• divine hierarchy
• easy way to categorize everyone
• each has its place

• went back to Greek and Latin works
• infinite potential from free will
• how to save themselves
• logical, reasonable faith
• Man was essentially good 
• Knowledge is power

• King of England
• had 6 wives
• broke off from RCC
• wanted an English Bible
• Protestant Reformation comes from him

• 1st female monarch
• political savvyness
• helped with the Cult of Love
• iconist ideal

• more English vernacular
• modern economy booming
• centralization of gov'ts
• Latin= main language

• 1517 Luther 95 Thesis
• Sola scriptura, sola fide
• Elizabeth I's succession helped the Reformation spread

Utopia

~Sir Thomas More

(1478-1535)

• subversion: undermine the authority of established systems of power
• questions warfare
• civilization vs. barbarianism ( a new look at the New World) 
• reveals corruption in court
• Humanistic views
• private property=great social evil
• a call for social transformation
• Rests upon society

The Tempest

~Wm. Shakespeare

• romanance/ blank verse
• questions the limits of humanism (what's the ulitmate goal of humanism?)
• noble savage?
• Themes: problems of power and usurpation; issues of reconcilliation, regeneration and a betrothal
• Prospero=humanist

• Royalty was given divine power and were given complete control over the whole nation
• Started with King James I

• Earth revolves around sun
• circulation of the blood
• astronomy
• **made many start to doubt old tradition

• self-interest
• self-important
• state made up as individuals, not as a state or nation

• divine heirarchy
• order of nature
• social order
• order of family

Amorretti

~Edmund Spencer

(1552-1599)

• spencerian stanza: iambic pentameter, last line i. sextameter
• brings back medieval thought (Greek and pastoral)
• longs for the unattainable 
• very honest and intimate
• intelligence in women is beautiful 

Metaphysical Poets

~John Donne

(1572-1631)

• known for metaphysical preaching (combines thought with feeling)
• disconcordia concors: combining two different images
• criticized for rough meters and difficulty of thought
• "Canonization"=love poem: love that survives the ages, lust for the unchange

Metaphysical Poets

~Richard Crawshaw

• devotional poet
• baroque style: over-ornamentation
• "The Flea"= different look on love: combining love with the body
• "Musical Duet"= over-ornamentation of bird and lutist

A Brief &True Report of the New-Found Land of Virginia

~Thomas Harriot

• Worked for Sir Raleigh
• wrote on the land and the natives
• Saw natives as peaceful and very religious
• Nothing to getin the way of colonization

The New Atlantis

~Sir Francis Bacon

(1561-1626)

• perfection b/c of knowledge
• humans reshape and remodel nature
• earth can be renewed from the Fall
• recovery paradise: logic, reason, science, and technology
• clear distinction btwn humanity and the rest of creation 
• Hearld of modern age

Novum Organon

(New Instrument)

~Sir Francis Bacon

• Condemned Aristotle and Plato
• Renaissance man
• Idols of Tribe, Cave, Marketplace, Theater

The Blazing World

~Margaret Cavendish

• Wrote for $, huge flirt, became a part of Queen Henrietta's court
• Absolutism: control over everything
• meant to entertain
• Exploring the rights of women
• Men's account of new worlds are just fantastical as hers
• Women just want absolute power

Paradise Lost

~John Milton

• Epic poem in vernacular
• Built on mythical and Biblical accounts
• justify the ways of God to men
• Satan=humanist views
• Whose fault is it really? Satan or God's?
• Description of Eden=look how society should be
• Knowledge=needed for evil
• Role of beauty: after fall=dangerous
• Shows his distrust and loathing of the monarchy

A Modest Proposal

~Jonathan Swift

• Ironic satire
• shows the abuses toward Irish Catholics 
• shows oppression
• Prejudice,exploitation, inaction=cannibalism 

Oroonoko

~Aphra Behn

• 1st pro female writer (prolific Restoration writer w/ Catholic upbringing)
• Romance, travel narr., slave narr., noble savage, love, and slavery
• Critiques Christianity
• Resembles an 18th c. man...
• beast vs. monster vs. man

The Lady's Dressing Room

~Jonathan Swift

• Satire of women's beauty
• dichotomy of what is said and what they are like
• being unfair towards women
• Women were being put on pedestals

The Reasons that Induced Dr. Swift...

~Lady Mary Wortley Montague

• A low hit to Swift's vanity
• Preacher trying to impress a prostitute
• pokes at his honesty
• What should a woman be?

Some Reflections Upon Marriage

~Mary Astell

• feminist/ critiqued Locke
• criticized the dynamics of marriage
• "If all men are born free, how is it that all women are born slaves?"
• both should be eduated, $ shouldn't be the foundation, and it should be a partnership
• miltonic view on universe: monarchy

Rape of the Lock

~Alexander Pope

• Mock-Epic/ heroic couplets/ iambic pentameter/ hyperbole
• Themes: fuss high society makes over trivial matters
• Mocks human vanity
• invocation of the muse, description of battle, heroic deeds, heavenly vs. earthly, dramatic irony

An Essay on Man

~Alexander Pope

• Heroic couplets
• Influenced by deist thought in response to Milton
• man's postition in the Universe
• to justify God's way to man
• "Whatever is, is right"
• Fatalism: everything plays into God's greater plan
• Contradictory:

An Essay on Woman

~Mary Leapor

• more depressing than other poems
• Gives the reality in which women live in
• Poking fun at author's praises of women 
• Fortune can be very attractive
• Lose-lose situation: 
• Women are in slavery

Slave Narrative

~Olaudah Equiano

• Slave Narrative
• Reliable?
• // with Oroonoko
• Effective

• Turn of the 18th c. 
• Called for education 
• Mocked the "individual rights" that others had, but not women
• Criticized the tyrannical ruling of husbands and male figures

• religion doesn't need to rely upon mystery or biblical truth
• Must rely upon reason
• God= watchmaker
• Nature and natural law reflected of a Creator

• Britain's greatest philosophical legacy 
• direct observation of personal experience=truth
• moderate check to the unbound faith in reason

• "Age of Reason"
• Saw man as an imperfect being, sinful, and whose potential was limited
• Showed the imperfections of mankind

• Savagely railings, critiquing institutions
• Hold prevailing vices and follies up to ridicule
• Criticizes humanity or institutions in order that they might be remodeled

• Type of satire
• treats petty humans or insignificant occurances as heroic

• major source of profit from inhumanity
• contradicted Britain's idea of liberty
• parties on both sides argued whether to keep it or to abolish it

• Discovering new unknown countries and ways of life
• Made nations rich
• Brought the scourge of racism and colonial exploitation

• Brilliant play of the full range of intelligence and mental resources
• Clever play of the mind that produces laughter