 My friends, my name is Arpita Karva and here I am to welcome you to another video in the series of history of British literature. In the last video, we looked at the Caroline period or the period where Charles I ruled and I also discussed under the section of socio-political background that Charles I was beheaded, the only British king who was beheaded. In this video, I am going to take my discussion forward and we are going to move into the next age of interregnum. So in this period of interregnum, I am going to talk about a lot of stuff. We are going to touch upon the famous prose writers, famous poets and I am going to also talk about my favorite and favorite of everyone's John Milton. But before we move on to that, let us look a bit about the historic background. Let us look into what was happening in the political sector of Britain. Now before I talk about anything further, I would like to discuss with you and introduce you to a very, very funny character, Mr. Oliver Cromwell. Now why funny because this man I think was no less than Hitler and this man was actually behind beheading Charles I. So when Charles I was putting up different laws which people were really, really disliking, this man was gathering an army who battled again Charles I and he was the one who defeated Charles I and beheaded him. Once Charles I was beheaded, then what happened? Charles II who was the son of Charles I tried to take the throne just like any other son would do. Now again Oliver Cromwell who was an English Puritan from upper class background, he again gathered an army and defeated Charles II and finally he became the Lord Protector and head of state from 1653 to 1658. So this was a period when Oliver Cromwell who is not the king but the Lord Protector, he ruled England. And in 1658 he died and finally in 1660 Charles II got back to the throne. So this period from 1649 when the civil war began till 1660 is known as the interregnum period. Interregnum period means this was a period when British Empire was a republic, not a democracy. Don't get confused. I am pretty sure that you must be using these two terms democracy and republic interchangeably. So I would like you to comment below what is the difference between democracy and republic. I would like to know that in the comment section below and I would like to see how many of you can get it right. So this was a bit about the political and social background of interregnum period. There are certain important laws which was made by Oliver Cromwell which actually showcased how authoritative and how conservative he was in his approach. I would like to discuss that before we move on to the discussion of major writers and works. So let's get into the discussion. So just like any other Puritan, even Mr. Cromwell had very strict Puritan views. He believed that hard work is important for salvation and those of you who are going to entertainment centers like sports events or theaters, you all will never get salvation. So he banned sports and theaters. Remember the licensing act where theaters were banned? That was put up by Oliver Cromwell. Another interesting thing that he did was that he believed that women and girls should dress in a very modest manner. So makeup and brightly colored dresses were banned. If Cromwell would have been alive on earth and would have been seeing this YouTube video of mine, he would have definitely banned me from YouTube. So I'm very, very happy that he's not here anymore. Another interesting thing that he did was that anybody who was celebrating Christmas by eating yummy food and having parties, he used to confiscate their food because he believed that Christmas is all about remembering the birth of Christ. And whenever we are indulging in any kind of celebration, we are taking ourselves away from the real mission of the Christmas. So he used to do that. Another thing that he did was about the sport events. So Sunday was the day when boys used to play sports. They used to get free time, so they used to play sports. But he believed that Sunday is the holy day when you should go and visit church and sit there and pray. Now anybody who would be seen playing sports on Sunday would be whipped with a stick. And not just whipping, he actually killed so many Catholics and also these small kids and women were transported to West Indies as slaves under his rule. So you could see how traditional, extremely rigid and orthodox his views was. And that was the reason why even though people accepted him as the Lord Protector, gradually they started hating him because they thought that Charles I was a threat to the throne. But even this man who has killed him and who has come to the throne is also looking as a threat, looking at all his actions. So people were really, really unsatisfied with Oliver Cromwell but before people could do anything he died on his own and finally Charles II came to the throne. So a lot about Oliver Cromwell I've told you. Now it's time to get into the litteriness of the age and look at some fantastic works produced in this era. Now that you know that theatres were banned, so I don't have to tell you that there are no good theatrical works that was produced in this particular era but we do have some great authors and writers working in the field of prose and poetry. We are going to talk about John Milton very shortly because he has contributed immensely in both the fields in prose and poetry but I want to save him for the last because he's the best. So let's save the best for the last. So let us look at some minor prose writers. One of them is Thomas Brown. He was a doctor by profession. So in his works you will find a lot of science and a lot of doctor and you know medical terms coming into the play. So we have two major works written by him. One is Earned Burial. Earned Burial is a work where he talks about burial customs. So, all of that is talked about in this book. He also talks about debt and immortality in this particular work. Another interesting work is Religio Medici. You can see the term medical in the title itself. So in this work he actually talks about science, religion, spirituality and medicine. So he combined all these themes together and you know presents this really famous prose work. You must know the title of the work that is Religio Medici. It is translated as Religion of a Doctor. This question has been asked in every alternate year in net exam. So you must know this. Another interesting prose writer is Thomas Fuller. He has written the first dictionary of national biographies named as History of Worthies of England and because of this herculean work he became famous. Another interesting name is Isaac Walton. Now this man has written two major biographies of Richard Hooker and our all-time favourite John Dunn. So he has written biographies of these two famous writers. Now we just don't have these many prose writers. There were so many other prose writers writing in the field of religion, talking about science, talking about philosophy, combining them together. We have an interesting name, John Bunyan, Pilgrim Progress. I'm pretty sure you must have heard of it because this is a very, very important work from net point of view. Apart from that we have Robert Burton who also did some amazing prose works in this particular era. We cover all of them in detail in our online courses. In this particular video I just want to give you a brief introduction to the age so I would not be going into the depth of all these writers but then all of