Question Bank - 4
1.
What do you know about the Puritans?
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The members of that party of English
Protestants who regarded the reformation of the Church under Elizabethan as
incomplete, and called for its further purification, were known as the
puritans.
2.
What is Puritanism?
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Puritanism was a reaction against the
excesses of the post-Shakespearian dramatist and as a result of this reaction
the theatres in 1642 were closed.
3.
Was Milton also a Puritan?
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Milton had a very puritanical attitude
towards life and in this connection Tillyard has observed, “you cannot ignore
him any more than you can ignore Alexander the Great, or Cromwell or Napoleon”.
Milton regarded the people as.........
But a herd confus’d.
4.
Who was the greatest prose writer of the
Age of Milton?
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Sir, John Bunyan was the greatest prose writer
of the age of Milton. Bunyan was born in 6128 and died in 1688.
5.
What do you know about Cavalier Lyrics?
-
It was a term applied to the lyrical poetry
of which there was remarkable outburst during the reign of Charles I and of
which the court was the center though Robert Herrick, the chief of these
Lyrists was not a courtier.
6.
Who were the other Cavalier lyrists?
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Thomas Carew, Sir John Suckling and Richard
Love -lace were the chief Cavalier poets.
7.
What were the distinctive
characteristics of the Cavalier?
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Cavalier lyrics were notable for sweetness
and charm and the Cavalier poets mostly dealt with the themes of love and war and
like Ben Jonson were always concise, lucid and also polished.
8.
Who were the Metaphysical poets?
-
Crashaw, Herbert, Vaugham and Donne were the
Metaphysical poets.
9.
What do you know about the Restoration
Tragedy?
-
The tragedy during the restoration times was
uncommon. In Otway and Dryden, we find the exponents of the Restoration tragedy,
better known as the Heroic tragedy. Dryden’s All for Love’ written incidentally
in blank verse displays real feeling of tragedy.
10.What
do you know about the Restoration Comedy?
-
It is par-excellence a kind copied to some
extent from the French and Spanish originals. The dramatists like Dryden, Davenant,
Wycherley Vanbrugh and Shadwell were all indebted, for plot and dialogue, to
the contemporary French comedy.
11.Name
some Restoration Tragedies?
-
Dryden’s The Maiden Queen and The Conquest of
Granada; Thomas O way’s The Orphan; Congreve’s The Mourning Bride and Johnson’s
Irene are the most famous tragedies of the Restoration period.
12.How
did the Restoration affect English Literature?
-
Restoration affected the revival of Drama
especially the comedy; in the sphere of Tragedy heroic plays were produced and
the imitative works of the new school (the restoration school) were of a rigid
nature and they evolved a number of rules purporting to the avoidance of
enthusiasm, strict care and accuracy in poetical technique and humble
imitations of the style of the Latin classics. Heroic couplet dominated poetry,
and prose had an outstanding feature- the emergence of the middle style
(discovered by Addison), Swift and Defoe adopted a plainer style and ornate
prose disappeared for the time being.
13.Name
some important Restoration writers?
-
Dryden, Etherege, Wycherley, Congreve,
Vanbrugh Farquhar, Rochester, Bunyan, Pepys and Locke were the chief literary
figures of the restoration period.
14.What
do you know about Restoration Period?
-
The period after the restoration of Charles
II in 1660 and the re-establishment of monarchy in England is known as the
Restoration period.
15.What
were the chief characteristics of the Restoration Age?
-
Love of wit and gaiety often of immortality;
but at the same time a genuine revival of interest particularly of scientific
discovery.
16.What
type of plays was dominant during the Restoration Age?
-
Heroic plays were common and dominant during
the Restoration Age.
17.What
was Dryden’s contribution to Restoration Literature?
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Dryden’s contribution to Restoration
literature was of no mean value and he shall be remembered in the history of
English literature for the ages to come -for his contribution to English prose
and criticism. His best two poems are: ‘Ode to St. Cecilia’s day’ and
‘Alexander ‘s Feast’. Both these poems brought him immense fame. He wrote many
other poems satiric, argumentative and philosophical veins. But as one of the
founders of the modern English prose, John Dryden has become immortal in the
history of literature.
18.Who was
the first man to use the term Metaphysical?
-
Dr. Johnson first of all applied the term’
Metaphysical’ to the poetry of Donne. Dr. Johnson borrowed this term from the
phrase of Dryden ‘He affects the metaphysics’.
19.What
were the main characteristics of the Metaphysical poets?
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Two things were common among all the
Metaphysical poets, learning with a kind of misplaced wit and the desire to say
something which had never been said before and in their poetry, we find a very
fine blend of intellect and emotion but artificially and hyperbolic expression
could not keep itself away from this Metaphysical poetry.
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