Minor Prose Writers of Puritan Age

                 Summary of Puritan Age  

         The Puritan Period is generally regarded as one destitute of literary interest; but that was certainly not the result of any lack of books or writers . ( The Puritan Age-1620-1660)

            The seventeenth century up to 1660 was dominated by Puritanism and it may be called puritan Age or the Age of Milton, who was the noblest representative of the puritan spirit. The puritan movement in literature may be considered as the second and greater Renaissance marked by the rebirth of the moral nature of man. However in the Age of Renaissance despotism was still the order of the day and there was fanaticism in politics and religion. 

          The puritan movement stood for liberty of the people from the shake less of the deposit ruler as well as the introduction of morality and high ideals in politics .Thus it had two objects personal righteousness ,civil and religious liberty .In other words it aimed of making men honest and free.

                         " Puritan Literature"

            In the literature of the puritan Age we fined the same confusion as we find in religion and politics. As there were no fixed literary standards, imitations of older poets and exaggeration of the poets replaced the original, dignified and highly imaginative compositions of the Elizabethan writers. The literature produced during this period so called gloomy age ,as not of a higher order , however this age has the hon our of producing one great master of verse whose work would shed luster on any age or people. John Milton, who was the noblest and indomitable representative of the puritan spirit to which he gave a most lofty and enduring expression...

A) Puritan poetry:

                               The puritan poetry can be divided into three parts (1) poetry of School of Spencer (2)poetry of the Metaphysical school, (3) poetry of the Cavalier poet. 

1) School of Spencer:

                                      The Spenserians were the follower of Spencer. In spite of the changing conditions and revolt against Italian poetry which Spencer and Sidney had made fashionable during the sixteenth century the preferred to follow Spencer and considered him as their master.

(1582-1648) and Giles Fletcher (1583-1623). are the most important poets of this school. They were both priests and fellows of Cambridge university. Phineas Fletcher wrote a number of Spencerian pastorals and allegories. His most important work is the poem " The purple Island" .It is an allegorical poem and follows the allegorical pattern of the Faerie Queen.

Giles Fletcher was more lyrical and super natural than his brother. He also choose his subjects for his poetry from Spencer subjects. His Christ's Victory and Triumph in Heaven and Earth over and after Death (1610), which is an allegorical poem is a link between the religious poetry of Spencer and Milton. Other writers who wrote under the influence of Spencer were William Browne, George Wither and William Drummond.

   

(The Metaphysical School)  

The name " metaphysical" was first used by Dr. Johnson in his essay on Abraham Cowley in his "Lives of the poets" Dr. Johnson gave his name in derisions because of the fantastic form of Donne's poetry. Jon Donne and George  Herbert are the two major poets of this school. Abraham Cowely. Henry Vaughan ,Andrew Marvell and Edmund Waller are the minor poets of this school. John Donne and Herbert are in different ways, a type of revolt against earlier forms and standards of poetry. In feeling and imagery both are poets of a high order, but in style and expression they are the leaders of the fantastic school whose influence largely dominated poetry during the half century of the puritan period. The metaphysical poets were honest, original thinkers. They tried to analyses their feelings and experience of love. They were also aware of the life, and were concerned with death, burial descent into hell etc. Though hoped for immorality, they were obsessed by the Consciousness of morality which was often expressed in a mood of mawkish disgust...

The term Cavalier or Caroline (adjective from Charles) is used for a group of mid 17th century poets who sided with King Charles I against the parliament. These Cavalier or Caroline poets were the followers of Ben Johnson, and may properly be called the 'Sons of Ben', though some of them also display the influence of John Donne.

3... (The Cavalier Poetry)

 

The cavalier poets sympathized the king. Some of them went into exile with the king and the other stayed home in England. Some of them wrote elegant verse, more light than serious, so that the term ‘cavalier poetry’ came to refer to a kind of light lyric, often advocating a Carpe diem (seize the day) attitude. To “seize the day” means to disregard the future so that one might expect the poets of this theme to ignore religion. But life is not so simple. Some cavalier poets were also men of strong religious faith, who neither wrote religious epics nor holy sonnets. The most important poets of this school are Herrick, Carew, Lovelace, Suckling and Walter Denham. The 17th century poet, Andrew Marvell managed a blend of metaphysical and cavalier attitudes and techniques so neat and elegant that he has been classified under both headings.

The Caroline lyric is the result of conscious effort. It is artificial. It is a work of art characterized by finish, polish and elegance of language, but lacking the spontaneity and absence of effort which characterized the Elizabethan lyric. It has a formal finish and perfection, but is wanting in natural care and warmth of emotion.

It mirrors the mood and temper of the age. It is often coarse, licentious and indecent, thus reflecting the coarseness and indecency of the courtly circles to which most of the poets of this school belonged. The poets of this school again and again find the various beauties of nature united in their beauty of their respective beloved.

The cavalier pets are great lovers of nature. They observe nature minutely and describe it with feelings. Concrete, visual images drawn from the homelier and simpler objects and forces of nature abound in their lyrics. The lyric is charming, but there is something trivial and unsubstantial about it. In this respect again, it reflects the triviality and frivolity of the life of the  times.

                Minor Prose Writers 

1) Robert Burton 

2)Sir Thomas Browne 

3)Thomas Fuller 

4)Jeremy Taylor 

5)Richard Baxter 

6)IZZAK Walton 

 

Description of minor prose writers are as follows:-

                        Robert Burton 

       

       The English scholar and clergyman Robert Burton (1577-1640) wrote "The Anatomy of Melancholy," an analysis of the symptoms, causes, and cures of the melancholic temperament.

       Robert Burton was born at Lindley, Leicestershire, on Feb. 8, 1577. He entered Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1593 but transferred to Christ Church. In 1599 he was elected a fellow at Christ Church, where he remained until his death on Jan. 25, 1640. He received three degrees: bachelor of arts, master of arts, and finally bachelor of divinity in 1611. He presumably did some tutoring at Christ Church, and from 1626 he acted as its librarian. He served as vicar of St. Thomas's Church in suburban Oxford (1616-1640) and conducted some services there. He was a bright conversationalist, took delight in nature, and enjoyed visits to relatives and friends.

        Burton's Latin comedy  Philosophaster (written in 1605 and later revised) was performed successfully at Christ Church in 1618. But he devoted most of his life to composing and augmenting his major opus, The Anatomy of Melancholy. This work was first published in 1621. Its modern relevance would be obvious if it were retitled "An Analysis of the Blues" or "The Psychology and Cure of Depression."

The three-volume edition of Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy, edited by Holbrook Jackson (1932), retains Burton's quotations in Latin and inserts English translations of them. A well-chosen volume of selections from this work is Lawrence Babb, ed., The Anatomy of Melancholy (1965). Babb's Sanity in Bedlam: A Study of Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy (1959) is an excellent introduction to the scholarship on Burton's work. Bergen Evans, The Psychiatry of Robert Burton (1944), dispels the old notion that the Anatomy is quaint erudition and finds Burton a sound psychologist and relevant today. William R. Mueller, The Anatomy of Robert Burton's England (1952).

                    Sir Thomas Browne 

       

         Sir Thomas Browne, born on October 19, 1605, London—died Oct. 19, 1682, Norwich, Norfolk, Eng.), English physician and author, best known for his book of reflections, Religio Medici .

After studying at Winchester and Oxford, Browne probably was an assistant to a doctor near Oxford. After taking his M.D. at Leiden in 1633, he practiced at Shibden Hall near Halifax, in Yorkshire, from 1634, until he was admitted as an M.D. at Oxford; he settled in Norwich in 1637. At Shibden Hall Browne had begun his parallel career as a writer with Religio Medici, a journal largely about the mysteries of God, nature, and man, which he himself described as “a private exercise directed to myself.” It circulated at first only in manuscript among his friends. In 1642, however, it was printed without his permission in London and so had to be acknowledged, an authorized version being published in 1643. An immediate success in England, the book soon circulated widely in Europe in a Latin translation and was also translated into Dutch and French.

                      Thomas Fuller 

        

       Thomas Fuller, born June 19, 1608, Aldwincle, Northamptonshire, Eng.—died Aug. 16, 1661, London. He was British scholar, preacher, and one of the most witty and prolific authors of the 17th century.

    Fuller was  appointed to a pulpit in London (1652). There he completed The Church-History of Britain (1655), notable for its number of excellent character sketches, and added to it The History of the University of Cambridge and The History of Waltham-Abbey in Essex (1655). In 1658 he was given the parish of Cranford, near London, and continued to preach in the capital. Upon the reestablishment of the monarchy (1660), all Fuller’s privileges were restored, and he became a doctor of divinity at Cambridge.

                      Jeremy Taylor 

          Taylor was born on 15 August 1613

Cambridge United Kingdom died on 13 August 1667 Lisburn united Kingdom.  

           By 1655 he had written his enduring works: The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living (1650) and The Rule and Exercises of Holy Dying (1651). These devotional handbooks were written to help members of the Church of England who were deprived of a regular ministry during the disturbances of the Commonwealth. 

                      Richard Baxter 

 

            Richard Baxter was born on November 12, 1615, Rowton , Shropshire , England—died on December 8, 1691, London. Puritan minister who influenced 17th-century English Protestantism. Known as a peacemaker who sought unity among the clashing Protestant denominations, he was the center of nearly every major controversy in England his fractious age.

         The two most famous books are The Saint's Everlasting Rest and A call to the Unconverted. 

The  Saint's Everlasting Rest is Baxter's more devotional work is Saint's Everlasting Rest. This particular work was written while he was seriously ill in 1647, which caused him to leave the army. Seriously weak and even expecting to die, Baxter penned his thoughts on heaven. It was designed not only as a work of self-reflection, but also as encouragement to others.

                       IZZAK WALTON 

          IZZAK WALTON was born at Stafford on Aug. 9, 1593. Little is known of his childhood and early youth. By 1624 he was established in London as a cloth merchant after a period of apprenticeship, perhaps to his uncle, a Haber-dasher. Walton's shop was located in St. Dunstan's parish, and he became acquainted with John Donne.

That same year Walton's first literary work, a life of Donne, was published. Donne had died in 1631, and a mutual friend, Sir Henry Wotton, had asked Walton to collect material for a life he was writing to preface an edition of Donne's sermons. Wotton died before writing the life, and Walton took on the task.

Walton continued in his business until 1644, when the civil war turned to the favor of the Puritans. He seems to have retired from business shortly before the battle of Marston Moor. In 1646 he married Anne Ken, half sister to Bishop Thomas Ken. In 1651 Walton published a life of Sir Henry Wotton as a preface to Reliquiae Wottonianae.

In 1653 Walton published his most famous book, The Compleat Angler; or, The Contemplative Man's Recreation. Ostensibly a book on fishing, the volume mingles philosophy and politics with directions for hooking a worm or catching a trout. It is filled with apt quotations, songs, poems, and anecdotes and gives one a full sense of Walton's personality—his gentle disposition, his cheerful piety, and his Anglican politics. The book was so popular with his contemporaries that it was expanded considerably and underwent five editions during Walton's lifetime.

         In 1665 Walton published his life of the great Anglican bishop of Elizabethan times, Thomas Hooker. Five years later Walton published his life of the Anglican poet and clergyman George Herbert. In 1670 Walton's four lives were collected and revised. In 1678, at the age of 85, he published his last biography, a life of Bishop Robert Sanderson. Walton died at Winchester on Dec. 15, 1683.

Sources:- Wikipedia, Britannica. Com, Study. Com, English Literature cub, And from the book of English Literature by William .J Long

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