PART THREE

        SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LITERATURE

[内容提要] 十七世纪的重大历史事件是英国革命，这个时期的作家或多或少地与革命相连。大诗人弥尔顿，寓言作家班扬自始至终支持革命，保皇派诗人则坚定地支持英国王室。玄学派诗人倾向于置身事外，其代表人物邓恩德诗歌以晦涩著称，深得二十世纪大诗人艾略特的赏识，所以能在二十世纪死而复生。

[学习要点] 弥尔顿的诗歌成就；《天路历程》的社会意义；《天路历程》与《西游记》之比较研究；玄学派诗歌；保皇派诗歌。

The greatest historical events in the seventeenth century are English Revolution and Restoration. Most English writers are more or less related to the two historical events. The greatest poet John Milton and the novelist John Bunyan stand up for the Revolution while the Cavalier Poets are opposed to the Revolution and support the royalty.

I. JOHN MILTON (1608-1674)

1.2 Milton’s major works

Milton’s best poems are Paradise Lost; Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes. He has also produced some sonnets ( To Cyriack Skinner) and pamphlets (Areopagitica)..

Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost' is Milton’s masterpiece, and the greatest English epic. It is a long epic in 12 books, written in blank verse. The stories were taken from the Old Testament: the creation, the rebellion in Heaven of Satan and his fellow-angels, their defeat and expulsion from Heaven, the creation of the earth and of Adam and Eve, the fallen angels in hell plotting against God, Satan’s temptation of Eve and the departure of Adam and Eve from Eden.

Led by freedom-loving Satan, the rebellious angels rise against God, but in the battle with the hosts of angels that remain loyal to God they are finally defeated Satan and his followers are banished from Heaven and driven into hell. But Satan and his adherents are not discouraged. The epic opens with the description of a meeting of the fallen angels in hell. Satan's proud spirit is unyielding. He fearlessly withstands all agonies and passionately strives for revenge and victory.

Satan chooses for his battlefield the most perfect of spots ever created by God the Garden of Eden, where live the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, who are allowed by God to enjoy the supreme beauties and bounties of paradises   provided that they do not eat the fruit on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Satan desires to tear them away from the influence of God and make them tools in his struggle against God's authority.

God learns of his intention, however, and sends the. Arch-angle Raphael to warn Adam and Eve of Satan's plan. The Archangel reminds them of their vow of obedience and gives a detailed account of Satan's rebellion. Raphael goes on to relate God's creation of heaven and earth, and all living creatures. But on Adam's request for an explanation of the rotation of the celestial bodies ( an echo of Galileo' s sermons), Raphael advises him not to inquire into matters which are irrelevant to him and then leaves the Garden.

No sooner is Raphael gone than Satan assumes the shape of a serpent and appears before Eve. He  persuades her to break God's command, Eve eats an apple from the forbidden tree and plucks another one for Adam. God sees all this, and Adam and Eve, husband and wife, are both deprived of immortality, exiled from Paradise and doomed to an earthly life full of hardships and sufferings, to eat bread by “the sweat of the brow" .

Samson Agonistes

Samson Agonistes is a poetical drama modeled on the Greek tragedies. The story was taken from the Old .Testament. Samson was an athlete of the Israelites. He stood as their champion fighting for the freedom of their country. But he was betrayed by his wife and blinded by his enemies the Philistines. One day he was summoned to entertain his enemies by feats of strength in a temple. There he wreaked his vengeance upon his enemies by pulling down the temple upon them and upon himself.

In this poetic drama,  Milton is telling us his own story. Like Samson, he has been betrayed by his wife. He has suffered  from  blindness  and  been  scorned by his enemies, and yet he has been struggling against his enemies.  Samson’s miserable servitude among his enemies, his longing for sight and freedom, and the last terrible triumph are all allusions to the poet's own story. In a way, Samson is Milton.

Comments on Milton and His Poetry

1.       Milton is a great revolutionary poet of the 17^th century. He is also an outstanding political pamphleteer of the Revolution period. He dedicated himself to the revolutionary cause. He has exerted far-reaching influence on the later English poetry. Many English poets have drawn inspiration from him.

2.       Milton is a great stylist. is poetry is of a grand style. He has made a life-long study of classical and Biblical literature. His poetry is noted for sublimity of thought and majesty of expression.

3.       Milton is a great master of blank verse.  He is the forerunner to introduce blank verse into non--dramatic poetry. His blank verse is full of poetic imagination and never monotonous.

METAPHYSICAL POETS AND CAVALIER POETS

Metaphysical poets

About the beginning of the 17th century appeared a school of poets called “Metaphysicals” by Samuel Johson, the 18th century writer. The works of the Metaphysical poets ale characterized, generally speaking, by mysticism in content and fantasticality in form. The most representative poet is John Donne.

Cavalier Poets

Another school of poetry prevailing in the 17^th century was Cavalier Poetry. Cavalier poets are, more often than not, knights and squires, who side with the king against the parliament and the puritans in the English revolution. They mostly deal in short songs on the flitting joys of the day, but underneath their lightheartedness lies some foreboding of impending doom.

The representative cavalier poets include John Suckling, Richard Lovelace, Thomas Carew and Robert Herrick, the author of “gather ye rose buds while you may”, of which we will have a detailed study in our program.

JOHN BUNYAN ( 1628-1688)

The Pilgrim’s Progress

The Pilgrim’s Progress is an allegory, a narrative in which general concepts such as sin, despair, and faith are represented as people or as aspects of the natural world, In the book, the basis of the allegorical narrative is the idea of a journey. The traveler’s name .is Christian, and he represents every Christian. The figures and places Christian encounters on his journey stand for the various experiences every Christian must go through in the quest for salvation.

The whole book falls into two parts. The beginning tells us that the author has a dream. In his dream, he notices a man called Christian carrying a bag of sins on his back and reading the Bible. From the book Christian gets to know that his home city will be destroyed someday by a big fire. Then on the advice of the Evangelist, he flees away from his home City---the city of Destruction. Part One mainly describes his pilgrimage through the Slough of Despond, Vanity Fair, Doubting Castle, the Valley of Humiliation, and the Valley of the Shadow of Death. On the way he overcomes many obstacles and encounters various allegorical personages, such as, Mr. Worldly Wiseman, Faithful, Hopeful, Giant Despair, the foul fiend Apollyon and some others. Finally he accomplishes his journey   by reaching the Celestial City.

The best-known section of Part One in this book is the Vanity Fair episode. Christian, the hero, and his companion, Faithful, are passing through a town called Vanity during the season of the local fair. On the Vanity Fair, honors, titles, kingdoms, lusts, pleasures and lives can be sold or bought, and cheating, roguery, murder and adultery are normal phenomena.

This section gives the bitterest satire, which is invariably directed at the ruling class. In the descriptions of the Vanity Fair, Bunyan not only gives us a symbolic picture of London at the time of the Restoration but of all bourgeois society. .

Features of Bunyan's Works

1.       Bunyan is known for his simple and lively prose style, lie used everyday idiomatic expressions naturally His prose, modeled on that of the king lames Bible, is clear enough to be followed by any reader, and it is always full of specific and plausible detail.

2.       His biblical language enabled him to narrate his stories and reveal his ideas in a direct and straightforward way.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1.       Define “metaphysical poets” and “cavalier poets”.

2.       Give a brief comment on John Milton.

3.       On what account do we say that Samson is Milton?

4.       Say something about John Bunyan’s position in English literary history.