Used literature introduction

CONTENTS


INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1.
1.1. Restoration literature
1.2. The Restoration Literary reactions to the political climate
1.3. Writings of the royalists
CHAPTER 2.
2.1. John Dryden
2.2. Dryden poetry
2.3. Drama by Dryden and others
CONCLUSION
USED LITERATURE
INTRODUCTION

The Restoration Age was an important era in the development of English prose. It was the period when English prose moved from antiquity to modernity. The prose before the Restoration Age is characterised by word-excess, complexity etc.

But prose in and after the Restoration Age has the modern qualities of clarity, precision and simplicity. With the development of Restoration Age, English prose moves speedily towards being strictly functional. It cuts down all unnecessary ornamentation.
  The period from 1660 to 1700 is mentioned as the Restoration Age or the Age of Dryden because the monarchy was restored in England. In the year of 1660, Charles II was brought to the throne and the restoration of Charles II brought a new era both in life and in literature. The restoration actually replaced the power of the monarchy and puritan ethos. It brought the power of a Parliamentary system under the two parties – Whigs and Tories, and both parties encouraged social stability. 
The British office is remarkable for its continuity. It began with a pension granted to Ben Jonson by James I in 1616, confirmed and increased by Charles I in 1630 (when an annual “butt of Canary wine” was added, to be discontinued at the request of Henry James Pye—made laureate in 1790—who preferred the equivalent in money). Jonson’s pension specifically recognized his services to the crown as a poet and envisaged their continuance, but not until 16 months after Jonson’s death in 1637 was a similar pension for similar services granted to Sir William Davenant. It was with John Dryden’s appointment in 1668, within a week of Davenant’s death, that the laureateship was recognized as an established royal office to be filled automatically when vacant.
During the Glorious Revolution (1688–89), Dryden was dismissed for refusing the oath of allegiance, and this gave the appointment a political flavour, which it retained for more than 200 years. Dryden’s successor, Thomas Shadwell, inaugurated the custom of producing New Year and birthday odes; this hardened into a tradition between 1690 and about 1820, becoming the principal mark of the office. The odes were set to music and performed in the sovereign’s presence. On his appointment in 1813, Robert Southey sought unsuccessfully to end this custom, but, although it was allowed tacitly to lapse, it was only finally abolished by Queen Victoria. Her appointment of William Wordsworth in 1843 signified that the laureateship had become the reward for eminence in poetry, and the office since then has carried no specific duties. The laureates from Alfred Tennyson onward have written poems for royal and national occasions as the spirit has moved them. Andrew Motion was the first British poet laureate to serve a fixed term, of 10 years (1999–2009). His successor, Carol Ann Duffy, became the first woman appointed to the position.
In the United States, a position similar to that of the British poet laureate—the chair of poetry at the Library of Congress—was established in 1936 by an endowment from the author Archer M. Huntington. In 1985 the U.S. government created a title of poet laureate, to be held by the same person who holds the post of consultant in poetry for the Library of Congress. The American poet laureate receives a modest stipend and is expected to present one major poetic work and to appear at certain national ceremonies.