UNIT 1

THE RETURN OF THE CENTURY: FROM COMEDY TO SATIRE

(1660-1780)
THE NOVEL became a popular form during the restoration and the eighteenth
century in a context where other genres were considered more important. About the rise
of the novel, many of the most popular novelists until 1740 were women, and the novels
written by men reflect self-consciousness about the novel as a female-gendered genre.
The R. and 18
th
, it needs to be addressed if we are talking about one period or
two. The court culture of the Restoration was quite distinct from the 18
th
as the Stuarts,
who brought a sense of opulence to London, very different from what would be brought
by the German Hanovers in the 18
th
. The intensity and immediacy of contact of the
former (Anterior) is replaced by a sense of politeness (Cortesia) and sociability from
the latter. Literary life in the 1690s and the early 18
th
centred on friendly circles and
clubs and the English pursuit for French and Italian models is replaced by an increasing
confidence in native English productions.


Poetry: It is not the most popular form in this period, being overlooked and
undervalued as the novel and the literary criticism are among the most loved works. It
has suffered by comparison with the precedent (Metaphysical poets) and following
(Romanticism) poetry, for it is remembered too formal, too simple and too topical. The
poets of the r. and 18
th
saw 17
th
as excessive, even unrefined, and they aimed for a
balance, best achieved by Alexander Pope, which consequences were being stylistically
(Estilsticamente) dominated by the heroic couplet each line representing balance
itself and this pattern created an expectation in readers against which the poet could
play unexpected rhythms and rhymes.


Innocence and the Fall of Man (1677, 3 years after Paradise Lost were published) and
shared Miltons engagement with politics, although in a different approach since he
sided with successive monarchs. The poem that earned Drydens reputation was Annus
Mirabilis (1667), concerning 1666s London Fire. It is remarkably his productive three
or four years period around the Exclusion Crisis that resulted in Drydens most
important poetic achievements: Absalom and Architophel, MacFlecknoe, The Medal.
Pope could certainly write satirical poetry, his essays An Essay on criticism and
An Essay on a Man mark an important shift away from the often topical poetry of the
restoration towards the general and universal claims associated with the Enlightenment.
In AEOC, Pope describes what is required for good literary criticism, arguing that the
best critics will be the best writers and vice versa. Popes vision of criticism is
consistent with his sense of the relationship between nature, rules and standardisation.
Poetry was dominated by John Dryden (restoration) and Alexander Pope (first
third of 18
th
), both engaged with the influence of Milton. Dryden produced The State of
During this period authors were identified with works, copyrights protected
them and bookselling spread (Difundir) developing a literary marketplace. Bookselling
and publication by subscription came to replace the role formerly played by the
aristocratic patron, and periodical essays and review criticism spread the word about
evaluated and selected books. The period is also characterized by an important shift
from a literary manuscript culture to a literary print culture.
Drama: The theatre had been made illegal by Parliament in 1642, but Charles II
restored drama to the English stage, allowed two theatres (the Kings and the Dukes)
and allowed women to act for the first time. Drydens An Essay of Dramatic Poesy
stages a debate over contemporary drama, English and French by turning the
differences between them into an advantage, giving English drama a vision of how it
could be more self confident (Seguro de s mismo). Three years later, George Villers
satirise the anxieties of early Restoration by giving them a name and a theatrical form in
The Rehearsal, featuring (Presentando) an author unsure of how to write a play and
actors unaware (Desconocen) of how to act. The play also introduces the role influence
of the city with its difference with the country.
By the 1690s, female playwrights started to come into their own, John Vanbrugh
defended the actions of the provoked wife in his play The provoked wife, and then the
theatre come under attack.
The Novel: Perhaps the most important development in literary genres in English
during the Restoration and the 18
th
century is the emergence of the novel. They can
seem quite odd (Raro) compared with the 19
th
s, almost if they are not at all novels.
While the 19
th
s are focused in tensions between city and country, being domestic in the
largest sense, the 18
th
s are engaged globally rather than domestically: world explorers
such as Crusoe and Gulliver, especially in the novels from the earlier part of the period,
with the main landscape (Paisaje) of the terra incognita of colonial locations.
The R. and 18
th
novel is as flexible, fluid and open a genre as the novel would be
in the 19
th
but with many differences. What makes them all novels? Classical and
medieval precedents are important for a consideration of the novel as a genre. Many
take Don Quixote as the firs European novel, which is a parody of the medieval genre.
The epic is another genre with which the novel is often compared. The epic is a long,
fictional narrative in verse while the novel is a long, fictional narrative in prose. The
novels process of narrative adoption and adaptation makes it seems like a colonising
genre: it takes other genres over for itself, remaking them in the process.
The early novel profoundly engages with history by engaging to the emerging
English colonies and by the fact that most early novels had sub-titles that called them a
history. Regarding the history, many novels claimed to be true, and the fact that the
early novel raises questions about its own status of fiction is precisely what makes it
novel (new), having a connection to the emerging newspapers; both claimed to
provide true news in a prose narrative format.
By the often careful dating included in the novels, it is possible to read
ambiguous allegories regarding the periods political events: Crusoe is trapped
(Atrapado) on his island from the entire Restoration, returning to England just in time
for the Glorious Revolution.
Literary Criticism: There were literary criticism before this period, the major R. and
18yh figures such as Dryden, Addison and Steele, represent important changes in the
status of criticism. There is a debate over approaches and methods, literary critical
terms and canon are developed.
The essays of the Spectator acknowledge (Reconocer) Drydens vision of a
writing suited (Adecuar) to the English, reappraise (Reevaluar) Miltons work taking it
out of the political contexts. For Pope, critics who are also authors are best able to
represent the fine taste so much claimed. For Samuel Johnson, the critics ought to have
a kind of humility; criticism hurts, and






Central over the Enlightenment is the question of reason, which has to do with
the status of religion as tolerance and the separation of the Church and state, one of the
most important contribution of the Enlightenment, along with a shift from reason and
religion to reason and passion, and this countervailing tendencies pulled against these
changes during R. and 18th towards the experience of modernity.


