LICEO MUSICALE

IV ANNO

INGLESE

- The Augustan Age (1714-1760)

- -The Restauration and the 18th Century

- Alexander Pope

- Jonathan Swift

- The Sonnet

- William Shakespeare

- Elizabethan Theatre

- The Restoration (1660-1714)

- The Augustan Age (1714-1760)

− Future Continuous and Future Perfect

− Le “if clauses”

− Meet the Celts

− Henry II

− The Birth of Parliament

− The Act of Supremacy

− James I

− The origin of Thanskgiving Day

− William Shakespeare

− The English Civil War

− The Puritans

− The Scientific Revolution

THE RESTORATION AND THE 18th CENTURY

The Augustans and the Age of Reason

The Restoration refers to the restoration of the monarchy when Charles II was restored to the throne of England following an eleven-year Commonwealth period during which the country was governed by Parliament under the direction of the Puritan General Oliver Cromwell. This political event coincides with (and to some extent is responsible for) changes in the literary, scientific, and cultural life of Britain.

During this time, a premium was placed on the importance of human reason and on an empirical philosophy that held that knowledge about the world was through the senses and by applying reason to what we take in through our senses. Reason was an unchanging, uniquely human characteristic that served as a guide for man. Thus this time is often also called the Age of Reason or Enlightenment. Characteristics of this period included observing human nature and nature itself which were considered unchanging and constant.

The age is also known as the Neoclassical period. Writers of the time placed great emphasis on the original writings produced by classical Greek and Roman literature. The literature of this period imitated that of the age of Caesar Augustus, writers such as Horace and Virgil, with classical influences appearing prevalent in poetry with the use of rhyming, and in prose with its satirical form. The Augustans deemed classical literature as natural, that these works were the idealized models for writing. The Neoclassical “ideals of order, logic, restraint, accuracy, ‘correctness,’ decorum,. . . would enable the practitioners of various arts to imitate or reproduce the structures or themes of Greek or Roman originals” (Victorian Web). Alexander Pope furthers this idea as he says “Learn hence for ancient rules a just esteem; To copy Nature is to copy them” (Essay on Criticism). The way to study nature is to study the ancients; the styles and rules of classical literature. Closely allied with the emphasis placed on the classics and the unchanging rules of nature was the belief that reason was an unchanging and unique human quality that served as a guide for man.

An Age of Satire

Literature during this period was often considered a tool for the advancement of knowledge. Writers were often found observing nature in their attempts to express their

beliefs. Human nature was considered a constant that observation and reason could be applied to for the advancement of knowledge. Within these circumstances, the Age of Satire was born. Satire was the most popular literary tool that was utilized by writers of the time. With the help of satire, writers were better able to educate the public through literature. Its function was to acknowledge a problem in society and attempt to reform the problem in a comical manner while still educating the public. Its effectiveness can be seen in literary pieces by Jonathan Swift such as A Modest Proposal where he addresses and criticizes the problem of a growing famine in Ireland. Playwrights of the time were also known to incorporate satire in their plays. Through the use of satire, they were able to expose and critique social injustices. “Over the thirty years of its triumphs, Restoration comedy, in an astounding fugue of excesses and depravities, laid bare the turbulence and toxins of this culture” (Longman). Satire was a highly successful literary tool that worked to promote social awareness through literature, the theater and periodicals of the time.

Timeline

• 1660: Restoration–Charles II, Stuart monarchy • 1662: Royal Society established • 1685: James, Duke of York, succeeds his brother Charles II • 1688: Glorious Revolution–James II deposed, William and Mary share the

English throne • 1689: Bill of Rights–limits crown, affirms supremacy of Parliament • 1689: Toleration Act–religious freedom for dissenters • 1690: John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding • 1707: Act of Union–England and Scotland for Great Britain • 1745: Last Jacobite uprising

ALEXANDER POPE

The English poet Alexander Pope is regarded as one of the finest poets and satirists (people who use wit or sarcasm to point out and devalue sin or silliness) of the Augustan (mid-seventeenth to mid-eighteenth century English literature) period and one of the major influences on English literature in this time and after.

Early years

Alexander Pope was born on May 21, 1688, in London, England, to Alexander and Edith Pope. His Roman Catholic father was a linen merchant. His family moved out of London and settled in Binfield in Windsor Forest around 1700. Pope had little formal schooling. He educated himself through extensive studying and reading, especially poetry.

Although Pope was healthy and plump in his infancy, he became severely ill later in his childhood, which resulted in a slightly disfigured body—he never grew taller than 4 feet 6 inches. He suffered from curvature of the spine, which required him to wear a stiff canvas brace. He had constant headaches. His physical appearance, frequently ridiculed by his enemies, undoubtedly gave an edge to Pope's satire (humor aimed at human weaknesses), but he was always warmhearted and generous in his affection for his many friends.

Early poems

Pope was precocious (showed the characteristics of an older person at a young age) as a child and attracted the notice of a noted bookseller who published his Pastorals (1709). By this time Pope was already at work on his more ambitious Essay on Criticism (1711) designed to create a rebirth of the contemporary literary scene.

The Rape of the Lock (1712) immediately made Pope famous as a poet. It was a long humorous poem in the classical style (likeness to ancient Greek and Roman writing). Instead of treating the subject of heroic deeds, though, the poem was about the attempt of a young man to get a lock of hair from his beloved's head. It was based on a true event that happened to people he knew. Several other poems were published by 1717, the date of the first collected edition of Pope's works.

Translations of Homer

Pope also engaged in poetic imitations and translations. His Messiah (1712) was an imitation of Virgil (70–19 B.C.E. ). He also did a version of Geoffrey Chaucer's (1342–1400) poetry in the English of Pope's day. But it was Pope's versions of Homer (c. 700 B.C.E. ) that were his greatest achievement as a translator.

Pope undertook the translation of Homer's Iliad because he needed money. The interest earned from his father's annuities (money from investments) had dropped sharply. The translation occupied him until 1720. It was a great financial success, making Pope independent of the customary forms of literary patronage (support from wealthy people), and it was highly praised by critics.

From the time parts of Iliad began to appear, Pope became the victim of numerous pamphlet attacks on his person, politics, and religion. In 1716 an increased land tax on Roman Catholics forced the Popes to sell their place at Binfield and to settle at Chiswick. The next year Pope's father died, and in 1719 the poet's increased wealth enabled him to move with his mother to Twickenham.

From 1725 to 1726 Pope was engaged in a version of Odyssey. He worked with two other translators, William Broome and Elijah Fenton. They completed half of the translation between them. It was Pope's name, however, that sold the work, and he naturally received the lion's share (biggest part) of the profits.

Editorial work

Pope also undertook several editorial projects. Parnell's Poems (1721) was followed by an edition of the late Duke of Buckingham's Works (1723). Then, in 1725, Pope's six volumes on the works of William Shakespeare (1564–1616) were published. Pope's edits and explanatory notes were notoriously capricious (impulsive and not scholarly). His edition was attacked by Lewis Theobald in Shakespeare Restored (1726), a work that revealed a superior knowledge of editorial technique. This upset Pope, who then made Theobald the original hero of Dunciad.

The Dunciad

In 1726 and 1727 the writer Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) was in England and a guest of Pope. Together they published three volumes of poetry. Renewed contact with Swift must have given a driving force to Pope's poem on "Dulness," which appeared as the three-book Dunciad (1728). Theobald was the prime dunce, and the next year the poem was enlarged by a burlesque (broad comedy) on commentators and textual critics.

Clearly Pope used Dunciad as personal satire to pay off many old scores. But it was also prompted by his distaste for that whole process by which worthless writers gained undeserved literary prominence (fame). The parody (comic imitation) of the classical epic (heroic poem) was accompanied by further mock-heroic elements, including the intervention of a goddess, the epic games of the second book, and the visit to the underworld and the vision of future "glories." Indeed, despite its devastating satire, Dunciad was essentially a phantasmagoric (created by the imagination) treatment by a great comic genius. In 1742 Pope published a fourth book to Dunciad separately, and his last published work was the four-volume Dunciad in 1743.

An Essay on Man

Pope's friendship with the former statesman Henry St. John Bolingbroke, who had settled a few miles from Twickenham, stimulated his interest in philosophy and led to the composition of An Essay on Man. Some ideas expressed in it were probably suggested by Bolingbroke. For example, the notion that earthly happiness is enough to justify the ways of God to man was consistent with Bolingbroke's thinking.

In essence, the Essay is not philosophy (the study of knowledge) but a poet's belief of unity despite differences, of an order embracing the whole multifaceted (many-sided) creation. Pope's sources were ideas that had a long history in Western thought. The most central of these was the doctrine of plenitude, which Pope expressed through the metaphors (a figure of speech in which words or phrases are used to find similarities in things that are not comparable) of a "chain" or "scale" of being. He also asserted that the discordant (not harmonious) parts of life are bound harmoniously together.

Later years

Pope wrote Imitations of Horace from 1733 to 1738. (Horace was a Roman poet who lived from 65 to 8 B.C.E. ) He also wrote many "epistles" (letters to friends) and defenses of his use of personal and political satire. As Pope grew older he became more ill. He described his life as a "long disease," and asthma increased his sufferings in his later years. At times during the last month of his life he became delirious. Pope died on May 30, 1744, and was buried in Twickenham Church.

Alexander Pope used language with genuine inventiveness. His qualities of imagination are seen in the originality with which he handled traditional forms, in his satiric vision of the contemporary world, and in his inspired use of classical models.

JONATHAN SWIFT

Anglo-Irish poet, satirist, essayist, and political pamphleteer Jonathan Swift was born in 1667 in Dublin, Ireland. He spent much of his early adult life in England before returning to Dublin to serve as Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin for the last 30 years of his life. It was this later stage when he would write most of his greatest works. Best known as the author of A Tale Of A Tub (1704), Gulliver’s Travels (1726), and A Modest Proposal (1729), Swift is widely acknowledged as the greatest prose satirist in the history of English literature.

Swift’s father died months before Jonathan was born, and his mother returned to England shortly after giving birth, leaving Jonathan in the care of his uncle in Dublin. Swift's extended family had several interesting literary connections: his grandmother, Elizabeth (Dryden) Swift, was the niece of Sir Erasmus Dryden, grandfather of the poet John Dryden. The same grandmother's aunt, Katherine (Throckmorton) Dryden, was a first cousin of Elizabeth, wife of Sir Walter Raleigh. His great-great grandmother, Margaret (Godwin) Swift, was the sister of Francis Godwin, author of The Man in the Moone which influenced parts of Swift's Gulliver's Travels. His uncle, Thomas Swift, married a daughter of the poet and playwright Sir William Davenant, a godson of William Shakespeare. Swift’s uncle served as Jonathan’s benefactor, sending him to Trinity College Dublin, where he earned his BA and befriended writer William Congreve. Swift also studied toward his MA before the Glorious Revolution of 1688 forced Jonathan to move to England, where he would work as a secretary to a diplomat. He would earn an MA from Hart Hall, Oxford University, in 1692, and eventually a Doctor in Divinity degree from Trinity College Dublin in 1702.

Swift’s poetry has a relationship either by interconnections with, or by reactions against, the poetry of his contemporaries and predecessors. He was probably influenced, in particular, by the Restoration writers John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester and Samuel Butler (who shared Swift’s penchant for octosyllabic verse). He may have picked up pointers from the Renaissance poets John Donne and Sir Philip Sidney. Beside these minor borrowings of his contemporaries, his debts are almost negligible. In the Augustan Age,

an era which did not necessarily value originality above other virtues, his poetic contribution was strikingly original.

In reading Swift’s poems, one is first impressed with their apparent spareness of allusion and poetic device. Anyone can tell that a particular poem is powerful or tender or vital or fierce, but literary criticism seems inadequate to explain why. A few recent critics have carefully studied his use of allusion and image, but with only partial success. It still seems justified to conclude that Swift’s straightforward poetic style seldom calls for close analysis, his allusions seldom bring a whole literary past back to life, and his images are not very interesting in themselves. In general, Swift’s verses read faster than John Dryden’s or Alexander Pope’s, with much less ornamentation and masked wit. He apparently intends to sweep the reader along by the logic of the argument to the several conclusions he puts forth. He seems to expect that the reader will appreciate the implications of the argument as a whole, after one full and rapid reading. For Swift’s readers, the couplet will not revolve slowly upon itself, exhibiting intricate patterns and fixing complex relationships between fictive worlds and contemporary life.

The poems are not always to spare in reality as Swift would have his readers believe, but he seems deliberately to induce in them an unwillingness to look closely at the poems for evidence of technical expertise. He does this in part by working rather obviously against some poetic conventions, in part by saying openly that he rejects poetic cant, and in part by presenting himself—in many of his poems—as a perfectly straightforward man, incapable of a poet’s deviousness. By these strategies, he directs attention away from his handling of imagery and meter, even in those instances where he has been technically ingenious. For the most part, however, the impression of spareness is quite correct; and if judged by the sole criterion of technical density, then he would have to be judged an insignificant poet. But technical density is a poetic virtue only as it simulates and accompanies subtlety of thought. One could argue that Swift’s poems create a density of another kind: that “The Day of Judgement” (1731?), for example, initiates a subtle process of thought that takes place after, rather than during, the reading of the poem, at a time when the mind is more or less detached from the printed page. One could argue as well that Swift makes up in power what he lacks in density: that the strength of the impression created by his directness gives an impetus to prolonged meditation of a very high quality. On these grounds, valuing Swift for what he really is and does, one must judge him a major figure in poetry as well as prose.

Swift suffered a stroke in 1742, leaving him unable to speak. He died three years later, and was buried at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin.

THE SONNET Poetic Form

From the Italian sonetto, which means “a little sound or song," the sonnet is a popular classical form that has compelled poets for centuries. Traditionally, the sonnet is a fourteen-line poem written in iambic pentameter, which employ one of several rhyme schemes and adhere to a tightly structured thematic organization. Two sonnet forms provide the models from which all other sonnets are formed: the Petrarchan and the Shakespearean.

Petrarchan Sonnet

The first and most common sonnet is the Petrarchan, or Italian. Named after one of its greatest practitioners, the Italian poet Petrarch, the Petrarchan sonnet is divided into two stanzas, the octave (the first eight lines) followed by the answering sestet (the final six lines). The tightly woven rhyme scheme, abba, abba, cdecde or cdcdcd, is suited for the rhyme-rich Italian language, though there are many fine examples in English. Since the Petrarchan presents an argument, observation, question, or some other answerable charge in the octave, a turn, or volta, occurs between the eighth and ninth lines. This turn marks a shift in the direction of the foregoing argument or narrative, turning the sestet into the vehicle for the counterargument, clarification, or whatever answer the octave demands.

Sir Thomas Wyatt introduced the Petrarchan sonnet to England in the early sixteenth century. His famed translations of Petrarch’s sonnets, as well as his own sonnets, drew fast attention to the form. Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, a contemporary of Wyatt’s, whose own translations of Petrarch are considered more faithful to the original though less fine to the ear, modified the Petrarchan, thus establishing the structure that became

known as the Shakespearean sonnet. This structure has been noted to lend itself much better to the comparatively rhyme-poor English language.

Shakespearean Sonnet

The second major type of sonnet, the Shakespearean, or English sonnet, follows a different set of rules. Here, three quatrains and a couplet follow this rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg. The couplet plays a pivotal role, usually arriving in the form of a conclusion, amplification, or even refutation of the previous three stanzas, often creating an epiphanic quality to the end. In Sonnet 130 of William Shakespeare’s epic sonnet cycle, the first twelve lines compare the speaker’s mistress unfavorably with nature’s beauties. But the concluding couplet swerves in a surprising direction:

My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips’ red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damasked, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound; I grant I never saw a goddess go; My mistress when she walks treads on the ground. And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare.

Sonnet Variations

Though Shakespeare’s sonnets were perhaps the finest examples of the English sonnet, John Milton’s Italian-patterned sonnets (later known as “Miltonic” sonnets) added several important refinements to the form. Milton freed the sonnet from its typical incarnation in a sequence of sonnets, writing the occasional sonnet that often expressed interior, self-directed concerns. He also took liberties with the turn, allowing the octave to run into the sestet as needed. Both of these qualities can be seen in “When I Consider How My Light is Spent.”

The Spenserian sonnet, invented by sixteenth century English poet Edmund Spenser, cribs its structure from the Shakespearean—three quatrains and a couplet—but employs

a series of “couplet links” between quatrains, as revealed in the rhyme scheme: abab, bcbc, cdcd, ee. The Spenserian sonnet, through the interweaving of the quatrains, implicitly reorganized the Shakespearean sonnet into couplets, reminiscent of the Petrarchan. One reason was to reduce the often excessive final couplet of the Shakespearean sonnet, putting less pressure on it to resolve the foregoing argument, observation, or question.

Sonnet Sequences

There are several types of sonnet groupings, including the sonnet sequence, which is a series of linked sonnets dealing with a unified subject. Examples include Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese and Lady Mary Wroth’s The Countess of Montgomery’s Urania, published in 1621, the first sonnet sequence by an English woman.

Within the sonnet sequence, several formal constraints have been employed by various poets, including the corona (crown) and sonnet redoublé. In the corona, the last line of the initial sonnet acts as the first line of the next, and the ultimate sonnet’s final line repeats the first line of the initial sonnet. La Corona by John Donne is comprised of seven sonnets structured this way. The sonnet redoublé is formed of 15 sonnets, the first 14 forming a perfect corona, followed by the final sonnet, which is comprised of the 14 linking lines in order.

Modern Sonnets

The sonnet has continued to engage the modern poet, many of whom also took up the sonnet sequence, notably Rainer Maria Rilke, Robert Lowell, and John Berryman. Stretched and teased formally and thematically, today’s sonnet can often only be identified by the ghost imprint that haunts it, recognizable by the presence of 14 lines or even by name only. Recent practitioners of this so-called “American” sonnet include Gerald Stern, Wanda Coleman, Ted Berrigan, and Karen Volkman. Hundreds of modern sonnets, as well as those representing the long history of the form, are collected in the anthology The Penguin Book of the Sonnet: 500 Years of a Classic Tradition in English (Penguin Books, 2001), edited by Phillis Levin.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon. The son of John Shakespeare and Mary Arden, he was probably educated at the King Edward VI Grammar School in Stratford, where he learned Latin and a little Greek and read the Roman dramatists. At eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, a woman seven or eight years his senior. Together they raised two daughters: Susanna, who was born in 1583, and Judith (whose twin brother died in boyhood), born in 1585. Little is known about Shakespeare’s activities between 1585 and 1592. Robert Greene’s A Groatsworth of Wit alludes to him as an actor and playwright. Shakespeare may have taught at school during this period, but it seems more probable that shortly after 1585 he went to London to begin his apprenticeship as an actor. Due to the plague, the London theaters were often closed between June 1592 and April 1594. During that period, Shakespeare probably had some income from his patron, Henry Wriothesley, earl of Southampton, to whom he dedicated his first two poems, Venus and Adonis (1593) and The Rape of Lucrece (1594). The former was a long narrative poem depicting the rejection of Venus by Adonis, his death, and the consequent disappearance of beauty from the world. Despite conservative objections to the poem’s glorification of sensuality, it was immensely popular and was reprinted six times during the nine years following its publication.

In 1594, Shakespeare joined the Lord Chamberlain’s company of actors, the most popular of the companies acting at Court. In 1599 Shakespeare joined a group of Chamberlain’s Men that would form a syndicate to build and operate a new playhouse: the Globe, which became the most famous theater of its time. With his share of the

income from the Globe, Shakespeare was able to purchase New Place, his home in Stratford.

While Shakespeare was regarded as the foremost dramatist of his time, evidence indicates that both he and his contemporaries looked to poetry, not playwriting, for enduring fame. Shakespeare’s sonnets were composed between 1593 and 1601, though not published until 1609. That edition, The Sonnets of Shakespeare, consists of 154 sonnets, all written in the form of three quatrains and a couplet that is now recognized as Shakespearean. The sonnets fall into two groups: sonnets 1-126, addressed to a beloved friend, a handsome and noble young man, and sonnets 127-152, to a malignant but fascinating “Dark Lady," who the poet loves in spite of himself. Nearly all of Shakespeare’s sonnets examine the inevitable decay of time, and the immortalization of beauty and love in poetry.

In his poems and plays, Shakespeare invented thousands of words, often combining or contorting Latin, French, and native roots. His impressive expansion of the English language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, includes such words as: arch-villain, birthplace, bloodsucking, courtship, dewdrop, downstairs, fanged, heartsore, hunchbacked, leapfrog, misquote, pageantry, radiance, schoolboy, stillborn, watchdog, and zany.

Shakespeare wrote more than thirty plays. These are usually divided into four categories: histories, comedies, tragedies, and romances. His earliest plays were primarily comedies and histories such as Henry VI and The Comedy of Errors, but in 1596, Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet, his second tragedy, and over the next dozen years he would return to the form, writing the plays for which he is now best known: Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra. In his final years, Shakespeare turned to the romantic with Cymbeline, A Winter’s Tale, and The Tempest.

Only eighteen of Shakespeare’s plays were published separately in quarto editions during his lifetime; a complete collection of his works did not appear until the publication of the First Folio in 1623, several years after his death. Nonetheless, his contemporaries recognized Shakespeare’s achievements. Francis Meres cited “honey-tongued” Shakespeare for his plays and poems in 1598, and the Chamberlain’s Men rose to become the leading dramatic company in London, installed as members of the royal household in 1603.

Sometime after 1612, Shakespeare retired from the stage and returned to his home in Stratford. He drew up his will in January of 1616, which included his famous bequest to

his wife of his “second best bed.” He died on April 23, 1616, and was buried two days later at Stratford Church.

ELIZABETHAN THEATRE

Elizabethan drama was the dominant art form that flourished during and a little after the reign of Elizabeth I, who was Queen of England from 1558 to 1603. Before, drama consisted of simple morality plays and interludes, which were skits performed at the banquets of the Queen’s father Henry VIII or at public schools at Eton. The Elizabethan era saw the birth of plays that were far more morally complex, vital and diverse.

As with the interludes, the earliest Elizabethan plays were put on for university students. They were modelled after the comedies of the Roman playwrights Plautus and Terence and the tragedies of Seneca.

The First Playhouses and First Playwrights

In 1576, James Burbage, an actor and theatre-builder, built the first successful English playhouse in London on land he had leased in Shoreditch. It was simply called The Theatre and was supported by young playwrights from Cambridge and Oxford Universities. These young men became known as the University Wits and included Thomas Kyd, Robert Green, John Lyly, Thomas Nash and George Peele. The play The Spanish Tragedy, written by Kyd, was the template for the gory “tragedy of blood,” plays that became wildly popular. Another theatre called The Curtain had to be built to accommodate the overflow audiences. The technical name for such as theatre was an easer.

Burbage also had a house in Blackfriars which had a roof. Because of this, it was used for plays during the winter. Burbage’s son Richard was an even more famous actor and performed just about every major role in William Shakespeare’s plays. He was lauded for his roles in the tragedies. The only thing that stopped the plays was the plague, and the theatres were dark from June, 1592 to April, 1594.

The Audience and Actors

Elizabethan theatre itself was notoriously raucous. People, most of whom stood throughout the play, talked back to the actors as if they were real people. Hints of this can be discerned even in Shakespeare’s plays. It is true that adolescent boy actors played female roles, and the performances were held in the afternoon because there was no artificial light. There was also no scenery to speak of, and the costumes let the audience know the social status of the characters. Because sumptuary laws restricted what a person could wear according to their class, actors were licensed to wear clothing above their station.

Shakespeare

More and more theatres grew up around London and eventually attracted Shakespeare, who wrote some of the greatest plays in world literature. His plays continue to cast a shadow over all other plays of the era and quite possibly all other plays that came after his.

But Shakespeare was not the first great playwright of the Elizabethan age. That would be Christopher Marlowe. Many scholars believe that Marlowe might have rivalled Shakespeare had he not been murdered when he was 29 years old in a fight over a tavern bill in 1593. He was the first to change the conventions of the early Elizabethan plays with his tales of overreachers like the title character of Tamburlaine the Great, Dr. Faustus and Barabas in The Jew of Malta, men whose will to power provided the engines for the plays. Marlowe used blank, or unrhymed verse in a new, dynamic way that changed the very psychology of dramaturgy.

In the meantime, Peele and Lyly were writing light comedies and fantasies such as Endymion. These plays were performed at court, which were not only patrons but protected the companies from the wrath of the Puritans, who found theatre sinful. One of the companies who performed at court, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, had Shakespeare as a member.

This company became the King’s Men under the patronage of James I.

The Globe Theatre

The Puritan reaction against the stage was such that the players had to set up theatres outside the London city limits on the south side of the Thames, but attending plays remained popular among non-Puritans. The most famous of these theatres, which became the Lord Chamberlain’s Men home, was the Globe Theatre. It was established in 1599 and was actually a new iteration of The Theatre, which Richard Burbage and his brother Cuthbert had moved and reassembled. In between the closing of The Theatre and the opening of The Globe, the Chamberlain’s Men performed at The Curtain.

The Globe premiered some of Shakespeare’s greatest plays, including Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth and King Lear. It’s very design influenced the design of other theatres, but unfortunately The Globe was destroyed in a fire during a performance of Shakespeare’s Henry VIII, which was his final play and of such inferior quality that some scholars don’t believe it was written by him at all. The Globe was rebuilt in 1614 and remained standing until 1644 when it was demolished to make room for housing.

The Armada

Historians believe that the flowering of Elizabethan drama was due in part to the burst of patriotic confidence and national identity that erupted after England’s victory over the Spanish Armada in 1588. This was a fleet of ships assembled by Philip II of Spain to conquer England. The conquest failed through a combination of hubris, bad weather, English ingenuity and some help from the Dutch.

It might not be a coincidence that Shakespeare began to contribute in earnest to Elizabethan dramaturgy around 1588, when he was 24, though he’d arrived in London from his home in Stratford on Avon around 1585 to seek work as an actor. As a playwright, he gave Marlowe’s blank verse more range, flexibility and subtlety. He responded to the patriotic mood of the country with his History plays. Besides these plays, of course, were his magnificent comedies and tragedies.

Late Elizabethan Drama

Ben Jonson was a friend of Shakespeare and considered his chief rival after the death of Marlowe. However, Jonson followed the strict classical form that was a hallmark of ancient Latin drama. His plays include Vulpine, or the Fox and The Alchemist. Other dramatists of the late Elizabethan period, which continued after her death, included John Webster, Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. Richard Burbage also acted in the plays of Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher as well as Shakespeare.

By 1600, three years before Elizabeth died, the robustness of Elizabethan drama began to fade. After Shakespeare’s retirement after 1612 and his death in 1616, Elizabethan drama was no more.

THE RESTORATION (1660 – 1714)

The Restoration marked the end of the period of fanaticism belonged to the Stuart House. The first protagonist was Charles II that was considered a very immoral king because he represented all the bad behaviours and reflected them in his court. He came back in England after a long period of exile in France where he knew the policy of Luis XIV and his absolute power.

In the first period of his monarchy there was the bubonic plague, in the second there was a great fire that destroyed London in 1666 and it was rebuilt by Christopher Wren (an important architect of the age). The puritans believed that these two catastrophes were caused by the immorality of the king as a divine punishment.

In 1673 the convention of parliament named the king “Cavalier Parliament” and imposed him to sign the Text Act that didn’t give him the opportunity to introduce Catholics in public offices.

In this period the Parliament was divided into Whigs and Tories. The former derived their name from cattle drivers and they were the descendants of the Parliamentarians; they didn’t believe in the absolute power of the king and of the Church and thought they had the right to remove the king if it was proved his misgovernment. The Tories instead of derived their name from the Irish name “tory” that translated means “outlaw”, they were the descendants of the Royalists and supported the cause of the Church of England,

the crown and the landed gentlemen. They held (sostenevano) the view that kings ruled by divine right, which is the will of God.

When Charles II died, his brother James II took his place, he was so immoral as him, and he wanted to impose the Catholicism in England again. He changed the rights of the Church and of the state, and put himself against Tories and Whigs. But his son in law William of Orange, that saw his land in danger, decided to move to London in 1688 helped by the Tories and the Whigs and put in exile the king and his family without firing a single shot. He was named king of England and became William III. He with his wife Mary II created a combination between Church, Parliament and Crown and there was a important change in the politic structure in fact the crown wasn’t hereditary but was a choice of Parliament; his power was established by the Bill of Rights of 1639 (in this document the king cannot impose taxes, martial law in peace time o keep an army without the consent of the Parliament).

In this period there was another important document: the Toleration Act that gave all the power to the Protestants but the Catholics were no more persecuted. The reign of William III and Mary II was a period of economic progress until he was succeeded by his sister in law (cognata), Anne. She was a obstinate woman, her reign was marked by English intervention against the France in the war of Spanish Succession. It ended with the signing of the Treaties of Utrecht in which England was recognized as the biggest navy fleet of the nations.

LITERATURE

The Restoration was characterized by a break with the past and it introduced innovations. The most representative poet was Ben Johnson who put the bases of the artistic movement of Neo Classicism. The true spirit of Restoration was satiric; the theatre had a renovation, also the actors roles were defined; in fact the male characters were played by men and female roles by women.

A new character was created: the fop who was brilliant and elegant, witty (arguto) and cynical, great and simple; the hero child.

The best literary expression was the Comedy of Manners (Commedia delle Maniere). The words were more familiar without heroic setting and other realistic elements were the introduction of the sex and money in the representation. Ben Johnson with his Comedy of Manners and specifically with Comedy of Humours represented his themes in comedy and contemporary some elements from Molière and the Italian Commedia dell’Arte.

The sign of Newton was important for the literary production.

THE FEATURES

The word “comedy” comes from the Greek comodìa, probably meanings Dinonysiac feast song, generally linked to village feasts. Its features are:

· The characters are represented in amusing way, the comedy begins with a misfortune (sventura) but doesn’t end with the dead of the principal character

· It represent the falls of the society

· It was developed the comic character that have a principal role

· The argument is mainly a love – matter

We can distinguish different types of comedies such as:

· Romantic, that was developed in Shakespeare times (Romeo and Juliet)

· Satiric, that have a moralizing corpus and represents the human vices

In the Comedy of Manners the characters belonged to the upper class and the public was selected and was composed all by intellectual audience because it was used a formal language. The techniques were ironic and satiric and there was the use of a witty prose language, capable of describing in usual terms a particular social behaviour.

THE AUGUSTAN AGE (1714 – 1760)

This age was called Augustan Age because it established a parallel between the literary production during Augustus empire and after the civil wars in Rome and the literary production with the return of Charles II after the English civil war. It shows some differences from Renaissance and Puritan Age, in fact the model in this period as literary genre acquired a great importance.

There was a new house that substitute the Stuart’s House: the Hannover. Anne was the last queen of the Stuart and when she died, her nearest relative was George of Hannover that became George I. This provoked a change in the court because the king didn’t love England : he preferred Germany. Because he was more interested to German Affairs than English ones, he could no speak English. The Parliament intervened and imposed his supremacy in the court.

When in 1715 a Jacobite rebellion (Jacobites, from “Jacobus” the Latin for James, were the supporters of the Catholic James II) broke out in Scotland, the Parliament had a big role to ht it. The Tory part was weakened by this and the Whigs power grow up; in fact it was the period in which the Parliament created some cabinet of ministers that decided about social and political business. At first the cabinets ministers were all similar but later some minister becoming to govern and born the first Prime Minister: Robert Walpole. He was in power for twenty years, and increased the trading outside; it gave a period of richness to the country. The trade was stimulated by the removal of customs duties on exports and on imports of raw materials . It create the possibility to put down the taxes of the population and in the same time with the taxation of coffee, chocolate and tea both checked smuggling and increased government revenue. It was also the most important period for industrial field. Walpole organized this that became one of the

most important economic period for England. Then there was the second Jacobite revolt guided by Charles Edward, a descendant of the Stuart family, that was stopped because either Whigs and Tories didn’t want a return of Catholicism in England not only for the richness but also because they didn’t want to go under the dominion of the catholic France or to make alliance with it, that was their great trade rival. When Walpole died the second Prime Minister was William Pitt, who wanted that Great Britain became economically strong in the

world to compete with the other industrial nations. His mercantilist policy led to a new way of living and to the establishment of the new values of power, wealth and prestige embodied in the middle classes. The new bourgeois man seeking his profits all over the world was reflected in the literary character of the time, Robinson Crusoe (by Daniel Defoe)*.

In 1756 the Seven Years War broke out against the France: it was fought all over the world and concerned with maintaining the balance of power in Europe. The England won and conquered other lands such us India, Quebec, a part of Africa and the Islands of Guadeloupe. It increased trading of sugar, wood, fish and also slaves.

It’s important to say that the middle class was more important; they were merchants who created new power in society. This social class was called Bath Society: bath was the most fashionable spa in the 18th century: people went there to take the waters as a remedy for gout or indigestion, but especially for social intercourse. So Bath Society became the symbol of the coalition between wealthy and gentry.

In this period there was a high mortality for children because the middle class wasn’t so rich (it was composed by artisans, merchants, bankers and miners) and their children had to work 12 hours to day. There was the mob that was very poor and the whose children can’t study: if they don’t died from six - seven years old yet began to work. The miner have a great role because we have the introduction of the gold.

England opened its doors to literate people that had the possibility to give men way to discuss: the Coffee House became a new place of communication, based on the meeting of the persons. Therefore we have the birth of journalism. But this place was only for men and this situation was very important to underline the female discrimination in the period; the women could only married, they cannot go to the university and they had no power in the family. This is the motive because the female novel acquired a great value to identify their role in the society.

In the second half of the century an enthusiasm for the genteel education of young girls swept through the middle classes, from the upper regions of affluence and position to the

working classes. The kind of education these young ladies received soon came under heavy attack from preachers and moralists, who argued that instruction in ethics and domestic usefulness, which were the basis of good motherhood and happy, ordered homes, was sacrificed for the acquisition of superficial, genteel accomplishments, like painting, music, foreign languages, and elocution. Toward the end of the century the previous point of view changed. Woman was a being who can reason and reflect, and feel, and judge, and act; one who can assist her man in his affairs, lighten his cares, strengthen his principles and educate his children.

The ure of the fallen woman was gradually turned into the sentimental picture of Magdalen in literature who complemented the Madonna. These two ures were to enjoy great popularity during the Romantic Age and the Victorian Age.

The 18th century presented itself to the critic in two main blocks: one represented by Neoclassicism, the other as a gradual reaction to the neoclassical contrasts in the form of Early Romanticism. On the whole however the new century marked some of the characteristics of the Restoration, like the cynical attitude towards love in society. The democratic wave following the bloody revolution of 1688 and the great political and economic power acquired by the middle class, the new notion of the gentleman created new conditions for the literature of the century:

· Limitation of nature

· The three major aspects of nature: the good, the beautiful and the true that are one

· Art and literature are meant to educate as well as to entertain

· Simplicity must be used to a careful balancing of all elements

It was an age of wise traditionalism, of elegance and wit, but also a distinctive moment in the making of modern England. It was a materialist society; worldly, pragmatic, responsive to economic pressure. The state did not deal in abstractions such as social justice, equality or fraternity, though it was to protect legal rights. Respect for rights, however, would not tolerate interference in private property. It was in many ways an extraordinarily free and open age. Enlightened thinkers, from the philosopher Locke to popularizers such as Addison and Goldsmith, rejected the Calvinist theology of original sin and depravity of man.

Optimism encouraged faith in progress and human perfectibility, and made people eager to try new ways trusting their own powers: reason, which made them different from the beast, and, in case of doubt when making a choice or a decision, common sense.

Nature also extended to the universe beyond the earth. It was seen as the complex system or set of principles divinely ordained and manifested in the Creation. Man should conform to this system, whose interpreters were the moralist and the poet.

LITERATURE

The literature of the Augustan Age was characterized by remarkable output in a variety of genres, which reflected the economic and intellectual progress of the period, and an increasing popular interest in reading. In the country, farmers and labourers were quite illiterate, while in the towns semi-literacy was commoner than total illiteracy. There were few schools and the attendance at these schools was usually too short and irregular. Children of the lower classes used to leave school when they were six or seven to start work in factories or in fields. Another factor which limited the reading public was economic consideration: books were very expensive. For those of the lower classes there were cheaper forms of printed material. Many of newspapers published short stories and novels in serial form.

By far the largest category of books published in the 18th century, as in previous ages, was religious.

The poetry of the age was by no means a secondary genre. Breaking with the tradition of Metaphysical poetry it continued the poetic trend of the Restoration: the poet’s function was to provide “social” poetry, that is to say models of refined behaviour presented in a classical pattern.

As for drama, at the beginning of the 18th century, the public expanded as a result of the altering structure of society. At first the performances were limited in scope, but soon a story was told silently by means of gestures and expressive movement: that

was the beginning of pantomime, a form of theatrical representation which owed much to the activities of various French and Italian troupes which from season to season entertained London audiences.

Another popular kind of play was melodrama, where vice was always punished, sinners reclaimed, distressed maidens saved, generosity rewarded. Thrills and laughter mingled and the language was emotional and extravagant.

The Restoration Comedy of Manners was replaced by the Sentimental Comedy a type of play dealing with everyday problems of family and marriage in clear simple language, which aimed at showing virtue triumphant over vice.

The absolute leader of English poetry in the first half of the century was Alexander Pope (1688 – 1744). Pope was born by catholic parents and in the period in which Catholicism was persecuted. His religion debarred him from university education and public office. He made personal studies thanks to the help of his friends. His knowledge of classical language offered him the possibility to become the translator of Omero’s Iliad and Odyssey.

The first newspaper in the modern sense was “The Review” by Daniel Defoe, in which it was supported the cause of the Whigs. It contained political and economic articles too. Another important journal for the literary point of vie was the periodical “Essay ” which attained in the publication of the “Spectator” by Richard Steele, who also published for six month “The Guardian” that contained moral and politic matters, and Joseph Addison. “The Spectator” is the best of all periodical Essays, in it Addison and Steele created a number of characters belonging to the spectator Club; the most famous of theme were: the Templar (the student of law), the Clergy man, Sir Andrew Freeport (the new city merchant) and Sir Roger de Coverley (the tory country squire). They were representatives of the social classes of this time; so the purpose of this periodical was to instruct and to improve private and public moral but also private and public manners. There was a criticism of Restoration in morality but one of the ideas main proposed was to establish a model of behaviour for the new emerging social that did not accept the models of the aristocracy and hadn’t a own one.

Then the Essay had a extraordinary importance and influence to elevate the moral links and to improve the social behaviour of the middle class.

THE RISE OF THE NOVEL

Defoe and Richardson are generally regarded as the fathers of the English novel, though they did not constitute a literary school. It is possible, however, to state that some features are common to all their novels. The 18th century novelist was the spokesman of the middle classes and he was mainly directed to a bourgeois public.

So the plots which had traditionally formed the backbone of English literature for centuries – plots taken from history, legend and mythology – were abandoned by the new novelists to write in a simple way in order to be understood even by less well educated readers.

The writer aime at realism; he tried to portray different human experiences, and not only those suited to one particular literary perspective: the realism of the novel was not linked to the kind of life presented, but to the way it was shown. The subject of the novel is always the bourgeois man and his problems. All the characters struggle either for survival or social success, as in Defoe’s and Richardson’s novels, and they can be divided into two groups:

· The former was composed by those people who believe in reason, like Robinson Crusoe

· The latter by those who cannot control their passions and subordinate reason to their cravings, like Moll Flanders

The fact that characters were given contemporary names and surnames was something new and served to reinforce the impression of realism.

A chronological sequence of events was generally adapted by the novelists.

Great attention was paid to the setting. Where the action happened: time and place are considered two different aspects of the same reality. In previous fiction the idea of place had been vague and fragmentary but in the new novels, specific references to names of streets and towns, together with detailed descriptions of interiors, helped render the narrative even more realistic. The writer was omnipresent and the narrator omniscient, and he never abandoned his characters.

FUTURE CONTINUOUS AND FUTURE PERFECT

FUTURE CONTINUOUS

Il Future Continuous serve per indicare un’azione che si starà svolgendo in un determinato periodo di tempo nel futuro o quando si ‘immagina’ un’azione in corso in un momento fisso nel futuro:

Come si costruisce?

• Forma affermativa: soggetto + will + be + verbo (alla forma -ing);

• Forma negativa: soggetto + will not (won’t) + be + verbo (alla forma -ing);

• Forma interrogativa: will + soggetto + be + verbo (alla forma -ing).

Esempi:

• Tomorrow at 5.00 o’clock I will be working in the office (Domani alle 5 starò

lavorando in ufficio);

• He’ll be travelling to Rome at 8 (Alle 8 sarà in viaggio per Roma);

• Will they be meeting at 9 o’clock on Monday? (Lunedì alle 9 si staranno

incontrando?)

• In 3 years’ time I’ll be leading my team (In 3 anni sarò a capo del mio team).

FUTURE PERFECT

Il Future Perfect serve per esprimere un’azione che sarà già avvenuta nel

futuro; questo particolare tempo verbale si abbina bene con “By….” e un tempo fisso

nel futuro.

Come si costruisce?

• Forma affermativa: soggetto + will + have + verbo (al past participle);

• Forma negativa: soggetto + will not (won’t) + have + verbo (al past participle);

• Forma interrogativa: will + soggetto + have + verbo (al past participle).

Esempi:

• By Monday she will have already had the interview (Lunedì lei avrà già avuto il

colloquio);

• By 2017 my company will have launched the product into the market (Entro il 2017

la mia azienda avrà lanciato il prodotto sul mercato);

• I still won’t have had any management experience by the time I’m 30 (Prima di fare

30 anni non avrò ancora avuto dell’esperienza nell’ambito manageriale.)

LE “IF CLAUSES”

Le “if clauses” (dette anche: Conditional Sentences o Conditional Clauses) servono a

costruire il periodo ipotetico in inglese. Ciò vuol dire che l'azione descritta nella frase

principale (senza if) potrà realizzarsi soltanto se la condizione menzionata nella frase

con if è o sarà reale.

Come si usano e come si formano

1° tipo (condizione possibile)

Utilizziamo la if clause di 1° tipo quando è possibile soddisfare la condizione menzionata nella frase principale nel presente o nel futuro.

if + Present Simple, will-Future

Esempio: If I have time, I will help you. (Forse dopo avrò del tempo a disposizione.)

2° tipo (condizione non possibile da soddisfare nel presente)

Utilizziamo il 2° tipo quando la condizione menzionata non si potrà soddisfare nel presente/futuro.

if + Simple Past, would + verbo all'infinito

Esempio: If I had time, I would help you. (Lo so che non avrò del tempo a disposizione.)

Se nella if clause di 2° tipo è presente il verbo il verbo be, dobbiamo utilizzare la

forma were (e non was).

Esempio: If I were you, I would not do this. (non: If I was you, …)

3° tipo (condizione non soddisfatta nel passato)

Utilizziamo il 3° tipo quando una condizione non è stata soddisfatta nel passato.

if + Past Perfect, would have + Past Participle

Esempio: If I had had time, I would have helped you. (Non ho avuto tempo.)

Nella proposizione condizionale possiamo impiegare anche altri verbi modali al posto

di will/would, cambia però il significato.

Esempio: If I have time, I can/could/may/might help you.

If I had time, I could/might help you.

If I had had time, I could/might have helped you.

Osservazioni sulla costruzione della frase

Se la if clause è preceduta dalla frase principale non si mette la virgola tra le due frasi.

Esempio: I will help you if I have time.

I would help you if I had time.

I would have helped you if I had had time.

MEET THE CELTS

The Iron Age is the age of the "Celt" in Britain. Over the 500 or so years leading up

to the first Roman invasion a Celtic culture established itself throughout the British

Isles. For a start, the concept of a "Celtic" people is a modern and somewhat romantic

reinterpretation of history. The “Celts” were warring tribes who certainly wouldn’t

have seen themselves as one people at the time. The "Celts" as we traditionally regard

them exist largely in the magnificence of their art and the words of the Romans who

fought them. The trouble with the reports of the Romans is that they were a mix of

reportage and political propaganda. It was politically expedient for the Celtic peoples

to be colored as barbarians and the Romans as a great civilizing force. And history

written by the winners is always suspect.

What we do know is that the people we call Celts gradually infiltrated Britain over

the course of the centuries between about 500 and 100 B.C. There was probably

never an organized Celtic invasion; for one thing the Celts were so fragmented and

given to fighting among themselves that the idea of a concerted invasion would have

been ludicrous. The Celts were a group of peoples loosely tied by similar language,

religion, and cultural expression. They were not centrally governed, and quite as

happy to fight each other as any non-Celt. They were warriors, living for the glories

of battle and plunder. They were also the people who brought iron working to the

British Isles.

The advent of iron

The use of iron had amazing repercussions. First, it changed trade and fostered local

independence. Trade was essential during the Bronze Age, for not every area was

naturally endowed with the necessary ores to make bronze. Iron, on the other hand,

was relatively cheap and available almost everywhere.

Hill forts

The time of the "Celtic conversion" of Britain saw a huge growth in the number of

hill forts throughout the region. These were often small ditch and bank combinations

encircling defensible hilltops. Some are small enough that they were of no practical

use for more than an individual family, though over time many larger forts were built.

The curious thing is that we don't know if the hill forts were built by the native

Britons to defend themselves from the encroaching Celts, or by the Celts as they

moved their way into hostile territory. Usually these forts contained no source of

water, so their use as long term settlements is doubtful, though they may have been

useful indeed for withstanding a short term siege. Many of the hill forts were built on

top of earlier causewayed camps.

Celtic family life

The basic unit of Celtic life was the clan, a sort of extended family. The term

"family" is a bit misleading, for by all accounts the Celts practiced a peculiar form of

child rearing; they didn't rear them, they farmed them out. Children were actually

raised by foster parents. The foster father was often the brother of the birth-mother.

Clans were bound together very loosely with other clans into tribes, each of which

had its own social structure and customs, and possibly its own local gods. The Celts

lived in huts of arched timber with walls of wicker and roofs of thatch. The huts were

generally gathered in loose hamlets. In several places each tribe had its own coinage

system. The Celts were farmers when they weren't fighting. One of the interesting

innovations that they brought to Britain was the iron plough. Earlier ploughs had

been awkward affairs, basically a stick with a pointed end harnessed behind two

oxen. They were suitable only for ploughing the light upland soils. The heavier iron

ploughs constituted an agricultural revolution all by themselves, for they made it

possible for the first time to cultivate the rich valley and lowland soils. They came

with a price, though. It generally required a team of eight oxen to pull the plough, so

to avoid the difficulty of turning that large a team, Celtic fields tended to be long and

narrow, a pattern that can still be seen in some parts of the country today.

Language

There was a written Celtic language, but it developed well into Christian times, so for

much of Celtic history they relied on oral transmission of culture, primarily through

the efforts of bards and poets. These arts were tremendously important to the Celts,

and much of what we know of their traditions comes to us today through the old tales

and poems that were handed down for generations before eventually being written

down.

Religion

From what we know of the Celts from Roman commentators, who are, remember,

witnesses with an axe to grind, they held many of their religious ceremonies in

woodland groves and near sacred water, such as wells and springs. The Romans

speak of human sacrifice as being a part of Celtic religion. One thing we do know,

the Celts revered human heads. Celtic warriors would cut off the heads of their

enemies in battle and display them as trophies.

They mounted heads in doorposts and hung them from their belts. This might seem

barbaric to us, but to the Celt the seat of spiritual power was the head, so by taking

the head of a vanquished foe they were appropriating that power for themselves. It

was a kind of bloody religious observance. The Iron Age is when we first find

cemeteries of ordinary people’s burials (in hole-in-the-ground graves) as opposed to

the elaborate barrows of the elite few that provide our main records of burials in

earlier periods. The main problem with the Celts was that they couldn't stop fighting

among themselves long enough to put up a unified front. Each tribe was out for itself,

and in the long run this cost them control of Britain.

HENRY II

King of England from 1154, Henry strengthened royal administration but suffered

from quarrels with Thomas Becket and his own family.

Henry was born at Le Mans in north west France on 4 March 1133. His father was

Count of Anjou and his mother Matilda, daughter of Henry I of England. Henry had

named Matilda as his successor to the English throne but her cousin Stephen had

taken over.

In 1150 - 1151, Henry became ruler of Normandy and Anjou, after the death of his

father. In 1152, he married Eleanor of Aquitaine, the greatest heiress in western

Europe. In 1153, he crossed to England to pursue his claim to the throne, reaching an

agreement that he would succeed Stephen on his death, which occurred in 1154.

Henry's now began to restore order. Using his talented chancellor Thomas Becket,

Henry began reorganising the judicial system. The Assize of Clarendon (1166)

established procedures of criminal justice, establishing courts and prisons for those

awaiting trial. In addition, the assizes gave fast and clear verdicts, enriched the

treasury and extended royal control.

In 1164, Henry reasserted his ancestral rights over the church. Now archbishop of

Canterbury, Becket refused to comply. An attempted reconciliation failed and Becket

punished priests who had co-operated with Henry. On hearing this Henry reportedly

exclaimed, 'Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?' Four knights took his words

literally and murdered Becket in Canterbury Cathedral in December 1170. Almost

overnight Becket became a saint. Henry reconciled himself with the church, but royal

control over the church changed little.

In 1169, an Anglo-Norman force landed in Ireland to support of one of the claimants

to the Irish high kingship. Fearing the creation of a separate Norman power to the

west, Henry travelled to Dublin to assert his overlordship of the territory they had

won. And so, an English presence in Ireland was established. In the course of his

reign, Henry had dominion over territories stretching from the Ireland to the

Pyrenees.

Henry now had problems within his own family. His sons - Henry, Geoffrey, Richard

and John - mistrusted each other and resented their father's policy of dividing land

among them. There were serious family disputes in 1173, 1181 and 1184. The king's

attempt to find an inheritance for John led to opposition from Richard and Philip II of

France. Henry was forced to give way. News that John had also turned against him

hastened Henry's death on 6 July 1189.

THE BIRTH OF PARLIAMENT

When John Lackland died, his nine year-old son became the new king of England. His name was Henry III (the third) but he was too young to rule the nation so a group of barons decided to help him govern the country. Initially it was called “the Great Council” and it was composed by the barons but also by two knights from every shire and two merchants from the big towns (who represented the ordinary freemen). These meetings were immediately called “Parliaments” from the French word “parler” because they discussed the decisions to take. When Henry died his son Edward I who succeed him wanted to continue this experiment and he gave life to what was called “model Parliament” in 1295. It now included barons, the clergy, two knights from each shire and two citizens from each town. In this first form of Parliament there was the initial structure of Modern Parliament in England with its two Houses: the House of Commons and the House of Lords. (anyhow at that time the Commons, that were the knights and the citizens, were not necessary because they had little part in the real decisions of the Parliament).

Consent for taxation

At the close of the 13th century the idea that Parliament had to give consent to the changes and demands that the king wished to make became an essential ingredient in the granting of taxation. Kings originally demanded taxes to make up shortfalls in the income from their personal estates, but during the reign of Edward I the cost of almost constant warfare compelled the king to ask Parliament for authority to levy taxes. As a result, taxation and representation became linked - the consent of the people of the realm being required before they would allow the king to tax their lands and goods. This was formally established by statute in 1362.

Representing the whole nation

In the 14th century Parliament began to involve the three estates of the realm (lords, clergy and commons) more fully. In 1312, during Edward II's troubled reign, a group of lords, led by Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, claimed to represent the whole nation when they introduced ordinances to limit the king's reliance on 'bad' councillors and to trim his power. These ordinances made no reference to the voice of the clergy or the commons. Then in 1322 Parliament repealed the ordinances because they had not been agreed by the full council of the realm, but only by a council of lords. From that time, all major matters were to be 'treated, accorded and established in Parliament' by agreement between the king and all the estates of the realm.

Growth of Parliament's scope and power

The outbreak of the Hundred Years' War in 1337 enhanced the importance of Parliament's function, since many more taxes were levied to raise funds to fight the French and Scots. The focus of the entire country upon maintaining armies in the field took place against the disastrous background of the Black Death (1348-50). The leaders of the realm used Parliament to preserve their position at the top of society as the decline in population gave the peasantry economic power for the first time. Important Acts were passed that enforced economic ties to the land, hunting rights, and the prices that labourers could charge. As an agent of aristocratic influence, Parliament played a part in creating the conditions that prompted the Peasants' Revolt in 1381.

The right of Parliament to criticise the Crown and its choice of ministers developed more strongly towards the end of the 14th century. For example, the Good Parliament of 1376 criticised the government carried on in the name of the ageing Edward III. This parliament also saw the first instance of impeachment - the procedure whereby

the Commons, representing the realm, brought an offender to trial before the House of Lords.

After 1399, when Henry Bolingbroke usurped the throne as Henry IV, Parliament

became a tool in the struggle for the Crown among the descendants of Edward III.

Because Henry was aware of the uncertain foundations on which his kingship rested,

Parliament was able to secure concessions from him. In 1401 the Commons insisted

that they would only grant taxes after their grievances had been addressed, and in

1407 they stipulated that all grants of taxation were to originate from the Commons.

By 1414, the first year of Henry V's reign, the Commons had gained an equal footing

with the Lords in passing legislation - an important stage in acknowledging the voice

of the wider population.

From the 1450s to the 1520s Parliament helped to unravel the legal and political

consequences of the Wars of the Roses. The ability of 'overmighty' nobles to

undermine royal authority was challenged through legal manipulation of inheritances

and landholding. Rebels and traitors were attainted in Parliament, and their lands

forfeited. Political opponents found themselves denounced and excluded by factions

among the Lords and their followers in the Commons. Parliament's role in passing

such Acts did not directly affect the rights of the whole population, but it did alter the

power and influence of the political leaders, which in turn affected how local

communities functioned. This period also witnessed the first widespread attempts to

influence elections through bribery and intimidation and to pack the Commons with

sympathetic MPs.

Late medieval and Tudor monarchs tried to use Parliament as the forum where their

personal wishes were turned into law. The election of a friendly speaker of the

Commons could determine how votes were cast and what Bills were passed. In 1484

Richard III used just such a technique when the speaker, his close ally William

Catesby, used the authority of Parliament to endorse the deposing of Edward V.

Parliament under the Tudors

During Henry VIII's reign, parliamentary Acts helped to shape modern England. The authority of Parliament was employed to make the massive changes to English society in measures such as the dissolution of the monasteries and the establishment of the Church of England. These changes had a profound effect on how ordinary subjects viewed their nation and its rulers, since they removed the ancient monastic presence from English communities and introduced religious divisions that reverberated throughout the United Kingdom.

The result was a major protest from the northern counties, in the shape of the 1536 rebellion known as the Pilgrimage of Grace. At the same time, Henry's reign witnessed important political steps towards a united kingdom. The Acts of Union of 1536-43 brought Wales into the English pattern of lordship, and the new Welsh counties were first represented in Parliament in 1536.

During the Tudor period detailed records of proceedings in the House of Commons began to be kept. A number of test cases, such as those of George Ferrer in 1543 and William Strickland in 1571, defended the rights and privileges of MPs against Crown intervention in Parliament's operation. Disputed elections were to be decided by standing committees from 1586.

Although parliaments were still called by the monarch, Parliament was becoming determined to preserve its independence from the Crown. By 1621, when James I asked for taxes to send military aid to the Palatinate, the Commons used the opportunity to debate the matter against the king's wishes - thus asserting their ancient right to debate any subject, without royal interference.

Enduring principles

Parliament has remained a stable institution - the basic principle of representation through election remains unaltered, and the idea of consent for taxation is still a vital aspect of any democratic political system. Especially since the 17th century,

Parliament has played a central role in shaping the development of Britain and in defining the rights and responsibilities of British citizens.

THE ACT OF SUPREMACY

The Acts of Supremacy are two acts of the Parliament of England passed in 1534

and 1559 which established King Henry VIII of England and subsequent monarchs as

the supreme head of the Church of England. Prior to 1534, the supreme head of the

English Church was the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church.

First Act of Supremacy 1534

The first Act of Supremacy was passed on 3 November 1534 (26 Hen. VIII c. 1) by the Parliament of England. It granted King Henry VIII of England and subsequent monarchs Royal Supremacy, such that he was declared the supreme head of the Church of England. Royal Supremacy is specifically used to describe the legal sovereignty of the civil laws over the laws of the Church in England.

The act declared that the king was "the only supreme head on Earth of the Church of England" and that the English crown shall enjoy "all honours, dignities, preeminences, jurisdictions, privileges, authorities, immunities, profits, and commodities to the said dignity." The wording of the act made clear that Parliament was not granting the king the title (thereby suggesting that they had the right to withdraw it later); rather, it was acknowledging an established fact. In the Act of Supremacy, Henry abandoned Rome completely. He thereby asserted the independence of the Ecclesia Anglicana. He appointed himself and his successors as the supreme rulers of the English church. Henry had been declared "Defender of the Faith" (Fidei Defensor) in 1521 by Pope Leo X for his pamphlet accusing Martin Luther of heresy. Parliament later conferred this title upon Henry in 1544.

The 1534 Act marks the beginning of the English Reformation. There were a number of reasons for this Act, primarily the need for a male heir to the throne. Henry tried for years to obtain an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and had convinced himself that God was punishing him for marrying his brother's widow. But Pope Clement VII was under the control of Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor and

Catherine's nephew; he refused to grant the annulment because, according to Roman Catholic teaching, a validly contracted marriage is indivisible until death, and thus the pope cannot annul a marriage simply because of a canonical impediment previously dispensed. The Treasons Act was later passed: it provided that to disavow the Act of Supremacy and to deprive the King of his "dignity, title, or name" was to be considered treason. The most famous public figure to resist the Treason Act was Sir Thomas More.

Irish Act of Supremacy, 1537

In 1537, the Irish Supremacy Act was passed by the Parliament of Ireland, establishing Henry VIII as the supreme head of the Church of Ireland, as had earlier been done in England.

Second Act of Supremacy 1559

Henry's Act of Supremacy was repealed in 1554 in the reign of his staunchly Roman Catholic daughter, Queen Mary I. It was reinstated by Mary's Protestant half-sister, Queen Elizabeth I, when she ascended the throne. Elizabeth declared herself Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and instituted an Oath of Supremacy, requiring anyone taking public or church office to swear allegiance to the monarch as head of the Church and state. Anyone refusing to take the oath could be charged with treason. The use of the term Supreme Governor as opposed to Supreme Head pacified some Roman Catholics and those Protestants concerned about a female leader of the Church of England. Elizabeth, who was a politique, did not prosecute layman nonconformists, or those who did not follow the established rules of the Church of England unless their actions directly undermined the authority of the English monarch, as was the case in the vestments controversy. Thus, it was through the Second Act of Supremacy that Elizabeth I officially established the now reformed Church of England.

Historian G. R. Elton argues that, "in law and political theory the Elizabethan supremacy was essentially parliamentary, while Henry VIII's had been essentially

personal." Supremacy was extinguished under Cromwell, but restored in 1660. The Stuart kings used it as a justification for controlling the appointment of bishops. Richard Hooker put it in a nutshell:

"There is not any man of the Church of England but the same man is a member

of the Commonwealth, nor a member of the Commonwealth which is not also

a member of the Church of England."

The Act was passed in 1559, but is dated 1558 because until 1793 legislation was backdated to the beginning of the session of Parliament in which it was passed.

JAMES I

James VI and I (19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI,

and King of England and King of Ireland as James I.

James was the son of Mary Queen of Scots and her second husband Henry Stewart,

Lord Darnley. He was descended through the Scottish kings from Robert the Bruce,

and the English Tudors through his great grandmother Margaret Tudor sister of

Henry VIII. His parent’s marriage was short-lived and Darnley was found murdered

8 months after James was born in June 1566. His mother married again, but in 1567

was forced to renounce the throne of Scotland in favour of her infant son. James

became King James VI of Scotland aged 13 months in July 1567, and was crowned at

Stirling. Mary fled to England where she was eventually executed following Catholic

plots against Elizabeth I in 1587.

His childhood and adolescence were unhappy, abnormal, and precarious; he had

various guardians, whose treatment of him differed widely. His education, although

thorough, was weighted with strong Presbyterian and Calvinist political doctrine, and

his character – highly intelligent and sensitive, but also fundamentally shallow, vain,

and exhibitionist – reacted violently to this. He also sought solace with extravagant

and unsavoury male favourites who, in later years, were to have a damaging effect on

his prestige and state affairs. A suitable Queen was found for him in Anne of

Denmark and they were married in 1589. As King of Scotland, he curbed the power

of the nobility, although his attempts to limit the authority of the Kirk (Church of

Scotland) were less successful.

When Elizabeth I of England died in 1603 unmarried, James moved to London and

was crowned King James I of England the first of the Stuart Kings of the combined

crowns of England and Scotland. The English courtiers were wary of his Scottish

favourites, affairs with male courtiers and uncouth ways. He was however a supporter

of literature and arts. William Shakespeare was among the ‘Kings Men’ troupe of

actors who performed plays for their patron James. He commissioned the King James

Authorized Version of the Bible, published in 1611, which remains one of the most

important English translations of the Bible. He initially acted mainly upon the advice

of Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, but on Salisbury’s death all restraint vanished. His

religious policy consisted of asserting the supreme authority and divine right of the

crown and suppressing both Puritans and Catholics who objected. Guy Fawkes'

attempt to blow up Parliament in 1605 produced an anti-Catholic reaction, which

gave James a temporary popularity which soon dissipated.

His foreign policy aimed primarily at achieving closer relations with Spain was not

liked by Parliament who saw Spain as the Old Catholic enemy of the Armada and

competitor for world trade. During his reign the East India Company expanded trade

bringing spices from the East, and Jamestown was founded in Virginia. His

willingness to compromise politically, even while continuing to talk in terms of

absolutism, largely accounts for the superficial stability of his reign. However, the

effects of many of his actions were long term, becoming fully obvious only after his

death. James and Anne had 8 children only three of whom survived infancy. Their

eldest son Henry died aged 18 of typhoid, and their 2nd son Charles became King

Charles I. The marriage of their daughter Elizabeth to Frederic V, Elector Palatine

and King of Bohemia, was to result in the eventual Hanoverian succession to the

British throne.

THE ORIGIN OF THANKSGIVING DAY

In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. For more than two centuries, days of thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states. It wasn’t until 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November.

Thanksgiving is America's preeminent day. It is celebrated every year on the fourth

Thursday in the month of November. It has a very interesting history. Its origin can

be traced back to the 16th century when the first thanksgiving dinner is said to have

taken place.

Journey of Pilgrims

The legendary pilgrims, crossed the Atlantic in the year 1620 in Mayflower-A 17th

Century sailing vessel. About 102 people travelled for nearly two months with

extreme difficulty. This was so because they were kept in the cargo space of the

sailing vessel. No one was allowed to go on the deck due to terrible storms. The

pilgrims comforted themselves by singing Psalms- a sacred song.

Arrival in Plymouth

The pilgrims reached Plymouth rock on December 11th 1620, after a sea journey of

66 days. Though the original destination was somewhere in the northern part of

Virginia, they could not reach the place owing to winds blowing them off course.

Nearly46 pilgrims died due to extreme cold in winter. However, in the spring of

1621, Squanto, a native Indian taught the pilgrims to survive by growing food.

Day of Fasting and Prayer

In the summer of 1621, owing to severe drought, pilgrims called for a day of fasting

and prayer to please God and ask for a bountiful harvest in the coming season. God

answered their prayers and it rained at the end of the day. It saved the corn crops.

First Thanksgiving Feast

It is said that Pilgrims learnt to grow corn, beans and pumpkins from the Indians,

which helped all of them survive . In the autumn of 1621, they held a grand

celebration where 90 people were invited including Indians. The grand feast was

organized to thank god for his favors. This communal dinner is popularly known as

“The first thanksgiving feast”. There is however, no evidence to prove if the dinner

actually took place. While some historians believe pilgrims were quite religious so,

their thanksgiving would've included a day of fasting and praying, others say that the

Thanksgiving dinner did take place.

Turkey and First Thanksgiving Feast

There is no evidence to prove if the customary turkey was a part of the initial feast.

According to the first hand account written by the leader of the colony, the food

included, ducks, geese, venison, fish, berries etc.

Pumpkin and Thanksgiving Feast

Pumpkin pie, a modern staple adorning every dinner table, is unlikely to have been a

part of the first thanksgiving feast. Pilgrims however, did have boiled pumpkin.

Diminishing supply of flour led to the absence of any kind of bread.

The feast continued for three days and was eaten outside due to lack of space. It was

not repeated till 1623, which again witnessed a severe drought. Governor Bradford

proclaimed another day of thanksgiving in the year 1676. October of 1777 witnessed

a time when all the 13 colonies joined in a communal celebration. It also marked the

victory over the British.

After a number of events and changes, President Lincoln proclaimed last Thursday in

November of thanksgiving in the year 1863. This was due to the continuous efforts of

Sarah Josepha Hale, a magazine editor. She wrote a number of articles for the cause.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor. He was born on 26 April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. His father was a successful local businessman and his mother was the daughter of a landowner. Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and nicknamed the Bard of Avon. He wrote about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, of which the authorship of some is uncertain. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

Marriage and career

Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway at the age of 18. She was eight years older

than him. They had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. After

his marriage information about his life became very rare. But he is thought to have

spent most of his time in London writing and performing in his plays. Between

1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and

part-owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later

known as the King's Men.

Retirement and death

Around 1613, at the age of 49, he retired to Stratford , where he died three years

later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive. He died on 23 April 1616,

at the age of 52. He died within a month of signing his will, a document which he

begins by describing himself as being in "perfect health". In his will, Shakespeare

left the bulk of his large estate to his elder daughter Susanna.

His work

Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early

plays were mainly comedies and histories and these works remain regarded as

some of the best work produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies

until about 1608, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered

some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote

tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights.

Shakespeare's plays remain highly popular today and are constantly studied, performed, and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.

THE STRUCTURE OF THEATRE

The theatre in Shakespeare’s time was much different than it is today. Authors wrote plays for the masses, especially those who couldn’t read or write.

The theatre changed a lot during Shakespeare’s lifetime. The authorities didn’t like it and didn’t allow acting in the city itself. They thought it had a bad influence on people and kept them from going to church. Queen Elizabeth, on the other hand, loved acting and helped the theatre become popular.

As time went on more and more popular theatres emerged outside city walls. This was considered an unsafe area with crime and prostitution.

Shakespeare’s theatre was full of life. People did not sit all the time and it was not quiet during the performance. The audience could walk around, eat and drink during the play. They cheered, booed and sometimes even threw objects at the actors.

Theatres were open arenas or playhouses that had room for up to three thousand people. They were structures made mainly of wood. There was no heating and actors got wet when it rained. The stage was higher and there was an open pit in front of it where most of the people could stand in. Richer people and noblemen sat in the

gallery. There was almost no scenery because the dialogue was the most important part of the play. Colourful and well-designed costumes were very important and told the people about the status of a character. Women never performed in plays, so young boys played female characters. The performances took place in the afternoon because it was too dark at night.

There was no stage crew as there is today. Actors had to do everything themselves - from making costumes to setting the stage.

Plays were organized by acting companies. They performed about 6 different plays each week because they needed money to survive. They had almost no time for rehearsals.

The companies in Shakespeare’s time had a hierarchical system.

• The company belonged to shareholders and mangers. They were responsible for

everything and got most of the money when the company was successful.

Sometimes they even owned there own buildings.

• Actors worked for the managers and after some time became a permanent

member of the company.

• Apprentices were young boys were allowed to act in menial roles. They also

played females characters in plays.

Lord Chamberlain’s Men and the Admiral’s Men were the two most important

companies in London at that time. Among the most famous theatres during were the

Globe, the Swan and the Fortune.

THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR

Fought 1642-1651, the English Civil War saw King Charles I battle Parliament for

control of the English government. The war began as a result of a conflict over the

power of the monarchy and the rights of Parliament. During the early phases of the

war, the Parliamentarians expected to retain Charles as king, but with expanded

powers for Parliament. Though the Royalists won early victories, the

Parliamentarians ultimately triumphed. As the conflict progressed, Charles was

executed and a republic formed. Known as the the Commonwealth of England, this

state later became the Protectorate under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell. Though

Charles II was invited to take the throne in 1660, Parliament's victory established the

precedent that the monarch could not rule without the consent of Parliament and

placed the nation on the path towards a formal parliamentary monarchy.

Causes

Ascending to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland in 1625, Charles I

believed in the divine right of kings which stated that his right to rule came from God

rather than any earthly authority. This led him to frequently clash with Parliament as

their approval was needed for raising funds. Dissolving Parliament on several

occasions, he was angered by its attacks on his ministers and reluctance to provide

him with money. In 1629, Charles elected to stop calling Parliaments and began

funding his rule through outdated taxes such as ship money and various fines. This

approach angered the population and nobles. This period became known as the

personal rule of Charles I as well as the Eleven Years' Tyranny. Consistently short of

funds, the king found that policy was frequently determined by the state of the

nation's finances. 1638, Charles encountered difficulty when he attempted to impose

a new Book of Prayer on the Church of Scotland. This action touched off the

Bishops' Wars and led the Scots to document their grievances in the National

Covenant.

The Road to War

Assembling an ill-trained force of around 20,000 men, Charles marched north in the

spring of 1639. Reaching Berwick on the Scottish border, he encamped and soon

entered into negotiations with with the Scots. This resulted in the Treaty of Berwick

which temporarily defused the situation. Concerned that Scotland was intriguing

with France and chronically short on funds, Charles was compelled to call a

Parliament in 1640. Known as the Short Parliament, he dissolved it in less than a

month after its leaders criticized his policies. Renewing hostilities with Scotland,

Charles' forces were defeated by the Scots, who captured Durham and

Northumberland. Occupying these lands, they demanded £850 per day to halt their

advance.

With the situation in the north critical and still needing money, Charles recalled

Parliament that fall. Reconvening in November, Parliament immediately began

introducing reforms including a need for regular parliaments and prohibiting the king

from dissolving the body without the members' consent. The situation worsened

when Parliament ordered the Earl of Strafford, a close advisor of the king, executed

for treason. In January 1642, an angry Charles marched on Parliament with 400 men

to arrest five members. Failing, he withdrew to Oxford.

The First Civil War - Royalist Ascent

Through the summer of 1642, Charles and Parliament negotiated while all levels of

society began to align in support of either side. While rural communities typically

favored the king, the Royal Navy and many cities aligned themselves with

Parliament. On August 22, Charles raised his banner at Nottingham and commenced

building an army. These efforts were matched by Parliament who was assembling a

force under the leadership of Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex. Unable to come to

any resolution, the two sides clashed at the Battle of Edgehill in October. Largely

indecisive, the campaign ultimately resulted in Charles withdrawing to his wartime

capital at Oxford. The next year saw Royalist forces secure much of Yorkshire as

well as win a string of victories in western England. In September, Parliamentarian

forces, led by the Earl of Essex, succeeded in forcing Charles to abandon the siege of

Gloucester and won a victory at Newbury. As the fighting progressed, both sides

found reinforcements as Charles freed troops by making peace in Ireland while

Parliament allied with Scotland.

First Civil War - Parliamentarian Victory

Dubbed the Solemn League and Covenant, the alliance between Parliament and

Scotland saw a Scottish Covenanter army under the Earl of Leven enter northern

England to reinforce Parliamentarian forces. Though Sir William Waller was beaten

by Charles at Cropredy Bridge in June 1644, Parliamentarian and Covenanter forces

won a key victory at the Battle of Marston Moor the following month. A key figure

in the triumph was cavalryman Oliver Cromwell. Having gained the upper hand, the

Parliamentarians formed the professional New Model Army in 1645 and passed the

Self-denying Ordinance which prohibited its military commanders from holding a

seat in Parliament. Led by Sir Thomas Fairfax and Cromwell, this force routed

Charles at the Battle of Naseby that June and scored another victory at Langport in

July. Though he attempted to rebuild his forces, Charles' situation declined and in

April 1646 he was forced to flee from the Siege of Oxford. Riding north, he

surrendered to the Scots at Southwell who later turned him over to Parliament.

The Second Civil War

With Charles defeated, the victorious parties sought to establish a new

government. In each case, they felt that the king's participation was critical. Playing

the various groups off one another, Charles signed an agreement with the Scots,

known as the Engagement, by which they would invade England on his behalf in

exchange for the establishment of Presbyterianism in that realm. Initially supported

by Royalist revolts, the Scots were ultimately defeated at Preston by Cromwell and

John Lambert in August and the rebellions put down through actions such as Fairfax's

Siege of Colchester. Angered by Charles' betrayal, the army marched on Parliament

and purged those who still favored an association with the king. The remaining

members, known as the Rump Parliament, ordered Charles tried for treason.

The Third Civil War

Found guilty, Charles was beheaded on January 30, 1649. In the wake of the king's

execution, Cromwell sailed for Ireland to eliminate resistance there which had been

directed by the Duke of Ormonde. With the assistance of Admiral Robert Blake,

Cromwell landed and won bloody victories at Drogheda and Wexford that fall. The

following June saw the late king's son, Charles II, arrive in Scotland where he allied

with the Covenanters. This forced Cromwell to leave Ireland and he was soon

campaigning in Scotland. Though he triumphed at Dunbar and Inverkeithing, he

allowed Charles II's army to move south into England in 1651. Pursuing, Cromwell

brought the Royalists to battle on September 3 at Worcester. Defeated, Charles II

escaped to France where he remained in exile.

Aftermath

With the final defeat of Royalist forces in 1651, power passed to the republican

government of the Commonwealth of England. This remained in place until 1653,

when Cromwell assumed power as Lord Protector. Effectively ruling as a dictator

until his death in 1658, he was replaced by his son Richard. Lacking the support of

the army, his rule was brief and the Commonwealth returned in 1659 with the re-

installation of the Rump Parliament. The following year, with the government in

shambles, General George Monck, who had been serving as Governor of Scotland,

invited Charles II to return and take power. He accepted and by the Declaration of

Breda offered pardons for acts committed during the wars, respect for property rights,

and religious toleration. With Parliament's consent, he arrived in May 1660 and was

crowned the following year on April 23.

THE PURITANS

Like the Pilgrims, the Puritans were English Protestants who believed that the reforms of the Church of England did not go far enough. In their view, the liturgy was still too Catholic. Bishops lived like princes. Ecclesiastical courts were corrupt. Because the king of England was head of both church and state, the Puritans' opposition to religious authority meant they also defied the civil authority of the state.

In 1630, the Puritans set sail for America. Unlike the Pilgrims who had left 10 years earlier, the Puritans did not break with the Church of England, but instead sought to reform it. Seeking comfort and reassurance in the Bible, they imagined themselves re-enacting the story of the Exodus. Like the ancient Israelites, they were liberated by God from oppression and bound to him by a covenant; like the Israelites, they were chosen by God to fulfill a special role in human history: to establish a new, pure Christian commonwealth. Onboard the flagship Arbella, their leader John Winthrop reminded them of their duties and obligations under the covenant. If they honored their obligations to God, they would be blessed; if they failed, they would be punished.

Arriving in New England, the Puritans established the Massachusetts Bay Colony in a town they named Boston. Life was hard, but in this stern and unforgiving place they were free to worship as they chose. The Bible was central to their worship. Their church services were simple. The organ and all musical instruments were forbidden. Puritans sang psalms a cappella.

The Puritans were strict Calvinists, or followers of the reformer John Calvin. Calvin taught that God was all-powerful and completely sovereign. Human beings were depraved sinners. God had chosen a few people, "the elect," for salvation. The rest of humanity was condemned to eternal damnation. But no one really knew if he or she was saved or damned; Puritans lived in a constant state of spiritual anxiety, searching for signs of God's favor or anger. The experience of conversion was considered an important sign that an individual had been saved.

Salvation did not depend on outward behavior, but on a radical undertaking that demanded each individual to plumb the very depths of his heart and soul. This "Covenant of Grace" contrasted with the "Covenant of Works," which stressed the importance of righteous behavior. Faith, not works, was the key to salvation. The experience of conversion did not happen suddenly; it proceeded in fits and starts punctuated by doubt, as divine power worked its way on fragile human material.

But it was not only individual salvation that mattered; the spiritual health and welfare of the community as a whole was paramount as well, for it was the community that honored and kept the covenant. The integrity of the community demanded religious conformity. Dissent was tolerated, but only within strict limits.

John Winthrop understood that people were bound to disagree and was willing to tolerate a range of opinion and belief. But he also recognized that if dissent were not kept within bounds, it would undermine the community. And that is precisely what happened. Two members of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson, challenged the religious authority of the Puritan commonwealth and threatened to destroy Winthrop's vision of "a city upon a hill."

The colony survived, but over time its religious fervor diminished. Scholars disagree about when and why this happened. The Puritans themselves found it difficult to maintain a society in a state of creative uncertainty. In 1679, a Puritan synod met to deliberate the causes of widespread spiritual malaise. Blame was assigned to an increase in swearing; a tendency to sleep at sermons; the spread of sex and alcohol, especially in taverns, where women were known to bare their arms and, upon occasion, even their breasts; and, most telling, the marked increase in lying and lawsuits.

THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

By tradition, the "Scientific Revolution" refers to historical changes in thought & belief, to changes in social & institutional organization, that unfolded in Europe between roughly 1550-1700; beginning with Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543), who asserted a heliocentric (sun-centered) cosmos, it ended with Isaac Newton (1642-1727), who proposed universal laws and a Mechanical Universe.

Was there such a thing as the 'Scientific Revolution' -- and if the question makes sense, what is it, or what was it? Better still, what do historians mean when they speak of the 'Scientific Revolution'?

What follows is a modest attempt to clarify basic issues and suggest others that are less obvious. As an introduction to the concept of the Scientific Revolution, the following narrative provides examples that make the story increasingly complex, arguably, it may seem to undermine the very notion of a Scientific Revolution. In any case, this short essay should be viewed as but one example of how historians more generally think about history.

Which is to say, the Scientific Revolution provides an excellent exercise for thinking about how historical periodizations emerge, develop, and mature. Arguably, periodizations serve as paradigms, for students and scholars alike. They also serve as a forum for debate. Good periodizations foster debate, and the best among them grow more richly problematic, they promote ever more focused research and ever more imaginative and satisfying interpretations of past events.

All students of history confront these kinds of issues. They are ever present in any historical periodization, whether it be the Renaissance, Reformation, Scientific Revolution, and Enlightenment, or the Colonial Period, Civil War, Gilded Age, 'Sixties', or Harlem Renaissance.

More About the Scientific Revolution

A traditional description of the Scientific Revolution would go much further than our opening mini-definition allowed. A good basic description would include some of the following information (and inevitably) interpretive claims. Most specialists would

agree on the following basic interpretations traditionally associated with the 'Scientific Revolution'. As we have said, in European history the term 'Scientific Revolution' refers to the period between Copernicus and Newton. But the chronological period has varied dramatically over the last 50 years.

The broadest period acknowledged usually runs from Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543) and his De Revolutionibus to Isaac Newton (1642-1727). Some historians have cut this back, claiming that it properly extends only to the publication of Newton's Principia (1687) or to his Opticks (1704) or to Newton's death (1727). More radical proposals have suggested that the Scientific Revolution might apply to the so-called Enlightenment 'Newtonians' thus extending to roughly 1750. Further, as we shall see below, some historians have cut back the earlier period. Some have all but removed Copernicus from their chronological definition, claiming that the 'Copernican Revolution' virtually began and ended in 1610 with the work of Galileo and Kepler. Historians have consistently disputed the presumed beginning and ending dates of the much-disputed 'Scientific Revolution'.

Most historians agree, however, that the traditional interpretation (which has its own history) was based on belief in a core transformation which began in cosmology and astronomy and then shifted to physics (some historians have argued that there were parallel developments in anatomy and physiology, represented by Vesalius and Harvey). Most profoundly, some historians have argued, these changes in "natural philosophy" (= science) brought important transformations in what came to held as "real" (ontology) and how Europeans justified their claims to knowledge (epistemology).

The learned view of things in 16th-century thought was that the world was composed of Four Qualities (Aristotle's Earth, Water, Air, Fire). By contrast, Newton's learned contemporaries believed that the world was made of atoms or corpuscles (small material bodies). By Newton's day most of learned Europe believed the earth moved, that there was no such thing as demonic possession, that claims to knowledge (so the story goes) should be based on the authority of our individual experience, that is, on argument and sensory evidence. The motto of the Royal Society of London was: Nullius in Verba, roughly, Accept nothing on the basis of words (or someone else's authority).

Further Complexity for the Scientific Revolution

As a periodization, the Scientific Revolution has grown increasingly complex. As it has attempted to take account of new research and alternative perspectives, new additions and alterations have been made. Among the most obvious additions over the last 50 years have been a number of sub-periodizations that have been spawned by more narrow research topics, usually from a more focused topical theme or from a more narrow chronological period. Among these sub-periodizations, the more widely accepted include: The Copernican Revolution; the Galilean Revolution; the Keplerian Revolution; the Cartesian Synthesis; and not least, the Newtonian Revolution and the Newtonian Synthesis.

Understood as an historical periodization (which inevitably place limits of 'space, time & theme' -- that is, periodizations are defined by geographical, chronological, topical elements) the Scientific Revolution refers to European developments or movements extending over periods of at least 75 to 185 years.

These developments involve changing conceptual, cultural, social, and institutional relationships involving nature, knowledge and belief.

As mentioned, specialist do not agree on the exact dates of the Scientific Revolution. Generally speaking, most scholars have reduced or entirely denied the earliest years of the Scientific Revolution, usually associated with what has been long known as the 'Copernican Revolution'. One noted historian, for example, has argued that if there was a Copernican Revolution, then it began and ended in 1610 with the work of Galileo and Kepler. Other specialists, emphasizing the development of key conceptual elements, have suggested that the key period of the Scientific Revolution was 1610-1660. Other scholars, specializing in social and institutional elements, have suggested that the period after 1660 was critical, as it was then that scientific periodicals and state-sponsored science emerged.

Additional Details - The Scientific Revolution

As we have said, a strong traditional claim is that the Scientific Revolution stands for a series of changes that stemmed from Copernicus' bold claim that the earth moves. This claim clearly ran contrary to tradition, to the authority of the Ancients and to

established views in the universities and most church officials. Copernicus claimed that the earth is not fixed and stationary in the center of the cosmos (geocentric and geostatic) but instead argued that it rotates on its axis each day and revolves around the sun each year.

From Copernicus' bold but simple claim, so the story goes, a complex series of new developments were necessary to support his view and, at the same time, to replace earlier beliefs. What was needed, at least in retrospect, were new astronomical observations, these now associated with Tycho Brahe (1546-1601); new theoretical modifications concerning planetary orbits and their motions, now associated with Johannes Kepler (1571-1630); and not least, new theories of motion that would accommodate a moving earth, these theories now associated with Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), René Descartes (1596-1650), Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695), and of course, Isaac Newton (1642-1727). The latter, by acclaim, joined heaven and earth by uniting terrestrial and celestial bodies under one set of universal laws of motion. Newton invented the universe. It displaced the traditional Aristotelian cosmos. This widely held view was due largely to the work of the historian Alexandre Koyré.

In this view, the 'Newtonian Synthesis' marked the shift from a closed, finite, hierarchical, qualitative cosmos to an infinite, homogeneous, quantitative universe. This change signaled that all things were one. There is one kind of matter, one set of laws, one kind of space, one kind of time. Everything is always and everywhere the same: Space, Time, Matter, Cause. Hence the very word: Universe.

This shift from Cosmos to Universe also marked a transformation from an Organic Worldview to a Mechanical World Picture. That is, the Modern World Machine. All of this, according to traditional definitions, would have been rather important in itself, given the importance of science to 20th-century civilization.

But in the bargain, so the argument goes, not only was the world of Nature entirely re-conceptualized, so was the nature of Human Knowledge. This in turn raised questions about the traditional Human Eternal Verities -- how humans understood themselves in relation to 'God, Nature, and Man'.

From these concerns came the 'Clockwork Universe' debates about God's relationship to Nature and whether God was rational or willful. One historian suggested that God,

in effect, had been excommunicated from the world of humans -- not to the edge of Space (as with Aristotle and Aquinas) but left there at the beginning of Time. From such debates (according to this narrative) came new distinctions that walked the line from Theism to Deism to Agnosticism and Atheism. Koyré, among others, was concerned about alienation. In sum, as a simple overview, the traditional definition of the Scientific Revolution with which we began focused on a wholesale redefinition of nature and the categories of human knowing. The result was a deep and enduring shift that led some historians to make the first appearances of Science synonymous with Modern and Western. These historians found it difficult to talk meaningfully about their world without 'Science' -- the defining characteristics of Modern and Western, they seemed to suggest, were inconceivable without 'Science'. Further, they saw Science as the defining element of the early modern period, more important than the wars or forgotten treaties.