The Enlightenment The Restoration • Monarchy & Anglican Church restored in 1660 with Charles II • Increasingly, monarchs had to share authority with Parliament • 1689: English Bill of Rights limited monarchy further • Period of extravagance and refinement for the nobility Coronation Procession of Charles II to Westminster from the Tower of London (1661) by Dirck Stoop. Age of Reason • Late 17th-late 18th century • Increasing reliance on empiricism and scientific reasoning, not religion, to understand the world • Period of scientific advancement, intellectual growth, and improved living conditions • Shared ideas in salons and coffeehouses “The Alchemist in Search of the Philosopher’s Stone” (1771) by Joseph Wright Scientific Revolution • Developments in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology, and chemistry transformed views of society and nature • Asking “how,” not “why,” to explain natural phenomena • Famous scientists: – Isaac Newton – Francis Bacon Table of astronomy from the 1728 Cyclopaedia Philosophers • John Locke: government compromise, tabula rasa • Thomas Hobbes: humans inherently evil, government helps control them • Jean-Jacques Rousseau: humans born good, corrupted by society • Rene Descartes: “I think, therefore I am.” • David Hume: skepticism • Immanuel Kant: reasoning invalid because of subjective experience Other Innovators • Music: Vivaldi, Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven • Women’s rights: Olympe de Gouges, Mary Wollstonecraft • Peace: John Comenius, Hugo Grotius • Economics: Adam Smith Enlightenment Literature • Middle class had more money and free time to spend on reading • Shift towards prose and realistic experiences – Rise of journalism • Neoclassic literature aimed at elite; often used sarcasm and satire “Franklin in London” by David Martin, 1767 Literature • Famous writers of the Enlightenment: – Jonathan Swift – Alexander Pope – Voltaire – Daniel Defoe – Charlotte Smith – Robert Burns – Samuel Johnson (1st dictionary) Top: “Weimar’s Courtyard of the Muses” by Theobald von Oer Bottom: “Death of Socrates” by Jacques Louis David, 1787 Age of Satire • SATIRE IS NOT COMEDY, which just seeks to entertain or amuse. Satire, while implicitly humorous, has a moral purpose. 1. Moral lesson 2. Funny 3. Shared community standard of correct behavior (which begets the humor!) **The goal of satire is not just to abuse, but rather, to provoke change or reform. Satire: Definition “Satire is like a mirror in which [a man] sees everyone’s face but [his] own.” ~Jonathan Swift Satire is a literary genre that uses irony, wit and sometimes sarcasm, to expose humanity’s foibles giving impetus to changes through ridicule. The author of a satire reduces the vaulted worth of something to its real- decidedly lower- worth. Two Types of Satire Juvenalian Horatian .