J onathan Swift: Born in Dublin, was educated in Ireland and took orders as a priest
and contributed some numbers to Addison and Steeles journals, the Tattler and The
Spectator.
At first, he served the Whig party but in 1710 changed over to the Tories, for
being devoted supporter of the Anglican Church was hostile to all who seemed to
threaten it Deists, Roman Catholic, Nonconformists, so after the Whig Party showed
the desire to repeal the Test Act he change to the Tories.
In Ireland he wrote a number of eloquent pamphlets in the interest of the
oppressed Irish and achieved great popularity, becoming the leader of Irish resistance to
English oppression. His great reputation rests on his prose satire and is especially
admired for the very subtle and powerful form of his irony. Swift provokes, rouses the
reader to fury without caring for his feelings. His prose offers a pessimistic and
heartbreaking opinion of life, and has been defined as learned (docto, sabio), corrosive
and arrogant. Swift has been called a misanthrope, and Gullivers Travels has been
considered an expression of savage misanthropy. The basic features of his work are:
wit, biting humour, irony and parody; a subtle ambiguity resulting from the use of
opposition, reversals (inversin), multiple voices and perspectives. He distrusted of the
novel and everything it represented. The use of unpoetic poetry: a clear simple and
concise diction in prose and poetry.
He is the author of two famous satires: The Battle of the books and The Tale of
Tub. The former is a mock heroic drama set in the Royal Library, where the books
championing the ancient and modern causes are preparing to fight over, remaining the
classic, humorous treatment of the debate between Ancients and Moderns, treated as a
serious cultural issue. The latter was his first major work, which principal narrative is
the fable of the coats, an allegory following the fortunes of three brothers (Roman
Catholic, Calvinist, and Anglican) who are each left a coat by their father, as an attack
on the first two churches, and corruption in religion. A modest Proposal is a grim
The Enlightenment (Lailustracin): Provisionally, it can be said that the
Enlightenment is associated with the rise of science and the decline of religion, with a
rejection of both enthusiasm and fanaticism, and with a defence of reasoned debate and
open critique. The 18
th
rise of criticism is in essence an Enlightenment model.
There are several explanations of the emergence of the literary criticism: the
number of titles published annually grew from 6.000 to 21.000, rising to 56.000 by the
1790s. Therefore, it is understandable the need for readers who sift through (escudriar)
the new books and guide other readers.
writing well is not easy. He proposes that readers rely (Confiar) on the collective
insights of many readers over the generations. It is interesting his defence of the
emotional power that reading can have over the reader.
(severo) parody of well-meaning proposals for improving conditions in Ireland,
usually written from mercantilist perspectives.
Gullivers Travels: It is his most enduring satire, where he adopts an ancient satirical
device: the imaginary voyage, which has been turned into expurgated childrens classic.
The travels, like a fairy story, transport us to imaginary worlds that functions with a
perfect fantastic logic different from our own. Things are seldom what they seem, and
irony, probing (sagaz) or corrosive, underlies almost every word. The book does not
offer final meanings but a question: What is a human being? Voyaging through
imaginary worlds, we try to find ourselves. Swift does not set out to satisfy our minds
but to vex (irritar) and unsettle them. The pettiness of the Lilliputians, the savagery of
the Yahoos and the innocence of Gulliver himself begin to look strangely familiar, like
our faces in a mirror. Gulliver undertakes four voyages: with the diminutive people of
Lilliput (ambitious and cruel); to Brobdingnag, land of the giants; to Laputa (an allegory
of political life under Whig minister, Sir Robert Walpole; Yahoos, the race of horses,
who live by reason, and their slaves are caricatures of human body.
This is a moral satire with a political significance, where the hero is a modern
figure, as a critic of his society and a typical product of it. The heros experience
attempts to parody the plausibility of fiction, with the contradictions and
inconsistencies, as well as the travel books then popular.
Alexander Pope: was born in London, very attached to his Roman Catholics parents,
thus belonging to a proscribed sect. Being a self-taught man he read Greek, Latin,
Italian and French, was very attached to Spenser and the metaphysical poets, and his
model was Dryden. Correctness became his study and aim. He was associated to the
Whig party at first, but by 1713 went to the Tory party, presided by Swift, since Whigs
were anti-Catholics.
Since original poetry was not remunerative, Pope earned quite a lot of money
with translations like the Iliad and the Odyssey. The drastic changes of taste later in the
18
th
caused many Augustan writers to fall into disfavour, which made his sophistication
appear merely a lack of feeling and his satire merely malicious. In this century he has
come once more to be highly regarded.
His basic features are: Satire as a weapon to expose political and economic
exploitation, as well an attack on the corruption of modern life and letters. The
determination to define and to refine the tastes of his age. A carefully-crafted poetic
technique. The concern with precision and propriety, the use of parallelism and
antithesis as main poetic devices.
-Essay on a Man: Popes poetry can be difficult for readers today for it is less playful
than the dense work of the Metaphysicals and more formally structured than the
poetry of the Romantics. AEOM was published in four anonymous epistles (or letters),
each one addresses a different aspect of The Nature and the state of Man: Universe,
Individual, Society and Happiness. Throughout the poem, Pope addresses what has
come to be known as the problem of pain: if there is a good God, why is there so
much suffering? He vindicates that our perspective on the whole picture is narrow and
insufficient. If we could see everything, as God does, we would know that all is right
with the world. For every bad is an equal and opposite good, and balanced overall.
Pope uses the heroic couplet, consisting of rhyming pairs of iambic pentameter
lines which increases the balance, symmetry and proportion. This balance reflects
Popes argument that the events of the world are also balanced. Like Milton, he begins
with a Garden, tempting with forbidden fruit, but rather than an epic, his is an epistle
and rather than blank verse, he uses the heroic couplet, which nearly every line is
balanced with five syllables on either side of the caesura, complemented by the rhyming
in pairs. This symmetry creates a poetic form for how Pope understands Newtons
vision of the universe.
-Essay on Criticism: It had many precedents, the earliest example is Horaces De Arte
Poetica and Drydens Essay of Dramatic Poesy. From a historical point of view it is of
a great importance, for it sum up the doctrines and ideals of the classical school, and it
was the first classical contribution to English criticism, the first that attracted universal
attention and became authoritative. Here one meets the key word of neoclassical
criticism: wit, Nature, rules and genius. The essay is in three parts:
1. From line 1 to 200, it gives rules for the study of the Art of Criticism and begins
by dwelling on the importance of criticism; it points out the prevalence of bad
criticism and shows that natural genius, careful discipline and well directed
study, must combine to produce efficient critic.
2. From line 201 to 560, it explains the causes of wrong judgement in criticism
which are: pride, imperfect learning, judging by parts not by the whole,
partiality towards the ancient of modern, prejudice, singularity, inconstancy,
party spirit and envy.
3. From line 560 to 744, it treats the ethics of criticism. He describes the character
of an incorrigible poet and of an impertinent critic, and the ideal critic.
-The Dunciad: Is the first mock-epic reply to Popes critics and other petty authors. It
plays a serious game going deep in four main levels:
1. Politics: To Pope, Robert Walpole and Charles II seemed crass (craso) and
greedy, in the kingdom of the Dunciad that dullness personified sits on a throne.
2. Society.
3. Education: The word dunce is derived from the philosopher John Duns Scotus.
Pope believes that the central subject of education must always be its relevance
for human behaviour, and moral philosophy should be teachers first concern.
4. Religion: Pope invokes the old idea that God was the first poet, whose poem
was the world, and suggests that the sickness of the world has infested all nature.
That allows Pope to realize in full the aim of his satirical poetry: to depict
(representar) the evil of his enemies in all its excessive might and magnitude.
-The Rape of the lock: The significance and impact of this poem on the English literary
scene is unquestionable, for it blends the most characteristic traits (rasgo) of 18
th
literature in England. The poem is deeply suggestive and breathes a profoundly
evocative atmosphere, is one of Popes masterpieces and reaffirmed his mastery over
the satiric mode.
It emerges as one of the most representative examples of the so-called mock-
epic tradition, which basically consist in drawing on (aprovecharse) the conventions of
epic poetry in order to expose the triviality of an ordinary event. Pope achieves this
effect by an extraordinarily rhetorical and grandiose language similar to Homeres Iliad
and Odyssey. Pope makes use of hyperboles, constant alteration of the habitual
syntactic structure and creates a very unusual divine apparatus made of sylphs and
gnomes instead of gods and heroes. Pope deflates (desinflar) the most typical epic
themes and symbols: the figure of the hero, and ridiculed the adventures. Instead of
Achilles as the main protagonist we have Belinda, a woman who epitomises the ideals
of beauty and elegance.
The poem is based on a real event, and Pope was commissioned to write it by
John Caryll, who told Pope to write a humorous poem to encourage both families to
laugh off about the whole event. Carylls main purpose was to reconcile the Petres and
the Fermors since the latter believed that Arabellas honour had been stained by the
former. Pope constructs, in an apparently frivolous and loose style, a pungent (mordaz)
and biting satirical attack on the social conventions of his time, focusing on the frailties
(flaqueza) and trivialities of the world of belles and beaux.
-Canto I: The initial lines of the poem introduce Popes intention where he recognises
the lightness of the subject he is going to deal with but uses a highly elevated and
pompous language. We find that the contrast between words and the implications that
lie beneath them start to emerge. Instead of gods and goddesses, the divine machinery
is composed of insignificant sylphs, nymphs and gnomes, regarded as The Light
Militia of the lower Sky, clearly suggesting the enormous gap between the former,
which form part of the classical mythology, and the latter, drawn from the French book
Le Comte de Gabalis.
The poet also alludes to the changeable attitude of women and the repercussion
it has on those who surround them, as well as their tendency to keep up appearances. In
this canto, Pope exemplifies what the mock-epic is and how the poet uses the epic
conventions to downgrade and ridicule the proper epic genre. Homers Iliad and
Virgils Aeneid present gods and goddesses that guide in their adventures. Epic heroes
are strongly controlled by the gods, and in TROL Sylphs teach women to exalt their
beauty and to cultivate their physical appearance.
Main characters: Belinda, and Ariel, a mysterious creature, which main function is to
watch over the belles and beaux in order to protect their honour and integrity, and to
encourage them to embellish their image. Ariel proclaims from his heavenly
counterpoint that a dreadful event will come to pass which states the implications of the
parody of the scene: Ariel resembles Zeus but is a insignificant sylph, while Zeus is an
almighty deity; Ariel contemplates a trivial fact while Zeus observes the horrors of war,
death and destruction.
Mock-epic strategies: In this canto, Pope sets out this complex poetic project as well as
the way he is going to subvert the genre. He benefited (sacar provecho) from his recent
translations of Homers Iliad, to construct his mock-epic poem. TROL shows a deeply
elaborate body of connotations associated to battles or to war proper. However, the
poem, instead of mirroring violence and cruelty, centres on trivial aspects such as a
game of cards. Although the style is elevated, the reader can soon appreciate that his
underlying intention is going to be humorous. The references to trivial things or slight
subjects undermine any serious epic reminiscence the poem could echo. The way
Belinda makes herself up occasionally acquires the dimension of a rite, either pagan or
religious, and Popes approaches Belindas toilette as thought it were a religious
ceremony, also regards as a warrior that is preparing herself to go into the battlefield.
Her weapons are puffs, powders and patches.
The formal apparatus: The poems strongholds (fortaleza) are the use of the heroic
couplet that Pope constantly employed in his poetic production. Elizabeth Gurr:
TROL is written in the rhythm of the iambic pentameter. Each line has five feet and
each foot consists of two syllables, the second of which is stressed, and the rhythm is
also known as decasyllabic. A rhymed pair of iambic pentameters is called heroic
couplet. This first canto starts delineating the basic features of the language that is used
throughout the poem. Popes language combines a grandiose literary form with the
triviality implied by the words he uses. In this first canto, Pope uses two formal
strategies: the inversion of the habitual syntactical order of words and the use of
alliteration, a repetition of the same sound in a sequence (Puffs, Powders, Patches,
Bibles, Billet-Doux) with a mocking effect. Their resonance reminds us of the sounds
that we can hear in the battlefield, however these words reveal the triviality of the
scene.
-Canto II: The poet creates an idyllic scenario in which the sun-beams illuminate the
silvery Thames, where Belindas beauty stands out (destacar) and resides in her hair.
The Baron is mentioned for the first time, the adventrous baron, a statement that
clearly satirises the real dimension of a character that is not adventurous at all. The next
lines illustrate how Pope uses mock-epic echoing the speeches and harangues epic
heroes deliver before entering the battleground. The factor that turns this scene into a
parody is that the Baron does not seek either to restore his stained honour or to rescue
his beloved lady, but simply to cut off a lock from her hair. Pope devotes most of this
canto to a description of the supernatural creatures in terms of gods and goddesses
which occupy a heavenly position that allows them to observe and evaluate what
happens on earth, and are in charge of safeguarding and protecting the moral and
physical integrity of the ladies. Even Ariel is referred to as the commander-in-chief of
this very peculiar battalion, which interventions finishes off by a very usual epic
formula: He spoke.
Main characters: The Baron is the fictional alter-ego of Lord Petre, who contrives the
rape of Belindas lock. It is relevant the way Pope characterises the divine machinery
with which he draws on epic imagery in order to portray the insignificance of these
beings that reinforces the underlying mock-epic background.
Mock-epic strategies: The poet describes all the preparations that precede the battle and
we can appreciate the solemnity of these preliminary moments. In the preparations for
the combat, Ariel is in charge of assigning duties and motivating his army to defend
Belindas honour, establishing a ridiculous comparison with the great epics.
Formal apparatus: Pope uses the so-called zeugma, a device consisting in employing
on word to designate two drastically different actions within the same line. He employs
caesura in order to distinguish the different implications of each part of the line, and this
allows us to perceive the comical dimension of this passage. The incongruity of this line
lies precisely on the contradictory nature of terms it links, especially honour and
brocade. Belinda gives the same importance to praying and attending masquerades.
Issues connected with the heart are mixed up casually with minor matters.
-Canto III: The beginning of this one is the most satirical. Retaking the image of the
Thames illuminated by the fading sun, Pope presents a biting portrait of England at the
