Literary Characteristics
In
every preceding age we have noted especially the poetical works, which
constitute, according to Matthew Arnold, the glory of English literature.
Now for the first time we must chronicle the triumph of English prose.
A multitude of practical interests arising from the new social and political
conditions demanded expression, not simply in books, but more especially
in pamphlets, magazines, and newspapers. Poetry was inadequate for such
a task; hence the development of prose, of the "unfettered word," as Dante
calls it, - a development which astonishes us by its rapidity and excellence.
The graceful elegance of Addison's essays, the terse vigor of Swift's satires,
the artistic finish of Fielding's novels, the sonorous eloquence of Gibbon's
history and of Burke's orations, - these have no parallel in the poetry
of the age. Indeed, poetry itself became prosaic in this respect, that
it was used not for creative works of imagination, but for essays, for
satire, for criticism, - for exactly the same practical ends as was prose.
The poetry of the first half of the century, as typified in the work of
Pope, is polished and witty enough, but artificial; it lacks fire, fine
feeling, enthusiasm, the glow of the Elizabethan Age and the moral earnestness
of Puritanism. In a work, it interests us as a study of life, rather than
delights or inspires us by its appeal to the imagination. The variety and
excellence of prose works, and the development of a serviceable prose style,
which had been begun by Dryden, until it served to express clearly every
human interest and emotion, - these are the chief literary glories of the
eighteenth century.
In the literature of the preceding age we noted two marked tendencies,
- the tendency to realism in subject matter, and the tendency to polish
and refinement of expression. Both these tendencies were continued in the
Augustan Age, and are seen clearly in the poetry of Pope, who brought the
couplet to perfection, and in the prose of Addison. A third tendency is
shown in the prevalence of satire, resulting from the unfortunate union
of politics with literature. We have already noted the power of the press
in this age, and the perpetual strife of political parties. Nearly every
writer of the first half of the century was used and rewarded by the Whigs
or Tories for satirizing their enemies and for advancing their special
political interests. Pope was a marked exception, but he nevertheless followed
the prose writers in using satire too largely in his poetry. Now satire
- that is, a literary work which searches out the faults of men or institutions
in order to hold them up to ridicule - is at best a destructive kind of
criticism. A satirist is like a laborer who clears away the ruins and rubbish
of an old house before the architect and builders begin on a new and beautiful
structure. The work may sometimes be necessary, but it rarely arouses our
enthusiasm. While the satires of Pope,
Swift,
and Addison are doubtless the best in our language,
we hardly place them with our great literature, which is always constructive
in spirit; and we have the feeling that all these men were capable of better
things than they ever wrote.