 Hello and welcome back to the national program on Technology Enhanced Learning, a joint venture by Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institute of Science. These lectures are for students of IITs and other engineering colleges. We in the department of humanities and social sciences have a very significant role in the curriculum of IIT engineering graduates. We give an interface between society and literature and different sociological, psychological, philosophical concerns which face the student. I am Krishna Barua. I have been teaching English literature at IIT Guwahati for more than a decade. I enjoy teaching a literature to engineering students because they have a definite slant or perception in looking at text and gives a different dimension to understanding literature. These lectures we are in the lecture series English language and literature and we are in module 3 of this lecture series which is titled History of English Literature. And today we are going to do lecture 3 Milton and his times. Let us look back what we had done in lecture 1 in this module history of English literature. This understanding of the background of English literature is necessary to understand the literary text and an awareness of the canon or the delights of the history of the English literature tradition is necessary to know what is about the study of English literature. We want you to be introduced to books and poems that generally reflects not only the author's life and thought, but also the spirit of the age and the ideals of the nation's history, the different changes, the transitions that take place in the ages pertaining. Let us enjoy this literary journey of poems, stories and plays which could be from the Victorian era or even as far back as sources times. If we go into the very beginning Anglo-Saxon literature, we find that Anglo-Saxon literature reveals five striking characteristics, especially this love for freedom which we will find again in Milton and his times, their responsiveness to nature which was very, very a quality which was a part of Anglo-Saxon literature, strong religious conviction, reverence for omenhood, a devotion to glory and all the poetry was earnest and somber and pervaded by fatalism and religious feelings. When we look at an overview of lecture one, there were three main categories of middle English literature coming from Anglo-Saxon to the time of Saucer. We found that it was religious, courtly love and Arturian and William Langland Spires Powerman, then coming to Saucer's Canterbury Tales which has been regarded as the first novel, first verse poem, the first in all literature and so going and the green night during the Middle Ages and Geoffrey Saucer marks the brilliant culmination of middle English literature. When we do a recap of our lecture two, the age of Shakespeare which was the glorious age of English literature, we have to see how one person, one personality completely determines the age of the period and his achievement was largely made possible by the work of his immediate predecessors, Spencer and Sidney in the mastery of verse. When we mention Spencer, we will be doing the Spensharian tradition even in the Milton's age by Marlow and the university with specially in the drama in the context of theatrical production of character and situation and where we have found that the history of representation of man had changed, there was innovations in language, there was innovation in technique, it was changeable and answer there came a moment of mounting confidence in the power of human reason, the renaissance of virtue you can call it the renaissance emphasis upon man as the soul of the universe in the value of literature as an instrument of reason, in the dignity of modern English as a literary medium, this was in the age of Shakespeare. Though the age produced some excellent prose work, it is essentially an age of poetry, the Shakespeare's age and the age of drama and the poetry is remarkable for its variety, its freshness, its useful and romantic feeling, when we will be coming to Milton and his times in lecture three, we will see how this poetry has continued or has broken off in the next age. We have seen that how in the earlier part of Queen Elizabeth's reign experiment with lyric measures inherit their cadences. So, this tradition of the lyric form and the epic form had not yet come to English literature and stanza forms from the medieval lyric, but by the last years of 16th century the exercising of the English language in a variety of lyric measures produced a spate of finely controlled musically sounding lyrics, more than enough to justify the view that the Elizabethan age is the age par excellence of that kind of poetry. Well, as we have gone through this, we have seen that it was the central son William Shakespeare who wrote and acted in his place and produced a number of notable playwrights, Thomas Kate, John Liley, Christopher Malo, Ben Johnson, but Shakespeare, Towers over them all and he was a very a man of his time, a man of the Elizabethan theatre who learned to exploit brilliantly the stage craft, the acting and the public taste of his day. So, now, coming to module three and lecture three of module three of the history of English literature, let us see how these two personages determined to separate ages. Shakespeare in the preceding age which we called the age of Shakespeare and next age from 16th from the beginning of the 17th century we find that it has been called the age of Milton or Milton at his times. Why so? Shakespeare and Milton are the two figures that tower conspicuously. Each is representative of the age that produce him and together they form a suggestive commentary upon the two forces that rule literature, the force of impulse on one hand and the force of fixed purpose. Shakespeare is the point of impulse if we look at the liberated expression of untremeled imagination of the loves, hates, fears, jealousies and ambitions that swayed the man of his age where it has been said that the age of Shakespeare man did not talk they sang. Milton on the other hand is the poet of steadfast with intellectual depth and purpose who moves like a god amid the fears and hopes and changing impulses of the world. So, we find two contradictory sides to these two ages. If we look at John Milton from 1608 to 74 he has been considered the greatest English poet except Shakespeare he was born in London in 1608. On comparing Milton with Shakespeare this comparison automatically arises always it arises with his universal sympathies and receptive imagination one perceives a loss in bread but again in intense personal conviction. So, they are separate they their glory are separate in their own respective fields because the comparison would be inadequate if we compare them one in imagination the other in conviction. He introduced a new note into English poetry Milton and the passion for truth and the feeling of religious sublimity. Milton's was at as a heroic age and his song must be lyric rather than dramatic his singer must be in the fight and of it. So, drama you find does not become the medium of expression it is more the prose, more the epic poems, more the different ways of intellectual representation which ultimately determines expression. Let us go into the historical background of this age 1630 to 1660 the beginning of the 17th century. So, the Elizabethan age proper closed with the death of the queen Elizabeth and the accession of James 1 in 1603 but in literature of the 50 years following was quite as rich as that of the half century that had passed since he came to the throne. The same qualities of Thornton style which had marked the writers of a reign belonged themselves in the successes through the reigns of the first two Stuart Kings and the commonwealth. So, this is what we have to understand that when we are doing overview of the different ages of literature history of English literature it is not that there is a fine there is a definite line which marks one age from the other there are many transitions which go on there are many converges convergences which go on from one age to the other. The important thing is to find out what was the difference or what was the transition or what was the new thing which had came up with the change of times. Yet there was a sanging spirit in this times what was that? Literature is only one of the many forms in which the national mind expresses itself. In periods of political revolution insane literature living the serene era of fine art but takes the violent agitation of the times. There were seeds of civil and religious discord in Elizabethan England which was almost being represented in Spencer's poems Fairy Queen but it had come out in this historical background. The earlier years are marked by the quarrels and alarms which led up to an actual hostilities in 1642 that this quite which was in the political arena. This is very important because we are coming to the period Puritanism the meaning of the Puritan age which covers Milton and his times. The middle of the period is occupied with the spasmodic fighting that lasted till the execution of cells first in 1649 and the last portion covers the establishment of the Commonwealth. The rise and disappearance of Cromwell that is from 1653 to 58 and confusion following upon his death and the final restoration of monarchy in 1660. For centuries the English people had been wonderfully loyal to the sovereign's. We have just done a recap of Anglo-Saxon poetry. We have seen this love of freedom at the same the loyalty to the king which was seen in most of the fables and the tales that were told but deeper than the loyalty to kings was the old section love for personal liberty. The crisis came when James I who had received the right of royalty from an act of parliament began by the assumption of divine rights. Students of history may have been acquainted with this when he tried to exercise this divine right of kings to ignore the parliament which had created him. Of the civil war which followed in the reign of Charles I and of the triumph of English freedom modern England began with the charge of Cromwell's brigade of Puritans at Nassby. So, Puritanism as a concept during the reign it started from the reign of James I and Charles I and Puritanism grew stronger through repression. And as historian Green had said England became the people of a book and that book the Bible. The power of the king was used to impose the power of the bishops upon the English and Scottish searches until religious discontent became also political discontent and finally, overthrew the throne and which was again represented in different literary representations of the time. Therefore, the Puritan movement is very important in understanding this very significant part of the history of English literature. In his broadest sense the Puritan movement may be regarded as a second and greater renaissance a rebirth of the moral nature of man. This emphasis upon the ethical nature of the moral nature of man the search for truth the search for purpose the search for something which was untremeled by any other imagination in the 15th and 16th centuries. In Italy whose influence had been uppermost in Elizabethan literature the renaussa had been essentially pagan and centaurs. So, while we are doing this complete change in the political arena we find that there are three main characteristics which will mark Puritan literature from that of the preceding age the age of Shakespeare or the Elizabethan age whatever you can name it. Elizabethan literature with all its diversity we have seen drama had flourished poetry had reached its uppermost in different form of lyric dimension had a mark unity and spirit resulting from the patriotism of all classes there was a national fervour there was a verb to go forward and there was this urge where we find that people were proud to be English under the steward all this was changed the kings were the open enemies of the people and the literature was divided in spirit as where the struggling part is. The first thing that we mark from the preceding age was this literature becomes divided when we look into this age of Milton we find that literature we cannot just give a overriding concept and say that Milton's and his times and the age of Milton followed some of the very well known characteristics of the preceding age or uniform characteristics not not so at all. So, therefore, we find that there were divergent and there was no unity in the way that it could be represented. Elizabethan literature tropes with youth had open vitality while that which follows speaks of age and there is a strain of melancholy you can call it intellectual