time, concentrating on the state of monarchy and the judiciary, for he criticises the
excessive idleness of the noble and aristocratic classes. They go over their pending
cases very quickly which manifests the professional involvement of jugdes. The poem
focuses on the game of card reminding us the battles Homer depicted on his epic poems,
with a prolific warfare terminology that intensifies the mock-epic atmosphere of the
poem. The Baron eventually manages to cut off Belindas lock, and with this rape
Belindas integrity is momentarily degrade, and her defeat is consummated.
Main characters: Belinda is regarded as a trivial and superficial lady, exclusively
concerned with her outward appearance and dedicated to the numerous social events she
has to attend. When the game commences, she gets to know the Barons intentions,
which leads her to adopt a much more vigilant position, trying to position adequately
her troops of cards. The terminology that is associated with Belinda usually has an
underlying sexual connotation, especially when the lock is mentioned. The Barons
desire to get Belindas lock projects in some sense his own sexual appetites. The
allusion to virginity in line 140 turns out to be significant and proves the fact that what
Pope is describing is not merely a lock being cut off.
Mock-epic strategies: Cards live through the same hardships and fears as of real
soldiers, and Pope dramatises it by means of the language he employs, with which they
become personified. Pope always leaves some clues to encourage a humorous
perspective. The serious transcendence is deflated by references to China pots,
brocades, liquors that do not fit in the epic context.
The formal apparatus: The language is extremely elaborate and ornamented. For lo! is
a very distinguishable formula form for drawing the readers attention.
-Canto IV: The opening lines depict the aftermath (secuelas) of the combat. An
outstanding element is the so-called Cave of Spleen, which is entirely filled with
crooked (deshonesto) creatures performing activities related to sex. Umbriel, a gnome
that descendes to the Cave, as Ulysses did in the Underworld, describes the Goddess
Spleens realm. The vision of ghosts and sudden appearances significantly resemble all
that Ulysses experiences in the underworld. Following very typical epic patterns,
Umbriel addresses Goddess Spleen and asks her to help Belinda get her lock back, and
his speech is also tinged (estar matizado) by the same sense of triviality and looseness.
Belinda emerges as an enraged and hysterical woman, attitudes that 18
th
satirists
criticised about womans behaviour. The last lines portray a tense dialogue between Sir
Plume and the Baron, which shows how the finesse that has been the key in the
previous cantos is suddenly dropped.
Main characters: There are two important aspects: Belinda assumes that her life can no
longer be sustained on her external appearance because it is ephemeral; and she partially
blames herself for her flirtatious disposition.
Mock-epic strategies: Two moments that come to demystify classical epic narratives.
One is Ulysses ordeal (dura experiencia) in the world of the dead in which he
encounters important characters and listens to mythical stories about the past of their
nation. Pope uses an analogous framework in other to subvert one of the most
significant aspects of epic poetry. While Ulysses encounters sorrow and death in the
Underworld, Umbriel sees jars, bottles, and instead of stories about the mythical past of
any nation, he only listens to Goose-pye talks. The second moment is Belindas
lament with which Pope toys with parallelism with Achilles mourn for the death of his
closest friend, and her grief about a nuisance (incordio). Pope disguises this apparent
triviality by means of a language that almost impels us to sympathise with Belindas
sorrow.
The formal apparatus: Pope keeps an elevated style that tries to emulate the language of
classical epics, and inverts the usual syntactical structure of the sentence. It is
interesting the textual references we find in it and which seem to pay homage to
Homers epic poetry. It seems that Pope, with the mention of Ulysses in line 82, wants
the reader to be aware of that parallelism.
-Canto V: From the first lines of Clarissas speech we can see that the prevailing tone is
going to be a moralising one. The nymph wonders why beauty is praised and good
sense discarded, and why men can fall exclusively for the ladys physical appearance,
disregarding her spiritual or intellectual capacities. She also refers that ageing can
affects ugly and beautiful alike. Nobody listening to her speech seems to agree with her.
Then, the confrontation for the recovery of the lock breaks out again.
Main characters: Clarissas speech dismantles all the values of the English upper
classes. It seems that Popes decision to add a new canto was due to the fact that all the
characters required a kind of counterpart (homlogo) to refute and contradict the ideas
they defend. Belinda appeared as a resigned woman who decided to begin a new life,
but he change of her mood after Clarissas speech seems that Pope wanted to prove that
womens mood varied rapidly and unexpectedly.
Mock-epic strategies: Perhaps, it is canto V that best exemplifies what mock-epic is.
The reason why Pope added a new section to the four-canto version he published in
1714 was because he wanted to insert a modern rendering of Sarpedons speech to
Glaucus, taken from Homers Iliad. Both fragments are conceived as a warning about
how ephemeral life is. Issues such as the triviality of fame run almost parallel courses in
both texts. In some other moments where mock-epic can be appreciated: Belinda uses
the weapons she has at her disposal, like puffs and powders, and she blows a kind of
tobacco powder towards the Baron in order to make him sneeze. This enables her to
take advantage and to finally regain her raped lock.
The formal apparatus: A constant use of parallelism and anaphora, two rhetorical
devices that consist in the repetition of either complete grammatical structures or words
(Clarissas speech). It responds to the urgent and dynamic style he uses in the
description of the last battle. Inter-textual references are not only to Homer, also to
Shakespeare and Partridge (his contemporary).
The New Journalism: Joseph Addison and Richard Steele
Richard Steele: Born in Dublin, went on to Oxford University, both Addison and Steel
were members of Parliament. The purpose of The Tattler was to divert the readers
attention from thinking about political matters. Steels imagination, humour and wit
made The Tattler the most important newspaper in London. Steel wrote under the pen
name of Isaac Bickerstaff. The main literary contribution Steel made was the
development of a certain kind of periodical essay which combined many of the
elements of the essay of previous generations. Their purpose was to teach people how to
get on with one another in society, how to behave and what to say. The new middle-
class wanted to be told what manners they should have and how they should act. Many
of the character sketchers created by Steele are beginning to approach the novel. It has
been claimed that Steele prepared the way for the novel although he did not actually
write one. The moral purpose was other aim, Steel wrote: The general Purpose of the
whole has been to recommend Truth, Innocence, Honour, and Virtue, as the chief
Ornaments of Life.
Joseph Addison: Poet, politician and essayist, he had a respectable career as a Member
of Parliament on the Whig side. At the beginning, The Spectator, which he directed,
consisted of a single sheet of paper, coming out daily just with an essay on a relevant
theme. Steeles dramatic qualities made possible the appearance of fictional characters,
symbolising different social classes, teaching people how to behave. The most famous
character was Sir Roger the Coverly. He tried to collect what he considered to be the
best ideas of his time and put them at the disposal of his readers. He was acquainted
with Locks philosophy and Newtons discoveries and made these available to a wider
reading public. The Spectators purpose was to enliven morality with wit and to temper
with wit morality.
Their success: Style and influence. The style of the two writers reflects the qualities of
their minds. Addisons writing is fluent, easy and lucid. Steele was a far more rapid
writer, with grammatical faults. One principal reason for the success was the fact that
they kept the tastes and requirements of their century.


