Hanover: George II (1727-1760) Flashcards
Reign of George II
House of Hanover 1727-1760 Samuel Richardson Henry Fielding Jonathan Swift Thomas Gray Oliver Goldsmith
Samuel Richardson
George II (Hanover)
Along with Daniel Defoe, he’s Known as “Father of the English Novel.” Wrote novels in epistolary form. Henry Fielding didn’t like him or his game and parodied his writing.
Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded
Samuel Richardson George II (Hanover)
Written in form of letters. Pamela keep her virtue, despite Mr. B—‘s pressure to do otherwise. As a “reward,” Pamela gets to marry Mr. B—. Novel spoofed by Henry Fielding’s Shamela. Scenes of a woman warding off a man.
Clarissa
Samuel Richardson George II (Hanover)
Like Pamela, this book is epistolary. One of the longest novels in English.
Henry Fielding
George II (Hanover)
Liked spoofing Samuel Richardson’s books. He was the writer of many forgotten plays, including Tom Thumb.
Shamela
Henry Fielding George II (Hanover)
Spoof on Samuel Richardson’s Pamela.
Joseph Andrews
Henry Fielding George II (Hanover)
Related to myth. Footboy Joseph loses his place when he rejects Lady Booby’s advances, commencing a comic odyssey of robbery, poverty, and sexual viciousness.
Tom Jones
Henry Fielding George II (Hanover)
The kindly, prosperous Mr Allworthy finds a baby boy on his bed. He adopts the child, naming it Tom Jones. Allworthy suspects that Jenny Jones, a maid-servant to the wife of the schoolmaster Partridge, is the mother. Jenny leaves with Partridge the neighborhood. Allworthy’s sister Bridget marries Captain Blifil, they have a son. Tom and the young and mean-spirited Blifil are raised together. Years later a rivalry over the attention of Sophia Western arises between them. Because of an affair with the gamekeeper’s daughter Molly Seagrim, and because of Blifil’s treachery, Tom is expelled from the house. He experiences adventures in the picaresque section of the novel, drifts into an affair with Lady Ballaston, nearly kills his opponent in a duel, and is imprisoned. Meanwhile Sophia flees to London to escape the marriage with Blifil. Jenny Jones turns up to reveal that Bridget is the mother of Tom, and Blifil’s cruelties to Tom over the years are exposed - Blifil knew the truth of Tom’s birth. Tom marries Sophia, who forgives him for his infidelities, and Tom becomes the heir of Allworthy.
Gulliver’s Travels
Jonathan Swift George II (Hanover)
- Lilliput—where everyone’s six inches tall *Brobdingnag—where everyone is huge
- Laputa—a flying island inhabited by abstract intellectuals.
- Glubdubbdrip—land of sourcerors. Gulliver learns that history isn’t accurate
- Struldburgs—unhappy mortals that wish they could die.
- Houyhnhnms—intelligent, clean-living, right-thinking horses
- Yahoos—idiotic, violent, dirty creatures who turn out to be people or at least look like them
“A Modest Proposal”
Jonathan Swift George II (Hanover)
Proposes that the Irish Catholic children be eaten.
Battle of the Books
Jonathan Swift George II (Hanover)
coins term “sweetness and light,” later to be co-opted by Arnold
Thomas Gray
George II (Hanover)
He was a good friend of Horace Walpole and interested in the Gothic.
“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”
Thomas Gray George II (Hanover)
A meditation upon death without worldly fame. It was likely written for the poet’s best friend, Richard West. Recognize especially, “Some mute, inglorious Milton may lie here, Some Cromwell guiltless of his country’s blood.” Also recognize the epitaph:
117 Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth
118 A youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown.
119 Fair Science frown’d not on his humble birth,
120 And Melancholy mark’d him for her own.
121 Large was his bounty , and his soul sincere,
122 Heav’n did a recompense as largely send:
123 He gave to Mis’ry all he had, a tear,
124 He gain’d from Heav’n (‘twas all he wish’d) a friend.
125 No farther seek his merits to disclose,
126 Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,
127 (There they alike in trembling hope repose)
128 The bosom of his Father and his God.
“Ode on a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes”
Thomas Gray George II (Hanover)
Story of a pretty girl cat that drowned trying to get a goldfish. Alegory for women not to want gold: “From hence, ye Beauties undeceived, Know, one false step is ne'er retrieved, And be with caution bold. Not all that tempts your wand'ring eyes And heedless hearts, is lawful prize; Nor all that glisters, gold.”
Last line allusion to Shakespeare, Merch of Venice
Oliver Goldsmith
George II (Hanover)
Irish who had wanderlust but missed the boat to America. Wrote plays instead
