Hello, everyone, and good day. After we finished
speaking about the Renaissance, its drama, its
poetry, and its prose, we move to speak about
another important era or age, if I can say that,
in the history of England, the United Kingdom, in
politics, society, but most importantly about the
literature of this era. We'll be speaking about An
era expanding from the middle of the 17th century
to the early 18th century. These are actually two
things related very much to each other. The first
one is called the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth.
And the second part is called Restoration.
Restoration from restore. Nowadays, generally,
commonwealth refers to countries that were
occupied, colonized by England. So any country
that was occupied by England at one particular
time is now part of the commonwealth. Like the
Francophone countries, countries that were
occupied by France. But the commonwealth refers to
a very important period in the history of England.
And then it was followed soon after by, this is
very short, probably 15 years or so, soon after it
was restored, followed by something called
restoration. What is the commonwealth? What is the
restoration? Let's see it together. So, so far we
have spoken about the Puritans, remember? The end
of the Renaissance Age, the Renaissance. Yep. The
Puritans, as a religious group, they were also
political group. They were becoming more and more
powerful. They closed the theater. But more
important than closing the theater, they killed
the king. Because there was a huge political
division in the English society between the
Puritans and the Cavaliers. Now, the Puritans
fought against the king because of the corruption,
the vices. Remember? Whatever they said about the
drama, they said in a way or another about the
political system, about the monarchy. And there
was a huge war, something that we refer to
generally as civil war. You know what a civil war?
groups in the same society, same country fight,
civil war. There was a lot of blood, a lot of
death, and a lot of massacres, so to speak. When
the Puritans were victorious, when they managed to
win a civil war, what did they do the first thing?
They executed the king. And this is England.
Again, this is, remember we said the king was the
most important person, God's representative on
Earth. He was the most powerful person. He was
holy, sacred. The English people lived with the
king, with the monarchy, for over 1,000, probably
1,500 years. Everyone. knows that the king is
crucial. Yeah, the king could be corrupt, could be
bad, the king or the queen, but the king was seen
as crucial, vital, important to the stability of
the society and the benefit of the interest of the
individual. And now what we saw in literature, and
this is very interesting, how literature prepares
our minds to certain events, how literature
creates life, creates, changes life in a
particular way. We've seen the king die before,
but not in real life. In Shakespeare, another
place, in Hamlet. In Macbeth, for one reason or
another, King Lear, the king dies. And even the
death of the king in the literary works turned
life upside down, like in Macbeth. Everything was
turned upside down. Fair is foul, and foul is
fair. But here, for the first time, the king is
executed. We'll speak in a bit about what happened
next. But this era, this period that saw the king
executed, killed, and had someone called Oliver
Cromwell, a very important name, is called the
Commonwealth. It's called the Commonwealth. The
monarchy was removed. No more king, no more queen,
no more royal family in so many ways. And they
wanted the parliament to rule with election, with
democracy, more democratic processes here. Now,
Cromwell was a very powerful man. He's the leader
of the Commonwealth. He came soon after. The king
was executed, and he had so many important things
to do to create the commonwealth, the countries
that formed the United Kingdom, mainly Scotland
and Ireland. So he was a man of war because he
fought battles, and he was also a man of peace
because he wanted to negotiate and involve in
dialogue between different countries around him.
Again, history is important here, how literature
influences life and history, and how history also
influences, in a way or another, literature. But
we don't want to speak a lot about history. But
really, this is interesting to read. Now, when
this man died about ten years later, sometimes
it's so sad that some important people die very
quickly, and people who are really horrible, they
just live forever sometimes. Yeah. When he dies,
what happened? He was succeeded by his son. What
does it mean?
So, if he is followed by his son, what does this
mean? Exactly, this is like having the king again.
What's wrong with the king, other than the
corruption and everything? It's that someone,
because he was born to a particular family, is
more important than us, can rule us, can control
us in a way or another. So when Oliver Cromwell
became the protector of England, He earned this
because he is a strong man, a diplomatic, and a
smart politician. But if his son takes it,
succeeds him, what does it mean? But again, in
many ways, this is the English mentality, because
they love to have a king. They love to be ruled by
a particular family because they have been trained
all their lives throughout hundreds and hundreds
of years that the king is crucial to the
stability. Even today, the queen, Queen Elizabeth
II, She isn't a strong ruler. She can't determine
politics and many things in England. But she's a
symbolic ruler, and many people love her, despite
the fact that the royal family spends millions and
millions of money. Tax. Tax money. But still, many
people feel it's necessary to have a royal family.
Now, when his son followed him, succeeded him, his
son was not as strong as Cromwell himself. Again,
Oliver Cromwell, the leader of the Commonwealth.
He was succeeded by his son, but his son was not
strong enough. And in a way, in a way, This meant
something to the people there. Because during this
period of 15 years or so or less, the English
people generally were like, when you want to do
something, but you can't do it because you want to
try something new. And then finally, you just say,
OK, enough. So they came to his son, and they
said, sorry. We want the king back. And this is
how much the English people love the not I can't
generalize of course especially the high class
because many people had like benefited a lot from
having a king or or a queen and The Commonwealth
ended by bringing another king. King, remember,
King Charles I was executed, and they came, they
invited, they brought King Charles II from France.
This is called the Restoration. What is the
Restoration? When the king was restored. That's
it. Commonwealth, when the king was executed, and
Oliver Cromwell ruled England in a way or another.
So in 1660, we have what is called the
Restoration. The monarchy was restored again, and
the man, Charles II, was brought from France.
Because, you know, remember, they were kicked out
in a way or another. Now again, it shows how
significant the monarchy is for the English
people. But something remained. that couldn't
change in a way or another. The monarchy itself
and its powers and privileges were declining, were
diminishing, were reduced because the parliament
and politicians and people who were elected by
people become more and more powerful. So yes, the
king was restored, but the powers The privileges,
the authority, they were never the same. Until
this very day, we have a very symbolic monarchy.
The queen sometimes signs particular papers,
approves particular cabinets by particular
political parties like the Labour Party and the
Tories. So politics is very important in this age.
But here we're not only talking, remember in the
past we were speaking about nationalism, the
strong sense of the English identity, Queen,
England being the saviour and the protector. And
about, you know, sweet Thames runs softly till I
end my song. The English people were all proud of
everything English. But now this changed from
nationalism, loving your country as a whole, to
political division. So some people supported this
political party, and others supported this
political party. And this creates what we call
political division. And this is politics more than
nationalism. Okay? So nationalism is loving
everything about your country, supporting,
believing in your country. But being political
generally here in this sense means that you
support one political party over the others
because of something. Now, something very funny
happened later on. King James II, remember we had
King James I in 1603, the man who translated the
Bible, the authorized version of the Bible, the
man who loved theater and literature, who had the
mosques in his own palace, remember? Now, King
James II did something that could be considered
stupid. He converted to Catholicism. He, remember
England is? A Protestant country now because of
King Henry VIII, when he had this dispute with the
Pope, and he destroyed many monasteries and
churches, and he executed so many Catholic people.
Because England changed its religion. Still
Christians, but they're not Catholic. They are
Protestants. Now, all of a sudden, this king, King
James II, converts to Catholicism. Okay, remember,
so many people were not happy with King Charles I.
What happened? Fighting, political division, civil
war, death, blood. But now, and this is really
interesting, the English people seem to have
learned from their own experience. They have
learned that OK, we kill the king. We fight. We
kill each other. And then later on, we bring the
king again. So they learned something that nobody
in Europe learned this quickly. In France, so many
kings were executed, and revolutions after
revolutions. In Spain, the Civil War ended like 60
years ago in Spain. And even today, there are
still some troubles and problems here and there.
But the English learned this lesson. very quickly
in many ways. So when this king converted to
Catholicism, what did they do to him? Did they
kill him? Did they rebel against him? Did they
fight him? Did they shed any blood? No. Again,
they came to him and said, sorry, this is a
Protestant country. You need to go. And they
removed the king without shedding any drop of
blood. And that's why this is called The bloodless
revolution. You know bloodless revolution? The
revolution that doesn't shed blood, no blood.
Pure, clean revolution. It's called sometimes the
glorious revolution. Al-Thawrah Al-Majeedah in
Arabic. So a lot of politics here. I'll speak
about two important things later on. Number one,
The middle class are number two literature and
politics. So what we care about here as literature
students It's good to know this brief history, is
the rise of the middle class. From now on, we'll
speak about the rise of the middle class in every
age, every era. And then politics and literature,
and literature and politics. But what did the
English people learn from this? They learned many
things. Number one, that stability is important.
Stability is crucial. You know stability? You
don't want to change the situation. You can
improve it. And if you want to change it, you
change it without shedding any blood by diplomacy,
by politics. So people wanted to avoid another
revolution, especially a revolution that sheds the
blood of the English people. Not easy to do, by
the way. And that's why this is a very interesting
history.
Okay? So people were more rational. Later on, we
speak about the age of reason in 50 years to come.
People were... In the Renaissance, people were
more about exploring. You know, the geographical
discoveries. They wanted to break the barriers.
They wanted to go beyond the limits. They wanted
to change life. But now, because of the bloodshed
and the fighting and the battles, They said, okay,
wait. I think we need to wait a minute and think
more carefully about what we do, where we go. So
the sense of exploration and experimentation in a
way was replaced by a sense of reason and
stability. And this is very smart because the
political system created something, an image that
made people believe the stability of the country,
if you have a stable, and even today, you know,
Theresa May, the Prime Minister of England, she
speaks about strong and stable, strong and stable.
They're making fun of her statement, the
catchphrase she always uses, strong and stable. We
want a strong and stable country. It started from
here. They said a strong country is a stable
country. And a stable country, government, means
more benefits to the individual. So if you, as an
individual, if you want to achieve your own
growth, material growth, if you want to get
wealthy and rich, what do you do? You work hard to
achieve the stability for all the society, the
community. That's why there's something I usually
like to say here. The individual became political,
and the political became individual. What is good
for the community? It's good for, for me, the
individual. We'll see how this is reflected on
literature. So we have more growth in science, in
commercial growth, in trade, in geographical
discoveries, in British imperialism, in
colonialism, British Empire, everywhere. Many
excellent things happened. And we speak about the
English, the Union of Parliaments of England, Now,
before I move to speak about literature, look at
this sentence. In the book, it says there was a
union. There was a unity between England and
Scotland, the parliament. But Ireland remains the
problem. This is what the book says exactly. It
says Ireland was still the problem.
was still a problem. What do you think? And that's
why here I use an exclamation mark. I'm not
stating this as a fact. Ireland remained a problem
to the United Kingdom.
Why is Ireland depicted here as a problem? You
know Ireland? We have Ireland. We have Scotland.
We have Wales. We have England, the United
Kingdom, in addition to other things. Please.
Yeah, thank you. There is Catholicism here. Not
many people were forced to convert to becoming
Protestant. So Catholic people. So what does it
mean also? Is it whitewashing? Aha. How do you
mean? Can you explain?
Ireland is divided by Britain. Okay. Britain is
out of debt and killing for the natives. Okay.
That's very, really interesting. Thank you. There
is also whitewashing here. England was the
problem. Not Ireland. It's exactly like now Israel
says Gaza is the problem. No. The occupation is
the problem. So the book here presents it as if
Ireland is the problem, is causing trouble for For
England, while England is occupying and colonizing
Ireland and parts of Ireland and killing people,
yes, shedding the blood of the Irish people. Until
this very day, there's still this trouble between
Ireland and parts of Ireland and England. So
interesting how the book presents this. And I told
you before, be careful when you read any book,
especially books written by by white Europeans who
believe in colonialism and imperialism. So this is
not only against Asia and Africa and the
Caribbean, but also against parts of Europe, like
in Ireland. So thank you very much for saying
this. This is called whitewashing.
Again, what is whitewashing? Whitewashing when a
movie, a book, someone tries to hide the problems,
the trouble, the vices, the crimes, and present
things as if nothing bad is going on. Like watch a
movie. Someone comes here to, for example, to Gaza
and makes a movie or writes a book about Gaza. And
you read the whole book. You watch the whole
movie. And there are no references to the Israeli
occupation, to the siege, to five, six decades of
occupation, of oppression. If nobody is referring
to Israel here, this is called whitewashing.
Whitewashing Israel. You know the word white and
wash? To wash somebody so there is nothing wrong
with them. If someone makes a movie about Israel
and describes Israel, how Israel is the only
democracy in the Middle East, or the only
democracy in the universe, or how Israel is a very
significant research haven, technology, cancer
research, without referring to the fact that there
is a lot of racism against non-Jews, against black
people, people of color. In Israel, seven decades
of occupation of colonialism, this is
whitewashing. So the book doesn't... Remember, we
spoke about this also when the writer here, two
writers actually, when they depicted colonialism
as glory. It's not glory because it caused the
deaths of millions and millions of people. So
yeah, thank you. This is called whitewashing.
OK, now I'll move to speak about two poets of this
era. The first one, we go back to Andrew Marvel.
Remember Andrew Marvel? He's a romantic poet. But
he was also a politician, a member of the
parliament. And he wrote poetry supporting who?
