Page 12 - DENG502_PROSE

Prose

Notes Elizabethan Lyrics - Greatest Lyrical Poetry of the Time
If we talk about lyrical poetry, the temper of the Elizabethan age was perfectly suited to the lyrical
mood. For that reason, there was the emergence of the lyrics in abundance. The lyrical expressions
came on the surface with the efforts of Wyatt and Surrey, the prominent poets of the time. This
lyrical spirit sustained through the dramas of the age. Furthermore, this spirit got foothold in the
several miscellanies of the time. Afterward, this lyrical impulse was seen into the melodies of
Campion and the darker moods of metaphysical poetry and poets like Donne.
In the history of the English literature, the Elizabethan period occupies a grater place because in
this period lyrical forms were properly shaped. Songs were sung in parlors and halls. They were
composed around the themes such as love songs and religious songs. It was the age of singing
birds in right sense of the term. They were composed in every mod for example mocking, grave,
cynical and sentimental. The form of lyrical poetry is effortless to read and enjoy.
Jacobean Age (1603-1625)

Jacobean Age Jacobean Age covers the reign of James I (often called “Jacobus” in Latin). This was
the period when the prose writings of Bacon, John Donne’s sermons, Robert Burton’s “Anatomy
of Melancholy”, king James translation of the Bible, major writings of poets and playwrights
including Ben Johnson, Michael Drayton, Beaumont, Fletcher, John Webster, George Chapman
developed. Elizabeth Cary was the first English woman whose biblical drama “The Tragedy of
Marium, the Faire Queen of Jewry” was published at that time.

Caroline Age (1625-1649)
Caroline Age - the reign of Charles I (called “Carolus” in Latin). It was the time of English Civil
War between the supporters of the King and supporters of the parliament. More interestingly John
Milton began his writing during this period. It was the age of the religious poet George Herbert
and of the prose writers like Robert Burton and Thomas Browne. The poets of this period were
called Cavalier Poets. There were the writers of witty and of polished lyrics of courtship and
gallantry. This was the group of Richard Lovelace, Sir John Suckling and Thomas Carew.
Commonwealth Period (1649-1660)
Commonwealth Period extended from the end of the Civil War and the excursion Charles I in 1649
to the restoration of the Stuart monarchy under Charles II in 1600. Dramas disappeared for almost
eighteen years after the puritans closed the public theaters in September 1642, not only on moral
and religious grounds, but also to prevent public gatherings and assemblies that might create civil
disorder. It was the age of Milton’s political pamphlets, of Hobbes’s political treatise Leviathan
(1651) of the prose writers like Sir Thomas Browne, Abraham Cowley and Andrew Marwell.
The Neo-classical Period (1600-1785 )
The Neo-classical Period in England covers almost 140 years after the Restoration (1660). The
authors such as John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Joseph Addition, Jonathan Swift, Oliver Gold
Smith, Samuel Johnson, Edmund Burke contributed to neoclassic literature.
The literature of this period was considered to be an “art” that is a set of skills which ought be
perfected by practice. Neoclassical writers considered human beings as limited agents who ought
to set themselves only accessible goals. Many of the great writings of the period was satirical,
didactic and was often direct attack on human “pride”
Restoration Period (1660-1700)

Restoration Period takes its name from the restoration of the Stuart line (Charles II) to the English
throne in 1600, at the end of Commonwealth. The urbanity, wit and licentiousness of the life
focusing on the court is reflected in the literature of this period. The theaters came back to life after

6 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY