THE AGE OF TRANSITION(1760- 1798 ) The first half of George’s reign

HISTORY

GEORGE III . the first English-born Hanoverian king. His reign lasted 60 yearsIn the first 40 years of his reign , new social, political and economic events contributed to the slow decline of classical values and awakening of romantic ideals .These changes characterized a period of Transition , in which people had to adapt themselves to rapid ( fast-growing) changes:

American and French Revolution helped to develop a new awareness of human rights The first industrial revolution that changed society. ( it is placed between 1760 and the first

decades of 19th century).In the last period of His reign, George III had periods of insanity, so his son (the future George IV ) ruled as “ Regent” . This period was called “ The Regency “ ( 1811- 1820 ).

Under his reign 3 important Revolutions:1. American Revolution with the loss of the 13 American colonies. The main factors that

brought to the American revolution were: The distance from the mother country ( due to the difficulties in communications )

had developed the habit of independent existence Fidelty and loyalty to England was hardly felt because the most of them were

American- born . America had reached a population of over 2,000,000 in. , and most were protestant from Germany, Holland and France, Catholics from Ireland.

The Americans weren’t represented in the Parliament and they did not accept the taxes imposed by the English Parliament without their consent. Several taxes were repealed except the tax on tea.The colonies boycotted the imported tea ( in 1773 the famous tea party) and some protesters threw a large quantity of tea into the harbour. The other 12 colonies supported Massachussetts and the war broke out in 1775. George Washington was made commander- in- chief of the American Army. In 1776 Jefferson affirmed the natural rights of peoples to choose their own system of government, in the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE , but only in 1783 Britain acknowleged the Independence of America with the Treaty of Versailles

2. The French Revolution ( 1789 ) and the long struggle against Napoleon. At the beginning Britain remained neutral. The French revolution was welcomed in the name of liberty, but after the consequences

Executions – Louis VI was executed Invasion of Rhineland and Netherlands by Napoleon

They realized that it was necessary to oppose the French Hegemony in Europe. Only Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar (1805) made the French invasion of England impossible.

3. The First Industrial Revolution Invention of machines which transformed commercial production changing the old working

techniques and transforming a whole way of life ( James Watt’s steam engine which made the use of coal necessary- coal mines in the north of England and in Wales) These inventions destroyed the old domestic weaving and spinning , introducing the method of factory production.

Aristocracy showed a sense of enterprise not found in the aristocracy of the other European countries, they invested their money to improve Production:

New scientific techniques applied to farming Enclosure Acts allowing Landowners to fence off their holdings, so no more common land

for the landless poor ( before they could collect wood or graze their animals)

New scientific techniques applies to farming Because of the need of financial support , people willing to invest their money became

really important in economic life A deep gap: capital on one side and labour on the other. People started to move into

towns

This process had began with Exploitation of the New World Commerce and Trade Availability of Capital

What changed? Transport was made easier with new railways, roads, canals Export rose quickly Population increased Wealth accumulated by Upper and Middle class

This new economy was supported by economists such as Adam Smith ( 1776) with his theory of “ Laissez Faire”:

Free trade, Man is free to pursue his interest, government doesn’t have to interfere. Freedom in the international trade No duties and monopolistic privileges.

Changes in Agriculture

As a consequence: The poor moved to towns Overcrowding – slums Lack of sanitation Hard-working conditions, up to 16 hours a day Starvation wages

Upper and Middle class , the Church saw the misery of poor as an inevitable social evil. Only towards the end of the century, Charity schools opened, Women started to ask for more rights, Mary Wollstonecraft demanded better education.

LITERARY PRODUCTION

It was influenced by the social and political conditions of the age.The AGE OF REASON slowly turned into the AGE OF SENSIBILITY :

Satire replaced by sentimentalism Realism and rationalism by symbolism and imagination Feelings against reason Pathos against common sense Originality and creativity against imitation Spontaneity against elaboration Interest in the unknown against the known Interest in the Middle Ages against classical Greece and Rome A new interest in nature seen as a new sources of inspiration.

This evolution was slow, it took about 50 years, but by the end of the century England was ready for the flourishing of Romanticism .Summarizing we can say that THE AGE OF TRANSITION is divided into TWILIGHT OF CLASSICISM EARLY ROMANTICISM

TWILIGHT OF CLASSICISM The ideal of an age based on the principles of classicism began to change.This decline had begun when the greatest masters of the Novel were almost all dead ( about 1770)..The main features:Classical elements still persisting:

Use of 4-lines and alternate rhyme stanzas of iambic pentameters Use of abstract personification( Ambition) Universality of themes ( death, obscurity..) Idyllic view of country life Influence of ancient writers ( Dante )

