Writers of the Neoclassical period tried to imitate the style of the Romans and Greeks. Thus the combination of the terms 'neo,' which means 'new,' and 'classical,' as in the day of the Roman and Greek classics. This was also the era of The Enlightenment, which emphasized logic and reason. It was preceded by The Renaissance and followed by the Romantic era. In fact, the Neoclassical period ended in 1800. when Wordsworth published the Romantic 'Lyrical Ballads'.
The most characteristic feature of the age was the comparative religious tolerance, which was due largely to the queen's influence. The frightful excesses of the religious war known as the Thirty Years' War on the Continent found no parallel in England. Upon her accession Elizabeth found the whole kingdom divided against itself; the North was largely Catholic, while the southern counties were as strongly Protestant. Scotland had followed the Reformation in its own intense way, while Ireland remained true to its old religious traditions, and both countries were openly rebellious. The court, made up of both parties, witnessed the rival intrigues of those who sought to gain the royal favor. It was due partly to the intense absorption of men's minds in religious questions that the preceding century, though an age of advancing learning, produced scarcely any literature worthy of the name. Elizabeth favored both religious parties, and presently the world saw with amazement Catholics and Protestants acting together as trusted counselors of a great sovereign. The defeat of the Spanish Armada established the Reformation as a fact in England, and at the same time united all Englishmen in a magnificent national enthusiasm. For the first time since the Reformation began, the fundamental question of religious toleration seemed to be settled, and the mind of man, freed from religious fears and persecutions, turned with a great creative impulse to other forms of activity. It is partly from this new freedom of the mind that the Age of Elizabeth received its great literary stimulus.
NEW MORALITY IN NEO-CLASSICAL AGE
Like the age of Elizabethan there no so more religious questions but in this period so many question about morality in work. The immorality of the Restoration, which had been almost entirely a Court phenomenon and was largely the reaction against extreme Puritanism, soon spent itself. The natural process of time was hastened by opinion in high quarters. William III was-a severe moralist, and Anne, his successor, was of the same character. Thus we soon see a new tone in the writing of the time. and n new attitude to life and morals. Addison, in an early number of The Spectator, puts the new fashion in his own admirable way: "I shall Endeavour to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality." Another development of the same spirit is seen in the revised opinion of women, who are treated with new respect and dignity. Much coarseness is still to be felt, especially in satirical writing, in which Swift, for instance, can be quite vile; but the general upward tendency is undoubtedly there.
SOCIAL CONDITION OF THE ELIZABETHAN AGE
SOCIAL CONTENTMENT
It was an age of comparative social contentment, in strong contrast with the days of England. The rapid increase of manufacturing towns gave employment to thousands who had before been idle and discontented. Increasing trade brought enormous wealth to England, and this wealth was shared to this extent, at least, that for the first time some systematic care for the needy was attempted. Parishes were made responsible for their own poor, and the wealthy were taxed to support them or give them employment. The increase of wealth, the improvement in living, the opportunities for labor, the new social content--these also are factors which help to account for the new literary activity.
