Restoration Literature Flashcards
The Restoration brought relief for a majority of Charless II’s subjects. But relief was not the only mood. There was also a darker mood of anxiety and tension, recrimination and score-settling. At such a time what kind of writer was invaluable?
Ones that could make themselves heard by a broad range of social groups, such as Marvell, or Dryden.
In Paradise Lost, Books I and II are examples of
pagan classical epic, with Satan as its stoic hero.
Describe the genre and features of book III of Paradise Lost
Christian epic; its hero is Messiah. It has an “episode,” or inset narration: Raphael’s Christian martial epic.
In Paradise Lost, books IX and X turn toward what mode or genre?
Tragic; with man as protagonist
In Paradise Lost, books XI and XII approximate to what form?
Biblical epic form popularized by Du Bartas.
Name the heroes of Paradise Lost
Satan, Messiah, Adam/Eve
All of the heroes in Paradise Lost have virtues, but the virtues are differently rank-ordered depending on the perspective. What is the implication? *Then discuss Satan and Uriel, Sin and Satan.
This epic takes up different epic forms just as its characters take up different virtues. The struggle is to find a place in the hierarchy relative to the other heroes. *Thus Satan surprising Uriel from behind, but being recognized once he enters Uriel’s cosmic perspective. Sin and Satan think they can square God’s circle but this comes at precisely the moment Sin and Death are finishing the road from hell to the created world–i.e., they have symbolically just given up their status as outsiders to the vantage point.
*Name SEVEN borrowings from Virgil in Paradise Lost
Satan’s shield cf. Aeneas’s and Achilles’
Inversion: journey out of hell; Sin v. Sybil
Sin, cf. Dido
Eve, cf. Dido
Satan’s disguise for Uriel, cf. Hermes Psychopompous
Heavenly council
Locus aoeminus
*Name borrowings from the Faerie Queene in Paradise Lost
Night (though the gender is changed–investigate)
Use of pagan machinery
Sin & Duessa
*Name borrowings from Camoens’s Lusiads in Paradise Lost
Locus aoeminus
Navigation (chaos v. sea)
Nec Plus Ultra (Satan v. De Gama)
*Name differences between Paradise Lost and Faerie Queene
Dilatio is not a narrative OR formal feature in Paradise Lost–the plot does not dilate and the lines move forward from the beginning of the book to the end; the only nod is in moments where Satan is said to dilate, where it is a negative (to swell with pride, become tumid)
*Name a borrowing from Orlando Furioso in Paradise Lost
The engenium–Orlando destroys the canon; Satan invents the canon
Charles II’s licensers are said to have found an allusion to the king in Milton’s highly monarchic Satan; and in Parliamentary eyes, indeed, the Civil War was begun by Charles’s rebelling against “the Crown,” in the sense of the king’s office or “true body.” However…
There are plenty of (less partisan) reflections on Satan’s revolutionary traits.
Some have said Restoration verse is obsessed with power; but (says Fowler) power was not yet commonly as central a recognized category as Hobbes argues it to be. A truer generalization might be that Restoration verse is fascinated with…
valuation and revaluation
Why might Restoration verse be fascinated with valuation and revaluation?
Not only did changes of regime bring home relativities of value, but the cultural revolution that had broken up the Renaissance world picture necessitated much rethinking, i.e. SCIENCE.