Cromwell. This is his famous poem praising and
celebrating Cromwell.
It's called an oration. There could be an N here.
If there is an N, it means the H is silent. An
oration or the poem, Upon Cromwell's Return from
Ireland. Long title, okay? You can only memorize
this. Upon Cromwell's Return. Who's the poet?
Malo. What's going on? So again, remember what
poetry we had in the past? About society, love
poetry, religion. Are we going to see new
concerns, new interests, new themes, new issues
here? Someone read, please. Yeah. Could not cease.
Cease.
in the glorious arts of peace, but through a
treacherous war, archetype after star, what filled
us up of all the civil war, where his were not the
deepest scars. Scar. In the book, I think it says
in the book, wars and stars. Wars and scars,
sorry. Yes. Okay. So, interesting. One more. So,
is this crumble?
in glorious art of peace, urged
his active star where
his were not the deepest scar. What is the poet
saying? What's going on here?
He's not a king. He was the ruler. I would say
something like prime minister, but he wasn't a
king. But more or less, he was like a king,
because he was succeeded by his son when he died.
So but as a ruler here, let's call him ruler,
protector of England.
Who's talking? OK, the poet is Marvel. The speaker
could be Marvel. The difference between the poet,
the author, and the speaker. So here, seemingly,
it sounds like Marvel, Andrew Marvel, is praising
and celebrating Cromwell as a hero of both war and
peace.
So he's praising his, he's restless. He doesn't
rest. He works very hard. He's on sleep. We have
this. In Arabic poetry, we have this all the time.
We have poets praising the rulers, the governors,
the emirs, the caliphs all the time. He doesn't
cease in the inglorious art of peace. So during
peace, he talks. He engages in dialogue, politics,
diplomacy. But in war, his star shines the most.
So he is part of the peace diplomacy negotiations,
but also when there are battles and fighting and
wars and civil wars, what does he do? He also
fights. So he's a strong ruler, a ruler who can
balance between diplomacy and war. In many ways,
this is a political poem. Because who's being
prayed? What is the subject matter? A love poem?
God? Cromwell? Who's Cromwell? He's the ruler of
England. So when you write a poem for your
president, the prime minister, this is politics.
And during this era, politics became a huge part
of literature. Political themes. Political,
political themes. And that's why, again, Marvel
was supporting the Commonwealth against the king.
Later on, he became a politician and became a
member of the parliament. He was celebrated as the
unofficial poet laureate. He was the prince of
poets, but wasn't that official because he wrote
several poems praising Cromwell and his life and
his achievements and his struggle. This reminds me
of Al Mutanabbi. Remember Al Mutanabbi? the
greatest Arabic poet of all time, most of his
poetry is like this, celebrates a particular
person. It's really beautiful how there are
similarities, but at the same time there are
dissimilarities. Many people would read this and
say, hmm, I don't think this is poetry, because
poetry is about emotions, feelings. We don't have
much. Even the imagery here, the metaphors, we
don't have Much of that, right? But still, this is
poetry of that time. Poetry started to change in
themes in many ways. Al-Mutanabbi, this reminds me
of something probably I quoted before. Al
-Mutanabbi was praising Saif Al-Dawlah and saying
how courageous he is. So to describe someone as
courageous, you speak about Erjed, his active
star. His star shines, rises. He fights. He
doesn't care. He doesn't fear. Utanabbi says,
praising Saif Al-Dawla, Waqafta wa ma fil mawti
shakun liwaqifi. Ka anaka fi jafni rada wa huwa
naimo. Waqafta wa ma fil mawti shakun liwaqifi.
Meaning, you were in a position where anyone
standing would die. But you, because you're
courageous, you don't care, you stand, defying.
Look at this simile. There is a personification of
death here, where death is like a sleeping person.
And where is he standing? Exactly here, on the
eyelashes, on the eyelid of death. You're standing
here. So when death wakes up, the first thing he
claims is you. But you don't care because you are
powerful.
This is always beautiful. He's saying like, your
enemies are heroes. Is he praising them? No, he's
praising Seif Eddaoula because he only fights
heroes. And while he's doing this during the war
and the fighting, Because in war, we're all
worried, and sweating, and terrified, and
terrorized, and we're fighting, and et cetera. But
because you are a fearless leader during war, like
this. Beautiful. Is this similar to this? Which is
more beautiful? Arabic? Oh, good. Think of when
probably when you finish doing a BA in English
literature, you could do a comparison. You study
comparative literature. Twina Moutanabbi and
Andrew Marvin, okay? Now another text, remember
Lovelace? Do you remember him? What did he say
before? One mark if you memorize his poetry. Don't
look, don't look. Loveless. One Mark if you know,
he's very famous, very easy to memorize. Stone
walls don't a prison make nor iron bars a cage.
I'll translate it into Arabic. You don't have to
memorize this for the course, the exam, but it's
really good to know. Makes you confident and proud
of yourself. Like, oh, I know Arabic, English
poetry as well. So in this poem, it's called to
Locasta. Remember the first one, to Althea. So
this is either an imaginary woman he loves, or
it's his woman that he calls by different names.
He uses attractive names. Going to the wars.
Again, a political poem. Going to the wars.
Fighting. Here where the public, the personal, the
individual is public. It's a really very
interesting poem. But we're going to study only
one extract here. Someone read, please.
Very good. Someone else? Please.
Unkind. Kind, unkind.
Thy. Thy means yours in old English. Yes? Chest,
breast, and quiet mind. To war, unarmed,
unflagged. What is he saying? What do you
understand from this? No,
English, of course. He's brave.
From war. Okay, cool. But who is he talking to?
His beloved. What is he saying to her?
Sweet should be between inverted commas. But we
can probably explain why there are brackets here.
Because officially, remember, this coin is comma,
lady, comma. But here are brackets. It's like as
if he's putting her in prison. Like tying,
chaining hair. Don't come after me. Don't run
away. I'm going to come back. I don't know. He's
controlling her by putting his beloved, the woman
he loves, his mistress, in brackets. So now, can't
he run away? He can't, because there are walls
against her, in a way. Don't tell me I'm going to
come, because he's leaving her. He's leaving her
behind. Remember, for Shakespeare, the woman, for
Marlow, the woman was the most important thing.
The love poetry. There is a piece in it. But now
here, we have something more important than the
woman. It's the love of your country. And that's,
again, how the individual becomes public. He's
telling here, in the rest of the poem, that I
can't love you if I don't love my country more. If
I don't defend my country, if I don't go to fight
to protect my country. And this is political. This
is the restoration, the commonwealth. Tell me not,
sweet, I am unkind. Don't accuse me of being
unkind and cruel. From that, from that, from the
nunnery of thy chest breast and quiet mind. I like
how he describes her physical appearance and
describes her Her quiet mind. It's good. It's an
upgrade. In the past, remember, the woman was
absent. Shall I compare thee to summer's day? Come
live with me and be my love. But here, the woman
is using your unkind. And there is her mind is
praised. Some people might say no, because he
still tells her your mind is quiet. So it's good
for a woman to have a quiet mind. Yeah, it's not
perfect, but it's an upgrade from the previous
age, where the woman's mind has a place in the
poem. Later on, we'll have more and more presence,
more and more strong roles by women. So to war,
arms could be a pun here.
Because arms, one arm, two arms. Or arms, weapons.
Arms means weapons. But arms also means hands. So
he's playing on this word. Is he going to war? Is
he walking to war? Is he crawling to war? Is he
running to war? No. He's flying to war. He doesn't
walk. He flies to war because he goes willingly to
defend his country, to fight for the thing he
loves the most. It's his country. And that's
different poetry from the one we studied before.
So what's going on here again? The poet here is
showing us how the individual, his love to his
wife, is less important than his love to his
country. Because defending the country means
safety, stability, security to you, to your wife,
to all individuals in the society. This is a
political power. in which the country is more
important than the woman you love. This is called
political poetry. Loveless to La Costa going to
the wars. Please. I didn't understand the first
line. Is he asking her not to call him sweet or
he's describing her as sweet? He's addressing her.
She's sweet. So sweet, like when in the other poem
in Marvel also, he said, had we bought world
enough on time, this coin is comma lady comma. So
this is when you call for somebody in English, you
use a comma. But here, he doesn't use a comma. He
uses brackets. In my opinion, this is him trying
to control her, to tell her, stay at home. Wait
for me here. Don't go out. Don't leave me. I'll be
back. Because he repeats it here. In the rest of
the poem, he also says dear, also in brackets. So
don't run away. I'm coming back. OK? Tell me not
sweet. Oh, my sweet is sitting here. My sweet
wife, don't tell me I am unkind because I'm
leaving you, because I'm fighting for someone I
love more, the country. And the safety of the
country is your own safety. Very beautiful poem.
