The Romantic Age
1798-1832
– during 1770s, American colonies revolted against British rule
– American Revolution divided British public opinion and aroused some awareness of the need for reform
– French Revolution demonstrated that is was possible for a long-standing govt to be challenged by its own soil
– French Revolution began on July 14, 1789; group of French citizens stormed the Bastille
– Placed limits on the powers of King Louis XVI, established a new govt & approved a Declaration of the Rights of Man
– France became a constitutional monarchy
– Ruling class felt threatened by the implication of the events in France
– Charles James Fox, supporter of the revolution & leader of the Whig party
– William Wordsworth, poet, spoke out in support of the revolution
– William Godwin, philosopher & novelist, reacted to the revolution by writing an Enquiry Concerning Political Justice
o Predicted British society would evolve peacefully into a free, equal nation
– Edmund Burk- condemned events in France, Reflections on the Revolution in France, he argued that France, unlike the Americans, was attacking very fabric of their society with complete disregard for their roots & ancestry
o Warned that the revolution would grow violent
o Views disregarded until they became true
– 1792, France declared war on Austria
– Jacobins, radical group, gained control of French legislative assembly, abolished the monarchy, & declared the nation a republic Mobs attacked and killed many prisoners
– Revolutionaries tried and convicted Louis XVI on charge of treason, went to guillotine in 1793
– Violence reached its peak under Maximilien Robespierre- began the Reign of Terror
o Imprisoned 1000s of royalists, moderates & even radicals
o Ended ins summer of 1794
o Sent 17,000 to guillotine & then Robespierre was sent himself
– 1793, France took initiative of declaring war on Britain, thus beginning a series of wars that would drag on for 22 years
– Tory govt led by William Pitt outlawed all talk of Parliament reform outside the halls of Parliament, banning public meetings, and suspending certain basic rights
o Later crushed a rebellion in Ireland
– Many turned to literature and art as a way to find beauty & truth in the world
– 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte came into power in Paris
– Britain ruled the ocean, but Napoleon ruled Europe
– 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia & suffered a series of defeats
o forces were defeated in the Peninsular War in Portugal and Spain (1808-1814)
– allies closed in on him and exiled him to Elba, he plotted to return
– 1815 managed to return got 100 Days, but is glory ended in Waterloo, Belgium
– England, workers protested the loss of jobs to new machinery in the violent Luddite Riots (1811-13), mounted soldiers charged a peaceful mass meeting of cotton workers & killed several in what is known as the Peterloo Massacre
– 2 angry campsworking class, demanded reform, & ruling class, resisted reform
– Reform Bill of 1832- allowed voting rights to middle class males
– 1833, Parliament passed a reform to govern factory safety & abolish slavery
– Romantic style- offered a new perspective on the world, focused on nature and the common place
– abandoned many of the dominant attitudes & principles of 18th century literature
– shaped by the French revolutionary or the effects of the Industrial Revolution
– Thomas Gray, Robert Burns, & William Blake displayed Romanic thinking
Jean Jacques Rousseau
– died before start of Romantic period
– leading philosopher of 18th century
– planted the seeds of which Romanticism grew
– saw society as force evil infringed on personal liberty & human happiness
– thought humanity should revert to its natural state
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
– most influential
– source of pride for a new generation & also a primitive simplicity much in keeping with Rousseaus ideas
– Romantic Age called that b/c of its interest in medieval romance
– it produced music of Ludwig van Beethoven & Austrias Franz Schubert
– painting, Britains John Constable & J.M.W. Turner
– 1798, William Wordsworth & Samuel Taylor Coleridge published the Lyrical Ballads, established romantic principles that would dominate British literature for decades
– William Wordsworth poems gave a charm of novelty to every day things
– Samuel Taylor Coleridge created imaginative settings & mysterious sequences of events
– Nature was no longer a force not to be tamed with or analyzed scientifically, but a wild, free force that could inspire poets to instinctive spiritual understanding
– George Gordon, Lord Byron
o Part of British aristocracymember of the House of Lords
o Critics responded unfavorably to earlier work
o Achieved success with Childe Harolds Pilgrimage
o Left Britain in 1816, died of fever
– Percy Bysshe Shelley
o Well born & politically radical
o Urged Englands lower class to rebel
o Shunned for radical opinions & left Britain for good in 1818
– John Keats
o Master of lyrical poetry
o Born outside elegant society
o Trained to be a doctor but abandoned that to pursue his passion for poetry
o Died at the age of 25 with tuberculosis
– Romantic Essayists
o Charles Lamb, William Hazlitt, & Thomas De Quincey
– Romantic Novelists
o Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, wrote Frankenstein & Modern Prometheus
o Most highly regarded novelists was Jane Austen
o Sir Walter Scott- wrote about chivalry & knights
