Thursday, June 26, 2008

Jonathan Swift

eJonathan Swift (November 30, 1667 – October 19, 1745) was an Irish cleric, satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for Whigs then for Tories), and poet, famous for works like Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella, The Drapier's Letters, The Battle of the Books, and A Tale of a Tub. Swift is probably the foremost prose satirist in the English language, although he is less well known for his poetry. Swift published all of his works under pseudonyms — such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, M.B. Drapier — or anonymously. He is also known for being a master of two styles of satire; the Horatian and Juvenalian styles
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Biography/Life
Youth
Jonathan Swift was born at No. 8, Hoey's Court, Dublin, and was the second child and only son of Jonathan and Abigail Erick (or Herrick) Swift. His father was Irish born and his mother was born in England. Jonathan arrived seven months after his father's untimely death. Most of the facts of Swift's early life are obscure, confused and sometimes contradictory. It is widely believed that his mother returned to England when Jonathan was still very young, leaving him to be raised by his father's family. His uncle Godwin took primary responsibility for the young Jonathan, sending him to Kilkenny grammar school with one of his cousins (also attended by the philosopher George Berkeley).
In 1682 he attended Dublin University (Trinity College, Dublin), receiving his B.A. in 1686. Swift was studying for his Masters when political troubles in Ireland surrounding the Glorious Revolution forced him to leave for England in 1688, where his mother helped him get a position as secretary and personal assistant of Sir William Temple at Moor Park. Temple was an English diplomat who, having arranged the Triple Alliance of 1668, retired from public service to his country estate to tend his gardens and write his memoirs. Growing into confidence with his employer, Swift "was often trusted with matters of great importance." Within three years of their acquaintance, Temple had introduced his secretary to William III, and sent him to London to urge the King to consent to a bill for triennial Parliaments.
When Swift took up his residence at Moor Park, he met Esther Johnson, then 8 years old, the fatherless daughter of one of the household servants. Swift acted as her tutor and mentor, giving her the nickname "Stella" and the two maintained a close, but ambiguous relationship for the rest of Esther's life.
Swift left Temple in 1690 for Ireland because of his health, but returned to Moor Park the following year. The illness, fits of vertigo or giddiness — now known to be Ménière's disease — would continue to plague Swift throughout his life. During this second stay with Temple, Swift received his M.A. from Hertford College, Oxford University in 1692. Then, apparently despairing of gaining a better position through Temple's patronage, Swift left Moor Park to become an ordained priest in the Established Church of Ireland and in 1694 he was appointed to the prebend of Kilroot in the Diocese of Connor, with his parish located at Kilroot, near Carrickfergus in County Antrim.
Swift appears to have been miserable in his new position, being isolated in a small, remote community far from the centres of power and influence. While at Kilroot, however, Swift may well have become romantically involved with Jane Waring. A letter from him survives, offering to remain if she would marry him and promising to leave and never return to Ireland if she refused. She presumably refused, because Swift left his post and returned to England and Temple's service at Moor Park in 1696, and he remained there until Temple's death. There he was employed in helping to prepare Temple's memoirs and correspondence for publication. During this time Swift wrote The Battle of the Books, a satire responding to critics of Temple's Essay upon Ancient and Modern Learning (1690). Battle was however not published until 1704.
In the summer of 1699 Temple died. Swift stayed on briefly in England to complete the editing of Temple's memoirs, and perhaps in the hope that recognition of his work might earn him a suitable position in England. However, Swift's work made enemies of some of Temple's family and friends who objected to indiscretions included in the memoirs. His next move was to approach King William directly, based on his imagined connection through Temple and a belief that he had been promised a position. This failed so miserably that he accepted the lesser post of secretary and chaplain to the Earl of Berkeley, one of the Lords Justices of Ireland. However, when he reached Ireland he found that the secretaryship had already been given to another. But he soon obtained the living of Laracor, Agher, and Rathbeggan, and the prebend of Dunlavin in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin.
At Laracor, a mile or two from Trim, County Meath, and twenty miles from Dublin, Swift ministered to a congregation of about fifteen persons, and had abundant leisure for cultivating his garden, making a canal (after the Dutch fashion of Moor Park), planting willows, and rebuilding the vicarage. As chaplain to Lord Berkeley, he spent much of his time in Dublin and traveled to London frequently over the next ten years. In 1701, Swift published, anonymously, a political pamphlet, A Discourse on the Contests and Dissentions in Athens and Rome.
The writer
In February 1702, Swift received his Doctor of Divinity degree from Trinity College, Dublin. That spring he traveled to England and returned to Ireland in October, accompanied by Esther Johnson — now twenty years old — and her friend Rebecca Dingley, another member of Wm. Temple's household. There is a great mystery and controversy over Swift's relationship with Esther Johnson nicknamed "Stella". Many hold that they were secretly married in 1716. Although there has never been definite proof of this, there is no doubt that she was dearer to him than anyone else and that his feelings for her did not change throughout his life.
During his visits to England in these years Swift published A Tale of a Tub and The Battle of the Books (1704) and began to gain a reputation as a writer. This led to close, lifelong friendships with Alexander Pope, John Gay, and John Arbuthnot, forming the core of the Martinus Scriblerus Club, (founded in 1713).
Swift became increasingly active politically in these years. From 1707 to 1709 and again in 1710, Swift was in London, unsuccessfully urging upon the Whig administration of Lord Godolphin the claims of the Irish clergy to the First-Fruits and Twentieths ("Queen Anne's Bounty"), which brought in about £2500 a year, already granted to their brethren in England. He found the opposition Tory leadership more sympathetic to his cause and Swift was recruited to support their cause as editor of the Examiner when they came to power in 1710. In 1711, Swift published the political pamphlet "The Conduct of the Allies," attacking the Whig government for its inability to end the prolonged war with France. The incoming Tory government conducted secret (and illegal) negotiations with France, resulting in the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) ending the War of the Spanish Succession.
Swift was part of the inner circle of the Tory government, and often acted as mediator between Henry St. John (Viscount Bolingbroke) the secretary of state for foreign affairs (1710–15) and Robert Harley (Earl of Oxford) lord treasurer and prime minister (1711–4). Swift recorded his experiences and thoughts during this difficult time in a long series of letters to Esther Johnson, later collected and published as The Journal to Stella. The animosity between the two Tory leaders eventually lead to the dismissal of Harley in 1714. With the death of Queen Anne and ascension of George I that year, the Whigs returned to power and the Tory leaders were tried for treason for conducting secret negotiations with France.
The title page to Swift's 1735 Works, depicting the author in the Dean's chair, receiving the thanks of Ireland. The motto reads, "I have made a monument greater than brass." The 'brass' is a double entendre, for Wood's half-pence (alloyed with brass) is scattered at his feet. Cherubim award Swift a poet's laurel.
Also during these years in London, Swift became acquainted with the Vanhomrigh family and became involved with one of the daughters, Esther, yet another fatherless young woman and an ambiguous relationship to confuse Swift's biographers. Swift furnished Esther with the nickname "Vanessa" and she features as one of the main characters in his poem Cadenus and Vanessa. The poem and their correspondence suggests that Esther was infatuated with Swift, that he may have reciprocated her affections, only to regret it and then try to break it off. Esther followed Swift to Ireland in 1714, where there appears to have been a confrontation, possibly involving Esther Johnson. Esther Vanhomrigh died in 1723 at the age of 35. Another lady with whom he had a close but less intense relationship, was Anne Long, a toast of the Kit-Cat Club.
Maturity
Before the fall of the Tory government, Swift hoped that his services would be rewarded with a church appointment in England. However, Queen Anne appeared to have taken a dislike to Swift and thwarted these efforts. The best position his friends could secure for him was the Deanery of St. Patrick's, Dublin. With the return of the Whigs, Swift's best move was to leave England and he returned to Ireland in disappointment, a virtual exile, to live "like a rat in a hole".
Once in Ireland, however, Swift began to turn his pamphleteering skills in support of Irish causes, producing some of his most memorable works; Proposal for Universal Use of Irish Manufacture (1720), The Drapier's Letters (1724), and A Modest Proposal (1729); earning him the status of an Irish patriot.
Also during these years, he began writing his masterpiece, Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts, by Lemuel Gulliver, first a surgeon, and then a captain of several ships, better known as Gulliver's Travels. Much of the material reflects his political experiences of the preceding decade. For instance, the episode when the giant Gulliver puts out the Lilliputian palace fire by urinating on it can be seen as a metaphor for the Tories' illegal peace treaty; having done a good thing in an unfortunate manner. In 1726 he paid a long-deferred visit to London, taking with him the manuscript of Gulliver's Travels. During his visit he stayed with his old friends, Alexander Pope. John Arbuthnot, and John Gay, who helped him arrange for the anonymous publication of his book. First published in November 1726, it was an immediate hit, with a total of three printings that year and another in early 1727. French, German, and Dutch translations appeared in 1727 and pirated copies were printed in Ireland.
Swift returned to England one more time in 1727 and stayed with Alexander Pope once again. The visit was cut short when he received word that Esther Johnson was dying and Swift rushed back home to be with her. On January 28, 1728, Esther Johnson died. Though he prayed at her bedside, even composing prayers for her comfort, Swift could not bear to be present at the end, but on the night of her death he began to write his The Death of Mrs. Johnson. He was too ill to attend the funeral at St. Patrick's. Many years later, a lock of hair, assumed to be Esther Johnson's, was found in his desk, wrapped in a paper bearing the words, "Only a woman's hair."
Death became a frequent feature in Swift's life from this point. In 1731 he wrote Verses on the Death of Dr Swift, his own obituary published in 1739. In 1732, his good friend and collaborator John Gay died. In 1735, John Arbuthnot, another friend from his days in London, died. In 1738 Swift began to show signs of illness and in 1742 he appears to have suffered a stroke, losing the ability to speak and realizing his worst fears of becoming mentally disabled. ("I shall be like that tree," he once said, "I shall die at the top.") In order to protect him from unscrupulous hangers on, who had begun to prey on the great man, his closest companions had him declared of "unsound mind and memory." In 1744, Alexander Pope died. Then, on October 19, 1745, Swift died. He was buried by Esther Johnson's side, in accordance with his wishes. The bulk of his fortune was left to found a hospital for the mentally ill, originally known as St. Patrick’s Hospital for Imbeciles, which opened in 1757, and which still exists as a psychiatric hospital.

Major prose works

Swift's first major prose play, A Tale of a Tub, demonstrates many of the themes and stylistic techniques he would employ in his later work. It is at once wildly playful and funny while being pointed and harshly critical of its targets. In its main thread, the Tale recounts the exploits of three sons, representing the main threads of Christianity, who receive a bequest from their father of a coat each, with the added instructions to make no alterations whatsoever. However, the sons soon find that their coats have fallen out of current fashion and begin to look for loopholes in their father's will which will allow them to make the needed alterations. As each finds his own means of getting around their father's admonition, they struggle with each other for power and dominance. Inserted into this story, in alternating chapters, Swift includes a series of whimsical "discourses" on various subjects.
In 1690, Sir William Temple, Swift's patron, published An Essay upon Ancient and Modern Learning a defense of classical writing (see Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns) holding up the Epistles of Phalaris as an example. William Wotton responded to Temple with Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning (1694) showing that the Epistles were a later forgery. A response by the supporters of the Ancients was then made by Charles Boyle (later the 4th Earl of Orrery and father of Swift's first biographer). A further retort on the Modern side came from Richard Bentley, one of the pre-eminent scholars of the day, in his essay Dissertation upon the Epistles of Phalaris (1699). However, the final words on the topic belong to Swift in his Battle of the Books (1697, published 1704) in which he makes a humorous defense on behalf of Temple and the cause of the Ancients.
In 1708, a cobbler named John Partridge published a popular almanac of astrological predictions. Because Partridge falsely determined the deaths of several church officials, Swift attacked Partridge in Predictions For The Ensuing Year by Isaac Bickerstaff, a parody predicting that Partridge would die on March 29th. Swift followed up with a pamphlet issued on March 30th claiming that Partridge had in fact died, which was widely believed despite Partridge's statements to the contrary.
Drapier's Letters (1724) was a series of pamphlets against the monopoly granted by the English government to William Wood to provide the Irish with copper coinage. In "Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift" (1739) Swift recalled this as one of his best achievements.
Gulliver's Travels was published in 1726. Though it has often been mistakenly thought of as a children's book, it is a great satire of the times. Gulliver's Travels is a misanthropic anatomy of human nature; a sardonic looking-glass. It asks its readers to refute it, to deny that it has not adequately characterized human nature and society. Each of the 4 books has a different theme, but all are attempts to deflate human pride. Critics hail the work as a satiric reflection on the failings of Enlightenment modernism.
In 1729, he published A Modest Proposal, a satire in which the narrator, with intentionally grotesque logic, recommends feeding the rich using impoverished infants: ”I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food...” Following the satirical form, he introduces the reforms he is actually suggesting by deriding them:
Therefore let no man talk to me of other expedients...taxing our absentees...using [nothing] except what is of our own growth and manufacture...rejecting...foreign luxury...introducing a vein of parsimony, prudence and temperance...learning to love our country...quitting our animosities and factions...teaching landlords to have at least one degree of mercy towards their tenants....Therefore I repeat, let no man talk to me of these and the like expedients, 'till he hath at least some glympse of hope, that there will ever be some hearty and sincere attempt to put them into practice.
According to other sources, Richard Steele uses the personae of Isaac Bickerstaff and was the one who wrote about the "death" of John Partridge and published it in The Spectator, Not John Swift.*

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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GEOFFREY CHAUCER

Geoffrey Chaucer was born in 1343 in London. His family were merchants in Ipswichfor several generations. His name is derived from the “Chausseur” which means a shoemaker.Geoffrey Chaucer was an English author, poet, philosopher, bureaucrat, courtier and diplomat.

He is best remembered for his frame narrativeThe Canterbury Tales. He called as the father of English literature. Chaucer is credited by some scholars with being the first author to demonstrate the artistic legitimacy of the vernacular English language. There are no details of Chaucer's early life and education. Because of his contemporary poets, William Langland and The Pearl Poet, his life is well documented
Chaucer's first major work The Book of the Duchess(1369 - 1374) was an elegy for Blanche of Lancaster (who died in 1369). Two other early works by Chaucer were Anelida and Arcite and The House of Fame. Chaucer wrote many of his major works in a prolific period when he held the job of customs comproller for London (1374 to 1386) such as Parlement of Foules, The Legend of Good Women and Troilus and Criseyde. Chaucer is best known as the writer of The Canterbury Tales in the early 1380s, which is a collection of stories told by fictional pilgrims on the road to the cathedral at Canterbury.
The Canterbury Tales contrasts with other literature of the period in the naturalism of its narrative, the variety of stories the pilgrims tell and the varied characters who are engaged in the pilgrimage. Many of the stories narrated by the pilgrims seem to fit their individual characters and social standing, although some of the stories seem ill-fitting to their narrators, perhaps as a result of the incomplete state of the work. Chaucer described on real life for his cast of pilgrims. He could depict many types of people in the Tales because of his experience in many jobs before, in medieval society—page, soldier, messenger, valet, bureaucrat, foreman and administrator. He was able to expose their speech and satirise their manners to become popular literature among peoples.
Chaucer's works are sometimes devided into a French period, an Italian period and an English period. Chaucer being influenced by those countries' literatures. Certainly Troilus and Criseyde is a middle period work with its reliance on the forms of Italian poetry, little known in England at the time, but to which Chaucer was probably exposed during his frequent trips abroad on court business. In addition, its use of a classical subject and its elaborate, courtly language sets it apart as one of his most complete and well-formed works. In Troilus and Criseyde Chaucer draws heavily on his source, Bocaccio, and on the late Latin philosopher Boethius. However, it is The Canterbury Tales, where he focused on English subjects, with jokes and respected figures often being undercut with humour, that has covered his reputation.
Chaucer also translated such important works as Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy and The Romance of the Rose by Guillaume de Lorris (extended by Jean de Meun). However, while many scholars maintain that Chaucer did indeed translate part of the text of The Romance of the Rose as Roman de la Rose, others claim that this has been effectively disproved. Many of his other works were very loose translations or simply based on, works from continental Europe. It is in this role that Chaucer receives some of his earliest critical praise. Eustache Deschamps wrote a ballade on the great translator and called himself a "nettle in Chaucer's garden of poetry". In 1385 Thomas Usk made glowing mention of Chaucer, and John Gower, Chaucer's main poetic rival of the time, also lauded him. This reference was later edited out of Gower's Confessio Amantis and it has been suggested by some that this was because of ill feeling between them, but it is likely due simply to stylistic concerns.

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Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope (c.1727), an English poet best known for his Essay on Criticism, Rape of the Lock and The Dunciad. Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 – 30 May 1744) is generally regarded as the greatest English poet of the early eighteenth century, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer.He is the third most frequently quoted writer in the English language, after Shakespeare and Tennyson.Pope was a master of the heroic couplet.

Early life
Pope was born in the City of London to Alexander (senior, a linen merchant) and Edith (born Turner) Pope, who were both Roman Catholics. Pope's education was affected by the law in force at the time upholding the status of the established Church of England which banned Catholics from teaching on pain of perpetual imprisonment. Pope was taught to read by his aunt and then sent to two surreptitious Catholic schools, at Twyford and at Hyde Park Corner. Catholic schools, while illegal, were tolerated in some areas.
From early childhood he suffered numerous health problems, including Parkensens disease (a form of tuberculosis affecting the spine) which deformed his body and stunted his growth, no doubt helping to end his life at the relatively young age of 56. He never grew beyond 1.37 metres (4 feet 6 inches) tall. Although he never married, he had many women friends and wrote them witty letters. In 1700, his family was forced to move to a small estate in Binfield, Berkshire due to strong anti-Catholic sentiment and a statute preventing Catholics from living within 10 miles of either London or Westminster. Pope would later describe the countryside around the house in his poem Windsor Forest. With his formal education now at an end, Pope embarked on an extensive campaign of reading. As he later remembered: "In a few years I had dipped into a great number of the English, French, Italian, Latin, and Greek poets. This I did without any design but that of pleasing myself, and got the languages by hunting after the stories...rather than read the books to get the languages." His very favourite author was Homer, whom he had first read aged eight in the English translation of John Ogilby. Pope was already writing verse: he claimed he wrote one poem, Ode to Solitude, at the age of twelve.At Binfield, he also began to make many important friends. One of them, John Caryll (the future dedicatee of The Rape of the Lock), was two decades older than the poet and had made many acquaintances in the London literary world. He introduced the young Pope to the aging playwright William Wycherley and to William Walsh, a minor poet, who helped Pope revise his first major work, The Pastorals. He also met the Blount sisters, Martha and Teresa, who would remain lifelong friends.
Early literary careerFirst published in 1710 in a volume of Poetical Miscellanies by Jacob Tonson, The Pastorals brought instant fame to the twenty year old Pope. They were followed by An Essay on Criticism (1711), which was equally well received, although it incurred the wrath of the prominent critic John Dennis, the first of the many literary enmities which would play such a great role in Pope's life and writings. Windsor Forest (1713) is a topographical poem celebrating the "Tory Peace" at the end of the War of the Spanish Succession.Around 1711, Pope made friends with the Tory writers, John Gay, Jonathan Swift and John Arbuthnot, as well as the Whigs, Joseph Addison and Richard Steele. Pope's friendship with Addison would later cool and he would satirise him as "Atticus" in his Epistle to Doctor Arbuthnot.Pope, Gay, Swift, Arbuthnot and Thomas Parnell formed the Scriblerus Club in 1712. The aim of the club was to satirise ignorance and pedantry in the form of the fictional scholar Martinus Scriblerus. Pope's major contribution to the club would be Peri Bathous, or the Art of Sinking in Poetry (1728), a parodic guide on how to write bad verse.
Title page and frontispiece by George Vertue of Pope's Miscellany of Poems, the 1726 Fifth Edition.The Rape of the Lock (two canto version, The Rape of the Locke, 1712; revised version in five cantos, 1714) is perhaps Pope's most popular poem. It is a mock-heroic epic, written to make fun of a high society quarrel between Arabella Fermor (the "Belinda" of the poem) and Lord Petre, who had snipped a lock of hair from her head without her permission.In 1714, the political situation worsened with the death of Queen Anne and the disputed succession between the Hanoverians and the Jacobites, leading to the attempted Jacobite invasion of 1715. Though Pope as a Catholic might be expected to have supported the Jacobites, according to Maynard Mack, "where Pope himself stood on these matters can probably never be confidently known". These events led to an immediate downturn in the fortunes of the Tories, and Pope's friend, Henry St. John, Lord Bolingbroke fled to France.The climax of Pope's early career was the publication of his Works in 1717. As well as the poems mentioned above, the volume also included the first appearance of Eloisa to Abelard and Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady; and several shorter works, of which perhaps the best are the epistles to Martha Blount.

The middle years: Homer and Shakespeare
A likeness of Pope derived from a portrait by William HoarePope had been fascinated by Homer since childhood. In 1713, he announced his plans to publish a translation of Homer's Iliad. The work would be available by subscription, with one volume appearing every year over the course of six years. Pope secured a revolutionary deal with the publisher Bernard Lintot, which brought him two hundred guineas a volume.The commercial success of his translation made Pope the first English poet who could live off the sales of his work alone, "indebted to no prince or peer alive", as he put it. His translation of the Iliad duly appeared between 1715 and 1720. It was later acclaimed by Samuel Johnson as "a performance which no age or nation could hope to equal" (although the classical scholar Richard Bentley wrote: "It is a pretty poem, Mr. Pope, but you must not call it Homer."). The money he made allowed Pope to move to a villa at Twickenham in 1719, where he created a famous grotto and gardens (destroyed by bombing in World War Two).Encouraged by the very favourable reception of the Iliad, Pope translated the Odyssey. The translation appeared in 1725–1726, but this time, confronted with the arduousness of the task, he enlisted the help of William Broome and Elijah Fenton. Pope attempted to conceal the extent of the collaboration (he himself translated only twelve books, Broome eight and Fenton four), but the secret leaked out. It did some damage to Pope's reputation for a time, but not to his profits.In this period Pope also brought out an edition of Shakespeare, which silently "regularised" his metre and rewrote his verse in several places. Lewis Theobald and other scholars attacked Pope's edition, incurring Pope's wrath and inspiring the first version of his satire The Dunciad (1728), the first of the moral and satiric poems of his last period. Alexander Pope became a freemason and member of the Premier Grand Lodge of England

Later career
"An Essay on Man" and satiresThough the Dunciad was first published anonymously in Dublin, its authorship was not in doubt. As well as Theobald, it pilloried a host of other "hacks", "scribblers" and "dunces". Mack called its publication "in many ways the greatest act of folly in Pope's life". Though a masterpiece, "it bore bitter fruit. It brought the poet in his own time the hostility of its victims and their sympathizers, who pursued him implacably from then on with a few damaging truths and a host of slanders and lies...". The threats were physical too. According to his sister, Pope would never go for a walk without the company of his Great Dane, Bounce, and a pair of loaded pistols in his pocket. In 1731, Pope published his "Epistle to Burlington", on the subject of architecture, the first of four poems which would later be grouped under the title Moral Essays (1731-35). In the epistle, Pope ridiculed the bad taste of the aristocrat "Timon". Pope's enemies claimed he was attacking the Duke of Chandos and his estate, "Cannons". Though the charge was untrue, it did Pope a great deal of damage. Around this time, Pope began to grow discontented with the ministry of Robert Walpole and drew closer to the opposition led by Bolingbroke, who had returned to England in 1725. Inspired by Bolingbroke's philosophical ideas, Pope wrote An Essay on Man (1733-4). He published the first part anonymously, in a cunning and successful ploy to win praise from his fiercest critics and enemies.The Imitations of Horace followed (1733-38). These were written in the popular Augustan form of the "imitation" of a classical poet, not so much a translation of his works as an updating with contemporary references. Pope used the model of Horace to satirise life under George II, especially what he regarded as the widespread corruption tainting the country under Walpole's influence and the poor quality of the court's artistic taste.Pope also added a wholly original poem, An Epistle to Doctor Arbuthnot, as an introduction to the "Imitations". It reviews his own literary career and includes the famous portraits of Lord Hervey ("Sporus") and Addison ("Atticus"). In 1738 he wrote the Universal Prayer.After 1738, Pope wrote little. He toyed with the idea of composing a patriotic epic in blank verse called Brutus, but only the opening lines survive. His major work in these years was revising and expanding his masterpiece The Dunciad. Book Four appeared in 1742, and a complete revision of the whole poem in the following year. In this version, Pope replaced the "hero", Lewis Theobald, with the poet laureate Colley Cibber as "king of dunces". By now Pope's health, which had never been good, was failing and he died in his villa surrounded by friends on May 30, 1744. The prior day, May 29, 1744, at the suggestion of a Catholic friend, Pope called for a priest and received the Last Rites of the Church. He lies buried in the nave of the Church of St Mary the Virgin in Twickenham.
Literary legacy
The death of Alexander Pope from Museus, a prepare to welcome him to heaven. The poetry of Alexander Pope holds an acknowledged place in the canons of English Literature, although his work has gone in and out of fashion. One edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations includes no less than 212 quotations from Pope.Some quotations from Pope's work have passed so deeply into the English language that they are often taken as proverbial by those who do not know their source: "A little learning is a dang'rous thing" (from the Essay on Criticism); "To err is human, to forgive, divine" (ibid.); "For fools rush in where angels fear to tread" (ibid); "Hope springs eternal in the human breast" and "The proper study of mankind is man" (Essay on Man). This would have greatly pleased Pope, who wrote:True wit is nature to advantage dress’d;What oft was thought, but ne’er so well express’d.Pope dominated his age to an extent few writers before or since have matched. After his death, it was almost inevitable a reaction would set in against his poetry, especially with the first stirrings of Romanticism in the late eighteenth century.In An Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope (1756 and 1782), Joseph Warton denied Pope was a "true poet", merely a "man of wit" and a "man of sense". In his Lives of the Poets Doctor Johnson countered: "...It is surely superfluous to answer the question that has once been asked, whether Pope was a poet, otherwise than by asking in return, if Pope be not a poet, where is poetry to be found?". But he was fighting a losing battle against changing taste.The Romantics had little time for Pope, with the notable exception of Lord Byron, who acclaimed him as “the great moral poet of all times, of all climes, of all feelings, and all stages of existence”. Keats dismissed the style of writers who wrote in heroic couplets, saying:They rode upon a rocking horseAnd called it Pegasus.In the Victorian era, Matthew Arnold dismissed Pope and Dryden as "classics of our prose". The 19th century considered his diction artificial, his versification too regular, and his satires insufficiently humane. The third charge has been disputed by various 20th century critics including William Empson, and the first does not apply at all to his best work. That Pope was constrained by the demands of "acceptable" diction and prosody is undeniable, but the elegance and flexibility with which Pope used this technique shows that great poetry could be written with these constraints. His expression is concise and forceful, conveying emotion as well as reason and wit.In his time Pope was famous for his witty satires and aggressive, bitter quarrels with other writers. When his edition of William Shakespeare was attacked, he answered with the savage burlesque The Dunciad (1728), which was widened in 1742. It ridiculed bad writers, scientists, and critics: "While pensive poets painful vigils keep, / Sleepless themselves to give their readers sleep." With the growth of Romanticism Pope's poetry was increasingly seen as outdated and the 'Age of Pope' ended. It was not until the 1930s when serious attempt was made to rediscover the poet's work.

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Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Karya Sastra Inggris Periode Pertengahan

Latar Belakang Sosial Masyarakat Periode Inggris Pertengahan
Periode Inggris pertengahan berlangsung dari sekitar Tahun 1150 sampai dengan 1400, dan diawali meninggalnya raja Inggris, Edward the Confessor keturunan raja Alfred dari Wessex pada Tahun 1066.

Pada masa kekuasaan Edward selama 20 tahun tidak mengalami banyak kemajuan dalam bidang kesusastraan. Kemunduran dimulai sejak penyerbuan orang-orang Skandinavia. Peninggalan satu-satunya adalah pembangunan gereja-gereja, antara lain gereja besar Westminter Abbey. Karena Edward tidak mempunyai keturunan untuk menggantinya maka pemilihan raja ditentukan oleh suatu dewan yang disebut Witan. Kemudian dewan tersebut memilih Harold, putra Godwin, Earl of Wessex sebagai pengganti Edward. Keputusan ini ditentang oleh Harald Hardrada, raja Norwegia, dan William, Duke of Normandy, yang masing-masing masih mempunyai hubungan kekerabatan dengan Edward the Confessor, dan karenanya merasa berhak juga atas tahta Inggris.
Kemudian pada akhir bulan September 1066 pasukan raja Norwegia menyerbu Inggris melalui pantai utara, namun dapat dipukul mundur oleh pasukan Harold. Beberapa minggu setelah pertempuran dan dalam keadaan masih lemah, Inggris mendapat serbuan lagi dari bagian Selatan. Kali ini serbuan datang dari William, Duke of Normandy. Pertempuran ini berlangsung di daerah Hastings yang kemudian terkenal dengan nama the Battle of Hastings.
Pada pertempuran ini pasukan William, Duke of Normandy, berhasil mengalahkan Inggris dan Harold gugur dalam pertempuran. Berkat kemenangannya William dapat naik tahta di kerajaan Inggris dan sejak itu budaya Anglo-Saxon banyak dipengaruhi oleh budaya Normandia (daerah barat daya Perancis). Karena William dibesarkan dan lama tinggal di Normandia, maka sewaktu berkuasa di Inggris, dia merekrut banyak pejabat yang berasal dari orang-orang Normandia dan akibatnya kebudayaan Normandia banyak merasuk ke Inggris (kebudayaan Anglo-Saxon).
Karena kesenjangan sosial tersebut kaum bangsawan berbicara dalam bahasa Perancis Normandia dan kaum jelata dalam bahasa Inggris Anglo-Saxon.
Salah satu peninggalan William I yang cukup penting dalam system administrasi Negara adalah Domesday Survey yaitu system yang bertujuan untuk mengetahui fakta – fakta rinci mengenai seluruh kekayaan yang ada di Inggris untuk menentukan jumlah pemungutan pajak (1086)
Sepeninggal William the Conqueror, William Rufus (1087 – 1100), putra sulung, naik tahta yang kemudian diganti oleh Henry I (1100 – 1135), adik kandung William Rufus.
Seiring pergantian tahta raja – raja di Inggris, terjadi peristiwa – peristiwa penting yang mempengaruhi perkembangan masyarakat maupun budaya Inggris pada abad ini, yaitu Perang Salib (The Crusades), Lahirnya Konstitusi Inggris (Magna Carta), Parlemen (Parliement), Perang Seratus Tahun, dan lain – lain.
Tokoh Perang Salib dari Inggris adalah Raja Richard I atau Richard the Lion Hearted (1189 – 1199), putra Henry II. Masa hidupnya banyak dihabiskan untuk berperang dan masalah urusan pemerintahan diserahkan kepada adiknya John dan dewan penasehat. Richard I terkenal sebagai jenderal perang yang tangguh. Pada masa pemerintahan raja John (1199 – 1216) lahirlah Magna Charta (Piagam Agung) yang berisikan kewajiban – kewajiban dan hak – hak feudal yang harus ditaati semua pihak, termasuk raja. Magna Carta kemudian menjadi pedoman pokok bangsa Inggris dalam mempertahankan hak – hak serta kebebasannya terhadap kesewenang – wenangan para penguasa, dan menjadi dasar bagi pemerintah monarki konstitusional.
Peristiwa lain yang cukup berperan dalam perkembangan masyarakat abad ini adalah Perang Seratus Tahun (1338 – 1457). Perang ini disebabkan oleh perselisihan politik yang panjang antara monarki Inggris dan monarki Perancis. Pada akhir perang, Perancis mencapai kemenangan dan Inggris kehilangan semua wilayahnya di Perancis kecuali Calais. Meskipun Inggris tidak memenangkan perang, namun perang tersebut mempunyai akibat yang positif bagi bangsa Inggris sendiri. Inggris dapat lebih terpusat dalam mengurusi masalah – masalah dalam negeri, penggunaan bahasa Inggris juga lebih meningkat. Akibat perang seratus tahun kesadaran nasional meningkat dan bahasa Inggris kembali pulih menjadi bahasa satu – satunya di seluruh negeri dan di segala lapisan masyarakat. Penyair – penyair besar abad ke-14 seperti Geofrey Chaucer dan William Langland memberikan andil besar dalam meningkatkan martabat bahasa Inggris.

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CIRI – CIRI SASTRA, PARA PENGARANG, DAN KARYA SASTRA INGGRIS PERIODE ABAD PERTENGAHAN

Inggris periode pertengahan banyak dipengaruhi oleh budaya Perancis sejak William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, berkuasa di Inggris. Budaya perancis juga sangat berpengaruh terhadap perkembangan kesusastraan dan bahasa Inggris. Karya sastra Inggris awal abad pertengahan disebut juga kesusastraan Anglo-Norman, dan dimulai ketika William the Conqueror menaklukkan Inggris pada Tahun 1066.
Bahasa Perancis menjadi bahasa kaum kelas atas dan juga bahasa resmi dalam pemerintahan. Jenis karya sastra yang terkenal adalah “romance”. Ciri – ciri karya sastra Perancis dan Anglo-Norman antara lain bentuk sajaknya beraneka ragam, gaya ungkapan bahasanya terang dan sederhana, selalu bernuansa cerah. Ciri – ciri ini tidak terdapat pada kesusastraan Inggris kuno yang selalu bernuansa muram, mempunyai gaya bahasa berat dan rumit. Sifat – sifat Perancis tersebut diatas dapat dilihat pada karya – karya Inggris abad pertengahan, terutama karya – karya Geofrey Chaucer. Kesusastraan akhir abad pertengahan dapat dikatakan milik Chaucer atau disebut the Age of Chaucer. Karya - karya Sastra Inggris abad pertengahan dapat dibagi menjadi 3 jenis, yaitu puisi, prosa, dan drama.

PUISI

Karya puisi periode pertengahan sebagian besar terdiri dari metrical romances, atau kisah – kisah romantis yang ditulis dalam bentuk sajak tentang pahlawan – pahlawan Perancis (Roland), Pahlawan – pahlawan Kelt (Arthur), dan Pahlawan – pahlawan Inggris (Bevis o Hampton). Metrical Romance adalah sebuah sajak naratif panjang tentang cinta dan petualangan. Yang menjadi tokoh utama (hero) biasanya seorang ksatria (knight) yang menyelamatkan wanita – wanita yang mengalami kesulitan. Dalam petualangannnya, sang tokoh (knight) bertempur melawan raksasa, ular naga, tukang sihir, dan, lain – lain. Musuh – musuhnya yang haris ditaklukkan dapat juga penguasa Gereja atau Negara.
-Metrical Romance terbagi tiga jenis berdasarkan materi atau pokok masalahnya :
-Materi Perancis meliputi cerita – cerita tentang Charlemagne dan ksatria – ksatrianya (Paladins), seperti “the Chanson de Roland”.
-Materi Inggris meliputi cerita – cerita legenda “King Arthur”, dan “the Knights of the Round Table”, dan Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
-Materi Roma meliputi cerita – cerita tentang dari Timur, seperti Alexander the Great, the siege of Troy, dan Floris and the Blanche Fleur.
-Metrical Romance yang berkisah tentang petualangan para raja, ksatria, wanita cantik hanya disajikan untuk kelas atas (kaum bangsawan). Namun terdapat juga juru dongeng kisah – kisah perjalanan (minstrel), yang membuat balada untuk kelas bawah.
Balada termasuk jenis sajak naratif sederhana dalam bentuk stanza – stanza pendek yang terdiri dari dua atau empat baris. Ada dua jenis balada : pertama, popular of folk ballads, yang pengarangnya dan asal usulnya tidak diketahui, dan disebarkan secara lisan dari generasi ke generasi; kedua, literary ballads yang ditulis oleh penulis terkenal seperti Keats, Tennyson (abad ke-19). Balada Inggris paling terkenal adalah Robin Hood. Balada memberikan gambaran tentang perasaan dan pikiran, kehidaupan, dan penderitaan orang kecil. Ciri – ciri umum balada adalah adanya kecepatan dan pemadatan, perpindahan adegan bergerak cepat, dan detail – detail visual sangat menonjol. Judul – judul balada yang cukup terkenal antara lain : Sir Patrick Spence, Lord Randal, Edward,Edward, The threee Ravens, The Douglas Tragedy, dan lain – lain.
Penyair terbesar abad pertengahan adalah Geofrey Chaucer (1340 – 1400) dan dapat dikatakan akhir abad pertengahan adalah milik Chaucer atau sering disebut The Age of Chaucer. Chaucer tergolong orang yang serba bisa; ia seorang penguasaha, pejabat pemerintah, perantau, prajurit, ilmuwan, penyair dan lain – lain. Pengaruhnya juga begitu kuat terhadap penyair – penyair abad mendatang seperti Edmund Spencer pada abad ke-16.
Karya terbesar Chaucer adalah Canterbury Tales, suatu kumpulan 70 sajak naratif, dengan panjang baris dan pokok masalah yang beraneka ragam. Canterbury Tales memberikan gambaran realistic tentang kehidupan orang – orang Inggris. Kumpulan sajak ini kaya akan humor meskipun terdapat kritik yang ditujukan pada berbagai tokoh, khususnya para pendeta yang melalaikan tugas – tugasnya dan yang masih mementingkan kesenangan duniawi.
Canterbury Tales ini adalah kumpulan dongeng dari sekitar 30 orang dengan berbagai profesi yang melakukan ziarah dari London ke the Sherine of St. Thomas Becket di Canterbury. Profesi mereka antara lain : the knight (ksatria), the squire (tuan tanah), the yeoman (perwira rendahan), the prioress (kepala biara wanita), the nun (biarawati), the priest (pendeta), the monk (biarawan), the merchant (saudagar), the Oxford clerk (juru tulis), the man of law (ahli hokum), the carpenter (tukang kayu), the miller (tukang giling), the shipman (pelaut), the wife of Bath (isteri), the ploughman (petani).
Dongeng – dongeng itu antara lain : The Knight’s Tale, The Nun’s tale, dan The Miller’s tale.



Here bygynneth the Book of the Tales of Caunterbury Whan that Aprill, with his shoures sooteThe droghte of March hath perced to the rooteAnd bathed every veyne in swich licour,Of which vertu engendred is the flour;Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breethInspired hath in every holt and heethThe tendre croppes, and the yonge sonneHath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,And smale foweles maken melodye,That slepen al the nyght with open eye-So priketh hem Nature in hir corages);Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages


Terjemahan:
Di sini bermula Kitab Cerita-Cerita dari Canterbury Ketika pada bulan April, dengan hujannya yang manisKekeringan bulan Maret telah menembus akarnyaDan memandikan semua pembuluh darah dengan cairan seperti ini,Untuk menghasilkan di dalam dan menumbuhkan bunga;Juga ketika Zephirus ("angin barat") dengan nafasnya yang manisMemberikan ilham pada semua pohon dan heethTunas-tunas lembut dan matahari mudaTelah berlari separuh jalan pada rasi Aries,Dan burung-burung kecil bernyanyi,Yang pada malam hari tidur dengan mata terbuka-Dan kemudian alam menusuki keberaniannya);Kemudian orang-orang menginginkan untuk pergi berziarah.

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Karier Chaucer sebagai penyair dapat dibagi menjadi tiga periode :
- Periode pertama (1359 – 1372)
Dalam periode ini Chaucer banyak dipengaruhi oleh budaya Perancis. Sebagai seorang pemuda, Chaucer bekerja sebagai pengawal raja dan mengikuti banyak ekspedisi dalam perang Seratus Tahun di Perancis. Di Perancis ia mempelajari adat istiadat dan kesusastraan Perancis. Ketika kembali ke Inggris, ia menerjemahkan karya – karya sastra Perancis, antara lain the Romaunt of the Rose.
- Periode Kedua (1392 – 1386)
Dalam periode ini Chaucer dipengaruhi oleh budaya Italia. Chaucer sebagai utusan Raja sering mengunjungi Italia dalam rangka misi diplomasi. Di Negara ini ia belajar seni, budaya, dan sastra Italia. Ia menulis Troilus dan Criseyde, The House of Fame, dan The Legend of Good Women.
- Periode Ketiga (1386 – 1400)
Periode ini dapat disebut periode Inggris, dimana Chaucer sudah berhasil membebaskan diri dari pengaruh – pengaruh asing dan menghasilkan karya – karya asli Inggris baik dalam bentuk maupun gaya. Periode ini merupakan periode kedewasaannya (maturity) dan karya besarnya adalah Canterbury Tales.
Salah satu sumbangan Chaucer terhadap perkembangan sastra Inggris adalah penggunaan matra – matra tertentu :
- the iambic pentameter yang digunakan dalam couplet yang berirama (heroic couplets)
- the rhyme royal, atau stanza 7 baris, juga dengan heroic couplet
- the octosyllabic couplet (baris 7 suku kata dengan 4 tekanan)
penyair besar lainnya yang berjasa dalam perkembangan sastra Inggris adalah William langland. Ia banyak memberikan khotbah tentang kualitas manusia dan martabat kerja dan menulis sajak berjudul Piers Plowman.

PROSA
Salah satu contoh prosa Inggris periode pertengahan adalah John Wyclif. Ia seorang guru besar Universitas Oxford dan seorang tokoh gereja.dalam bidang kesusastraan, Wycliff dikenal sebagai penerjemah kitab suci. Karya terjemahannya disebarkan ke seluruh Inggris dan sangat berjasa dalam membentuk bahasa Inggris standar untuk mengganti macam – macam dialek.
Karya prosa lainnya adalah the Historia Regum Britanniae karangan Geofrey Monmouth (1100 – 1154) buku yang berisikan tentang sejarah raja – raja Inggris. Dialah yang menciptakan King Arthur sebagai pahlawan romantic. Para penulis Norman – Perancis menganggap karya Geofrey sebagai dokumen sejarah yang otentik, dan menggunakannya sebagai bahan dasar cerita – cerita tentang King Arthur dan para ksatrianya.

DRAMA
Drama semula tumbuh di dalam gereja sebagai medium rokhaniwan untuk menjelaskan khotbah – khotbah mereka. Karena khotbah – khotbah yang berupa pertunjukan diberikan dalam bahasa latin yang tidak dipahami oleh sebagian besar umat, khotbah – khotbah itu berangsur – angsur diganti dengan bahasa Inggris. Lakon – lakon drama diambilkan dari kitab suci. Misalnya pada hari Natal dipertunjukkan lakon Kristus, sedangkan pada hari Paskah disajikan cerita penyaliban dan kebangkitan kembali Kristus. Pada zaman Pertengahan (abad ke-13) terdapat dua macam drama, yaitu Miracles yang melakonkan kehidupan orang – orang suci, dan Mysteries yang mengambil tema – tema dari Kitab Injil.


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DAFTAR PUSTAKA
1. Universitas Terbuka. Suharno, (2007). Introduction to English Literature.
2. www.wikipedia.com



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Monday, June 23, 2008

Karya Sastra Inggris Periode Agustus (1750 -1970)

LATAR BELAKANG
Istilah karya sastra Periode Agustus berasal dari para penulis pada sekitar abad ke – 18 dimasa pemerintahan George I dari Inggris. Para penulis melihat bahwa karya sastra pada masa itu merupakan refleksi dari karya-karya besar masa pemerintahan Kaisar Augustus di jaman Romawi Kuno.
Pada periode ini penuh akan semangat daya cipta yang tercermin dari masyarakat Inggris , Skotlandia dan Irlandia yang menemukan dirinya ditengah-tengah kemajuan ekonomi, kesempatan yang luas dalam pendidikan dan adanya Revolusi Industri yang mengakibatkan kemajuan dibidang ilmu pengetahuan sehingga berpengaruh juga terhadap bentuk atau jenis karya sastra yang dihasilkan pada masa itu.

II. CIRI-CIRI KARYA SASTRA PERIODE AGUSTUS
Adanya keinginan akan sistem serta keteraturan dalam penulisan merupakan ciri utama karya-karya sastra periode ini. Karya-karya besar masa pemerintahan Kaisar Augustus di jaman Romawi Kuno adalah kiblat pengarang-pengarang Inggris pada periode ini.
Ciri yang lain adalah : gaya bahasa yang jelas, akurat, sederhana, dan seragam serta kesan menghilangkan Individualitas adalah suatu tuntutan yang harus dipenuhi suatu karya sastra agar di terima masyarakat. Karya sastra periode ini juga memiliki kecenderungan untuk mengintelektualkan karya sastra akibat pengaruh revolusi industri.

III. PENGARANG DAN KARYA-KARYANYA
Dibidang karya sastra prosa : Daniel Dafoe, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Johnson
Dibidang puisi : Alexander Pope,
Dibidang drama : John Gay, George Lillo

PROSA
Daniel Dafoe (1661-1731)Dafoe adalah seorang pembangkang dari golongan kelas menengah, anak seorang pedagang pengecer. Ia dianggap pelopor Karya Fiksi realistis. Ia juga seorang pedagang, agen rahasia, wartawan dan penulis pamflet yang produktif. Lebih dari 200 pamflet yang telah ditulis. Dalam tulisan Satir-nya ia mencemooh Superiositas Rasial, mendiskusikan perdagangan dan menginginkan fasilitas pendidikan yang baik bagi anak-anak. Yang penting dari Dafoe adalah arah novelnya, ia menulis porsa naratif yang panjang mirip "picaresque". Dan kehebatannya sebagai penulis adalah kemampuannya bercerita, sehingga apa yang dia ceritakan seolah-olah adalah peristiwa yang dialaminya sendiri dan bukan ilusi.Karyanya yang dianggap masterpiece :1. The Life and Strange Suprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York Mariner (Robinson Crusoe 1719)Tentang Marinir yang kapalnya terdampar dipulau terpencil dan harus bermukim dipulau itu dengan perjuangan tetap hidup sampai diselamatkan kapal Inggris.2. The Life Adventures and Piraciers of The Famous Captain Singleton (1720)Dengan latar belakang Afrika3. The History and Remarkable Life of Colonel Jacque, commonly called Jack (1724)Tentang riwayat hidup pencopet4. The Fortune and Misfortune of The Famous Moll Flanders (1772) Tentang tunasusila sekaligus pencopet5. Roxana of The Fortunate Mistress (1724)Tentang pelacuran dikalangan bangsawan.Jonathan Swift (1667 – 1745)Dikenal sebagai penulis Prosa Satir dengan humor yang tinggi, intelektual sebagai mahkluk individu. Ia lahir dan memperoleh pendidikan di Dublin. Setelah kuliah di Trinity College ia menjadi sekretaris pribadi Sir William Temple.Ia seorang yang sensitive, angkuh, pendendam dan gusar.Ia memendam rasa pahit tentang nasibnya sendiri dan terhadap masyarakat sekitar. Ciri-ciri karya sastranya : jelas, sederhana, pilihan kata yang tepat (diction), dengan sintaks sederhana, ekonomis dalam kata dan menyiratkan sebuah kebajikan.Hasil karya sastra Jonathan Swift:1. Tale of a Tub dan The Battle of the BooksMerupakan karya satirnya yang berkaitan dengan korupsi di bidang agama dan pendidikan.2. The Progress of Poetry, The Day of JudgementMerupakan karya puisinya.3. Modest Proposal (1729)Mengisahkan tentang anak-anak miskin Irlandia yang tidak jadi beban kedua orang tuanya dengan menjadi makanan kaum kaya4. Gulliver's Travel (1726)Merupakan karya masterpiecenya tentang kesengsaraan hidup manusia.Samuel Johnson (1708 - 1784)Penulis yang dikenal dengan Dr. Johnson merajai dunia sastra Inggris, sehingga dianggap sebagi dictator sastra. Tentang kehidupannya ditulis dalam judul The life of Johnson oleh James Boswel 1740 - 1795 sebagai pengikut.Hasil karya Samuel Johnson:1. The Vanity of Human WishesAdalah sebuah karya puisi2. RasselesMerupakan karya prosa yang berisi pandangan penulis tentang filsafat, agama dan keadaan masyarakat pada waktu itu3. The Rambler dan The IdlerBerupa terbitan-terbitan berkala4. A Dictionary of The English LanguageKamus Inggris terlengkap di masa itu terbit 1755.PUISIAlexander PopePope adalah satu-satunya pengarang yang penting dari generasi sastra sebagai penganut Katolik Roma. Ia tidak memiliki hak pilih, bahkan dikucilkan dari kelompok penulis yang didirikan negarawan selama pemerintahan Ratu Anne.Hasil karya Alexander Pope:1. Homer Illiad dan OdesseyAdalah karya terjemahan yang memberikan keuntungan dan nama bagi seorang independent.2. Essay on ManMerupakan suskes luar biasa pertama kalinya sebgai seorang penyair mendapat tanggapan positif dari kritikus John Dennis.3. The Rape of The rockKisah kepahlawanan yang mencemooh diterbitkan pertama kali di Lintot's Miscellany pada bulan Mei 1712.4. The Elegy to The Memory of an Unfortunate ladyDiterbitkan dalam kumpulan puisi tahun 1717 adalah puisi cinta romantis.Pope penyair abad -18 dianggap sebagai bapak Neo-Classic. Falsafah nya sangat sederhana dan pragamtis.
DRAMA
Periode Agustus merupakan periode yang gersang dalam karya sastra drama dan hanya ada dua penulis:John Gay 1685-1732 karyanya The Beggar of Opera terbit tahun 1728George Lillo 1698 -1739 karyanya The London Merchant of The History of terbit tahun 1739.

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