After a good education, he became secretary to a friend from school, Aaron Hill, who
introduced him to the publishing world and literary circles. Eventually, leading authors
in London adopted Gay as a favourite; with Pope, Swift and others he founded the
Scriblerus Club, famous for its literary satires and practical jokes, which influence
shaped the mixture of high Virgilian style and rustic humor. In his works Gay shows off
his special gifts: lightness of touch, a keen (agudo) eye for homely details, and an irony
that exposes the disparity between high poetic expectations and the coarse (grosero)
reality of the way people live. The Beggars Opera made him rich, audiences have
always loved it, and the play quickly became the talk of the town. Italian opera is one
obvious target, it had been the rage of fashionable London with lavish scenery and
imported stars, and Gay turned the music over to beggars, or actors playing thieves and
whores, and gave them popular British tunes to sing instead of showy foreign arias.
On this stage, the underworld rose to the surface, crime was a constant, brutal
threat in 18
th
London, and stories such as Moll Flanders poured from the press. In the
corrupt legal system, the line between those who broke the law and those who enforced
it was often smudged (manchado). Jonathan Wild became rich by manipulating this
system and served as a model for Peachum. But the electricity of the play comes from
its superimposition of these criminals on heads of the state, especially Robert Walpole,
the prime minister, easily recognizable for playgoers (like great statesment, we
encourage those who betray their friends A2, Sc 10). Spectators saw a picture of their
own times on the stage: a society driven by greed, where everything, including justice
and love, was for sale.
The play has lasted beyond its age, and the parallel between high life and low
life still rings true when audience reflect on those who hold the power today. It was
adapted to the sinister conditions of Germany in 1920s; fascist and capitalistic bosses all
seem the same. Little people go to jail, the high ones get away. That worldly and
cynical message, seasoned with wit, continues to make sense to people who compare
their ideals of government, society, and law to things as they are.
John Gay (1685-1732)


Overview on the socio-historical context: With the return of Charles II from exile and
the beginning of the so-called Restoration age, drama underwent a period of reasonable
growth, and theatres were reopened. Censorship was still severely exercised, although
the gradual political and ideological liberalisation the new monarch implanted
immediately brought about the revitalisation of the genre. Restoration drama is mainly
identified for its comic and satiric pieces in which authors denounced the vices, follies,
excesses, and trivialities of both courtiers and ordinary citizens.


Robert Walpole economic and administrative inefficiency as Prime Minister
was being overtly criticised, the corruption flourished among judiciary hindered the
enforcement of appropriate legal measures for the eradication of crime. The play
demonstrates that even the characters that seem to be carrying out legitimate social
duties end up revealing a corrupted side. The figure of Walpole became one of the most
recurrent targets for most satirists of the time, and Gay, Swift, Pope, condemned his
irresponsible administration, turning him into an objet of the utmost scorn and ridicule.
Argument, main features and structure: The play has been generally acknowledged as a
deep-rooted (arraigado) satiric piece that entails (implicar) a wide scope (alcance) of
targets that are severely denounced by the author. The Beggars Opera is embodied
within a mock-heroic context in which the author draws on an opera style framework in
order to deal with the underworld of thieves, prostitutes and criminals. The
terminological clash (disparidad, choque) between the words beggar and opera was the
key issue in the attainment of the mock-heroic tone the play conveys. These operas
were prevailingly (predominantemente) focused on members of the aristocracy.
The Beggars Opera arises as a comic deconstruction of the most distinguishable
traits (rasgo) of these operas. The author constructs a brilliant parody of the Italian
opera models. Gay situates the play in the most dispossessed areas of London, where
crime, murder, drinking and gambling incessantly thrive up. There are no longer
aristocrats or nobles taking part in the action but rather drunkards, jailers, pickpockets
and gamblers. The author concentrates on a group of street thieves or highway-men
and their illicit activities. He introduces a sentimental sub-plot in which the daughter of
a crime prosecutor fells in love with the leader of a street gang. Thus, TBO poses
substantial similarities with respect to the plots that were recurrent in those Italian
operas.