introspection philosophic speculation scientific intervention whatever way that we can see it. Elizabethan literature was intensely romantic the romance brings from the heart of youth and believes all things have been in impossible in the literature of the period and period one looks in vain for romantic order somewhere this is missing, but yet we find that romantic order it comes up sips in Milton's paradise laws even in the lyrics and love poems a critical intellectual spirit takes its place well. So, we shall understand Puritanism therefore, better if we remember that it had two chief objects what were the two chief objects? The first was personal righteousness dealing with right wrong dealing with ethics dealing with truth and the second was civil and religious liberty that is political freedom your responsibility towards society your responsible towards the nation in other words it aimed to make man honest and to make them free at the same time. So, from a religious viewpoint Puritanism included all shades of belief it was not that it was only something dealing with the protest against the Roman Catholic search the name was first given to those who advocated certain changes in the form of worship of the reform English search under Elizabeth. But as the ideal of liberty rose in management therefore, this concept of liberty becomes very important and opposed to it where the king and his even counsellors and the ban of intolerance judgment of whom lord is the great example. In the triumph of Puritanism under Cromwell's severe laws were passed and many simple pleasures were forbidden and an austere standard of living was forced upon an unwilling people the taters were closed you had to do exactly as it was dictated. So, the criticism is made that the wild outbreak of immorality which followed the restoration of search just after the common wealth was partly due to the unnatural restriction of the Puritan era. So, this is a point to ponder ok. So, when we look into the age which will follow after this will find that there will be another outbreak of immorality and the changing ideals the political uphill of the period is summed up in the terrible struggle between the king and the parliament which resulted in the death of Charles and the bloc and establishment of the common wealth well. So, when we look at the writers of this period they are divided into two camps one who were the royalists and one who went against the search against the king and the search was the bulk of the learning and genius of the time, but on the side of free religion and the parliament where the stern conviction the fiery gene and exalted imagination of English Puritanism. The spokesman of this movement was naturally Milton whose great figure dominates the literary history of his generation as Shakespeare does of the generation preceding. So, the pressure of this historical events nowhere in in the history of English literature has this been so strong as during this age this pressure of historical events viewed from a broad aspect the civil war was only a domestic incident in English history, but the very narrowness of the issue intensified the bitterness of the contest it divided the people into factions and among other things vitally affected the literature of the time on the whole. So, artists and men of letters were on the royalist side during the civil war the court part is stood for the graces of life and royal patronage was still an important factor in a successful artistic career, but many writers were torn between personal royalty and interest and took sides with reluctance. So, in this triumph of Puritanism under Cromwell, severe laws were passed many simple pleasures were forbidden and the literary features of the age we find the reactions. Therefore, during this period the decline from the high Elizabethan standard is apparent in several ways. What was that number one the output specially of poetry is much smaller and the fashionist towards shorter poems specially the lyric of a peculiar type. We will be going into the Cavalier poets the Carolin age as we can call it Carolin poetry where there is experimentation with shorter poems a different poem altogether. There is a mark decay in the exalted poetical fervor of the previous plays. So, there is more of the intellectual play of fancy and in prose there is a mark increase in activity. Many have said the 17th century was the age of prose which is an almost sorry invariable accompaniment of a decline in poetry. In literature also the Puritan age was one of confusion due to the breaking up of old ideals, medieval standards of chivalry, the impossible, loves and romances of a spencer phonistotypes, Paris no less yoli than the ideal of a national site. Poetry took new and startling forms in done. People were shocked into realisation what type of poems that he wrote, spiritual gloom which soon later fosters upon all the writers of this age and which is unjustly attributed to Puritan influence is due to the breaking up of accepted standards in government and religion. So, there was a shock into realisation a break with the past somewhere or the other. When one what attempts to classify the literature of the first half of the 17th century 1603 to the restoration, we find that the classification attempted here have small dependence upon dates or sovereigns. I have already told you that when we try to divide the ages into different phases of English literature that this are not the lines are not absolute, but they are somewhere that they are flexible. They dependence upon dates of sovereign and are suggestive rather than accurate. Thus Shakespeare and Bacon wrote loudly in the reign of James I, but their work is Elizabethan inspiration and Bunyan is known as a Puritan because he happened to write after the restoration. The name metaphysical poets given by Dr. Johnson is somewhat suggestive, but not descriptive of the followers are done. So, in our study therefore, what we are going to cover today is the transition poets of whom Daniel is the chief, then the songwriters, Campion and Breton, then the Spenserian poets Wither and Giles Fletcher, the Cavalier poets Harry, Kerry, you lovely circling John Bunyan, his extraordinary life and his chief work The Pilgrims Progress, minor prose writers, then metaphysical poets Dunn and Herbert and John Milton, his life, his early