Page 45 - DENG402_HISTORY_OF_ENGLISH_LITERATURE

History of English Literature

Notes few sepulchral urns in Norwich, the habitat of the writer. As Leaouis savs “it treats of the oblivion
which covers the traces of men, even though famous and with this subject he plays as a dilettante.”
The latter work is concerned with the supremacy of the number five (the quincunx).

Did u know? Browne’s Christian Morals, published posthumously, is written in the character
of a fairly orthodox Christian.
Browne’s prose style-though there are passages of rare lucidity charged with incisive energy is
representative of the baroque style. He has love of Latinised expressions and poetic cadences and
sonorous words. “The interweaving of his harmonies”, says Legouis, “offers an enchantment to
the ear scarcely less than that of the finest lyrics.”

6.3 The Anglican Clergy: Taylor and Others
The prose of the age of Milton is remarkable for its pronounced religious slant. The secular interest
of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods seem to have yielded considerable place to religious
interests. Legouis remarks in this connexion: “The rich humanity, the widespread curiosity, the
intermingling of comedy with tragedy in the portrayal of life, were replaced by a passionate
controversy on the forms of Christian religion and a search which became almost an obsession for
the way of salvation.” In the Caroline period there was a complete polarisation of religious
affiliations and the Puritans and the Protestants (Anglicans) emerged as two groups irreconcilably
opposed to each other. Both of them had eminent men of letters among their ranks. Whereas
Milton was the most important of the Puritans, Jeremy Taylor was the best among the Protestants.
Let us consider briefly the prose of the Anglicans first.
Among the Anglicans the important prose writers were George Herbert, Thomas Traherne, John
Hales, William Chiliingworth, John Gauden, and Jeremy Taylor (1613-67). Most of them mainly
wrote sermons. The last named was the most distinguished and the most tolerant of all of them.
Along with his sermons he gave Liberty of Prophesying (1646) and his most famous works Holy
Living and Holy Dying (1650-51). Like Browne, Taylor is preoccupied with the thought of human
mortality. Like him, again, he is not afraid of death; he considers it as “nothing but a middle-point
between the two lives.” The recent death of his wife prompted him further to enter into the
contemplation of mortality and the holy practice of prayer as also the importance of faith and
patience.

Notes Taylor’s style is a good example of the baroque style. His prose is a collection of
long, rich, rolling sentences each of which goes like the river Alph in Coleridge’s
“Kubla Khan”.

Five Miles Meandering with a Mazy Motion

The structure is Ciceronian and highly Latinised. Taylor’s prcse is characterised by a love of fancy
at the cost of logic. Like the verse of the metaphysicals, TayIor’s prose manifests what T. S. Eliot
calls the 2S3ociation of sensibility. He is very close to the Elizabethans, and has reen called—not
without justice “the Shakespeare of English prose” and “the Spenser of the pulpit.” According to
Legouis, in Taylor’s case “the logician becomes lost in the poet.” Nevertheless, his prose is not
without its beauty of harmony and dignity when he dwells on a theme rear to him, such as death
or human frailty.

6.4 The Puritans: Baxter, Milton and Others

The Puritan camp was dominated by Milton. But there were also some other important figures
such as Baxter and Prynne. As: compared to the prose works of the Anglicans, those of the Puritans
are marked by violence and coarseness and, not unoften, downright lack of good taste. In his
38 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY