Augustan
Augustan
Augustan
The term Augustan age comes from the self-conscious imitation of the original Augustan
writers- Virgil, Horace and other classical writers.
The term refers to the ROMAN Emperor, Augustus Caesar [also known as
Octovian Caesar], who came to power after the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC and is
regarded as the First Roman Emperor
The age of the emperor Augustus was the golden period [Classical age] of Roman Empire [Latin
literature].
Similarly 18th century is also known as the golden period in the history of English Literature.
The writers of the 18th century imitated the literary forms and themes of the original
Augustus writers such as Virgil and Horace.
18th century is also known as the Neo Classical Age because its writers looked back to the
ideals and art forms of classical times. They emphasized even more than their Renaissance
predecessors on the classical ideals of order and rational control.1
Their emphasis was on order and reason, on restraint, on common sense and on religious,
political, economic and philosophical conservatism.
18th century writers maintained that man himself was the most appropriate subject of art.
They saw art was somehow useful and was properly intellectual rather than emotional.
Sometimes the latter half of the 18th century, the period between 1750 and 1798 is taken as a
different period called the Age of Sensibility. This period focused on instinct, feeling and
imagination.
Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson are seen as the most representative writers of this
Augustan Age.
Dryden can be seen as a link between Restoration and Augustan Age. Dryden wrote comedies
in a Restoration vein, but also wrote works in a neoclassical spirit.
The influence of Enlightenment, wit and intellectual conceits set the tone of much Augustan
Age.
Dryden, Pope, Swift, Addison and other writers demonstrated qualities of order, clarity and
stylistic decorum.
Their works were concerned with facts and reason and less concern was shown to emotion
and imagination.
This was an age of new prose forms such as periodicals, criminal biographies,
travelogues, political allegories and romantic tales.
The predominance of satire is an important literary characteristic of this age.
Augustan age saw rise of the novel as a genre [literary form].
Novel became the most important literary expression of the bourgeoisie [rich middle
class] and middle class. Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Smolett were the main exponents of
this form.
The Heroic couplet [two lines of rhymed iambic pentameter] was the most important
verse form[poetry] of the age.
Sentimental comedy was a new dramatic form that became popular during this age. Later
it was burlesqued [mocked] by writers such as Goldsmith.
Periodical essay, Literature of sensibility and Graveyard poetry were new literary trends
of the age.
LITERARY TRENDS OF THE AGE
1. Periodical Essay
2. Literature of Sensibility and
3. Graveyard Poetry
PERIODICAL ESSAY
Periodical essay was the new literary form that emerged during the early part of the 18th
century.
It was a non fictional prose that was published in magazines, newspapers or journals at regular
intervals.
The periodical essay dealt with matters that were contemporary, but not immediate with matters
and morals, with tendencies of the time rather than actual events.
The rise of this form began with ATHENIAN GAZETTE on 17th March 1691
The term was first used by GEORGE COLMAN THE ELDER and
BONNEL THORNTON in their magazine the CONNOISSEUR [1754-56]
The Tatler [1709-1711], The Spectator [1711-12], The Rambler [1750-51] were the most
successful and influential single essay periodicals of the 18th century.
Richard Steele, Joseph Addison, Thomas Tickell, Alexander Pope, Ambrose Philips were
some great contributors to this form.
It was a revolt against philosophy of Hobbes and other 17th century empirical philosophers.
These philosophers viewed human beings as selfish and greedy.
1. Feelings were far more reliable guides to morality and truth than abstract principles
2. And viewed human beings as essentially benevolent.
Plays of sensibility:
Poems of sensibility:
GRAVEYARD POETRY
Graveyard School of Poets refers to a group of 18 th century poets, whose works dealt with
the themes of death, sorrow and mortality.
Often set in a graveyard, the poems mused on the vicissitudes [different opinions] of life,
the solitude of death and the anguish of bereavement.
Graveyard school incorporated melancholy and expanded the range of emotional responses
to death to include grief, tenderness, tearfulness, nostalgia and other states of mind.
Famous Poems/Poets of Graveyard: