the “long” eighteenth century

The “Long” Eighteenth Century

1660-1815

1660-1815

Restoration to Waterloo The Great Plague to Industrial

RevolutionSamuel Pepys to Jane Austen

What’s in a Name?

Age of Reason(Neo)ClassicismEnlightenment

History: Civil War

1642-1651 Civil Wars 1649 Charles I executed 1649-1653

Commonwealth 1653-1658 Protectorate

(Cromwell in power) 1658-1659

Commonwealth, again

1660: Restoration of Charles II

James II

1688: Glorious Revolution

Tory vs. Whig

Tory Whig

Royalists Liberty of English subjects

High Church Anglican Toleration of Dissenters

Economics based on land ownership

Economics based on stock market and trade

Landed Gentry Urban merchant

NOTE: Only white male property owners in the Church could vote (small minority)

18th-century London

This?

Or this?

Literature 1660-1700

Courtly Poetry Religious autobiography Few ways to make $$ in print Theater

Aphra Behn

What happens after 1700?

Changing Times=More Stuff

Economic globalizationConsumer marketWorld travel Interior improvements more efficient

distribution (of food, luxury items, BOOKS)

Changing Times=New Values

Rise of the middle class Politeness/Social rules Discourse over violence “Self-made” instead of inherited

riches Changing gender roles

Let’s do the math...

More stuff pre-made+ More shopping venues

+ New class values

=More Leisure Time

(esp. for women)

Bible-based religion

+increase in print products

=Higher Literacy Rates

THE BOOK RULES!!

More leisure time

+ Higher literacy

=MORE READING

Novels, newspapers, poetry, conduct manuals, sermons, the Bible, novels

Literature after 1700

New media forms: journalism, periodical essay

Rise of the novel Professional authorship (incl. women!) Ancients vs. Moderns ~Classics vs. New &

novel ~Bee vs. Spider Satire

New Media Forms

Newspapers and periodicals (Addison and Steele, The Tatler, The Spectator and many more)

Pamphlets, ballads, broadsides Autobiographies Travelogues Plays in print and theater Romances NOVEL

Aphra Behn

• 1640-1689• Tory• Spy• Playwright• Novelist?• First woman to make a living by her pen

All I ask, is the Priviledge for my Masculine Part the Poet in me...to tread in those successful Paths my Predecessors have so long thriv’d in….If I must not, because of my Sex, have this Freedom, but that you will usurp all to your selves; I lay down my Quill, and you shall hear no more of me. . . .I shall be kinder to my brothers of the pen, than they have been to a defenseless woman; for I am not content to write for a Third Day only. I value Fame as much as if I had been born a hero; and if you rob me of that, I can retire form the ungrateful World, and scorn its fickle Favours.

--Aphra Behn, preface to

The Lucky Chance (1687)

"All women together, ought to let flowers fall upon the grave of Aphra Behn... for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds.” --Virginia Woolf

Oroonoko and the Triangular Trade

Slavery in Suriname – Stedman

The slides that follow do not apply to 3120

Early 18th Century

1702: Queen Anne Rise of parties1714: King George I (2nd cousin

and Protestant)Robert Walpole—first Prime

Minister

William III and Mary II

“Bloodless Revolution”William and Mary enthronedOnly joint appointment in British

history1689 Toleration Act1701 Settlement Act

Increase in Literacy

Number of readers doubled or tripled between 1600 and 1800: 25% 60-70%

Rose especially for women and lower classes Four times as many books were published in

1790 than in 1700. Nonetheless, 75% of the English population is

still rural farmers who do not need to read regularly.

Reign of Charles II

1666 Plague/Fire1673 Test Act1678 Popish Plot; Exclusion Crisis1685 King James II

Literacy

In a Protestant country it was important that everyone be able to read The Bible and devotional literature

Useful for servants especially in urban centers

Cause of much anxiety over WHAT and WHO should read

New Media Networks

Subscription publicationCirculating librariesCapital-intensive publishingEnd of guild controlEnd of aristocratic patronageNew authors, new readers

Public Sphere

Places where people read, shared and discussed media, art, values, politics, gossip

Coffee Houses Gentleman’s clubs Taverns Democracy of ideas

Resistance to the New

Swift, Battle of the Books: Spider vs. Bee, Ancients vs Moderns

Pope, Dunciad: anti-pop culture, anti-critic, anti-hack, anti-woman.

Values of an earlier day: neoclassicism

Literature 1660-1700

Pilgrim’s Progress vs. Charles II Print for an urban, urbane, educated

audience Heroic, ornate, neoclassical poetry (Dryden)

with an inflated tone and a topical bent French romances Bawdy theater (restored) Scandalous women

Literature 1700-1750

Satire, irony, social criticism Still engaging classicism in early years Clearer prose styles Rise of the novel Stage stars more heralded than authors.

Plays become more moralistic Domestic women writers

Literature 1750-1815

Novel takes off More diverse authors and audiences

(relatively) Debates over who should be included Rights and revolutions debated Gothic Romanticism