The structure follows a very traditional theatrical guideline, it is divided in three
main acts, and each one is composed of multiple scenes. The difference with respect to
The social differences triggered off an atmosphere of suffocating tension in
which speculation, crime and alcoholism became part of the day-to-day reality.
Focusing on London, the progressive alteration of the urban configuration caused an
unequivocal modification of the hierarchical patterns. Most affluent (ricos) citizens
began to move out towards Londons periphery, this provoked that the most
downtrodden (oprimido) sectors of the population started to occupy all the vacancies
left by those rich families. The working and economic conditions indirectly augmented
the rate of criminality and the consumption of alcohol. Drinking turned out to be an
epidemic plague from 1720 to 1751. This economic dismantling resulted in the
uncontrollable out burst (arrebato) of drunkards, pickpockets, thieves that turned the
city into a ceaseless flow of pillage.
The Beggars Opera


Gay also introduces the sentimental sub-plot, by Pollys confession that she is in
love with Macheath, the leader of a gang of thieves. Her parents cannot put up with the
scandal, and they suggest her simply to murder him in order to obtain a recompense.
The first act finishes with a sentimental dialogue between Polly and Macheath where
she warns him about the risks he is running.
The second act moves to Londons most downtrodden areas, where Gay
attempts to reproduce the language, the manners and the attitudes of the characters in
dispossessed locations. The play is suddenly filled with references to thieves, highway-
men, prostitutes, taverns prisons, brothels (burdel). The author purports to present a
detailed vision of the cores of vice and corruption, which are direct reflections of the
degeneration that overwhelmed London at the time.




Characterisation: Characters perform a decisive function, with Peachum and Macheath
representing two very distinct social spheres, although this differences turns out to be
practically non-existent. The initial impression is that the play is sustained upon the
irreconcilable forces of good and evil. Peachum is a police officer or constable whose
main undertaking (empresa) is to cut down on the criminality rate. Macheath epitomises
the degeneration and corruption that flourished in London. TBO depends on secondary
characterisation to deepen (profundizar) into the sordid reality.
The author draws on meta-theatrical strategies in order to vary substantially the
course of the action. The player reminds the beggar that the success of the play depends
on the response of the audience, who demands satisfactory and happy endings. This
reinforces the idea that 18
th
authors should not be only concerned with the very act of
writing, but on the commercial benefits their works could eventually produce. This
intercession ends up with the habitual moralising comment. The beggar suggests that
both rich and poor have the same vices and, although rich normally elude punishment,
they deserve as much as poor people do. The play concludes merrily, Macheath chooses
Polly as his wife.
At Newgate prison, the plays plot and sub-plot eventually converge. Macheath
has maintained two simultaneous marriages, both with Polly and with Lucy. Macheaths
runaway from prison becomes one of the plays most crucial the turning points. He
knows for sure that his escape from prison means immediate execution. He is captured
again and sent to prison, where he is sentenced to execution. The end of the play is
profoundly meaningful. The beggar and the player discuss the appropriateness of ending
that awaits Macheath. The player, who is acquainted with the Italian operas asks the
beggar to modify the original story-line so to include a happy ending.
other plays is that it intertwines (entrelazar) a series of musical asides called airs,
brief sketchers in which most satirical comments are contained. Before the actual action
of the play commences, the author incorporates a brief dialogue between a beggar and a
player. The former claims the plays authorship and points out that he has been quite
careful to introduce the most recognisable aspects of the Italian operas. The beggar
Gays alter ego confesses that his play does not consistently follow the typical
conventions of operas. In the first act the author introduces some of the characters, and
the first to intervene is Peachum, whose initial discourse apparently endows (dotar) him
with a kind of respectable aura that rapidly vanish. His task consists of seizing thieves
and criminals and imprisoning them.


