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1、1Eighteenth Century Literature (II) 1.Jonathan Swift 16671745 He was born in Dublin, of English parents. His father died before he was born; his mother was poor. He was compelled to accept aid from relatives, who gave it grudgingly. At Dublin University, he detested the curriculum, reading only what
2、 appealed to his own nature; but, since a degree was necessary to his success, he was compelled to accept it as a favor from the examiners, whom he despised in his heart. After graduation he had to be the private secretary to a distant relative, Sir William Temple. He spent ten years with Temple. Wh
3、en his position with Temple grew unbearable, he quarreled with his patron, took orders, and entered the church of England. Some years later, he settled in the little church of Laracor, Ireland. He grew more and more irritated as he saw small men advanced to large positions, while he remained unnotic
4、ed in a little country church. While at Laracor he finished his Tale of a Tub, which was published in London with the Battle of the Books. The work brought him into notice as the most powerful satirist of the age, and he soon gave up his church to enter the strife of party politics. The Whigs feared
5、 the lash of his satire; the Tories feared to lose his support. When the Tories went out of favor his position became uncertain. He expected and had probably been promised a bishopric in England; but the Tories offered him instead the place of Dean of St. Patricks Cathedral in Dublin. It was galling
6、 to a man of his proud spirit; but after his merciless satire on religion, in The Tale of a Tub, any ecclesiastical position in England was rendered impossible. Dublin was the best he could get, and he accepted it bitterly. With his return to Ireland begins the last act in the tragedy of his life. T
7、he death of Esther Johnson, who had loved him ever since the two had met in Temples house brought him a frightful sorrow. During the last years a brain disease, of which he had shown frequent symptoms, fastened its terrible hold upon him, and he became by turns an idiot and a madman. He died in 1745
8、, and when his will was opened it was found that he had left all his property to found St. Patricks Asylum for lunatics and incurables. It stands today as the most suggestive monument of his peculiar genius.His works: Tale of a Tub began as a grim exposure of the alleged weakness of three principal
9、forms of religious belief, Catholic, Lutheran, and Calvinist, as opposed to the Anglican; but it ended in a satire upon all science and philosophy. Gullivers Travels Journal to Stella 1710-1713 written for the benefit of Esther Johnson. It is interesting for two reasons. It is, first, an excellent c
10、ommentary on contemporary characters and political events, by one of the most powerful and original minds of the age; and second, in love passages and purely personal descriptions it gives us the best picture we possess of Swift himself at the summit of his power and influence.2.Joseph Addison 16721
11、719 In the pleasant art of living with ones fellows, Addison is easily a master. It is due to his perfect expression of that art, of that new social life which, as we have noted, was characteristic of the age of Anne, that Addison occupies such a large place in the history of literature. Of less pow
12、er and originality than Swift, he nevertheless wields, and deserves to wield, a more lasting influence. Swift is the storm, roaring against the ice and frost of the late spring of English life. Addison is the 2sunshine, which melts the ice and dries the mud and makes the earth thrill with light and
13、hope. Like Swift, he despised shams, but unlike him, he never lost faith in humanity; and in all his satires there is a gentle kindliness which makes one think better of his fellow-men, even while he laughs at their little vanities. He was born in Wiltshire, in 1672. His father was a scholarly Engli
14、sh clergyman, and all his life he followed naturally the quiet and cultured ways to which he was early accustomed. At Oxford he excelled in character and scholarship and became known as a writer of graceful verses. Then he took up the government service and took the more tactful way of winning the f
15、riendship of men in large places. One of his Latin poems, “The Peace of Ryswick” (1697), with its kindly appreciation of King Williams statesmen brought him into favorable political notice. It brought him also a pension of three hundred pounds a year. In his Account of the Greatest English Poets (16
16、93) one rubs his eyes to find Dryden lavishly praised, Spenser excused, while Shakespeare is not ever mentioned, for he was writing under Boileaus “classic” rules; and the poet, like the age, was perhaps too artificial to appreciate natural genius. The death of William and the loss of power by the Whigs suddenly stopped his pension and for a time he lived in poverty and obscurity. Then occurred the battle of Blenheim, and in the ef