poems, his militant prose and his last great poetical work. So, this is what we will cover today in this lecture. So, the transition poets which were there from the Elizabethan age to this age, Confusion of Ideals expressed in literature, we note a few writers who are generally known as Jacobian poets, but whom we have called because with the letter dramatist they show clearly the singing standards of the day. Then we have the matricals, the songwriters. In some strong contrast to Davop are two distinct groups, the songwriters and the Spenserian poets. The close of the reign of Elizabeth was marked by an outburst of English songs as remarkable in the sudden development as the rise of the drama. So, we have seen that they sang in the age of Shakespeare and it marked the ending of the swan song of that age was also ended with songs and matricals. Two causes contributed to this result, the increasing influence of French instead of Italian verse and the rapid development of music as an art at the close of the 16th century, the influence of music as a form of representation. The two songwriters based towards studying were Thomas Campion and Nicholas Breton. The Spenserian tradition we had mentioned that this was a strong tradition in the age of Shakespeare and how Edmunds standard Spencer innovated and brought in new ways of writing poetry and specially in the lyric. The lyrics and the power of language from narrative poems to matricals in the place of Shakespeare and Ben Johnson flowed naturally into the Jacobin age. To the literary historians the date of Spencer in 1599 is very significant because they think it is more important than the date of Elizabeth in 1603 because Spencer was the greatest non-dramatic poet of his age, grew together most of the important trends in Elizabethan thought to achieve in the fairy queen. We had already done that in the previous lecture and one of the most remarkable poetic synthesis that he had achieved in English literature, the synthesis of the pastoral, the allegorical, the patriotic, the topographical, the influence of the fairy everything brought together. So, this poetic make map of England therefore, immediately after Spencer is most clearly described in terms of the ways in which Spenserian tradition was continued and ways of revolting against it. We have seen that no single poet had the stature to continue the Spenserian tradition, but aspects of the tradition are carried on by Drayton and the most interesting inheritors of the moral and allegorical side of Spencer are the brothers, girls fletcher and finished fletcher. There are also other stronger elements at work in English poetry of the early 17th century. So, we see Ben Johnson who was a peer of Shakespeare and John Dunn each in his own way represented in some degree are revolved against or at least turning away from the Spenserian tradition and the result was decisive for the future of English poetry. So, Johnson with a sense of decarum, clarity and the classical sense of style, proportion and classical form brought to in lyric poetry both a craftsmanship and a tone which owed much to the classical poets of Rome. Example Horace and at the same time never same power removed from colloquial English and from the tough realism of the common sense approach. So, Ben Johnson's attribute or the way the followers of Ben Johnson had a different divergent way going away from the Spenserian tradition of the allegorical metaphorical the pastoral form. So, when we look into this age which has been also called a Carolin age because the reign of Charles I is called a Carolin age and there are few periods of poetical development in English literary history which display such well mark and pervading individuality as the period of Carolin poetry. We find here significant changes at the same time we find a new innovations. The poets of this period in which but not of which Milton is a numerous and remarkable and a head of them all stands Robert Herrick the Cavalier poets associated with the quote whether Cavalier poets this way on the side of the royal is on the side of the search writers of witty very witty and polished lyrics of courtship and gallantry representing the careless temper of the royalists. And the group included Richard Lovelace, John Suckling, Thomas Carrion, Robert Herrick they followed Ben Johnson in the classical restraint in the form in the concise lucidity the work is simple graceful tours at the same time in structure and finally, polished in style. There was this attention to detail gallantry rather than love was the inspiration of this courtly singers. We see the revolting is the high passionate Sydney and love of the Elizabethan senators and the note of Percy Flaige which was to mark the lyrical verse of the restoration. Thomas Carrion one of the main poets of this time was called the inventor of Cavalier love poetry and to him more than to any other is to the peculiar combination of sensual and religious which marked most of the minor poets of the 17th century. So, you find the sacred and the profane together going side by side. His lyrics had a delicacy and a vigor and are among the best known in English literature. His poems cover a wide range from trivial love songs which are centuries pagan spirit to hymns of very deep religious feeling. Especially the poem the song to mind constant mysteries has been famous for the grand opening when thou poor excommunicate from all the joys of love shall see the full reward and glorious faith. And then comes Sir John Suckling who was one of the most brilliant wits of the court of search first in his life and poetry again research lovelies offers a remarkable parallel to Suckling and the two are often classed together as perfect representatives of the followers of King Charles. To healthier from prison deserve the secure place they have won in the letter of court of lands. Stone walls do not a prison make I think most of you students must have come across this lines nor iron bars a cage minds innocent and quiet take that form and a homitage if I have freedom in my love and in my soul I am free angels alone that so above enjoy search liberty. These are famous lines many people have forgotten the poet but remember the lines lovelies and Suckling are inextricably connected together not merely by the style of poetry but by the advocacy of the same cause that