14. “No man exercised so much influence on the age. The reason is obvious. On no man did the age exercise so much influence.” (Macaulay.) How far is this statement true of Dryden?
CHAPTER VIII
THE AGE OF POPE
TIME-CHART OF THE CHIEF AUTHORS
The thick line shows the period of active literary work
1700 1710 1720 1730 1740 1750 | ║ [142] ║ | | | ║ | Pope |......║=======║================================║ | (1688–1744) | | ║ | | | | | ║ | | ║ | | | Prior |......║=================║ | | | (1664–1721) | | | | | | | | ║ | | | ║[143] ║ | Young |..........|...║==============================║=====║..| (1683–1765) | | | | | | | ║ | | ║[144] | ║ | ║ | Swift |...║======================║============║...|.....║ | (1667–1745) | | | ║ | | | | ║ |║[145] ║ | | | | Addison |...║=======║======║ | | | | (1672–1719) | |║ | | | | | ║ |║[145] | ║ | | | Steele |.....║=====║=================║ | | | (1672–1729) | |║ | | | | |║ | ║[146] | ║ | | Defoe |║=================║===============║ | | (1659–1731) | | ║ | | | | | | | | | |
THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND (1700–50)
In the beginning of the eighteenth century the old quarrels take on new features.
1. The Rise of the Political Parties. In the reign of Charles II the terms “Whig” and “Tory” first became current; by the year 1700 they were in everybody’s mouth. About that time domestic politicians became sharply cleft into two groups that were destined to become established as the basis of the British system. Domestic affairs, while they never approached the stage of bloodshed, took on a new acrimony that was to affect literature deeply. Actual points of political faith upon which the parties were divided are not of great importance to us here; but, generally speaking, we may say that the Whig party stood for the pre-eminence of personal freedom as opposed to the Tory view of royal divine right. Hence the Whigs supported the Hanoverian succession, whereas the Tories were Jacobites. The Tories, whose numbers were recruited chiefly from the landed classes, objected to the foreign war upon the score that they had to pay taxes to prolong it; and the Whigs, representing the trading classes generally, were alleged to be anxious to continue the war, as it brought them increased prosperity. In the matter of religion the Whigs were Low Churchmen and the Tories High Churchmen.
2. The Foreign War. This War of the Spanish Succession was brilliantly successful under the leadership of Marlborough, who, besides being a great general, was a prominent Tory politician. The Tories, as the war seemed to be indefinitely prolonged, supplanted (1710) the Whigs, with whom they had been co-operating in the earlier stages of the war, and in 1713 they concluded the war by the unfortunate Treaty of Utrecht. Contemporary literature is much concerned both with the war and the peace.