After the restoration when Charles II came to the throne, there was a complete repudiation of Puritan ideals and way of living. In English literature, the period from 1660 to 1700 is called the Restoration Period (divided part of The Classical Age), because the monarchy was restored in England, and Charles II the son of Charles I (who had been defeated and beheaded), came back to England from the exile in France and became the king.
The Restoration Period was a time of profound transformation in England, both politically and culturally. After the monarchy was restored under Charles II, literature shifted from the Puritan restrictions of the previous era to a new, freer expression of creativity.
It is also called the Age Of Dryden because Dryden was the dominating and most representative literary figure of the Age.
What Changed After The Puritans?
As the Puritans who were previously controlling the country were finally defeated, a reaction was launched against whatever they held sacred. All restraints and discipline were thrown to the winds and a wave of followers who had enjoyed a gay (carefree, joyful, luxurious) life in France during the exile. They did their best to introduce foppery and looseness in England.
Style Of Literature
Charles II and his companions renounced their old ideals and demanded that English poetry and drama follow the style to which they had become accustomed in the gaiety of Paris.
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Instead of having Shakespeare and the Elizabethans as their models, the poets and dramatists of the restoration period began to imitate French writers, especially their vices.
Freedom By The Restrictions Of Puritans
The preceding period (Puritan Age) was deeply religious, and the authority of the Parliament, dominated by the Puritans, closed the theaters. As a result, there was no production of notable plays until the Restoration period. The people, have been constrained by the Puritanical restrictions, experienced a sense of liberation when the monarchy was restored.
This newfound freedom led to a wave of licentiousness and frivolity that swept across the country.
Change In Theme And Models Of Poetry
The result was that the old Elizabethan spirit with its patriotism, its love of adventure and romance, and it’s creative vigor, became things of the past. For a time in poetry, drama, and prose nothing was produced that could compare satisfactorily with the great achievements of the Elizabethans, of Milton, and even of minor writers of the Puritan age.
But then writers of the period began to evolve something that was characteristic of the times and they made two important contributions to English literature in the form of realism and a tendency to preciseness.
Early phases of realism and the tendency to preciseness
In the beginning, realism took an ugly shape, because the writers painted the real pictures of the corrupt society and court. They were more concerned with vices than the virtues. The result was a coarse and inferior type of literature, later this tendency to realism became more wholesome, and the writers tried to portray realistically human life as they found it – its good as well as bad side, its internal and as well as external shape.
The tendency to preciseness, which ultimately became the chief characteristic of the restoration period, made a lasting contribution to English literature. It emphasized the directness and simplicity of expression and counteracted the tendency of exaggeration and extravagance which was encouraged during the Elizabethan and the Puritan ages.
Style and pattern of English literature
Instead of using grandiloquent phrases, involved sentences full of Latin quotations and classical allusions, the restoration period writers, under the influence of French writers, gave emphasis to reasoning rather than romantic, fancy and evolved an exact precise way of writing, consisting of short clear-cut sentences without any unnecessary word.
Dryden accepted this rule for his prose, and for his poetry adopted the easiest type of verse-form – the heroic couplet(instead of other forms like Chaucerian stanza). Under his guidance the English writers evolved a style – precise, formal and elegant – which is called the classical style, and which dominated English literature for more than a century.
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