The greatest writer of the period was John Milton. He is famous in literature for his early or Horton poems, which are Elizabethan in spirit; for his controversial prose works, which reflect the strife of the age; for his epic of Paradise Lost, and for his tragedy of Samson.
Another notable Puritan, or rather Independent, writer was John Bunyan, whose works reflect the religious ferment of the seventeenth century. His chief works are Grace Abounding, a kind of spiritual biography, and The Pilgrim's Progress, an allegory of the Christian life which has been more widely read than any other English book.
The chief writer of the Restoration period was John Dryden, a professional author, who often catered to the coarser tastes of the age. There is no single work by which he is gratefully remembered. He is noted for his political satires, for his vigorous use of the heroic couplet, for his modern prose style, and for his literary criticisms.
Among the numerous minor poets of the period, Robert Herrick and
George Herbert are especially noteworthy. A few miscellaneous prose
works are the Religio Medici of Thomas Browne, The
Compleat Angler of Isaac Walton, and the diaries of Pepys and
Evelyn.
SELECTIONS FOR READING. Minor poems of Milton, and parts of Paradise Lost, in Standard English Classics, Riverside Literature, and other school series (see Texts, in General Bibliography). Selections from Cavalier and Puritan poets in Maynard's English Classics, Golden Treasury Series, Manly's English Poetry, Century Readings, Ward's English Poets. Prose selections in Manly's English Prose, Craik's English Prose Selections, Garnett's English Prose from Elizabeth to Victoria. Pilgrim's Progress and Grace Abounding in Standard English Classics, Pocket Classics, Student's Classics. Religio Medici and Complete Angler in Temple Classics and Everyman's Library. Selections from Dryden in Manly's English Prose and Manly's English Poetry. Dryden's version of Palamon and Arcite (the Knight's Tale of Chaucer) in Standard English Classics, Riverside Literature, Lake Classics.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. For texts and manuals dealing with the whole field of English history and literature see the General Bibliography. The following works deal chiefly with the Puritan and Restoration periods.
HISTORY. Wakeling, King and Parliament (Oxford Manuals of
English History); Gardiner, The First Two Stuarts and the Puritan
Revolution (Great Epochs Series); Tulloch, English Puritanism;
Harrison, Oliver Cromwell; Hale, The Fall of the Stuarts; Airy, The
English Restoration and Louis XIV.
LITERATURE. Masterman, The Age of Milton; Dowden, Puritan
and Anglican; Wendell, Temper of the Seventeenth Century in
Literature; Gosse, Seventeenth-Century Studies; Schilling,
Seventeenth-Century Lyrics (Athenæum Press Series); Isaac Walton,
Lives of Donne, Wotton, Hooker, Herbert and Sanderson.
Milton. Life, by Garnett (Great Writers Series); by Pattison
(English Men of Letters). Corson, Introduction to Milton; Raleigh,
Milton; Stopford Brooke, Milton. Essays, by Macaulay; by Lowell, in
Among My Books; by M. Arnold, in Essays in Criticism.
Bunyan. Life, by Venables (Great Writers); by Froude (E. M. of L.). Brown, John Bunyan; Woodberry's essay, in Makers of Literature.