Department of English

An effort of

Muhammad Sharif (MA English)

Checked and Edited by

Prof. Fakhar-ud-Din
History of English Literature
➢ Eighteenth Century
➢ Age of Pope
➢ Age of Johnson
Romantic Age
Q.1. What names can be given to The Eighteenth Century in England?
Ans. Eighteenth Century in England is called the “Classical Age” or “The Augustan Age”.
It is also called the “Age of Good Sense” or the “Age of Reason”.
Q.2. Why Eighteenth Century is called the Classical Age in English literature?
Eighteenth Century is called the Classical Age in English literature due to following three
reasons
➢ First, in this period people followed the classical writers of Greek and Rome, like Homer
and Virgil.
➢ Second, a large number of writers produced works of great merit.
➢ Third, during this period English writers rebelled against the exaggerated and fantastic
style of writing prevalent during the Elizabethan and Puritan ages.
Q. 3. What is pseudo-classicism?
The Eighteenth century writers in England followed the ancient classical writers only in their
external form of their writings and, thus lacked sublimity and grandeur. That was why approach
of the English writers is called pseudo- classicism.
Q. 4. Why is the Classical Age called Augustan Age?
The term Augustan Age is related to Roman Emperor Augustus. This age has seen many brilliant
writers like Horace, Virgil and Cicero. These writers are also called Augustan Writers. As the
classical writers followed and tried to adopt their themes and style of writing so they called
themselves the writers of Augustan Age.
Q. 5. Why is Eighteenth century in England called Age Of Good Sense or the Age of
Reason?
During Eighteenth century people thought that they could stand on their own legs and be guided
in the conduct of their affairs by the light of their own reason unclouded by respect for Ancient
precedent. They thought that in every matter man should apply his own reason and
commonsense. It was also due to the fact that writers of this Age referred to the discoveries made
in the past and that were on reasonable observations. That’s why it is called Age of Good Sense
or Age of Reason.
Q. 6. Give some characteristics of literature of Eighteenth Century?
During this age Realism and Precision got perfection especially in Pope’s poetry who, perfected
heroic couplet. In this age satire was developed as a form of literature which was mainly about
finding faults with the opponents. Prose was originated and developed during this age and the
best literary work was considered to be produced in prose in this Age.
The Eighteenth century literature is deficient in drama. The satirical work of this century is
mainly about the opponents and is destructive in its intention. The poetic and dramatic work is
not of high stature as compared to previous writers like Shakespeare, Spenser and other notable
writers of Elizabethan Period.
Q. 7. Feature the Age of Pope.
The earlier part of Eighteenth century from 1700 to 1744 is known as Age of Pope, because Pope
was the dominating figure in that period and he was the only who devoted himself completely to
Literature. Moreover, he represented in himself all the main characteristics of his age.
Q. 8. What are the characteristics of Poetry of Pope’s Age?
The poetry of this age is deficient in emotions and imagination. It is full of intellect and mostly
didactic. Mostly satirical, argumentative and we find criticism in the poetry of that age. Poets
were more interested in town life. This poetry was highly artificial and conventional. Closed
couplet is only way of writing poetry during Age of Pope.
Q. 9. Write a brief note on poetical contributions of Alexander Pope.
Pope is considered as the greatest poet of the Classical period. Prof. Eton says, “He is the Prince
of Classicism. He lived a painful life being victim of various diseases for long time especially
headache bad nerves and being Catholic he had to bear many restrictions. Besides all this he was
highly intellectual and made a permanent mark on literature.
The main quality of Pope’s poetry is his correctness. At the age of twenty-three he published his
Essay on Criticism in 1711.
Pope’s next work, The Rape of the Lock, is in some ways his masterpiece. It is ‘mock heroic’
poem in which he celebrated the theme of stealth, by Lord Petre of lock of hair from the
head of Miss Arabella. In this poem he perfected heroic couplet and it took him to a good
fame. This fame created a host of jealous rivals. For his rivals Pope wrote “The
Dunciad”. This is Pope’s satirical work in which he attacked all sorts of literary
incompetence. It is full of cruel and insulting couplets on his enemies. His next great
poem was The Essay on Man, which is full of brilliant of quoted passages and lines. His
later works especially Imitations of Horace and Epistle are also satires and contain biting
attacks on his enemies.
Q. 10. Write a note on Matthew Prior’s and John Gay’s work.
Prior and Gay were the followers of Pope, and after Pope, they are the two excellent guides to
the life of eighteenth century London.
Prior was a politician and he wrote two long poems: Solomon on the Vanity of the World and
Alma or the Progress of the Mind. These are serious poems, written on trifling matters
Gay was mostly interested in town life. He was a man of humor and good temper. His best known
works are: Rural Sports, Trivia, Black-Eyed Susan and some Fables
Q. 11. Give literary contribution of Thomas Parnell.
Thomas Parnell was a poet belonging to Age of Pope. He wrote many translations and some fresh
poetry of good standard.
His best known work is The Night-Piece on Death and Hymn to Contentment.
Q. 12. Write Daniel Dafoe’s contribution in prose.
Daniel Dafoe is prose writer of early 18th century. He wrote about all sorts of subjects and
brought about 250 publications. As a journalist he used to write about lives of famous people
who had just dead, and of notorious adventurers and criminals. His first novel is Robinson
Crusoe which is a story of adventures of a fictitious hero. Some other fictitious works of Dafoe
are The Memoirs of Cavalier, Captain Singleton, Moll Flanders, Colonel Jack, Roxana and
Journal of the Plague Year.
Q. 13. Jonathan Swift is a famous prose writer. Discuss.
Jonathan was the most famous powerful and original genius of his age. He was highly
intellectual. Swift was profound pessimist.
He was a master of prose-style, which was simple, direct and colloquial, and free from the ornate
and rhetorical elements. As a satirist his greatest and most effective weapon is irony. His best
known work is Gulliver’s Travels, which is very popular among children it is also a bitter attack
on contemporary political and social life. The Tale of a Tub which, like Gulliver’s Travels, is
written in the form an allegory, and exposes the main religious beliefs opposed to Protestant
religion. It is also a satire upon all science and philosophy. His Journal to Stella is excellent
commentary on contemporary characters and political events. His pamphlet The Battle of Books
remained popular for its discussions on Ancients against the Moderns.
Q. 14. Discuss the literary contributions of Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele.
Steele and Addison worked together and compiled periodical essays which were popular among
the masses. They wrote about 635 essays, of those Addison wrote 274, Steele 240 and remaining
121 were contributed by various friends. Steele started the series of essays with the name “The
Tatler” in which Addison became permanent partner. Both Steele and Addison were great
masters of prose. Their essays are remarkable as showing the growing perfection of the English
language.
Q. 15. Write a note on Age of Johnson?
The later half of the eighteenth century starting from 1744 and ending on 1784 is called The Age
of Johnson due famous writer Dr. Samuel Johnson. In this age writer started to make few
observations and imagination appeared in the writings. It was ending age of classicism and
beginning of Romantic Age that’s why it is also called Age of Transition in English literature.
Q. 16. Give characteristics of Age of Johnson.
This age was struggle between old and new. Like classical age it was also about towns and
artificial things but with little touch of naturalism. Poetry of this age also have fixed rules of
writing but many of the writers tried to get rid of fixed rules. In fact it was age of transition and
experiment which ultimately led to the Romantic Revival.
Q. 17. Describe the literary work of the following poets of Age of Johnson.
• James Thomson
• Thomas Gray
• William Collins
• James Macpherson
• William Blake & Robert Burns
James Thomson. Thomson was the early writer who showed romantic tendency in his writings
and he was a minute observer as he showed it his poetry. In his The Seasons he showed
sympathetic behavior for nature and for common people. He used Miltonic blank verse in
his poetry. His dream allegory, The Castle of Indolence was very popular among the
masses, which is full of dim suggestions.
Thomas Gray. He was famous writer of an Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. Other
important poems of Gray are The Progress of the Poesy & The Bards. He expressed his
melancholy feelings in his poems with classical rules of writing.
William Collins Like Gray, Collins has expressed his deep feeling s in his poetry His first
poem Oriental Eclogues written in closed couplet but it is romantic in nature. His
other great poems are: Hoe sleep the Brave, To Simplicity, To Fear, To the Passion and Ode to
Evening. Collins advocates the nature and urges for simple and unsophisticated
life.
James Macpherson. He became famous with the publication of his Ossianic poems called the
Works of Ossian. In his poems we find moonlight melancholy and ghostly romantic suggestions.
William Blake. In the poetry of we find a complete break from classical poetry. His, Songs of
Innocence & Songs of Experience are romantic in nature. His other poems such as The Book of
The, Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Swinburne calls him “supreme and poetic genius” due to
his lyrics and original songs.
Robert Burns. He was great songs writer in he speaks about human dignity and love for nature.
In his songs The Cotter’s Saturday Night, To a Mouse, To a Mountain Daisy, Man Was Made
to Mourne are famous giving a touch with nature with his deep feelings and songs of birds.
Q.18. Describe Samuel Johnson's literary work with its characteristics.
Johnson was man who struggled against poverty and ill-health and he was very kind to poor and
wretched. He was very intellectual and loved by all. Johnson’s best known works are his
Dictionary and Lives of poets. He contributed a number of articles in the periodicals, The
Rambler, The Idler and Rasselas. Although in Periodicals his style is ponderous and verbose but
in Lives of Poets, he has given a matchless writing which do not bore the reader rather it is
interesting with the discussion of lives of poets. Johnson set a model of prose style which has
rhythm, balance, and lucidity and which could be imitated with profit. The chief characteristic of
Johnson prose-style is that it grew out of his conversational habit and therefore it is always clear
and, forceful and frank.
Q.19. Write a brief note on Edmund Burke’s work.
Burke remained a member of parliament for thirty years. He was a greatest political philosopher
that ever spoke in the English Parliament. Burke’s chief contributions to literature are the
speeches and writings of his public career. The earliest of them were Thoughts on the Present
Discontent, in which he advocates the principles of limited monarchy for William of Orange
with limited powers. When the American colonies revolted against England, and English
government was trying to suppress that revolt, burke delivered two famous speeches in
parliament. On American Taxation & Conciliation with America, in which are embodied true
statesmanship and political wisdom. But greatest speeches of Burke were delivered in
connection with French Revolution, which were published as The Reflection on the French
Revolution. His speeches are considered highly valued in literature as it presents the universality
and his speeches look true for all the times. The speeches are supremely logical and with
excellent style of English language.
Q. 20. Who was Edward Gibbon?
Edward Gibbon was prominent prose writer and historian of England who wrote history in a
literary manner. His greatest historical work is, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
which is an authoritative and well documented history. His prose style was the climax of
classical prose.
Q. 21. Write the chief characteristics of Classical Age In Comparison with Romantic Age.
Classical Age Romantic Age
• It was mainly the product of • It encouraged emotion and
intelligence and was especially imagination in place of dry
deficient in emotion and imagination. intellectuality.
• It was chiefly the town poetry. • It was more interested in nature and
• It had no love for mysterious or rustic life.
supernatural objects. • It had love for mysterious and
• Its style was formal and artificial. supernatural objects.
• It was written in closed couplet. • It opposed the artificial style and
• It was fundamentally didactic. insisted on simple and natural form.
• It insisted on the writers to follow • It attacked on supremacy of closed
prescribed rules and imitate the couplet and it was mostly written in
standard model of good writing. free verse.
• Its object was not didactic
• It believed in the liberty of the poet to
chose the theme and manners of
writing .

