Puritan age

1. THE PURITAN AGE (1620 – 1660) The Literature of the Seventeenth Century may be divided into two periods— The Puritan Age or the Age of Milton (1600-1660), which is further divided into the Jacobean and Caroline periods after the names of the ruler James I and Charles I, who ruled from 1603 to 1625 and 1625 to 1649 respectively; and the Restoration Period or the Age of Dryden (1660-1700).

2. Puritan age is marked by the decline of Renaissance age the age of revival of knowledge. Puritan age is further divided into two classes;  The Jacobean period in which James. I was the ruler  Caroline period in which Charles. I was the ruler

3. MEANING OF PURITANISM A member of a group of English Protestants who in the 16th and 17 th centuries advocated strict religious discipline along with simplification of the ceremonies and creeds of the Church of England . Puritan One who lives in accordance with Protestant precepts, especially one who regards pleasure or luxury as sinful . Puritanism was the doctrine or School of English Protestants of the 16 th & 7 th centuries whose aim was the purification of the religious practice.

4. The salient features of Puritan Age. The writers of Puritan age followed the paths of the great Renaissance writers . The spirit of science popularized by great men like Newton, Bacon and Descartes . In literature the spirit infuses itself in the form of criticism , which was truly the creation of Puritan age .

5. In literature the spirit infuses itself in the form of criticism, which was truly the creation of Puritan age. In this period people took stock of what had been acquired. People classified, analyzed, and systematized many things which were having no importance before that. English language was started being used as the medium for instruction and for storing the data and for conveying facts.

6. 7. Satire and Irony got fame in Puritan age , individually as well as on collective basis. 8. Readers had become criticizers and asked for the facts and figures, so that they may judge and can take sides in the controversial matters . 9. John Milton was the best representative of Puritan age.Puritanism is considered as the second greatest renaissance. 6. Art of Biography popularized which was unknown in previous ages.

7. 10. Rebirth of the moral nature of man which followed intellectual awakening of Europe in 15th and 16th century. 11. Despotism was the order of the day . 12. Puritan movement stood for the liberty of people of Europe. 13. There was an introduction of morality and high ideals in politics . 14. Puritan age had two perspectives; personal righteousness and civil and religious liberty.

8. 15. It aimed at making people free and honest. In puritan age John Milton and Thomas Cromwell fought for the religious liberties of people. 16. With the passage of time Puritanism became the movement against the King which stood for the freedom of the society . 17. Puritans was the name given to the people who advocated certain changes in the form of the worship of  the reformed English church under queen Elizabeth.

9. The Puritans and Queen Elizabeth:- The Elizabethan Church Settlement had been a cautious compromise in which Calvinist & Catholic elements were blended.

10. The Queen had been made the Supreme Governor of the Church . An Act of Uniformity had been passed. A Common Prayer Book introduced . Thirty Nine Articles were drawn up which all clergy had to accept . (5) The Thirty Nine Articles were so framed as to enable members of the Church of England to believe in either predestination (a doctrine of John Calvin ) or free will (a Catholic doctrine ) as they thought fit.

11. In spite of this Elizabethan Settlement, the Calvinistic system (a form of Puritanism) had penetrated more or less with completeness into the minds of the great majority of English Protestants . ( 7) At the beginning of the 17th century there was no such thing as a ‘Puritan Party’. There were Presbyterians (a member of a branch of the Christian Protestant Church that is the national church of Scotland) or Disciplinarians who had felt the influence of Calvin of Geneva .

12. (8) Thomas Cart right, the Presbyterian leader discovered that the Anglican Church did not at all accord with the principles of the primitative Christian Church & urged that Bishops should be deprived of their disciplinary powers and stick to reaching. He was dismissed from service and he went to Geneva. (9) Another leader Thomas Browne, the Father of Independents, maintained that the civil magistrates should have no powers at all in religious matters that the ministry should rely on freewill offerings and in each parish the priest must be chosen by his own parishishioners .

13. (10) Two other Puritan thinkers, Greenwood and Barrow, advocated independent and self – governing churches. Another rising Puritan sect was that of the Baptists or Anabaptists. (12) All these Puritan sects were gaining ground and threatened the whole Elizabethan Church settlement. (13) Elizabeth took strict view of this. In 1583, she appointed John Whit gift, the Archbishop of Canterbury, to check the spread of hateful doctrines by a strict censorship of the press.

14. Chief Literary Characteristics of Puritan Age. (1) In Literature also the Puritan Age was one of confusion, due to the breaking up of old ideals. (2) Mediaeval standards of chivalry, the impossible loves and romances of which Spenser furnished types, perished no less surly than the ideal of a national church.

15. (3) In the absence of any fixed standard of literary criticism there was nothing to prevent the exaggeration of the “Metaphysical’ poets. Poetry took new and startling forms in Donne and Herbert, and prose became as somber (serious) as Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy. (5) The spiritual gloom which sooner or later fastens (fix firmly) upon all the writers of this age, and which is unfairly attributed to Puritan influence is due to the breaking up of accepted standards in government and religion.

16. Three Main Characteristics. (1) Elizabethan literature, with all its diversity, had a marked unity in spirit, resulting from the patriotism of all classes and their devotion to a queen who, with all her faults, sought first the nation’s welfare. Under the Stuarts all this was changed. The kings were the open enemies of the people; the country was divided by the struggle for political and religious liberty; and the literature was as divided in spirit as were the struggling parties.

17. (2) Elizabethan literature is generally inspiring; it throbs with youth, hope and vitality. While Puritan age speaks about sadness, gloom and pessimism

18. Development of Poetry. During the age of Milton, the Metaphysical Poetry which had been started by Donne in the later part of the age of Shakespeare, began to blossom. It was in full swing during this age and the writers who carried forward the tradition of John Donne were Crashaw, George Herbert, Vaughan, and Marvell. They were the Metaphysical poets who produced a kind of poetry in which conceit and learning were blended. They are usually lyrical in nature. Their work shows surprising blend of passion and thought. These poems are full of learned imagery and striking conceits. At their best metaphysical poems revealed great psychological insight and subtlety of thought development.

19. There were also secular poets who are called the Cavalier poets. Whereas the metaphysical poets took delight in mysticism and religious thought, the Cavalier poets dealt with the subject of love. The Cavalier poets – Herrick, Carew, Lovelace and Suckling.

20. THANKS