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The story o f “Samson” is taken from the Bible. Samson, a great hero, is imprisoned and blinded, but manages to destroy his enemies, although he perishes himself. Some character features o f the hero o f the tragedy are identical with those o f the author himself. In it Milton shows that he remained faithful to his ideals. Ii is considered his most powerful work.
Milton died on November 8, 1684 and was buried in London. M ilton’s works form a bridge between the poetry o f the Renaissance and the poetry o f the classicists o f a later period. Milton’s works are characterized by their duality (which means that-two independent views go together). He chooses his themes from the Bible, but under his treatment they become revolutionary in spirit.
“Paradise Lost” is an epic, divided into twelve books, or chapters. The main characters are God, three guardian angels - Raphael, Gabriel and Michael, Satan and his rebel angeiis, and the first man and woman - Adam and Eve. Satan, who revolts against God, draws his side many rebel-angels and is driven out c-fHeaven. They fall down into the fires o f Hell. But Satan is not to be overcome. He hates God who rules the universe, autocratically. Though banished from Heaven, Satan is glad to have gained freedom. He pities the rebel-angels who have lost life in Heaven for his sake, and decides to go on with the war against God.
Adam and Eve are allowed by God to live in Paradise, in the Garden o f Eden, as long as do not eat the apples that grow on the Tree o f the Knowledge o f good and evil. Satan, who has been driven from the Garden o f Eden by the guardian angels, returns at night in the form o f a serpent. Next morning, the serpent persuades Eve to eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree o f Knowledge and to take another one for Adam. Eve tells Adam what she has done. Adam’s reply is described in the following way:
Speechless he stood and pale, till thus at length First to him self he inward silence broke:
O, fairest o f Creation, last and best
O f all God’s works, creature in whom excelled Whatever can to sight or thought be formed, Holy, divine, amiable or sweet!
How art thou lost!.........................................
................................ Some cursed fraud
O f enemy hath beguiled thee, yet unknown, And me with thee hath ruined; for with thee Certain my resolution is to die.
How can I live without thee? How forgo. Thy sweet converse and love so dearly joined, To live again in these wild woods forlorn?”
So Adam decides to eat the fruit for love o f Evve. As a punishment, God banishes Adam and Eve to the newly created
world, where they have to face a life o f toil and woe. The angel Michael shows Adam a vision o f the tyranny and lawlessness which are to befall mankind.
Milton’s sympathies lie with Adam and Eve, and this shows his faith in man. His Adam and Eve are full o f energy. They love each other and are ready to meet all hardships together. When they are driven out o f Eden, Eve says to Adam:
“.................... but novy lead on;
In me is no delay; with thee to go Is to stay here; without thee to stay
Is to go hence unwillingly; thou to me
Art al'i things under Heaven, all places thou Who for my willful crime art banished hence”.
Thus, in his “Paradise Lost” John Milton had created the images o f Adam and Еле, the first man and woman, who were faithful to their love.
John Drydcn
(1631-1700)
John Dryden was an outstanding English poet from the Restoration in 1660 to the end o f the 17 thcentury. He was bom to
a Puritan family in London and graduated from Cambridge University in 1654.
Dryden wrote verse in several forms: odes, poetic drama, biting satires, and translations o f classic authors. His early poem “Heroic Stanzas on ths Death o f Cromwell“ was published in 1659. A year later it was followed by “Astraea Redux”, which celebrated the Restoration o f the Stuart line to the throne.
In 1667 Dryden published “Annus M irabilis”, a poem commemorating three events o f the previous year: the end o f the plague, the Great Fire o f London, and the Dutch War. This is the most unusual feat in transferring almost immediately contemporary events into poetry.
Dryden wrote notab e prose as well, including literary criticism o f Shakespeare, Chaucer, and others. His venture into political satire began in 1681, with the publication o f “Absalom and Achitophel”, written after an unsuccessful attempt by Charles’ illegitimate son, the Duke o f Monmouth, to seize the throne. In 1682 he wrote another literary satire “Mac Flecknoe”.
Dryden was a talented translator too. His translation of Virgi I’s “Aeneid”, published in 1697, was extrem ely popular. As a translator, he also rendered Juvenal, Ovid and Chaucer, and the best o f his prose in the preface o f 1700 to the “Fables”, in which, in the year o f his death, he introduced some o f his translations to the public. His range cannot be estimated without a consideration o f his criticism and his plays in verse.
Q uestions and Tasks
What influence did ’ihe events ofthe beginning ofthe 17th century make on Milton’s literary activity.
In 1649 Milton was appointed Latin Secretary to the Council o f state. What did il mean?
What can you tell about Milton’s tragedy “Samson Agonistes”?
“Paradise Lost” is an epic poem. Can you explain why it is “epic”, and not “ lyric”?
Who are the main characters o f “Paradise Lost’?
Speak about Milton’s humanism in his characterization o f Adam and Eve.
What kind o f verses did John Dryden write?
What events did Dryden’s “Annus Mirabilis” commemorate?
ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE 18thCENTURY (ENLIGHTENMENT IN ENGLAND)
Gencral Background
The eighteenth-certury philosophical impulse known as ihe Enlightenment rested on five general beliefs: the inevitability of progress; the perfectibility of man and his institutions; the efficacy o f reason; the beneficence o f God; and the plentitude and perfection o f nature. It stressed the primacy o f science over theology, skepticism over authority, reason over faith. The philosophers o f the Enlightenment were convinced that it was within man’s capacity, by applying reason to his problems, to discover those great laws by which all human and natural activity could be explained. Possessing such knowledge, men could then direct their efforts toward building a society in which progress was certain and continuous. The temper o f the Enlightenment was orderly, progressive, hopeful. In the eighteenth century England achieved, politically and economically the position o f a great power in Europe. Eighteenth-century England was distinguished also in science and philosophy. (Isaac Newton, David Hume, Adam Smith). The most active sections o f population at that time are the commercial classes that are the middle classes.
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