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN NEOCLASSICAL AGE
In the latter half of the century the political and social progress is almost bewildering. The modern form of cabinet government responsible to Parliament and the people had been established under George I; and in 1757 the cynical and corrupt practices of Walpole, premier of the first Tory cabinet, were replaced by the more enlightened policies of Pitt. Schools were established; clubs and coffeehouses increased; books and magazines multiplied until the press was the greatest visible power in England; the modern great dailies, the Chronicle, Post, and Times, began their career of public education. Religiously, all the churches of England felt the quickening power of that tremendous spiritual revival known as Methodism, under the preaching of Wesley and Whitefield. Outside her own borders three great men--Clive in India, Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham, Cook in Australia and the islands of the Pacific--were unfurling the banner of St. George over the untold wealth of new lands, and spreading the world-wide empire of the Anglo-Saxon
DEVELOPMENT IN ELIZABETHAN AGE
It is an age of dreams, of adventure, of unbounded enthusiasm springing from the new lands of fabulous riches revealed by English explorers. Drake sails around the world, shaping the mighty course which English colonizers shall follow through the centuries; and presently the young philosopher Bacon is saying confidently, "I have taken all knowledge for my province." The mind must search farther than the eye; with new, rich lands opened to the sight, the imagination must create new forms to people the new worlds. Hakluyt's famous Collection of Voyages, and Purchas, His Pilgrimage, were even more stimulating to the English imagination than to the English acquisitiveness. While her explorers search the new world for the Fountain of Youth, her poets are creating literary works that are young forever. Marston writes: "Why, man, all their dripping pans are pure gold. The prisoners they take are fettered in gold; and as for rubies and diamonds, they goes forth on holy days and gather 'hem by the seashore to hang on their children's coats." This comes nearer to being a description of Shakespeare's poetry than of the Indians in Virginia. Prospero, in The Tempest, with his control over the mighty powers and harmonies of nature, is only the literary dream of that science which had just begun to grapple with the forces of the universe. Cabot, Drake, Frobisher, Gilbert, Raleigh, Willoughby, Hawkins,--a score of explorers reveal a new earth to men's eyes, and instantly literature creates a new heaven to match it. So dreams and deeds increase side by side, and the dream is ever greater than the deed. That is the meaning of literature.
THE DRAMA
To sum up, the Age of Elizabeth was a time of intellectual liberty, of growing intelligence and comfort among all classes, of unbounded patriotism, and of peace at home and abroad. For a parallel we must go back to the Age of Pericles in Athens, or of Augustus in Rome, or go forward a little to the magnificent court of Louis XIV, when Corneille, Racine, and Molière brought the drama in France to the point where Marlowe, Shakespeare, and Jonson had left it in England half a century earlier. Such an age of great thought and great action, appealing to the eyes as well as to the imagination and intellect, finds but one adequate literary expression; neither poetry nor the story can express the whole man,--his thought, feeling, action, and the resulting character; hence in the Age of Elizabeth literature turned instinctively to the drama and brought it rapidly to the highest stage of its development.
PROSE
In every preceding age we have noted especially the poetical works, which constitute, according to Matthew Arnold, the glory of English literature. Now for the first time we must chronicle the triumph of English prose. A multitude of practical interests arising from the new social and political conditions demanded expression, not simply in books, but more especially in pamphlets, magazines, and newspapers. Poetry was inadequate for such a task; hence the development of prose, of the "unfettered word," as Dante calls it,--a development which astonishes us by its rapidity and excellence. The graceful elegance of Addison's essays, the terse vigor of Swift's satires, the artistic finish of Fielding's novels, the sonorous eloquence of Gibbon's history and of Burke's orations,--these have no parallel in the poetry of the age. Indeed, poetry itself became prosaic in this respect, that it was used not for creative works of imagination, but for essays, for satire, for criticism,--for exactly the same practical ends as was prose. The poetry of the first half of the century, as typified in the work of Pope, is polished and witty enough, but artificial; it lacks fire, fine feeling, enthusiasm, the glow of the Elizabethan Age and the moral earnestness of Puritanism. In a word, it interests us as a study of life, rather than delights or inspires us by its appeal to the imagination. The variety and excellence of prose works, and the development of a serviceable prose style, which had been begun by Dryden, until it served to express clearly every human interest and emotion,--these are the chief literary glories of the eighteenth century.
SATIRE
In the literature of the preceding age we noted two marked tendencies,--the tendency to realism in subject-matter, and the tendency to polish and refinement of expression. Both these tendencies were continued in the Augustan Age, and are seen clearly in the poetry of Pope, who brought the couplet to perfection, and in the prose of Addison. A third tendency is shown in the prevalence of satire, resulting from the unfortunate union of politics with literature. We have already noted the power of the press in this age, and the perpetual strife of political parties. Nearly every writer of the first half of the century was used and rewarded by Whigs or Tories for satirizing their enemies and for advancing their special political interests. Pope was a marked exception, but he nevertheless followed the prose writers in using satire too largely in his poetry. Now satire--that is, a literary work which searches out the faults of men or institutions in order to hold them up to ridicule--is at best a destructive kind of criticism. A satirist is like a laborer who clears away the ruins and rubbish of an old house before the architect and builders begin on a new and beautiful structure. The work may sometimes be necessary, but it rarely arouses our enthusiasm. While the satires of Pope, Swift, and Addison are doubtless the best in our language, we hardly place them with our great literature, which is always constructive in spirit; and we have the feeling that all these men were capable of better things than they ever wrote.
