17th Century
( 1625 – 1700)

Religious & Political
Queen Elizabeth dies 1603
King James 1603-1625
King Charles 1625-1649
Oliver Cromwell 1642 - 1660
King Charles II 1660 - 1685
“GLORIOUS REVOLUTION”

Royal family are Anglican
(Catholic sympathizers)
WHILE
Common people are
Protestant sympathizers

King is Head of
Church & State

Not a picture of health…
-- crippling arthritis
-- weak limbs
-- colic (digestion problems)
-- gout
-- difficulty walking
-- tongue problems
After numerous attempts on his life, he required constant care.
Invented British flag -- combined England's red cross of
St. George with Scotland's white cross of St. Andrew.

Puritans/Separatists
Congregationists/Presbyterians
Church government styles congregation vs. bishop liturgical vs. non-liturgical

conform themselves out of the land, or

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Angers Parliament
Angers Puritans
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Private arrests, trials
Catholicize worship (High
Church)

Last straw - Presbyterian
Scots & the new liturgy!

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Roundheads = Puritans
Cavaliers = Royal Loyalists
Council of State - backed by revolutionary officers
Cromwell assumes control as “Lord
Protector of the Commonwealth”
The Bloody Revolution!
King Charles beheaded in 1649!

Puritan strictness
Military power
Suppression of theatre
& other frivolous activities
Tyrant/dictator

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Cromwell’s death dooms Puritan rule
Parliament asks King
Charles II back from exile in Holland
People revolted vs.
Puritan strictness

Hatred of Cromwell

 Catholic sympathizer
 Repressive religious measures
 Allied to Catholic
France
 Discontent grows vs.
monarchy

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Catholic sympathizer appoints Catholics to influential govt & military posts
Vatican reps in court religious persecution of Scottish Protestants

Glorious Revolution
(Bloodless Revolution)

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William of Orange
(Protestant)
Mary (James II’s daughter)
Parliament asks them to rule in place of James II

New limited monarchy

London grows to 600,000!

Great Plague in London
1665
-------------
68,000 die!

Great Fire of London - 1666
(Christopher Wren - rebuilder)

-- Lovelace, Suckling, Herrick --
 Anglican
 supporters of the King
 topics of wine, women, war
& love
 simple & easy to understand
 avoided religious topics
 witty & satirical
“Tribe of Ben”

-- Donne, Herbert, later Herrick --
 Protestant
 Not happy with the King
 religious & philosophical topics
 challenging, demanding, symbolic
 metaphysical conceits – unusual metaphors

 John Milton
 Paradise Lost (over 10,000 lines)
 Puritan look at fall into sin

“justify the ways of God to man”
 great English classic

 John Dryden
 Poet laureate of Charles II
 Neoclassic style (odes & satires)

 literary criticism essayist “father of modern prose”
 translator
 debater

 Ben Jonson
 Comedies
- Satiric Comedy
- Tragicomedy
- Comedy of Manners
 Puritans close theater
 Actresses acceptable by end of century
He was not of an age, but for all time.
-- To the Memory of Shakespeare

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Scientific writing
Hobbes & Locke –
Philosophical writing
Izaak Walton –
The Compleat Angler
John Dryden –
Literary criticism
Samuel Pepys –
The Diary (in code)
John Bunyan –
The Pilgrim’s Progress
 King James Bible

Our Father which in heaven art,
Thy name be always hallowed;
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done;
Thy heavenly path be followed
By us on earth as 'tis with thee,
We humbly pray;
And let our bread us given be,
From day to day.
Forgive our debts as we forgive
Those that to us indebted are:
Into temptation lead us not,
But save us from the wicked snare.
The kingdom's thine, the power too,
We thee adore;
The glory also shall be thine
For evermore.

 Written in prison
 Main character is Christian
 Allegory of Christian Life
 “Last great Christian classic”

June 15th
The Duke of Yorke not yet come to town. The town grows very sickly, and people to be afeared of it - there dying this last wek of the plague 112, from 43 the week before - whereof, one in
Fanchurch-street and one in
Broadstreete by the Treasurer's office.

 Spelling becoming set (1st dictionaries)
 Satire - moral writing to expose evil
 Heroic couplet in poetry
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Rise of comedies
Shakespeare considered “rough, uncultured” - not often performed