Age Of Dryden- Prose And Drama

Question 1

Who said” The Restoration marks the real moment of birth of our English prose”?

Answer 1

Matthew Arnold

Question 2

Characteristics of modern prose vs old prose?

Answer 2

Modern- clear, plain, short, no parentheses and Latin inversion
Older- intricate, involved, cumbrous, with many parentheses and Latin inversions

Question 3

What were the causes for the establishment of the new prose?

Answer 3

The spread of the spirit of common sense and critical thinking.

The influence of science.

Further influence of French literature.

A new miscellaneous and varied public.

In an age full of political and religious excitement, rise of journalism. Meant that things which had formerly been treated dryly and difficultly had to be made simple and pleasant.

Question 4

What do Drydens prose writings mainly consist of? What is significance of this?

Answer 4

Essays and prefaces dealing with questions related to poetry and drama
From this we infer significantly that the Restoration also saw the beginnings of modern criticism.

Question 5

For the first time people addressed themselves systematically to the study of laws of literature. __, our first great modern prose writer, is also our first great critic.

Answer 5

Dryden

Question 6

What does Dryden discuss in his criticism? Drydens work is of capital importance as a commentary on the rising school of classical literature.

Answer 6

Forms and methods of the drama, qualities of great writers of Greece and Rome etc

Question 7

Drydens best cricitisms are to be found in his writings on the drama, particularly in earliest and most masterly of them,_____

What does he consider in this book?

Answer 7

Essays of Dramatic Poesy
He considers laws and merits of three types of drama- classical Greek and Roman drama, French neoclassical drama, romantic drama of English

Question 8

What are the other things Dryden considers in Essay on Dramatic Poesy?

Answer 8

Justifies use of rhyme in place of blank verse on stage, and protects honor of English writers from those who prefer the French.

Question 9

Limitations of Drydens prose?

Answer 9

He writes hastily and a lot of his criticism is historically important but has slight permanent value.

Question 10

Merits of Drydens prose?

Answer 10

His prose style is characterized by a masculine vigour. There is a colloquial ease which gets a literary distinction.

Question 11

John Bunyan was born to whom and where?

Answer 11

Son of tinker and born at Elstow ,Bedfordshire

Question 12

Bunyan fought for a time in the __. He was converted and then began to __ on the village greens. He continued the practice after Restoration and was arrested to ___ where he remained for ___

Answer 12

Civil war, preached
Bedford Jail, 12 years

Question 13

When did Bunyan write autobiographical Grace Abounding? When did Bunyan writer Pilgrims Progress?

Answer 13

Work of captivity in Bedford Jail. His other work was from a second imprisonment of 6 months.

Question 14

After his imprisonments Bunyan had obtained a licence to preach, and had become the minister of a __ congregation. In his later years he was also famous as a preacher in ___

Answer 14

Baptist, London

Question 15

IT was on a visit to London that Bunyan died. Where was he buried?

Answer 15

Dissenters burial ground at Bunhill fields

Question 16

What are Bunyans four great works?

Answer 16

Grace Abounding, The Pilgrims Progress, The Life and Death of Mr Badman, The Holy War

Question 17

Bunyans wonderful imagination gave him a place almost by himself in English literature. He is is the only man in our literature who did what? Features of his writing? Was he an educated man?

Answer 17

He is the only man who wrote a long prose allegory full of symbolism and yet did not sacrifice the interest of a real human story.

Features of his writing are vividness and plainness.

He was not an educated man but had the Authorised version of the English Bible by heart, and endowed by nature with genius.

Question 18

Comparing Milton and Bunyan, Milton, the master of scholarly learning was fed by the ___ while Bunyan is the child of ___ only. Therefore the greatest product of __ is Pilgrims Progress not Paradise Lost.

Answer 18

Renaissance, Puritanism

Question 19

What are Bunyans contributions to modern prose fiction?

Answer 19

The didactic and allegorical form of the prose prevent us from putting Pilgrims Progress into the class of regular modern novels.
However so great is the dramatic power and so firm is the grasp of ordinary life,

That it is at least a forerunner of the novel.

Question 20

Name some other Prose writers of Drydens age.( Excluding diarists )

Answer 20

Sir William Temple, best known for his relations with Jonathon Swift( Gulliver’s Travels) who wrote letters and essays in a plain but polished style.

John Tillotson who abandoned religious tradition and introduced an easier style into religious oratory.

Simple prose in Philosophical discussions of John Locke( Essay On Human Understanding, Treatise on Goverment, Thoughts on Education)

Question 21

What was the most interesting minor prose writings of Drydens age? Talk about them.

Answer 21

Work of two diarists John Evelyn and Samuel Pepys.
Evelyns diary is now mainly a record of contemporary events from the POV of a thoughtful and loyal royalist. It is written in a grave and simple style.

Pepys diary is historically important as well as very entertaining. It covers a decade from 1660 to 1669 and includes the
Restoration, Great Plague, Great Fire

But it is most interesting in its depiction of men and manners, scandals and gossips of the ‘ Town’ , records of personal life and domestic troubles

Pepys did not write for the public eye but himself alone. He used a shorthand which was deciphered in the 19th century. So it is a true revelation of inner character.

Question 22

How was the theatre in Drydens age?

Answer 22

The theatre was now wholly the creature of the demoralised world of fashion.

Question 23

What are the chief names in the Comedy of the Restoration?

Answer 23

William Wycherley,
William Congreve ( the most brilliant writer of artificial comedy)
Sir John Vanbrugh
George Farquhar

Question 24

What can we say about the work of Restoration comedy playwrights?

Answer 24

Their work is as a rule wonderfully clever, it has gaiety and wit.
But it is entirely lacking in truth to nature, while in its open indecency it reveals the worst spirit of society.

Question 25

The grossness of Restoration comedy drew upon it a tremendous castigation from who and in which work? IT caused an immense sensation and had a salutary effect.

Answer 25

Rev. Jeremy Collier in his Short View of the Profaneness and Immorality of the English Stage

Question 26

Tragedy, meanwhile, while free from the profligacy of comedy, was equally artificial. How so?

Answer 26

It’s most popular form was that of the Heroic Drama.
In which love and gallantry were depicted on a gigantic scale with little reference to real life. Dialogue was full of bombastic extravagance.

Rhyme, as advocated by Dryden in his Essay On Dramatic Poesy, displaced blank verse.

Question 27

Who was the master of the Heroic Drama? What works?

Answer 27

Dryden
He did it to perfection in Tyrannic Love, or the Royal Martyr and The Conquest Of Granada

Question 28

The vogue of the Heroic Drama did not last very long. What other dramatic forms took its place?

Answer 28

The Senecan or French school had its followers as in Congreve whose The Mourning Bride is fashioned faithfully on classical model.

In All For Love, based on Antony and Cleopatra, Dryden was weary of the Heroic style and rhyme, reverted to Shakespeare and blank verse.

Question 29

No new dramatic work was done and now the Restoration era possesses very little value in its Literature.
Give two more tragic playwrights of the period, who weren’t very great.

Answer 29

Nathaniel Lee, who wrote first in rhyme then in blank verse- had a great deal of smoke and a little fire.

Thomas Otways Venice Preserved and Orphan were popular for a long time.