CONCLUSION
We can conclude that both age has rapid change in so many different ways. Elizabethan age is the beginning of the Renaissance in the English literature while Neoclassical followed the rules and regulation. Both ages are much different from each other. The Elizabethan age represent the freshness of each and every field while neoclassical followed the rules and regulations.
2) Favorite work of Neoclassical Age.
RAPE OF THE LOCK
ALEXANDER POPE.
Alexander Pope was born on (21 May 1688 – 30 May 1744) was a poet and satirist of the Augustan period and one of its greatest artistic exponents.
RAPE OF THE LOCK
The poem is a mock-epic that satirizes the upper-class in London at the time. The story focuses on the central character, Belinda, whose lock of hair is cut off at a social gathering. Although trivial to most, Belinda is outraged that her lock of hair has been cut by the Baron. In the Rape of the Lock, Pope uses Belinda and the Baron to mock two of his acquaintances, ARABELLA FERMOR, and LORD PETER. The poem follows the events of the night, leading up to Belinda’s “horrific” loss.
Born into the upper-class, ARABELLA FERMOR was the daughter of HENERY FERMOR. Known for her beauty, she was the belle of the London society in the early 18th century. After telling her family about the incident involving her lock of hair, they were offended and became estranged from their once good friends, the Peter. In Pope’s poem, Belinda represents the character of ARABELLA FERMOR.
CHARACTERS
Belinda: Beautiful young lady with wondrous hair, two locks of which hang gracefully in curls.
The Baron: Young admirer of Belinda who plots to cut off one of her locks.
Ariel: Belinda’s guardian sylph (supernatural creature).
Clarissa: Young lady who gives the Baron scissors to cut off the lock
Umbriel: Sprite who enters the cave of the Queen of Spleen to seek help for Belinda.
Queen of Spleen: Underworld goddess who gives Umbriel gifts for Belinda.
THALESTRIS: Friend of Belinda. THALESTRIS urges Sir Plume to defend Belinda’s honor.
Sir Plume: Beau of THALESTRIS. He scolds the Baron.
ANALYSIS OF MAIN CHARACTERS
Belinda– A vain, upper class woman who is always seen as the center of attention. Her society puts her on a high pedestal, always giving her praise when possible. The Baron steals a curl of Belinda’s hair when given the scissors by Belinda’s friend, Clarissa. When The Baron cuts the curl from her head, the typically calm, collective Belinda flies into a horrible rage. She asks at once for her hair to be returned to her but when The Baron cannot find the curl, it is said that it traveled up into the stars and is now a constellation for all to admire. It looks as though Pope used this mock-epic work to represent the fascination that society has of the members of the upper class. Belinda’s beauty was admired by all and many were jealous of her (The Baron, Clarissa). The tension between the people in the upper class is illustrated by these characters and the fight to steal another person’s power. Pope compares the trivial event in his poem to the events in epic poems by using satire. The events that occur in this poem show how the society being described has lost all capability of determining which problems are to be treated seriously and which should not.
The Baron– The Baron is a representation of Lord Peter who Pope knew from his social circle.
Clarissa– Clarissa is Belinda’s jealous friend who wishes to hurt Belinda by stealing a lock of her hair. Following the mock-epic trend of the poem, Clarissa believes that cutting a small curl of Belinda’s hair will be devastating although truthfully many worse things could happen.
Sources
British Literature Wiki ,English Literature by William. J. Long, Britannica. Com ,Study. Com.
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