Q.22. What are the characteristics of Romantic Poetry?

Ans. Romantic age is the age of imagination and emotions. It deals with common life specially
rural life .This age is against the set rules and it has no fixed rules of writing. Its main focus is on
liberty and freedom. Naturalism and supernaturalism are the prominent characteristics of
Romantic Age. Romantic poetry has endless variety having simplicity in its style.
Q.23. What is first romantic generation?
Ans. Early writers of romantic age are considered as First Romantic Generation. They include
Wordsworth, Coleridge, Robert Southey and Walter Scott. They showed love for natural
phenomena, simplicity of rural life with simple style. They sang about the feelings and emotions
which were shared by majority of their countrymen.
Q.24. What are the literary contributions of William Wordsworth?
William Wordsworth was the greatest poet of the Romantic period. He and S.T.Coleridge
originated Romantic poetry. William Wordsworth is also known as “poet of nature”. He stood
against many generations of great poets and critics, like Dryden, Pope and Johnson, and made
way for a new type of poetry. Infect he revolted against the dry intellectuality of his
predecessors. His language is simple and natural. He can be considered as king of Naturalism.
William Wordsworth wrote a large number and variety of lyrics. We find deepest emotions and
an absolute naturalness in his poetry. Wordsworth is famous for his lyrics, sonnets, odes and
short descriptive poems.
Besides lyrics Wordsworth wrote a number of sonnets like To Milton, Westminster Bridge, The
World is too much with us in which there is a fine combination of the dignity of thought and
language.
In his odes, as Ode to Duty and Ode on the Intimations of Immortality, he gives expression to
his high ideals and philosophy of life. According to William Wordsworth man is a part of nature.
In his poem Resolution and Independence the old man and the surroundings make a single
picture. Besides the harmony between Man and Nature the harmony of Wordsworth’s own spirit
with the universe is the theme of Wordsworth’s greatest nature poems: Lines composed a few
miles above Tintern Abbey, Yew Trees and The Simplon Pass.
Besides all above he wrote two long poems The Prelude and The Excursion. The Prelude
expresses the adventures of Wordsworth of his childhood and he wrote to say thanks to nature.
So, we can say that William Wordsworth is a pure poet of nature and king of Naturalism.
Q.25. Explain the literary contributions of Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Ans. S.T. Coleridge is famous lake poet due to his supernatural thoughts and ideas in his poetry.
He presented the real picture of supernatural objects which is matchless till now. He has given
the touch of natural objects by connecting them with supernatural objects. Coleridge was a man
of gigantic genius. In the field of theology, philosophy and literary criticism he made a
tremendous and lasting influence.
In his poems Religious Musings, Destiny of Nations and Ode to the Departing Year he has
given a political touch with rural life. This was early work of Coleridge before working with
Wordsworth.
His two best known poems are The Ancient Mariner and Christabel. Christabel is story of a
young girl who fell under the spell of a sorcerer in shape of the woman Geraldine. The Ancient
Mariner has supernatural terrors of medieval atmosphere and everything is wage and indefinite.
Kubla khan presents the dream picture of which is incomplete till now. He also wrote a number
of other poems like love, The Dark Ladie and Youth and Age. In these poems Coleridge
presents his personal emotions.