Restoration Period (16601688)
Restoration Period
• Began when King Charles II was
restored to the throne after the
Parliamentary rule of Oliver
Cromwell.
• This period can be summed up by the
phrase “from the head, not the heart”
• The period is also called “Age of
Dryden” and “Neoclassical Period”
Two Tragedies in Restoration
Period
1. Great Fire of London – started at a
bakery when the oven malfunction
hit the fuel.
2. Great Plague of London – caused
by Yersinia Pestis, a bacterial
infection that killed thousands of
people.
Representative Writers
1. John Dryden
- Also called “Glorious John”
- An English poet, satirist, critic,
translator and playwright.
- His famous works are To My Lord
Chancellor and Marriage A La Mode.
2. Alexander Pope
- English poet, translator and satirist and
considered one of the prominent English poets
of 18th century.
- He translated the works of Homer
- An Essay on Criticism is his best
known writings
3. Jonathan Swift
- He is an Anglo-Irish satirist, author
and essayist who is known as “Dean Swift”
- He is the author of the well-known
novel “Gulliver’s Travel”
4. Samuel Johnson
- The last great writer of Neoclassical
Period in Literature
- His major works is A Dictionary of
the English Language which replaced later
on by Oxford English Dictionary.