British literature

4.4 Late Renaissance: 1625-1660

Main article: Caroline era

The metaphysical poets continued writing in this period.
Both John Donne and George Herbert died after 1625, but there was a second generation of metaphysical po­ets, consisting of Andrew Marvell (1621-1678), Thomas Traherne (1636 or 1637-1674) and Henry Vaughan (1622-1695). Their style was characterized by wit and metaphysical conceits — far-fetched or unusual similes or metaphors, such as in Andrew Marvell’s comparison of the soul with a drop of dew;^[36] or Donne’s description of the effects of absence on lovers to the action of a pair of compasses.^[37]
Another important group of poets at this time were the Cavalier poets. They were an important group of writ­ers, who came from the classes that supported King Charles I during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (1639­51). (King Charles reigned from 1625 and was executed 1649). The best known of the Cavalier poets are Robert Herrick, Richard Lovelace, Thomas Carew, and Sir John Suckling. They “were not a formal group, but all were influenced” by Ben Jonson.^[38] Most of the Cavalier po­ets were courtiers, with notable exceptions. For example, Robert Herrick was not a courtier, but his style marks him as a Cavalier poet. Cavalier works make use of allegory and classical allusions, and are influence by Latin authors Horace, Cicero, and Ovid.^[39]

John Milton (1608-74) is one of the greatest English poets, who wrote at a time of religious flux and polit­ical upheaval. He is generally seen as the last major poet of the English Renaissance, though his major epic poems were written in the Restoration period, includ­ing. Paradise Lost (1671). Among the important poems Milton wrote during this period are L'Allegro, 1631; Il Penseroso, 1634; Comus (a masque), 1638; and Lycidas, (1638). His later major works are: Paradise Regained, 1671; Samson Agonistes, 1671. Milton’s works reflect deep personal convictions, a passion for freedom and self­determination, and the urgent issues and political turbu­lence of his day. Writing in English, Latin, and Italian, he achieved international renown within his lifetime, and his celebrated Areopagitica (1644), written in condem­nation of pre-publication censorship, is among history’s most influential and impassioned defences of free speech and freedom of the press. William Hayley's 1796 biog­raphy called him the “greatest English author”,^[40] and he remains generally regarded “as one of the preeminent writers in the English language”.^[41]

John Milton. His religious epic poemParadise Lost was pub­lished in 1667.

Thomas Urquhart (1611-1660) translation of Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel into English has been de­scribed as “the greatest Scottish translation since Gavin Douglas’s Eneados".^[42]

5.