Queen Anne

The Age of Queen Anne

Between the days of Milton and of Pope another great revolution passed over England; but this time, owing to the fact that people were ready for the change, the revolution was a bloodless one. James II, after trying to rule without Parliament and in defiance of the wishes of his people, and after using every means in his power to re-establish the Catholic religion, was quietly pushed aside and Protestant William and Mary were invited to accept the crown he was incompetent to wear. But a little later Mary died and her sister Anne, obstinate and unlearned, yet an ardent Protestant, became Queen of England. The revolution which had resulted in the abdication of James marked the inception of a new order of things, and though intrigue and war continued to occupy public attention, yet a broader spirit of toleration was in the air and persecution for political or religious belief practically ceased.

The literature of this age, which again extends beyond the reign of the queen whose name the epoch bears, is not remarkable for one genius of surpassing merit as was the Age of Elizabeth, but for a group of writers each so excellent in his way that this has been called the Augustan Age and

really ranks second to that of Elizabeth only. It might better be called the Classical Age, for the dominating spirit was a devotion to form and to manner of expression. The influence of French classicism reached its highest mark and through Pope its finest expression. For prose, this classic revival was of immeasurable benefit, as it brought clearness and elegance where before had been obscurity and roughness. Though there was danger that mere form would be regarded above matter, yet the guiding spirit of Swift and Addison saved English prose from the formalism that destroyed the true spirit of poetry.

In this age was established the first daily newspaper, a pitiable little sheet that struggled along despairingly against the influence of the coffeehouse gossip and political pamphleteering. Now almost for the first time, literature came to exert a really important influence in governmental affairs. The Puritans had carried a printing press with them in their war with the Cavaliers and had fired many an effective broadside from its rude types, but it remained for the fierce strife between Whigs and Tories in the reigns of Anne and the Georges to bring literature fully into politics. Scarcely a writer of any importance kept out of the arena. Pope used all his wit and Gay his ingenuity; Addison laughed good humoredly; the half-mad Swift vented his spite in satires made immortal by his fertile invention, and DeFoe was