·
Broadly speaking, the puritan movement in
literature may be considered as the second and greater renaissance, marked by
the rebirth of the moral nature of man which followed the intellectual
awakening of Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
·
The puritan movement stood for liberty of the
people from the shackles of the despotic ruler as well as the introduction of
morality and high ideals in politics.
·
Though during the restoration period the
puritans began to be looked down upon as narrow- minded, gloomy dogmatists, who
were against all sort of recreations and amusements, in fact they were not so. Moreover
though they were profoundly religious, they did not form a separate religious
sect. it would be great travesty of facts if we call Milton and Cromwell, who
fought for liberty of the people against the tyrannical rule of Charles I, as
narrow minded fanatics. They were real champions of liberty and stood for
toleration.
·
Charles I was defeated and beheaded in 1649 and
puritanism came out triumphant with the establishment of the commonwealth under
Cromwell, severe laws were passed. Many simple mode of recreation and amusement
were banned, and an austere standard of living was imposed on unwilling people.
They are the same puritans who fought for liberty and justice, and who through self-discipline
and austere way of living overthrew despotism and made the life and property of
the people of England safe from the tyranny of the rulers.
·
There were no fixed literary standards,
imitations of older poets and exaggeration of the ‘metaphysical’ poets replaced
the original, dignified and highly imaginative compositions of the Elizabethan
writers. The literary achievements of this so- called gloomy age are not of
high order, but it had the honour of producing on solitary master of verse
whose work would shed lustre on any age or people – john Milton (his Paradise
lost), who was the noblest and indomitable representative of the puritan spirit
to which he gave most lofty and enduring expression.
·
Poetry then was distinguished in three forms:
1.
Poetry of school of Spenser
2.
Poetry of metaphysical poets
3.
Poetry of cavaliers poets
·
Drama in puritan age decayed. Theatres were
closed by the puritan in 1642, it died a natural death. (Opened after 18 years)
·
This period was rich in prose. Bacon, Burton, Milton,
Sir Thomas Browne, Jeremy Tayler and Clarendon, all of them were great prose
writers of their time. Also the art of biography, autobiography, diary and journal came into being along with prose writing.
·
Francis bacon (1561- 1628) belongs to both Elizabethan
and Jacobean period.
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