At the beginning we still find emphasis on reason, order and harmony Still Coffee houses but the interest was on the effects of the Industrial Revolution The interest shifted from the towns to the country life, rural middle class endowed with morality

and dignity The poor regarded with more sympathy and tolerance The interest in the country life led to a new approach to nature, seen as something tangible and

real no more an abstract philosophical connotation, no more as something functioning according to set principles and ordered by man’s intellect ( remember the geometrical symmetry of the garderns), BUT as something with an existence of its own, observed and described as it really was

Relationship between man and nature The countryside started to be seen as the ideal setting New feelings , more intimate as Melancholy ,coming from the disproportion between dream

and reality, pervaded poetry often associated with meditation on death ( favoured by Methodism, that although based on hard work, also preached an awareness of the vanity of life)

PROSE began to lose its concern with man’s external world and behaviour, becoming more philosophical and turning into TREATISE (.. Dictionary of english Language, Preface to Shakespeare..)

It was in POETRY that the conflict between intellect and emotion was more evident, only towards the end of the century it had a new lyrical impulse which led to the revolution of poetry at the turn of the century with Romanticism)The poets still shared values with POPE and Johnson ( Poetry seen as a vehicle for satire- Alexander Pope’s mock-heroic couplets, with iambic pentameter, an epic style that used an elevated language for a trivial subject -Poetic diction) but on the other hand introduced new tendencies in contrast to Neoclassicism.In contrast to the most of the writers only interested in Man as a social being rather than an individual with his own soul, they escaped in nature or in the humble life of the country people, rediscovering the pleasure of meditation.These poets were called “ Elegiac” because of their reflective mood, a melancholy that favoured long solitary walks in the woods or on the hills.( Elegy is a kind of poem lamenting someone’s death or meditating on death in general )The cult of a simple and primitive life and a growing interest and the interest in folktradition were responsible for the success of OSSIANIC poetry, a cycle of poems by a legendary Irish warrior called Ossian, who lived in the 3rd c. in Scotlald, collected and published by MACPHERSON:

Melancholy and suffering produced by war Unrequited love Description of a wild , gloomy nature.

This melancholy turned into an interest in ruins, deserted places, night scenes and tombs, everything that reminded man of his own mortality. A new kind of poetry emerged , “ GRAVEYARD POETRY” because of its:

Meditaion on Death Transitoriness of life Descriptions of churchyard setting.

They chronologically still belong to the Augustan Age, but their sensibility put them in the new age.These two kind of poets paved the way for the greatest poet of the Transition period : THOMAS GRAY.

Thomas Gray ( graveyard poetry). Well-educated, he travelled a lot, when his best friend died of tubercolisis at the age of 24, inspired by hi death he wrote his masterpiece “Elegy written in a country churchyard”, it was a neoclassic ( elegant and artificial language, in tune with 18th c. poetic diction and in imitation of Greek and Latin models. For him everyday language can not be the language of poetry) idealization of poor country life that conceals the denunciation of what poverty meant in terms of hardship, a meditation on destiny, equality, ambition. It introduced a note of sincerity and sentimentalism which anticipated Romanticism. It inspired Foscolo’s Sepolcri, but Foscolo, unlike Gray, concentrated on the function of the grave as a link between living and the dead, as a symbol of glory and a source of poetry and inspiration. Foscolo believed in the life after death through the memories of the living( corrispondenza di amorosi sensi), while Gray laments the hopeless transience of man and things.GRAY AND FOSCOLO

1. Theme : Death destroying everythingGray interested in humble people, unknown with Foscolo : famous people tombs encourage no chance of developing their talen to imitate them

2. Human activities dartkened by death3. Solitary wandering, Melancholy contemplation

Gray ‘s Pessimistic Melancholy looking at Foscolo’s aim was to write a philosophicalthe men’s vices is softened in Foscolo who and political work in verses influenced bywarned against the danger of surrendering the wish of independence from foreignoneself to Melancholy and loosing all power domination ( 1st half of 19th c.; Gray had for action, but he also sang the “ voluttà del published his Elegy about 50 years before)dolore” in Ortis, a pleasure in suffering

4. Graveyard seen as a source of inspiration and teaching for the living

Gray’s interest was to rural churchyards Foscolo ‘s interest was to the tombs in theAnd showed sympathy towards poor Church of Santa Croce in Florence, he feltPeople, unknown poets. A communion with great poets ( Dante), a more heroic attitude towards death, a symbol of glory .

5. Communion Man- Nature Foscolo concentrates much more on the function of the grave as a link between the living and dead.

This new theories came by Jean Jacques Rousseau: it is in primitive society that originality and inspiration flourished, free from the modern societyRousseau worked out theories which paved the way for most of the cults which were to characterize Romanticism:

Childhood = wisdom and happiness The savage: man is naturally good, made bad by insituttions, so a return to nature was

advocated