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, Marking
Examiner), Alpha Academy, Education Junction Matale. 071-4395240 - Day - 04
The term, Augustan' refers to King George I's desire to be compared to the first Roman Emperor,
Augustus Caesar, when poetry and the arts were supported and admired, and thus flourished. Anyone
educated in the eighteenth century would be familiar with the original texts, since studying the classics
was a central feature of the school curriculum.
Eighteenth century Augustan literature emulates the classical style, tending to be polished and shaped
according to rules which governed both Roman and Greek works. However, classical works are not just
emulated but also parodied during the Augustan period.
The era also saw the development of the novel by authors such as:
Daniel Defoe (c.1659 24 April 1731), whose Robinson Crusoe (1719) was published in more
editions than any other works besides Swift's Gulliver's Travels
Samuel Richardson, who wrote the sentimental epistolary novels Pamela (174041)
andClarissa (174748)
Henry Fielding, who parodied Richardson in his Shamela (1741), and wrote Joseph
Andrews(1742) and Tom Jones (1749).
Wit and intellectual conceits shaped the tone of much Augustan writing (following on from the clever
arguments of the metaphysical poets). Satire had already been a feature of Restoration literature, prior to
the Augustan era, but at that time it was more circumscribed due to threat of prosecution for defamation.
In the eighteenth century, satire and parody were more widely used across the spectrum of prose, poetry
and dramatic works. Poets also bantered and argued over what should be the proper modes of poetic
expression, and which topics were worthy of the art form. One such debate was about the role of
the pastoral, for example.
Allusion
The Augustans were very much influenced by Milton's vast showcase of classical and
biblicalallusion, Paradise Lost (1667). Displaying ones familiarity with the classics and the Bible in a witty
way was admired
The philosophy of empiricism had originally been championed by John Locke in the Restoration
period, and was further debated during the Augustan era.
Representative works
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (1726, amended 1735), is an excellent example of Augustan
literature, characterized by parody and satire. In his work, Swift targets the empiricists who insist on
individual, unyielding reason over morality and social values.
P a g e | 3 A/L 2017 English Literature Notes R.C. Fernando (B.A. , M.A., Marking
Examiner), Alpha Academy, Education Junction Matale. 071-4395240 - Day - 04
Alexander Pope was the most significant figure in poetry during the Augustan
period. His witty couplets were often quoted and used asaxioms. Pope took issue
with other authors about what should be considered the proper subjects and
nature of poetic expression. Often, he publicly attacked his contemporaries
through his satiric verse, making enemies of many. Pope's work The
Dunciad (1728), held contemporary dunces' up to ridicule. He was roundly
derided by similar methods in return.
An example
In his Rape of the Locke (1712 and 1714), Pope created a mock-heroic narrative poem, which satirised
classical literature, with its heroes and nymphs and gods. Pope used the trivial snipping of a lock of hair as
the backdrop for a quarrel which rises to epic proportions. He used both parody and satire to show how
the gods' of human vanity and folly can be so promoted that triviality takes precedence over common
sense and reason.
Pope also trivialised the contributions of female writers, continuing the debate about what was fit for great
literature:
Parent of Vapors, and of female wit,
Who give th' hysteric, or poetic fit;
On various tempers act by various ways,
Make some take physic, others scribble plays.
(Canto IV. l.59-62)
This witty denouement offended the aristocratic poet Anne Finch, Countess of Winchelsea, who countered
Pope's criticism with The Answer, and received another putdown in response:
In vain you boast Poetic Names of yore,
And cite those Sapho's we admire no more:
Fate doom'd the Fall of ev'ry Female Wit,
But doom'd it then when first Ardelia writ.
(Impromptu, to Lady Winchelsea l.1-4)
Pope's use of heroic couplets, an apparently Latinate form of Anne (Ardelia), and reference to the ancient
Greek poet Sappho, are typical of the elevated diction and educated allusion found in Augustan verse.
The language of the common man, rather than Latinate or elevated diction
The creation of terror and use of horror in medieval settings is seen in the sub-genre of the Gothic
novel. A primary example is Horace Walpole's, The Castle of Otranto (1764)