Macheath: He could be regarded as the materialisation of the society Gay is actually
portraying in his play. Macheath emerges as Peachums counterpart (homlogo), an
outcast (marginado) who has consciously dragged himself out towards the fringes of
London, whose life depends upon the pillage. The author reinforces the conflict
between Peachum and Macheath, prosecutor and prosecuted, upon which the plot is
sustained. Macheath appears as the leader of a street gang, but also appears as a suitable
exponent of the double-dealer, the character that relies on his resourcefulness (ingenio)
to cope with highly enduring and complex circumstances. His personality is determined
by his attitude towards women, and he would appear as a most appropriate
representative of a theme that had prevailed in 16
th
/17
th
, the contrast between
appearances and reality. His discourse upholds his condition of charlatan drawing on a
florid and pompous language in order to inflame Pollys sentiments, while her naivety
leads her to have a conception love that is almost Quixotic, she is misled by the
idealised vision of love that romances present. Macheath uses a grandiloquent language
that reminisces the tone and style of the most renowned love stories. Lucy arises as
much more down-to-earth and confrontational whose relationship is determined by the
tension provoked by his Macheaths infidelities. With Macheath, Gay ironises about the
codes that prevailed in most chivalric accounts, by presenting an underdog
(desamparado) attempting to behave according to the values of the courtly love
tradition. His words contain falseness and contradict his natural tendency towards
enjoying the pleasures of the flesh by meeting a group of prostitutes with whom he
seems to be very well acquainted, which stresses his double-facedness. It is especially
noticeable in the rudeness of the terms he employs: slut, prude, mischievous heart.
Female characters: Along the 18
th
, women were regarded as perfidious, treacherous
and mischievous who enjoyed conspiring against the male authority. Female behaviour
was measured in terms of the so-called humorous theory categorising them as
venomous and hysterical persons. The role of female characters reflects the hostile
ambience existing against women at the time, and the author presents a highly
stereotyped one which respond to clichs that regarded women as either innocent,
chaste and pure or as impulsive, carnal and mischievous. This fact explains why women
were repeatedly exposed by the biting criticism of satirists, who considered them, with
lawyers and politicians, responsible for the social chaos. As the play advances the
Peachum: He is sorrounded by an aura of vagueness and ambiguity that complicates
his categorisation. He seems to be part of the law enforcement corps, however his
function is not so legitimate. In TBO, most names conceal an underlying symbolical
implication (remember Volpone, or the Fox), thus, the verb to peach means to betray
or to inform against another person: he can be said to be within the legal margins in the
sense that he actively collaborates to arrest criminals. Peachum responds to the double-
faced character, he emerges as the leader of a street gang, which he manipulates in
order to obtain the highest benefits since he wants his subordinates to carry on with
their activities until the very moment in which he decides to seize them so as to receive
outstanding rewards. Arguably, this character is based upon the figure of Jonathan
Wild. Peachum emerges as the epitome of unscrupulous businessman exclusively
concerned with how profitable a human being can be, and he demonstrates his coldness
in the way he approaches his relationship with Polly, seeing her as a source of profit,
and justifying Macheath murder in terms of reward he is going to receive for the
capture. Peachum represents the most sordidly degenerated side of the human condition,
and is the banner (bandera) of the type of society that reigned in England at the time
being.


Setting: One of its great novelties lies basically on the settings. Italian operas provoked
that opera was exclusively associated with luxurious ambiances and aristocratic plots.
TBO constitutes a traumatic deconstruction of its antecedents, and puts forward a new
dimension in the 18
th
dramatic panorama. The authors intention was to demystify
European operas and to parody the conventions, where on element is crucial to its
achievements: the creation of a very particular atmosphere and setting to defy these pre-
established conventions.
TBO examines the most sordid side of London underworld, the action focuses on
spatial dislocation and the play develops in the most downtrodden areas of London
including references to taverns, prisons, places where crime and roguery were mostly
originated. These milieus (entorno) also allow Gay to depict the drinking habits that
existed at the time. The way he approaches the very concept of imprisonment turns out
to be a deeply parody with many allusions to Newgate. The way characters come to
terms with the idea of being arrested accords with the general mocking tone, since none
of them seems to be particularly affected by the idea of incarceration: prison equal
home, jailor as a shop-assistant in the fetter selection. The incongruity of this provides it
with an underlying satiric tone. The irony resides on the clash that emerges from two
conspicuously (evidentemente) antagonistic situations and discourses, in which
threatening dimension of prison is openly demystified by Gays mocking satire.


Gay diverts the attention of those who might be in charge of censoring the play,
but still manages to direct a subtle attack at the PMs venality. Cautiousness and verbal
with were the two foundational bases of satire, and satirist had to combine the
forcefulness of their criticism with the temperance and circumvention of their words so
as to achieve the expected degree of indirection. The satirical background that underlies
TBO mainly arises from the so-called airs, brief asides in which the authors pours all
his acid comments, and his intention is to establish a caustic parallelism between the
English high and low life.
The satirical component: The 18
th
is the Golden Age as regards satirical literature. Pope,
Swift utilised their works as a vehicle through which to denounce the vices, follies,
corruption and pettiness. Satire is the response of a series of writers to social, political,
judicial and economic circumstances that were chaotic. Their writings sought to
condemn all kinds of political abuses, and this explains why the Prime Minister Robert
Walpole became the epicentre of most satires written. The government aimed to control
the publication by means of strict censoring measures. This is the reason why the
characters have fiction names, where Walpole was popularly known as Bob Booty.
reader can observe how Pollys initial naivety turns into a more sceptic attitude and
becomes much more aggressive. On the contrary, Lucys initial mistrustfulness leads
her to adopt a profoundly critical stance. We can observe an inverse development in
both characters in the sense that Pollys initial uncontested love decays whereas Lucys
process is the other way round. Mrs. Peachum represents the perfect complement to her
husbands enterprise, since she is simply concerned with the material aspect of life,
disregarding the humane (humanitario, compasivo) component of her fellow-citizens.
Mrs Peachum appears to be helping her husband in the dealings with his company of
thieves, an image that does not seem to accord very much with the kinds of female
character that turn up in the play, for her, good education means to be able to appreciate
exclusively the material side of life.
Satire theorists argued that one of the purposes of satire is to set everyone at the
same level, no matter the social, economic or political differentiations there may exist.
Peachum suggests that there are no recognisable disparities between his job as a thief-
taker and that of lawyer, and subtly points out that even statesmen are as corrupted as
the rogues and rascals. The author seeks to articulate an overall attack at the very roots
of his civilisation. That is why the play is prolific in the inclusion of comparisons
between human beings and animals, a traditional satiric strategy that mainly purported
to downgrade the dignity of human beings and to show our own shortcomings. The
references to human beings as animals of prey is certainly quite recurrent in satiric
literature, for instance in Ben Jonsons Volpone, or the Fox, in which most characters
are named after carrion birds.