You can Google it and read more about it. And the
rhyme scheme is? A. B. Thank you for saying A, B,
A, B very quickly, because this is imperfect
rhyme. Nanari and fly the rhyme, but not
perfectly. Okay. Remember, there could be
something. Is he afraid? Is he really seriously
flying to war? Because the rhyme doesn't help,
doesn't flow, doesn't fly. Could be, yeah. Final
text today, we'll stop here. We'll go back to
Andrew Marvell. This is another poem from the
Restoration Age. So again, we have the
Commonwealth, politics, politics, politics. The
restoration also politics politics. It doesn't
mean everything about literature was politics. It
means politics became a crucial part in
literature. Later in his life, when Andrew Marvell
grew very old,
and he was tired of politics and the city and
London and the corruption and the civil war and
the fighting and prisons and threats and
diplomacy. He went to the countryside and wrote
several poems, one of them really lovely poem
called The Garden. In many ways, this is a
romantic poem. We speak about romantic literature.
In which, in this poem, he contrasts life in the
city and life in the countryside, in
the village.
What is he saying? Fair quiet.
Have I found thee here? An innocence thy sister
dear. Mistaken long I sought you then in the city.
In busy companies of men. Society, the city,
London, society is all but rude. to this delicious
solitude.
You know what delicious is? Yummy. When you
describe food, you say, so maybe if I took out
this word and I asked you to complete, you're
going to say this delicious pizza, this delicious
cheesecake, this delicious ice cream. But this is
some kind of You know, personifying something or
changing. There's a metaphor here. You know
solitude from solo? You know solo? Solo means
alone. Sololoquy. Solitude means loneliness. But
it's loneliness that you choose to be alone
because you want to be far away from corruption in
the city. So again, he's personifying quiet.
Quiet, peace. Rahat-al-bal. Have I found, finally,
I found you here. Where? In the garden. Where? In
the village. Where? In the city. And innocence,
another personification, thy sister. So innocence
is the sister of? Of quiet. They are sisters.
They're not human beings, but it's like their
company. This is the company he likes, not the
company of politicians. in the city mistaken long
I sought you then I thought that I would find
innocence and quiet in the city in the busy
companies of men but I was mistaken I was this is
someone confessing his mistake not like the king
when he said for you have but mistook me right
society here is city why doesn't he use city Two
things. Number one, society is four syllables. So
it works for the music, the rhythm, the foot here,
the feet. City, two syllables. But also he doesn't
mean the city as a place as it is. Thank you very
much. The people in the city. The society, the
community there is all but rude. And there is
another personification. Rude is a word to
describe people. The life itself is rude in the
city. In the village, it's peace. It's quiet. It's
innocence. To this delicious solitude. So this
delicious solitude in the village. So what's going
on here? We have a poet who's running away from
the city. A poet who's escaping politics and
corruption. He's seeking peace, solitude,
innocence, and quiet. Where? Not in the city
because of the politicians and politics and
corruption, but in the countryside. These are
three examples from the poetry of this age, and we
summarize everything here. This is a long slide.
Don't write down. You'll find this online. So
politics, political side of literature became very
important during the Commonwealth and Restoration.
We have this loveless going to war, and Marvel's
poems celebrate Cromwell as a hero. And then there
is this thing about governments and political
parties. Marvel also became the unofficial poet
laureate during Commonwealth because he praised
him most of the time. He also in another poem, In
the Garden, he contrasts life, politics in the
city, and The countryside where there is peace and
quiet. The restoration gave more importance to the
stable values. What's stable values? What's
stability? It's like, let's not do another
revolution. Let's not fight. Let's be stable and
work for the stability of the country. Now, when
Cromwell died and his son was removed,
Marvel was in danger. He was almost arrested and
imprisoned because of the political, because he
supported Cromwell, but he wasn't because he was a
politician, a member of the parliament, and he
became a member of the parliament. We'll speak
about another poet next class. John Milton, one of
the most significant English poets of all times.
He usually comes to mind when people speak Chaucer
and then Milton. Milton was put in prison because
he also supported Cromwell. The only person who
saved his life is his friend Andrew Marble. So
poetry, politics, politics, poetry. They were
connected in so many ways during this age. And
this will change forever, the way poetry and
literature is written and introduced to us. I'll
stop here. If you have a question, feel free to
ask.
Okay thank you very much and next class we have a
review session for the midterm exam please prepare
and if you have questions again bring them along
and see you soon.