them are very important from net point of view. So you can go and check out the list of these writers from my website. There's a list of writers for each age. You can just go get that list and start preparing on your own or if you want you can even join our online courses where you will get complete lectures, PDFs and mock tests for each and every age and each and every period. So now that we have discussed the minor writers, let's move on and look at the gem of this age, Mr. John Milton. Before I talk about the famous works of John Milton, I'm here to give you some really really amazing facts about this man John Milton. These are some interesting facts which you would love to know otherwise also but they are also important from net point of view. So the very first thing that you must know about John Milton was that he was born in a Catholic family. Yet his own religious beliefs were Puritans and that is the reason why he became so popular because Cromwell would have stopped his works and killed him if he would have written something in the favour of Catholics. Because he was a Puritan himself, his works were really appreciated by the people living during that era. Another interesting thing about Mr. Milton is that he has heard the sermons of John Dunn when he was a kid because he used to go to the same church, St. Paul Cathedral. There John Milton used to listen to John Dunn giving sermons. So these two writers though they were very very different coming from two different ages, they have actually met. Next in line is the fact that this man John Milton has read Hebrew, Greek and Latin. He has studied a lot of these three languages but the only language he did not study was surprisingly English because his most famous work Paradise Lost is written in English and it was written even when he did not read English. So just look at the irony somebody who has not had an education in English has written something which we as English students read so often and love it so much. And finally the last funny fact is that this man John Dunn was somebody who met a scientist and the name of the scientist is very common, Gillelio, I am pretty sure you must have heard of him. So Gillelio say John Milton Mille in Florence which is a place in Italy and he had so much respect for Gillelio that he has mentioned the name of Gillelio in Paradise Lost. He is the only contemporary whose name is mentioned in Paradise Lost and he also talks about telescope and talks about planetary positions in the book 8th of Paradise Lost. So he was very very fascinated with the views of Gillelio and the kind of work he has done in the field of science. So these were some funny and amazing facts about John Milton. Now it's time to look at some really really famous works of John Milton. I am very very sure that all of you would be expecting me to talk about Paradise Lost which is said to be the greatest work ever produced by John Milton but I have already made a detailed video on Paradise Lost so I would not like to talk about those facts again. I am linking that video in the iCard attached to this video so go check that out. But in this video I am going to talk about certain other works written by John Milton which are very important for you to know from net point of view. The first one is on Shakespeare. This is an essay that he wrote to praise William Shakespeare and his contribution in the field of literature. He calls him with different names like son of memory and stuff like that in order to praise him and tell him that he looks up to him for his contribution in the field of literature. Next in line is a work which you could say it's a set of companion poems written by John Milton. You have to read both the poems together in order to understand them even better. The name of these two companion poems are La Allegro and Il Pensaroso. Always remember the name because they might ask you a question saying that name the companion poem of La Allegro and you should be knowing that it is Il Pensaroso. Next in line is a work which is very dear to my heart. It is a pamphlet that he wrote in order to appeal to the parliament to change a law. Now what was that law? So basically Puritan society mate was not allowed to get divorced. They said that if you have married somebody then you cannot get a divorce. Now what happened to John Milton was that he married a woman named Mary Povil. Now she was half his age and the marriage did not last because of the political view difference and a lot of other issues. So just after one month of the marriage Mary Povil returned to her family like you could say the parents. Now what happened was that John Milton wanted to legally separate from Mary Povil but the law did not allow. So John Milton wrote a pamphlet saying that if there is no compatibility in mutual love in a marriage then the state should allow these people to get mutually separated because there is no sense living together even if you guys don't love each other. You guys don't respect each other and can you believe that this idea was presented by John Milton 400 years ago and even today Indian society is struggling to accept it. I've seen so many unhappy marriages in Indian society but people don't get separated just because divorce is a taboo. If there's no compatibility if you guys don't love each other then it is no point of staying together and that is what something we all should understand mental health divorce these things should be accepted as a normal day-to-day activity and not should be treated like a taboo. So that was about John Milton there's another interesting work which I would like to discuss before I end this video and that work is Aeropegetica. Oliver Cromwell released a licensing order in the year 1643 where he said that any book, any pamphlet, any magazine, any newspaper that will be published has to be first approved by the government. Why did he do that? Because he knew that if somebody would write something in his opposition he would actually edit it out and he would not let other people read it. Now when this licensing order was passed John Milton was really pissed. He was like the freedom of press is getting hampered because of the licensing order. So he actually released a pamphlet called Aeropegetica where he pleads the government to release that law, release that order saying that people should be allowed to write and it should be printed freely whatever people want to say their opinion should not have a filter and that filter should definitely not be that of the government. And there have been so many questions asked from Aeropegetica in the UGC net exam. One of the most famous one is flashed on the screen. So make sure that you read all these other works apart from reading Paradise Lost because they might ask you one question from Paradise Lost but they will also ask you some really important questions from other important texts. There are so many other texts which I was not able to cover in this video like Lysidus, Comis which is a mask written by John Milton, Tenure of Things and Magistrates and so many other works. I cover all of them in detail in the online course. So you can check out the online courses. The details of the same you can get on call or on WhatsApp on the number displayed on the screen. So with that note, I would like to take your leave. That's it for this video lecture. I'll meet you very soon in the next video lecture. Till the time we meet next, happy learning, keep loving literature and stay tuned to arpitakarwa.com.