THE PURITAN  AGE

HISTORICAL BACKGROUNDS

After the death of James I, Charles I did unsuccessful expeditions to France and Spain, so the Monarchy lowered its prestige.

The House of Commons refused money for these wars, so Charles dissolved Parliament and tried to obtain money by illegal means, but it was still insufficient.  The king was obliged to call a Parliament again in 1628. The Commons granted a large sum of money if Charles accepted the Petition of Rights; two very important rules were:

no man was to pay any tax not approved by Parliament

no man was to be imprisoned arbitrarily.

Charles was in favour of the High Church. When Charles made Cardinal Laud Archbishop of Canterbury, the High Church Party became stronger and was one of the causes of the civil war. Cardinal Laud persecuted the Puritans and when he tries to impose uniformity of workship on the Presbyterians of Scotland, the Scots rebelled against England. Charles was obliged to call the Parliamnet after eleven years, in 1640, but only for one month, because he didn't tolerate any form of opposition.

The quarrel between the King and the Parliament was also a quarrel between two doctrines: THE ROMAN LAW followed by all the countries of Europe, and THE COMMON LAW of England.

The Rona Law considered the king's will as "the source of the Law"; the English Common Law said that the law of the land belonged to native civilization, it was independent of the King's will, it was above the King and above the subjects as well.

Charles recalled a Parliament again, as he wanted more money, on the contrary it passed important acts in opposition to the king: Cardinal Laud was imprisoned and executed and in 1641 the Commons asked Charles to abandon the control of all his affairs. He refused and the Civil war broke out in 1642.

The nobility, the Clergy and most of the gentry sided with the king ( they were called CAVALIERS), London, the towns, the trading and middle classes were for Parliament ( they were called PARLIAMENTARIANS). Thanks to OLIVER CROMWELL, who guided special soldiers called Ironsides, the King was defeated, imprisoned, brought to London, and condemned to death and executed in 1649.

All the powers were entrusted to a Council of State. The House of Lords was abolished and England was declared a Commonwealth (Republic) and a Free State with a Parliament of one chamber, the Commons. In 1654 England was ruled by Oliver Cromwell, who was made Lord Protector of England and Ireland.

Cromwell was a greater man: he reduced Scotland and Ireland to obedience, he revived Eglish sea-power and reorganized the Navy. In his ladt years Cromwell tried ti diminish the power of the Army; the crown was offered to Cromwell, but he refused.

When Cromwell died in 1658, his son Richard became Protector, but he was not supported by the Army and obliged to resign. After months of confusion a strong man, General Monk demanded the formation of a free Parliament, which met in 1660, restored the Monarchy and recalled Charles II from Holland, on condition that he should permit religous toleration.

SOCIAL BACKGROUNDS

Under Charles I the fight between Puritans and Anglicans became worse and worse.

The Puritans

• wanted more simplicity and moralization in the church and
• didn't want what could be Catholic, such as Cereminies, processions, music etc.
• They were against any form of amusement and in 1642 closed the theatres as improper places.

The Anglicans

• didn't want simplicity(dressed in satin and velvet garnments or plumbed hats)
• were mainly courtiers, usually called CAVALIERS.

When the civil war broke out, the Anglicans supportes the king and were called ROYALISTS, while the Roundheads (Puritans) supported Parliament and were considered  REPUBLICANS. They embody the ideals of freedom and progress, and their resistance to Church and State transformed the PURITANISM into a great national movement, whose supportersw belonged to the middle class.

The merchant class grew in importance, the preaching of the bible encouraged some utopists to propose radical reforms, such as woman's suffrag3e and free medical services.The two most important gropus of reformers were the LEVELLERS and the DIGGERS who awaken the consciences of common people and the development of a sort of democracy.

LITERARY PRODUCTION

METAPHYSICALS AND CAVALIERS (1625-1660)

The conflicts and the confusion in the period between 1625 and 1660 were reflected in literature, too. The closing of the theatres left the way for poetry and prose.

POETRY

The poetry had no precise canons.

Some writers (Fletcher, Wither) went on imitating Spenser.

The Metaphysicals (Herbert, Vaughan, Crashaw) imitated John Donne. The Metaphysicals wrote classical poetry marked by precisionand elegance, deriving from the classics.

The Cavaliers or Caroline Poets (Carew, Suckling, Lovelace, Herrick) wrote in opposition to teh spirit of Puritanism and used the metres of Ben Johnson. The Cavaliers, instead, preferred secular themes such as love, beauty, loyalty and exalted woman as their main source of inspiration.

Marvell combined the qaulities of Metaphysicals and the Cavaliers.

GEORGE HERBERT

Herbert belonged to a noble English family. He studied in Cambridge and then he became orator. After being an Anglican priest, he was appointed rector of Bemerton near Salisbury. When he was in retirement, he probably composed most of his poems.

The Temple was a collection of simple poems where he expressed his Christian faith He usde a particular technique, the hieroglyphic form, according to which the verses were written or printed to form a design on the page.

ROBERT HERRICK

He was the son of an English goldsmith. He studied in Cambridge and took orders in 1623. He was appointed vicar of a Devon country parish, which he had to leave, because he was a royalist. Later he was reinstated, but he died in 1674.

Hesperides  was a collection of poems. He followed the teaching of Ben Johnson and he was influenced by his classical paganism. In Herbert the theme of love is often accompanied by that of time passing.