

did not return

such loyal and jects.'

PURITANISM extinguished the last sparks of Italian influence in England, and, with the Restoration, France, who was fast gathering in her hands the reins of European civilization, began to mould English life and literature. II.," says an English critic, "had brought back with him from exile French manners, French morals, and, above all, French taste. . . . The young lords who were to make the future court of Charles II., no doubt found in Paris an ele-loving subgance, beside which the homely bluntness of native manners seemed rustic and underbred. They frequented a theatre where propriety was absolute upon the stage, though license had its full swing behind the scenes. They brought home with them to England debauched morals, and that urbane discipline of manners which is so agreeable a substitute for discipline of mind. Before the end of the seventeenth century, John

Re-opening of

the theatres.

Two companies
exclusive priv-
king: one,
"King's Com-

were granted

ileges by the

called the

pany," acted

in Drury Lane; the other,

known as the "Duke of York's Company," in Lincoln's Inn Fields.

Appearance of the first English actress as Desdemona, 1660.

Introduction of scenery and decorations on the English stage, 1661.

Bull was pretty well persuaded, in a bewildered kind of way, that he had been vulgar, and especially that his efforts in literature showed marks of native vigor, indeed, but of a vigor clownish and uncouth. . . . Dryden, one of the most truly English of English poets, did more than all others combined to bring about the triumphs of French standards in taste and French principles in criticism.... Between 1660 and 1700 more French words, I believe, were directly transplanted into our language than in the century and a half since. What was of more consequence, French ideas came with them, shaping the form, and through that modifying the spirit of our literature." [See "France-Extension of French Influence over all Europe."]

CULMINATION OF ENGLISH BURLESQUE IN BUTLER'S "HUDIBRAS."

Epithets

66

Whig" and "Tory" substituted for "Roundhead" and "Cavalier" -the former opposing the crown, the latter advocating it.

Probably no class of men ever existed whose outer characteristics so readily provoked satire as the Puritans. Before the Restoration, wits had taken it upon themselves to caricature their peculiarities; and now that the system of Puritanism was proven a failure and deprived of its political influence, there was scarcely any limit to the ridicule showered upon it. Burlesque upon Puritanism became the fashion among the Frenchified courtiers of Charles II.'s reign. The those who had would-be witty cavaliers entertained courtly cir

Trial and execution of the

regicides

been most

active in the

death of the

king's father, Charles I.

Establishment
of the Royal
Society for the
Promotion of
Science, 1662.

cles by their mockeries of Puritan phrase, twang, and sobriety, and the most pedantic buffoonery found acceptance if it was directed against the detested sect. The hand-book of this diversion was Samuel Butler's "Hudibras," published in three parts the first in 1663, the second soon after, and the third in 1678. The poem was a burlesque satire upon the Puritan party, par

ticularly its two sects, Presbyterians and Independents. Sir Hudibras, its hero, and evidently modelled after Don Quixote, represents the Presbyterians, and goes about with his clerk, Ralph, who stands for the Independents, redressing wrongs and pocketing beatings.

The poem, though incomplete, extends to more than ten thousand verses, and many of its terse lines and similes have become identified with the language. Such are

"For what is worth in anything,

But so much money as 'twill bring ?" "Whatever sceptic could inquire for, For every why he had a wherefore." "For wedlock without love, some say, Is but a lock without a key."

'He therefore sent out all his senses,
To bring him in intelligences."
"Doubtless the pleasure is as great
Of being cheated as to cheat;

As lookers on feel most delight

That least perceive a juggler's sleight;
And still the less they understand,

The more they admire his sleight-of-hand."

First appearance of the famous Nell

Gwynne at
Dryden's "In-

Drury Lane, in

dian Emperour," 1665.

The popularity of the work was immense: Charles II. kept it constantly in his pocket, and courtiers quoted its witty phrases in conversation. For at least half a century after its publication it was still read and talked of; and it was in 1726-27 that the famous edition of it, illustrated by Hogarth, was issued. "Hudibras" has been pronounced the best burlesque in the language, and Byron's "Don Juan" seems to be its only parallel in wit. "If inexhaustible wit of the first could give perpetual pleasure," said Dr. John-servatory at son, "no eye could ever leave half read the work of Butler. . . . However, astonishment soon becomes a toilsome pleasure, and the paucity of

Establishment

National Ob

Greenwich:

astronomical Flamsteed, the

observations by

Astronomer

royal.